I spent the last week at SHiFT design camp in northwest Alabama. This is a unique experience founded by two professors from SCAD. There were a hundred attendees from all over the world. Some were students and some were recent graduates. This is the third year they have held this camp and there were many repeat attendees. Some of the colleges represented were Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio State, Kendall College, University of Wisconsin-Stout, University of Louisiana as well as Savannah College of Art and Design. The official website for the camp is shiftdesign.us if you want to learn more.
The theme of the week was music and we took a field trip to Muscle Shoals to visit Fame Recording Studios as well as the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. We heard from legendary bassist Bob Wray on how studio musicians work and then had an impromptu jam session that was amazing.
There was also a presentation by sound designer Valerie George and a sketching lesson from Jeff Smith. Other industry professionals and professors held discussions around the campfire and shared their experience through mini talks. We even participated as the live audience for a podcast created by fellow SCAD students, Benchroom, which you can listen to here.
We split into nine teams of eleven and participated in challenges throughout the week. These included creating a better community space by improving access and seating around our campfire, planting a tree and telling the story of that experience, creating musical instruments from scraps and putting on a performance and building mechanisms to fill a water bucket on top of a 8' pole after running the water through an obstacle course.
Overall an extremely valuable experience though I am happy to be back in my soft bed. A camper I am not. I met a lot of really cool and talented people, learned a lot and came away with a different perspective. Thanks to all the staff who work hard to organize this and the companies that support it. Shift will be continuing and expanding to new locations and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys a challenge whether they are 'designers' or not.