ITALIA 2011: A Graphic Violation

Shannon Demers discusses the relationship between advertisments, age-old buildings and the urban landscape of Italy's most well preserved cities.

Read the full article here.

ITALIA 2011: Creating and Preserving Brand Heritage

Carleton student Xinran Fan discusses the role corporate museums play in Italian design.

Read the full article here.

Q — Carleton Engineering LGBTQ Group

C-Eng student groups often go overlooked by CUID students, so I'm here to inform.

Q is home to the queer community within Carleton Engineering.

Gay engineers are like unicorns. The Man says they/we don't exist, but you know they're/we're out there. Q organizes events for queer/questioning/allies/leprechauns/etc to meet and to prove that there are gay men and women out there that are open, nay, PROUD to say that YES, "I AM AN ENGINEER!"

Click on the image to join!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/28493106538

Upcoming events include a trip to Montréal Pride as well as a chance to march in Capital Pride.

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I feel as if it is also my responsibility to say to all undergraduates and incoming ID frosh that the school of ID has always been a safe space for LGBT people. Whether you're out or not, you'll often find that your closest allies are with you working every night in studio.

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End note: We often forget that we are part of the School of Engineering (& Design). How many of you have gone to a CSES event since EngFrosh? For the most of us, the closest we get to an engineering student generally involves holding the door open for someone in Mackenzie or buying a $1 pizza (!!!) at Leo's. #snob Think about it. Without them we'd be STARVING.

Ottawa Love : 317 Bank Street (Babylon)

The ID approved Sunday night hangout.

What is Babylon like on Sundays?

Babylon is basically the longest Sunday-night line-up of your life followed by entrance into an atmosphere so thick with human activity that the damp, sour air seems better chewed and eaten. You buy a beer (or not), catch up with familiar faces (or not) and then slowly make your way onto the crowded, frenzied dancefloor. Do not bother to say "excuse me"; there is no need for pleasantries in a dive like this.

You shove your way into the singular, writhing mass of soggy, besotted patrons and slosh back and forth to the beat of the music. Ballroom chops and salsa groove won't stand a chance in this mess. Within 5 minutes you are so covered in sweat that the beer being spilled by the alt-bro next to you will go completely unnoticed. You'll smell it on your clothes the next morning, possibly on your way to Monday studio. But none of this matters. You are with the company of your friends and you're there to either celebrate or completely erase all memory of the last critique.

It is fun most of the time. 7/10

To Co-op or not to Co-op...

Hey fellow IDers!

I'm a second year IDer currently signed onto the coop program but i was just wondering some of the pros and cons about signing up to Co-op for ID. I know it's a tad late but I've got to signup for those online coop courses or drop it and I'd rather not pay for Coop fees if it wouldn't be beneficial.

Being from Ottawa there probably wouldn't be nearly as many intern opportunities as Toronto or other larger cities, so it seems joining the co-op program would be a plus having Carleton lending a hand--or i might have misunderstood and finding a placement, regardless of being in coop or not would still lie solely on us. I also know that the heavy coop fees can leave extra holes in the wallet. Any other benefits or downfalls? Thanks for your time!

Italian Design Grand Tour: Class Blog

Led by associate professor Dr. Lorenzo Imbesi, twenty Carleton SID students traveled through Italy this June to explore the past, present, and future of Italian design. The students' observations and commentary on the country's colourful design history can be found on their class blog.

Laptop for ID

Hello fellow IDers!

I have to purchase a new laptop for ID and I was wondering what sort of laptops are useful for the ID workflow.

I've been doing some research and it's suggested that it's best if I buy a laptop with a workstation graphics card (ie. Quadro or FirePro) for use with Solidworks. The ID site recommends a Macbook Pro which does not include one of these gfx cards and also requires dual boot. I've read that there is a higher chance of instabilities using Solidworks on MBP vs a PC. I was wondering if any of you have encountered said instabilities, since I think the majority have MBP in ID.

I've also read that some rendering programs can use processing power vs using the graphics card to render (which could save several 100s of dollars skipping out on the workstation graphics card). If anybody has had any first hand experience with this I'd love to hear about it.

I was thinking of a laptop with an Intel i5 (2nd gen) processor, 8gb of ram, Solid state drive, and for the video card either a Quadro if it's absolutely recommended or any nVidia geForce or ati radeon "gaming" directX cards.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Thanks!