Feeding the Fire: Creative Research for Designers

Like most of their peers in other fields, designers need to do research. This means knowing where to start as we face ever-increasing amounts of information. As a 2008 Cobus study reported, this is the paradox of the information explosion: access to more information does not ensure discovery of the best information.

Meet Stephanie Witchger from the NC State design library. She’s worked in design libraries for more than seven years and lead graphic designers to information needed to fuel their creative research. Depending on the designer’s problem and how they hoped to solve it, design libraries have sought answers from all types of materials including books and magazines, electronic resources, online databases, images and video. Different questions lead to different results.

Join us for the next AIGA Homegrown* Lunch & Learn series event on February 14th. Stephanie will share her love for design research and provide an introduction to some of her favorite resources. A majority of these collections will be from right here in the Triangle. We will talk about what types of materials these collections contain, how they may inspire your design process, and what steps you will need to take to be able to access and utilize them.

Watch this video from Stephanie. And join us February 14h! Connect with Stephanie before the event at mailto:stephanie.witchger@gmail.com and let her know what you’d like to learn about researching your next design project.

Lunch includes:
Your choice of appetizer:

Your choice of entree:

Desert: Baklava
Beverages: Iced tea and waterSeating is limited so register today!

* So, what is Homegrown? It’s a new Lunch & Learn series from AIGA Raleigh.
Things change fast in our industry, and it’s important for us to grow our non-traditional design skills. This monthly lunch series brings local, “homegrown” experts together with designers for an intimate, indepth discussion of different skills or topics that will help designers add a few skills to their toolbox. Homegrown is your opportunity to have lunch with the smartest people in town. 

Bio:
Stephanie Statham Witchger was born in eastern North Carolina and spent her undergraduate years at East Carolina University studying Painting and Drawing in The School of Art. During this time she also worked on campus in Joyner Library. After completing her BFA she moved to Raleigh, NC and started working in the campus library at NC State University. Within a year she was able to move to The Design Library at NC State. Her various experiences working with the College of Design community over the next four years lead to graduate work in Library Science at the University of North Carolina. She continued to work in The Design Library while attending UNC. Since graduation in May 2010, Stephanie has been working for The Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham’s Library and for The Gregg Museum of Art and Design at NC State’s library. Stephanie loves the variety that comes with working in these libraries and the rewards of helping students and faculty connect with art and design. When she is not at work Stephanie continues to enjoy making her own creations and is continually reading and announcing what she has just discovered to her dog Lilly and her husband Bob.
Her website link:
http://stephaniewitchger.wordpress.com/

I do not actively use Twitter right now but I am on Pinterest. I am really loving the way it lets you share things in a visually rich environment so here is the link for my account on there instead:
http://pinterest.com/stephwitchger/