AIGA Philadelphia presents Pencil 2 Pixel crash course with Happy Cog. Philadelphia University is hosting the event on November 10, 2011 at 7pm in the Tuttleman Auditorium.  The event will focus on how to design for various CMS’s. The lecture will be presented by Happy Cog designers, Yesenia Perez-Cruz and Michael Johnson, and Happy Cog developer, Allison Wagner. Together, they’ll break down what Content Management Systems are, and share their process for for designing work that is tailored for CMS’s. They’ll also discuss how they work together, design within constraints, and how much code you need to know.

Happy Cog is a website design company that prides itself on creating beautiful, innovate websites. From site structure to interface design, from branding to content development, Happy Cog’s people focus is on creating a layout that matches the customer’s needs. The company has locations in New York, Philadelphia, and San Fransisco.  Happy Cog has designed websites for many well known clients such as MTV, Zappos, Visit Philly, The Today Show, AIGA, and many others.

Perfect Prototype is a Philadelphia-based interactive exhibit design studio. They specialize in turning ‘what ifs’ into interactive experiences where people are the interface. The company strives to produce meaningful, memorable, and measurable results. Recently, CEO Matt Browning of Perfect Protype gave a presentation about Augmented Reality technology. He showed the audience of Animators, Graphic, Industrial, and Interactive Designers popular instances of Augmented Reality technology (think the first – down line in a televised football game). He then went on to show the enthusiastic students some of his recent projects, including an interactive heart and an interactive brain, both for science museums.

Lindsay Butler, a graduate of Philadelphia University, currently works for Perfect Prototype. She has produced motion graphics and 3D animation for such diverse clients as Universal Display Corporation and the American Anti – Vivisection Society. As an Interactive Design and Media student, her studies in drawing, photography, and illustration give her an unusual and integrated perspective on client projects.

Here at Interactive Design & Media, we constantly strive to find inspiring and influencial professionals who can educate our students within the field . Among those Prefessionals, we are grateful to have  Hal Larsson teaching Game Design with in our Special Topics. Hal Larsson is a cofounder of Finalform Game Company, a game development studio based in Center City Philadelphia. Finalform is also a recent recipient of the Pax10 Award for their game Jamestown which was also  featured at the Pax Prime this year.

 The company, Final Form Games, was founded in 2009 by Halsted Larsson and the two  Ambrogi brothers. They  decided that  the company should be  based right here in Philadelphia for personal and professional reasons.  “We were excited by the prospect of being among the first people creating games in Philadelphia. There’s something to that trailblazer idea. We wanted to establish a community for the industry here.” says cofounder Tim Ambrogi.

It is a pleasure to have  such a talented game designer such as Hal working with our students and passing on his award winning knowledge and expertise.

Chris Ell, a recent graduate of our Interactive Design & Media program, while at the university in his junior year he started interning for the company I – Site. Through his internship experience, as well as his talent in both interactive design and development, Chris was hired by I – Site as a  full time  developer for the company.