Client: Buy It* Downtown
Contracted by: Easy! Designs, LLC

The Easy! Designs team created an administrative site for the Buy It* Downtown organization. The site functions as a data processing tool that tracks local spending, runs a series of reports and attracts new local merchants.

Buy It* Downtown is a prepaid shopping card program aimed at encouraging consumer spending and helping economic development in downtown Chattanooga.

Easy! Designs Team participants:
Project Lead: Aaron Gustafson
Project Manager: Kelly McCarthy
Jr. Designer: Jessi Taylor (that’s me)
Lead Developer: Daniel Ryan

Client: WE Rock Summit
Contract: Chattanooga Community Foundation

The Web Education (WE) Rock Summit and corresponding WE Rock Tour began in Chattanooga, TN in August 2009. For this project I teamed up with the very talented Stephanie Tate to brand and market the event under the creative oversight of Leslie Jensen-Inman. The Summit, hosted by The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was a great success, bringing in web professionals from across the globe.

The Summit itself was designed to function as a “think-tank” where educators and professionals could come together to discuss the future of web education and determine methods for making the future brighter for today’s web students. Because of the serious nature of the work to be done, we determined that the atmosphere should be fun, especially considering the time and effort volunteered by our attendees. The fact that our attendees were so willing to travel great distances and freely give up so much of their time, in our minds, makes them rock stars.

WE Rock Summit (photo by Dotson Photography)

To promote the events surrounding the WE Rock Summit Stephanie and I created posters, mailers, programs, banners, buttons and graphics for a free-standing lightbox. To honor our attendees we put together screen printed swag bags full of items designed to help them better enjoy their time in Chattanooga including: itineraries, branded water bottles, screen-printed t-shirts and beach towels.

For more details about the WE Rock Summit read the event mission statement on my blog.

The eyes of the web industry will soon be turned toward Chattanooga as the Web Education Rocks Summit, also known as the WE Rock Summit, begins August 4th 2009.

The Open Web Education Alliance (OWEA), an international group of web industry leaders, is joining forces at the Web Education (WE) Rock Summit, to be hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Summit will provide an opportunity to the international leaders of OWEA to gather in Chattanooga to develop foundational documentation that will start a new movement in web education. In addition to building a foundation for the organization, the web industry leaders of OWEA connect with the local/regional community by kicking off the WE Rock Tour in Chattanooga to be held at the Hunter Museum of American Art on August 6th, doors open at 5:30 PM. The WE Rock Tour is a free event open to the public and will feature six of the web industry’s leading professionals who will paint a picture of the past, present and future of web education with a reception to follow the presentations.

WHY:

Web standards are needed to allow everyone access to the World Wide Web. In a society driven by the Web and it’s ever-evolving industry, it is of the utmost importance to ensure that everyone is able to experience the best of what the Web has to offer. This is where web standards and best practices come into play. Web standards, generated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), promote accessibility for everyone by requiring the structure and development of a web site to adhere to certain guidelines that in turn make the site usable to someone with disabilities and generally user friendly for everyone.

In many universities and schools, web standards and best practices are not being taught; therefore students are not adequately prepared to enter the industry upon graduation. Graduates are then dependent on their future employers to get them up to speed on industry standards. Chattanooga has the unique opportunity to be a part of the solution, as host for the WE Rock Summit. Our community will serve as a guide to encourage other cities to follow our lead in embracing change for the Web and web education. By taking this important first step, Chattanooga will position itself as a hub for technology and innovation attracting the attention of the web industry and providing an opportunity for economic growth in Chattanooga.

Web industry professionals and web educators need to get connected. The WE Rock Summit will allow the international members of OWEA to connect and the WE Rock Tour will allow OWEA to connect with the region’s educators, industry professionals, and students. This connection will bring everyone together around a central methodology with the realization that tomorrow’s web experience is today’s web education.

WHO:

The WE Rock Summit is an open forum for the core members of OWEA to come together to further develop and outline their mission. Three key members of this organization available for interviews and further information: John Allsop, Leslie Jensen-Inman, and Aarron Walter.

John Allsop,
Owner of Westciv, a software development company
Founder/Organizer for Web Directions, conferences for web design and development
Lead for Open Web Education Alliance (OWEA)

Leslie Jensen-Inman,
Assistant Professor of Art, Design and Technology at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Author, Teach the Web
Summit Coordinator

Aarron Walter,
Author, Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO and Beyond
Lead User Experience Designer for MailChimp, a HTML email marketing company
Lead for the Web Standards Project Education Task Force (WaSP EduTF) www.interact.webstandards.org/

In addition to the talents and organizations that these three represent, many other OWEA memebers will be participating in the WE Rock Summit and WE Rock Tour, including representatives from companies like Adobe, Opera and Yahoo, as well as representatives from organizations like WOW (The World Organization of Webmasters), WaSP (The Web Standards Project), WaSP Edu TF (The Web Standards Project Education Task Force), and the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium).

For all of you that couldn’t make it out, I thought I would post some images of how the show turned out. There is more to see than what I can address in a blog, so if you can make it, I would highly recommend stopping by the Cress Gallery of Art at UTC before the show is taken down April 28th.

I thought this show had a much more organic/natural feeling to it in comparison to Show One’s high contrast and vibrant colors. Upon entering the gallery, an organic feeling is inspired beginning with my sculpture positioned in the front left floor space having live ivy and soft light reflecting off of frosted Plexiglas.

"Conflicted" - Jessi Taylor

Directly behind me low on the floor, Jean Pitts’ bisqued ceramic installation reminded me of a dry riverbed with rounded stones smoothed out by decades of rushing water.

"Familiar" - Jean Pitts

The positioning of the ceramic vessels lead beautifully to the “10″ panels and bookshelves leaning against the opposite wall. The panels where created using a system of rules inspired by the Ten Commandments of the Bible.

"10" - Michael Mahaffey & Stephanie Tate

The warm color palette and lightness of the panels is reflected nicely in the next two pieces. The first is an ethereal series of drawings by McKinley Bryson on vellum which have an extraordinary play on light and shadow. The second is a series of oil paintings by Tom Shaw, positioned across the room from the “10″ panels.

"673780s." - McKinley Bryson

Individually Titled - Thomas Shaw

A few people have mentioned that they would have liked to have seen my presentation of Conflicted. So here are a few of my more explanatory slides and my complete artist’s statement for you to view at your convenience.

Conflicted

Everyday we make inconsequential choices: milk or orange juice? black shoes or brown shoes? Usually these split second decisions can be made with little hesitation.

However, some choices can be conflicting. These choices require something from us. They necessitate a commitment of our time, our finances or our intelligence. Commitments come in many forms by way of family, friends, faith, health, business, school or recreation. How do you determine your commitments? When should you say yes? When should you say no? The answer will vary as often as you ask the question.

However, each commitment a person chooses to make or chooses not to make will take them in one of two directions. The first direction is one of simplification, and the second is one of complication. The outcome of either direction can be positive or negative. This is entirely dependent on the person making the decision.

For myself, these types of decisions can lead to a lengthy mental struggle. A struggle between my social side that needs to be dependable and productive and my melancholy side which craves solitude and stillness. I could not exclude one side anymore than I could survive in complete isolation or thrive under a constant onslaught of pressure to perform.

This sculpture is a physical representation of an internal conflict. The ring of ivy represents a need for simplicity, a pared down existence outside of obligation. Ivy is a simple plant to maintain. It is a quiet natural element that needs only basic nutrition to grow and a temperate environment to thrive. In contrast, the composition of acrylic rectangles represents the complexity that results from multiple commitments. This juxtaposition of natural and synthetic elements speaks to a need for balance and perhaps, at least in my circumstance, the need for conflict to create balance.

Here is a hint of the mixed media sculpture that I’m showing tomorrow night at the Cress Gallery of Art at UTC and a sample from my Artist Statement:

This sculpture is a physical representation of an internal conflict. The ring of ivy represents a need for simplicity, a pared down existence outside of obligation. Ivy is a simple plant to maintain. It is a quiet natural element that needs only basic nutrition to grow and a temperate environment to thrive. In contrast, the composition of acrylic rectangles represents the complexity that results from multiple commitments. This juxtaposition of natural and synthetic elements speaks to a need for balance and perhaps, at least in my circumstance, the need for conflict to create balance.

If you would like to hear more about my artist statement come to the presentation on April 14th at 4:00 PM and to the see rest of the sculpture come to the reception on the same day at 5:30 PM.

The first installation of the Senior Exhibition on March 31st was a huge success with standing-room only at the 4:00 PM presentations and a lobby full of people at the 5:30 PM reception.

Here are a couple of photos from the first show:

Recently the writers of the InterAct Cirriculum have been talking about it. For more details visit Christopher Schmitt’s blog. He gives a great rundown of the material offered in the WaSP InterAct Curriculum. Or you can listen to Aarron Walter’s interview on Boagworld, which is a great podcast by Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington on all things relating to building and running websites.