About

Greetings to the Design SIG from Umbria

This has been some time coming, as I have had other things to do. Those of you who see this post will have received the email from meeting announcing the start of this effort. I am hoping to update it regularly with the material that I have found on the web that I feel is of interest to me and pertains to design and designer issues. With the ability for registered participants to respond maybe we can continue the dialogue we used to have, albeit at a distance.

As for the how of this – I am using the services of Wordpress. You will see a link to them below, along with other links. I use Canaca to provide my web server space for rjslade.com and photoempt.com and with their ‘silver plan‘ one can install their own Wordpress but I felt that until I get the hang of this software I would use the free service they provide.

I was formerly the President and Senior Designer of RJS ID Inc, a company I created in 1986. In the summer of 2005 I relocated to Umbria, Italy, where although semi-retired, I continue to undertake work on a freelance basis as requested. Since RJS ID Inc. was incorporated in Ontario, I wound up the company’s affairs before making the move to Italy.

My design education consists of an undergraduate degree in Industrial Design (BID) from in Ottawa. As one of the original six graduates I completed two years in Architecture before switching to the final two years of Industrial Design. While completing this course, I was employed, initially by Quattra Enterprises Ltd., a consulting design firm, and followed this with two summers at “Design Interpretive,” of Bell Northern Research.

Upon graduation I moved to Toronto, and for one year worked for, and then managed, Creelman International, a multi-disciplinary design firm located in Weston, Ontario.

This was followed by studies at the Royal College of Art in London England, from which I graduated in 1981 with the MDesRCA Masters Degree.

Seven plus years were then spent working at the headquarters of Canada Post Corporation in Ottawa. As Manager, Corporate and Industrial Design, I created a design consultancy within the Corporation and was involved in everything from design of retail counters and mail boxes to specifications for human factors. Among other things, I designed the SuperMailbox.

In 1986 I left Canada Post Corporation to create RJS ID Inc. This company was involved with a variety of Ottawa-based high-tech industries, other design firms, and Federal Government departments. Contracts included product design, graphic design, exhibit design, and multimedia work.

I have been a professional member of the Association of Industrial Designers, the Graphic Design Association, and a member of the Human Factors Association. As the nature of business evolved, membership in these groups lapsed.

For many years I coordinated the Special Interest Group for Design and Graphics for the Ottawa-area Apple Macintosh.

I was a sessional lecturer in the ‘Business of Design’ at a local community college for a few years and was active in teaching young designers about design and the use of computer hardware and software as design tools. I have also been a guest lecturer at a few ‘MacWorlds’ – Apple Macintosh-related ‘love-in’/trade shows.