One week ago I dyed my hair pink.

This wasn’t the first time I had experimented with the color. A month ago I put a few streaks of the same dye into my bangs, something I had wanted to try but hadn’t had the guts to do for a long time. The results were great, I thought, and I got quite a few comments urging me to try more color. So this time, one hour, one enthusiastic roommate, and most of one dye tube later, I emerged with a full glazing of bright pink hair on the top of my head. Perfect for my plane trip home to see the family the next day.

My roommate’s enthusiasm had translated into a glazing slightly more shocking than I had anticipated, and at first, I must admit, I felt really awkward and out of place sporting such a ‘do. Once I left Eugene, home of the crazy hair and body art lovers, I was often the only unusually outfitted person in the room, and I was well-aware of how much attention it caught. The change in stranger’s daily interactions with me was immediately noticeable. Surprisingly, except for the stares, I felt people were more polite and respectful towards me. And I definitely had no trouble getting their attention ever. I think the shock of the hair sent them into some sort of survival mode where they were too busy trying to comprehend the strangeness in front of them to expend energy being nasty. And after a day, I got used to it, and I began to notice how the hair and corresponding attention changed my personality as well. I was all of the sudden bolder, more willing to state exactly how I felt about whatever, and not take any crap from others in return. And the best part was, I never lost any of my politeness that was so beaten into me as a southern child. If anything, this tendency also got stronger, as any personal affront to me I chalked up to a misunderstanding of my physical appearance, and not of my soul.

The hair stripped away whatever shield of normalcy I was still hiding behind, and I found it empowering. It became for me a visible symbol of my designer soul.

I have to admit not everyone was as welcoming towards my unusual appearance, particularly during my visit home to the South. But those unwelcoming reactions, compared with those applauded my look, were helpful in discerning those who preach the values of openmindedness versus those who actually live the creed.

I began to wonder what would happen if I brought this look to the corporate world. As a general rule, the value of a conservative appearance is preached and followed, but in a world of art and design, quite the opposite is often acceptable, if not applauded. And to go back to the statement I made earlier about openmindedness, a firm that would not hire someone with a certain physical appearance is not necessarily the type of place I would want to work anyways. Wouldn’t a firm that hired you based upon your true personality and design merits, whether they be conservative or more artsy, be a better fit for anyone than one in which you had to hide who you were? I pose this question to be debated in the comments section.

This week’s entry shall be fairly short. Mainly, I just wanted to pose a question. The responses I have gotten back from most of you refer to my mention of the difference of design education (where they push you to be rock star designers) and the real world of firm work. For those of you who are not/did not attend a design school, the education you receive stresses the conceptual design process heavily, while this process is only about 10% of the type of work you will do once in a firm. You learn the other 90% of what it means to be an architect or designer during an internship period of a few years that occurs after your degree and has its own testing system. So the whole process essentially boils down to a dual education system- one in school and one after.

Most of you seem to be relieved and happy to be working, though I imagine some jobs, particularly those 90-hour a week internships for the rock star designers, are similar to the stress we put ourselves through during our school years. It seems that most of you seem to think that your IDP (Internship Development Program) is teaching you much more of what you needed to know. So here is my question. Is this statement truthful? And if it is, was your design education worthwhile? Is such a dual education system a good idea, or should changes in the way we are educated be made?

Please let me know your thoughts.

I have admittedly been fascinated by blogs for about three years now.

Yeah, I know it’s kind of a weird thing to be into, reading and knowing so much about people whom I’ve never met.It’s a hobby of mine that causes even my strangest of friends raise their eyebrows at me from time to time. I argue back that they have never ventured deep enough into the world of blogging, however, to make a fair judgment.

I think that when most people think of blogs, they think of some whiny teen lamenting their lack of lunch choices to some online journal that no one in their right mind would ever want to read. But a blog can be so much more than that. Many are written like serial newcolumns by people who can actually write well, and are even researched and reference legitimate sources. Some are personal, some political, others technical, etc. If you think it, someone’s probably blogging about it, and doing so pseudo-professionally. For example, when I was still in the planning stages for this website, I went to Google and did a quick search on “architecture blogs.” Like usual, I was astounded by the inundation of information I received. 378,000 hits. Most pertinently, I stumbled upon Archiblog, a blogsite that serves to catalog and highlight architecture blogs. I plan to add mine to their registry eventually. Another search for “political blogs” returned 69.1 million google hits, some obviously more legitimate then others. But it is undeniable- blogs are a major portion of the internet world.

Blogs have gained enough legitimacy in the internet world that other mass media sources, such as major network newreports, use them as research references, particularly when polling or trying to understand the sentiments of the general population. The great thing about blogs is that they are self-published, meaning that there is no higher power reigning in their biases. They are the true thoughts and opinions of their authors, out there for all to see and respond to. Blogs have proven powerful enough to get people fired, as happened in the recent political scandal involving a congressman and a blogging intern documented here, and again here.

Some of these blogs have millions of readers. Their writers are internet superstars. Perez Hilton, for example, has become such a popular celebrity blogger that he now is photographed and written about along with the celebrities he lampoons in his blog. Blogging is his career. It is a legitimate career for a ever-growing number of people across the globe.

Designers can, have, and should continue to capitalize on this internet phenomenon. Blogs have the power to connect ideas with many, many people. And what is Design but a field about having ideas? The potential in the meshing of blogs and designers is absolutely phenomenal.