05-Feb-08 (view this set on my Flickr)
We began with the narrowed down yet open concept of 'food' as filtered by us on the volunteer student committee after a call for submissions to the entire student body.

this audio begins with my group and rotates to other group discussions

back to my group again; we were seeing OCAD as a cow, looking up graphics of chopped up cow part;
this is where the idea of connected pieces of a living organism came about

we put up all our work and each group talked about their strongest ideas
After the charrette, this is the paragraph that Carrie (CRCP student) and myself summed up about the session:

"As a living organism, OCAD students present themselves as pieces to an interconnected whole, uniting our vision for creative education, community and the future of humanity. Taste OCAD’s choice cuts of art and design in the 93rd annual Graduate Exhibition at the Ontario College of Design. Primed and ready for the future, the work of this year’s graduating class has been tenderized, marinated, and served up fresh. Examine and certify our grade A, 100% organic and free range products of drawing and painting, photography, sculpture/installation, criticism and curatorial practice, ceramics, printmaking, jewellery, textiles, integrated media, advertising, illustration, graphic design, industrial design, and environmental design."

11-Feb-08
Then we met as the committee and discussed this concept further. We then took our conclusions to prof Rushton (Chair GD) and Kerr (Chair Advertising) and then we finalized our theme and sent a mass email to all students:

Evolving DNA
(Evolving Design and Art)

"What sets OCAD apart from other schools is the type of graduate student we create. They are not merely academics or technicians in their field but fearless creatives, capable of engaging in critical and conceptual thinking and innovative problem solving. However the power of our education is not that well known to the outside world who think we are still under the old model of narrow focus. We have evolved and this evolution needs to be reflected in the promotions of our graduate show. We want the public and the industry out there to take a fresh look at the value and abilities of an OCAD graduate.

Art and Design are continuously evolving and OCAD is at the forefront of this evolution creating a new breed of Art and Design students complete with a Bachelor of Art or Design. This is the key insight for our marketing.
------
How we arrived here:
Looking at the concept of Fresh and Raw and the idea of the different cut of meats being the different majors, we elaborated on the idea of different parts
making up a whole (ie. OCAD). This then shifted to the concept of a living organism with the different parts feeding off of each other and continuously growing. The need to separate OCAD from other schools has always been a definitive need for our graduate exhibition and we felt that the type of education we get is quite unique and amazing. This led to the idea of OCAD DNA and evolution. DNA works well because it can stand for Design and Art (or even Digital and Analogue). The theming of the Grad Show has been a
continuously growing process and we feel that this gives us the best opportunity to promote OCAD in a way that is fresh and new and really speaks to what we are engaged in at this school. We hope that you find this
concept engaging and will help us grow it out into the promotions, branding, way-finding and everything else there needs to be done."

visit the blog for updates