I sat with RISD alum Scott Mednick (GD ‘78) while in Los Angeles last week and became completely inspired by his personal story of development from starting as a RISD student that later connected creativity with the commercial world on his very own terms. Scott has been involved with iconic films like Jerry Maguire and Dirty Dancing, and has executive produced the uniquely beautiful 300 among many other exciting new films. Coincidentally Scott and I were in the same series of covers for UCLA Extension School.

During my conversation with Scott, I scribbled down something he said that struck me profoundly, “Don’t look for someone else’s ending in life.” Scott’s point was that you should be free and open to find your own path in life instead of sticking yourself into a pre-recorded destiny. Find your own path — I believe this is the RISD way.

Now there’s another reason to get to the movies this summer: Michael Riley ‘91 GD and his company Shine were selected by Dreamworks Animations to design and produce the main title sequence for Kung Fu Panda, an animated feature in theaters now about a lazy panda who dreams of becoming a Kung Fu Warrior. Take the kids, take a friend, have some popcorn, enjoy. RISD is everywhere!

Watch for Aaron Tang ‘02 ID on the second season of Everyday Edisons, a PBS program featuring new inventions and the stories of the people who invented them. The 14 inventors, selected from thousands of entries, share the evolution of their extraordinary ideas, which began for Aaron at RISD in 1999 with his first sketch of the Anemone Clock. As Aaron describes on his blog, designverb, “The Anemone Clock is designed to rumble, tremble, and literally bounce away from your beside when the alarm sounds forcing any sleeping beauty out of bed to wrestle it down, pick it up, get shaken awake, and finally turning it off. This clock will definitely wake you up through its engaging use of sound, interaction, movement, light, and fun.”

Looks like it’s the end of the snooze button for me - I can’t wait to buy one! To find out when Everyday Edisons is showing in your area, click here.

Today in San Francisco I visited with several RISD Trustees and friends including Kate Rittman, Wilma Parker de Pavloff, and Joan Herron. The trustees generously support the RISD universe with their time, energy, and ongoing commitment of resources to secure RISD’s leadership position as a mecca for creative folks. The overwhelming sense of trust and confidence in my new presidency as expressed by the Trustees is something I do not take lightly and am excited to have the opportunity to raise the flag of the good ship RISD together with the trustees, faculty, students, staff, alums, parents, and fans of RISD all over the world.

An opportunity given is a chance for a recipient to prove one’s worth. An opportunity given is always fulfilled by the recipient’s creation of a brand new opportunity to selflessly give to someone else. An opportunity is something precious that once expended will at times regenerate after a lapse and without reason. An opportunity is a opportunity to reflect upon what it means to be truly thankful to be here as part of our world. I am thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of our RISD.

I was pointed to Edgar Allen Poe’s essay, “The Philosophy of Composition” by my old MIT professor Gerry Sussman as an exemplar work on explaining how we create as a universal language that cuts across all disciplines. Sussman’s point was that we all work with parts, that we try to fit together to our best ability as a puzzle, and when they seem like they almost fit perfectly all that needs to be done is to sand the edges and make them fit. Another aspect of EAP’s essay that I found striking was the highlit line of “letting the public take a peep behind the scenes” in reference to letting the world know how exactly he wrote “The Raven”.

Today I met with Prof. Leslie Fontana, head of the Industrial Design (ID) Department, and recent ID graduate Mr. Mark Drew to talk about his winning entry in the 2008 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition. A 15-minute podcast of an interview I did with them is available here.

The idea for CritBuns famously came to Joe Gebbia ‘05 GD/ID after a long Foundation Studies crit left him and his classmates exhausted and sore from sitting on metal stools, hardwood floors and plastic chairs. Joe turned his pain into a brilliant idea and spent the next 4 years honing the design and marketing the product. Since then CritBuns has received quite a bit of press, most recently in Entrepreneur, where Joe and his Buns were recently profiled in a piece about small business owners. Congratulations (again!), Joe.

This past Sunday’s New York Times profiled Walton Ford ‘82 FAV in the Sunday Styles “Possessed” column. The piece focused on Walton’s keen interest in his family heirlooms, particularly a daguerreotype double-portrait, and noted that Walton’s own style recalls the work of well-known 19th-century watercolorists such as John James Audubon. The Times piece goes on to say that Walton’s current show at Paul Kasmin Gallery (NYC) features work by the “master at treating the historical record as a coloring book, recasting the annals of naturalism and exploration as complicated, at the very least.” Stop in and see Walton’s work (on view through July 3) when you are next in New York!

(David Coulter ‘84 GD, RISD’s Director of Graphic Design Services submitted this article and images after attending a lecture yesterday at the Museum. Thanks, Dave!)

Nancy Skolos presented a lecture on the history of the modern poster today at the Museum. Her lecture covered history of the modern printed poster that included work by Jules Cheret considered by many to be the father of the modern poster. Nancy also showed some fine examples of her and her husband Tom Wedell (also a RISD faculty member) studio’s work.