"RISD prepares us for whatever direction we choose to go in our profession."
I came to RISD in 1975 after graduating from Miami (Ohio) University in 1971 and having worked for a short period as a wall covering designer. Miami, while still an important part of my life has to rank second though to my time at RISD.
RISD gave me the confidence I had been lacking to take on challenging situations in my professional and personal life. As one of our instructors, John Beringer, would impress upon us,"Turn liabilities into assets" as there were solutions to problems if we looked at them from different perspectives.
After graduation I had intended on establishing myself in Industrial Design, but in 1979 through a series of contacts and serendipity, I took a job in the corporate world with a company that was adopting the nascent technology of computer graphics. I spent most of my professional career in the field at the vendor level in pre- and post- sales support at home and abroad and later managed various groups of application software personnel.
In 1986 in addition to my "day job" I became an adjunct at two local community colleges teaching (something I had always wanted to do) classes in 3D as well as 2D graphics to architecture students until retiring in 2012. In summary, I think it is important to stress how much RISD does to prepare us for whatever direction we choose to go in our profession.
Thank you RISD!
