Back to school.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. And this is the hallway where I’ll be spending the immediate future: the Visual Arts department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. See all those posters? Student work. But my crit walls will be filled with iPad comps and wireframes. Because honestly, who designs posters anymore? Although I have to admit, they are good as tools for working out basic visual hierarchy problems.

I’m back from my 11-night love affair with Seattle (what can I say? I count that city as one of the great loves of my life) and am now diving headfirst into my life as a fulltime academic. I have a few things to help me with things like time management – have you heard of the Pomodoro technique? – and plenty in terms of research to keep me busy. I’ve been accepted to present at an undisclosed conference next year so will be researching for that, as well as delving into what it takes to start a design lab, which I’ll chronicle here. I like to think that it won’t be too much different from starting a restaurant. The culinary arts and design have a lot in common.