Welcome to Room557

The Beavis Filter

We all have an inner teenager. Sometimes they surface more often than we would like, but they’re there… and when creating something that might hit the public sector, it’s important to remember that the 15-year-old in us comes out most often when surfing the internet and when in a group of people. In a forum like Reddit where there’s both, this is compounded and things go nuclear. Fast.

Enter what I call, the Beavis Filter. Use it.

For those that don't remember, Beavis is the sidekick of the duo Beavis-and-Butthead... an animated show by Mike Judge that "centers on two socially incompetent, rock-loving teenage wannabe delinquents." It aired on MTV in the mid-late 90s. These guys were idiots.

When you design something, channel your inner zit-faced stoner and try to think of what Beavis (heh-heh) might say (heh-heh) it looks like. Boobies… heh-heh. No, a butt. A butt with boobies!

Design School as a Fitness Regime...

When speaking to our early graduate students, we remind them that the choice they’ve made is to come back to school… to leave the path that their BFA prepared them for, or to put their working life on hold to embark on a new adventure. The process is all encompassing and there will be some adjustments and acclimations to make along the way — and that they should expect to emerge as a different person. In class this week, I likened this to a fitness regime. I asked the students:

“If I wanted to get fit. Lose weight. Get in shape… would I be successful if I only thought about fitness for the hour-and-a-half I went to the gym two times per week?”… the answer was, of course, a resounding: “No.”