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Getting to use my degree, cat photoshop skills on point.

On another note, stoked IBMs Lady Hack group is back up in action!

In between meetings fun.

Learning about Human Centered Design

During my 3 month training for IBM design there was a strong emphasis on design thinking and research. While I knew the value of these two aspects of design, I hadn’t truly dove in to understand them prior to working at IBM. After design camp I wanted to continue to explore and understand design thinking beyond IBM design. A great opportunity came my way when I found out some IBMers were participating in an extra curricular course put on by IDEO. The Course for Human-Centered Design is a “seven-week curriculum that introduces the team to the concepts of human-centered design and how this approach can be used to create innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions for social change.”

Brainstorming

As your team learns together about human centered design through readings and activities, you also are given prompts to choose from that state a an area in need of design. My team choose to focus on the question “What helps a child thrive within the first five years of life?” , with a focus on lower income families. We began our research by looking at different community groups that provide resources. We also interviewed people who work with families for their profession (Teachers, psychologist , social workers). We were especially lucky to get the opportunity to work with the Jeremiah project, a program that's assists single mothers and their children to break the cycle of poverty, by providing housing, mentorship and educational support. After interviewing one of the leaders of the program we interviewed the moms within the program about their day to day routines, struggles, things that bring them joy etc. To make the interviewing process come more naturally we brought along simple images to help the women tell their story. This proved to help discussion come easily. We are now taking all the information we gathered and using it to prototype solutions to the question, What helps a child thrive within the first five years of life? I will post updates as we move forward.

Interviewing the Moms

Shout out to Eddy and Felix for all the photos!

Look back at it

As 2014 comes to a close, I find myself doing the cliche response of reflecting upon the past year. This year has been somewhat of a whirlwind full of many changes. The biggest being I packed up and left the place I called home for the past 6 years and moved halfway across the country to Texas.

So why did I leave beautiful Oregon to move all the way to Texas? Well part of it was the unlimited access to tacos, barbecue and sunny weather. But besides that, I was very lucky to be swooped up by IBM design.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_media/

The IBM i grew up knowing is now in the middle of a major transformation. Gone are the days of products that lack the interests and concerns of their customers. It’s not that IBM is reinventing itself, but rather IBM is looking to its history. Through the design thinking that brought IBM to be a leader in technology, IBM is rebuilding the strong sense of trust it once had with its customers and employees. I started my IBM journey by participating in DesignCamp. This 3 month long training program took 78 new designers (Visual, UX, Research and Front end developers ) on-boarded and split them into smaller teams to tackle real problems in Watson and BlueMix platforms for three weeks. The second phase split us on to a smaller teams & six week studio project. All while learning, implementing and practicing IBM Design Thinking.

Late night with my design camp team

If you can believe it, working with teams of 13 to untangle huge problems in the field of enterprise software is…challenging. Those three months of training were mentally and physically exhausting. Sleep deprivation occurred, eye and leg twitches developed, mind melting was a daily ritual. But I made it through, and I came out of it a whole new designer.

A definitely not photoshopped pic of my design team.

The way I view design, technology and how it effects our everyday human lives has taken a complete 180. IBM took a chance on me, a designer with a mostly environmental and print background, to help turn me into a truly multi media designer. For that, I say thank you. Here’s to continuing to push myself in 2015. Happy new year.

#ibmdesign 2014 designthinking

Another day in corporate America. #leavebritneyalone #suceedingatIBM #powerpoint #IBMdesign (at IBM Design)

#leavebritneyalone #ibmdesign #suceedingatibm #powerpoint

I really couldn't have asked for a better gong away party. Thank you to everyone who was able to come out and say "see ya later" and a special thanks to those who made this amazing zine! I will cherish it for always. I love you Portland!

P.S extra special shout out to Emily for making this beautiful farewell website, TECHNOLOGY!

http://ryanis2kewl4u.angelfire.com/

SAVE THE DATE FOR SUMMER STRUT!

http://www.portlandmercury.com/mod/archives/2014/05/14/save-the-date-for-summer-strut

Paper folds, trying out some options for Third Angles upcoming season artwork

We made art at work, guess which one I did?

Friday= all organization out the window.

I haz artz degree. #HBDLeigh #Suchbirthday

Pre-Wood block carving.

House outline.

lesbiansinpdx

Long time no see homos! In the two years that this blog has been up we we’ve been proud to feature the photos and facts of many different Portland lesbians. Though we now primarily serve as an archive, we did recently collaborate with Susan Martin on a video series showcasing interviews with various Portland ladies and are excited to finally show what we’ve been working on. For our first video we caught up with printmaker and Portland transplant, Ashley.

thatswedenborg-blog

Hey y'all! Susan and I have been working on this video for quite a while and it's finally complete! 2 more to come!

YOU GUYS IM SO SLEEPY BUT I REMEMBERED HOW TO MAKE GIFS IN PHOTOSHOP WEEEEEEEEEE!!!

#Iamsimple

#Iamsleepy

Last weekend I got to go to the beautiful Neon Boneyard in Las Vega, NV.

"The Boneyard houses more than 150 historic signs. Each sign in the collection has a unique story about who created it, what inspired it, where and when it was made, and how it fits into the development of Las Vegas and the city's rich history. Changes and trends in design and technology are also illustrated in the pieces that range from the 1930s to the present day."

For more info about this amazing place go to http://www.neonmuseum.org/

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