As one of its first initiatives, DIGMA (The Design Industry of Massachusetts) will organize the first annual Massachusetts Design Festival—to be held from September 24 through October 24, 2009—in order to publicize examples of design around the state. The Festival encompasses several other design-related events: Boston Design Center’s Design Boston 2009, Boston Fashion Week, and National Design Week.

Being one of the 44,500 people in Massachusetts who work in graphic design, industrial design, landscape architecture,  interior design, or other fields ending in design I am excited for this new organization (DIGMA) to serve as a resource for some great opportunities to unite and become a strong presence in Massachusetts right along side the other prominent industries such as healthcare, life sciences, education, and finance.

Keep your ear to ground for more details about The First Annual Massachusetts Design Festival as well as other DIGMA events. I think this is a great organization everyone can get behind and help to promote and further develop our common wealth of design in the Massachusetts economy.

Ive always been interested in the analogy between cooking and design so I was really excited to see that the August issue of Print Magazine is titled “The Food Issue”. It is dedicated to the current trends in what consumers find most important in their food choices and what they find appetizing in current times.

There are so many parallels between designing and cooking. Food can look delectable but taste horrible or the opposite. Design can look great but serve no function to its user. Both art forms are done for someone else’s “consumption” if you will. You cook and design for a certain audience or for certain tastes based on many factors. If you add too many spices or too many ingredients that don’t work together it ends up a big unpalatable mess. Both arts are a delicate balance.

Now-a-days there is growing concern over whether the food we consume is safe and won’t give us e coli or salmonella poisoning or if it has been genetically modified and will cause problems later in life. Today the beauty of food is more about where it came from and if it local, safe, and organic, not how fancy your radish flower looks. Food magazines are more likely to do a spread about backyard BBQ’s with seasonal local produce and the farmers that produced it as opposed to a spread of pretty pictures of  highly styled plates of food. The trend is to show how organic, wholesome, and easy the food is. From the earth to your plate with the least amount of fuss as possible.

Again, it’s easy to see how you can find inspiration for design in everything, including food trends. Organic, easy and wholesome food is just that; simple ingredients that taste good and are good for you. The current trend in web design is all about usability; how the “consumer” uses the web site and interacts with the information presented. The clearer and more organic, or simple the better. Its all about getting the user to interact dynamically in their own unique way with what you have designed for them to use. Web design is no longer about how pretty what you see on your screen looks, it is about showing the user how the information can be manipulated by them to suit their likings.

Recently in the North East we have been having some severe lightning storms and they are causing lightning strikes to peoples homes. One of our clients Tingley Electric Services suggests to avoid frying your computer and loosing all of your data you can do the following.

1. If you are going on vacation – Unplug your computer from its power source until you return.
2. Purchase a surge protecting power strip for your computer.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Girls in Tech is a network of professional women who aspire to careers in technology.

The Boston Chapter of Girls in Tech will be hosting a lifestyle panel discussion designed to explore the following issues:

• work/life balance
• career management
• Leading a purpose-driven life

Agenda:

• 6:00 – 7:00 pm » Networking
• 7:00 – 7:45 pm » Panel Discussion
• 7:45 – 9:00 pm » Open Audience Discussion

Event Details

• Date » Tuesday, June 30, 2009
• Time » 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
• Location » 38 Cameron Gallery, Cambridge, MA

This event is FREE. Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served. Reservations are required.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A WOMEN’S ONLY EVENT

For information about activities in other metropolitan areas access the Girls in Tech website.