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!

Manythings: SID Classified Ads

Manythings is a blog-style virtual bulletin board for SID students to buy/sell/trade textbooks, materials, equipment, and share job related information. Hopefully, it will help to consolidate all of that facebook and white board advertising to a central location. Check it out and start listing your old textbooks now!

Young Designer in NYC 3

I just had to buy these brass paperclips and japanese printed linen the moment I saw them...OK, I didn't need them but I just love them. One of the best stores in all of NYC is Kiosk, which located at 95 Spring St. in Soho. For the design minded person, this shop is a must. Really if you come to New York after knowledge of this post and don't go here...you are a fool.

Italian Coffee, what will you drink now?

For the select few who were on the Italy trip, here's a coffee infographic to remind you how coffee will never be the same in Canada. (and pasta)

via charmingitaly

K-Dawg is trolling us all.

Champions by Konstantin Grcic

IDGI WTF

Richard Ginori Porcelain Factory

The class blog for SID's summer studio in Italy is still under construction, but in the meantime I'll try to repost some interesting material from our design-related outings. Here's a video from our tour of the Richard Ginori porcelain factory outside of Florence.



Video: Xinran Fan

Hello?

Is anyone there?

:)