philip zimmermann + spaceheater editions: AIGA National Conference in NOLA

It's been a week since we got back from New Orleans and the AIGA National Conference in New Orleans. Karen and I both presented lectures there. Mine was part of a Design Educator's session called Educating Designers About Using Visual Narrative as Writers, Authors, and Book Makers. My co-presenters were David Wolske of the University of Indiana/Bloomington and Warren Lehrer of Purchase College, SUNY. The session went quite well and we got a lot of complimentary feedback.

The rest of the conference was really great –fantastic speakers, delicious food, and very well run –with lots of interesting sessions. The mainstage events were moderated by Bruno Mars, the host of a radio podcast called 99 Percent Invisible. I had never heard of it before but he was excellent, and his design-centric podcasts, which I have been listening to ever since I got back are really great.

We stayed in a very pleasant old-fashioned hotel name the Hotel Lafayette. Here are few snaps of the conference:

We were able to get away for lunch one day to the famous Acme Oyster house to get some of their raw and grilled oysters:

The last night of the conference there was a big party at the Mardi Gras Warehouse:

This was the view from the deck outside the Mardi Gras Museum/Warehouse of the Mississippi River. A beautiful warm, mild evening with a little breeze.

That's the controversial Rick Grefé in the white suit, the Executive Director of the AIGA, who was retiring, so it was also a bit of a farewell to him.

On Sunday, Karen had to attend a Board retreat so I was left to myself to wander around and take in the city:

I started out at an amazing breakfast place where I had a breakfast dish called Eggs in Purgatory. Two eggs baked over a veggie blend of tomatoes, onions, zucchini with andouille sausages! Delicious.