We’re teaming up with South Carolina AIGA again to bring you a blockbuster of a speaker from House Industries.

House Industries is in the business of configuring penciled and inked alphanumerosymbolistic figures into digital glyph arrangements for the purposes of creating dynamic character arrays. While each component must maximize visual harmony in the permutational microcosmic world of typography, the unique House Industries process ensures that individual elements can also survive and thrive in the transition from vectorized vapor to tangibly tactile analog artifacts.

About House Industries
Founded in 1993 by Andy Cruz and Rich Roat, House Industries is known throughout the world for its eclectic typeface collections and inspiring exploits into product design. House’s diverse body of work is defined by an authenticity that is only achieved with passion, time-honored fundamental skills and a genuine love for their subject matter.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 — 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

IT-oLogy (map)
1301 Gervais St.
Columbia, SC 29201

Free for AIGA members, $5 non-members. Register here.

The Kick Awesome Show is dedicated to design, the web & general nerdery, with Your hosts Nate Croft & Jon Longnecker.

It’s happening at IT-oLogy. Come out early if you’re in town for Converge and mingle with other attendees and speakers.

Social hour starts at 6:00 PM on Thursday April 26th, there will be a cash bar for your enjoyment. Then the show will kick off at 7:00 PM. Hear interviews with other Converge speakers and watch the guys go crazy in front of the cameras.

This sucker is free if you want to come out too!

Also Happening

Indie Game Developer Showcase

The showcase is taking place during ConvergeSE April 27 & 28th in the IT-oLogy “Portal” game room. Around 25 game creators will be gathering to show off their games, talk shop and generally mix it up Friday April 27th.

The showcase is free for all Converge ticket holders to check out, but chip in $12.00 (if you don’t have a ticket) and we’ll provide you with lunch and validate your parking. Purchase a Showcase Ticket.

We are growing like gangbusters and looking for a talented web developer to work on exciting projects that join mobile, web and the desktop. Come join our fun atmosphere with laid back dress code as you develop elegant solutions for the web and mobile devices. We expect you to be awesome and have fun. You will be compensated accordingly.

Learn More About this Position

Where: IT-oLogy (map)

What: Beer Tasting & Design Talk

The event is free to everyone, however if you want to participate in the beer tasting it’s $12. Just to cover the cost of your beverages.

If you like finely crafted design & printing then you’ll love it when it’s paired with finely crafted beer. Our next meeting is a mixer between the South Carolina AIGA and our little RefreshColumbia group. We’re going to be doing a full on beer tasting mixed with a talk from Nick Wilson of The Half & Half design & print making studio.

The Design Talk

Nick Wilson will be talking to us about the “craft” of design and printing – something he knows tons about. Plus he’ll be showing off some really amazing work for us. Nick Wilson attended The University of South Carolina, graduating from the graphic design program in 2007. The Half & Half studio opened above Sid & Nancy, in Five Points, later that year. They’ve since moved to 2119 College St.

Their work is as passive, yet aggressive as their dynamic. A discordant, nevertheless familiar arrangement leaves the viewer with the sense of a profound tensile strength; ferocious, like a hungover lion…The female one, they are actually the hunters, which is surprising…At least to this reviewer. I mean, they have no mane, you know?* – The State

The Beer Tasting

We’ll be pouring five beers of inspired design representing a broad spectrum of styles, from the brightest gold to pitch black. Tickets for the beer tasting are set at $12 – you can still enjoy the evening as the event is free to everyone.

Your Beer Sherpa for the evening:

Brian Cendrowski is the newly elected president of the Upstate Brewtopians homebrew club. He’s been a homebrewer and beer blogger since 2007 and has been honing his taste buds to the deliciousness of craft beer for over 10 years. After being inducted into the Columbia Flying Saucer’s Wall-of-Fame as plate #40 in September 2004, he realized his life’s calling and has pursued great beer ever since.

Sign Up

Our ideal candidate is someone that considers himself/herself to be a self-starter. A highly motivated person who loves technical challenges, is comfortable solving complex problems, thrives in a collaborative environment, and is always ready to learn from others. As a member of Mariner’s technical team your role will be part systems builder and part architect. Our vision for 2012 includes an ambitious product roadmap and are we looking for people who can develop rapidly and step up to the challenges of being a critical member of a highly skilled team.

We are looking for software developers with 5+ years experience with .NET, C-Sharp, and general web development experience. Silverlight/Flash experience would be a plus. Experience working with Agile development methodologies (SCRUM, etc) is a definite plus. The candidate will work in our downtown Columbia office and some travel (20%) would be expected.

• Microsoft.Net 3.5, 4.0 C# Development 5+ Years
• .NET, C-Sharp, and general web development experience
• Proficiency in Silverlight (versions 3 and 4) a plus
• Mobile development on iOS or Android platforms a plus
• Strong experience developing and working with SQL, XML, XSLT, JMS, and HTML
• Strong experience developing web services
• Strong Object Oriented Design (OOD)
• Microsoft Sql Server, Visual Studio, Xml Databases, Business Rule Engines
• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
• SOA, SOAP, REST, HTTP, XML, XSD, RDF, Distributed Computing , Multi-threading
• Participate in all aspects of the development life cycle, from design to development to deployment and on-going enhancement

www.themarinergroup.net

Please submit resumes to:
Greg Richardson: grichardson@themarinergroup.net

Associate Manger – Digital

The Associate Manager – Digital is responsible for owning and leading the overall strategy, planning, execution and management of the online marketing channels in support of the Pure Fishing’s portfolio of brands. In this role, the Associate Manager – Digital will lead digital media activities to develop social media sites and programs, digital marketing programs, brand website content and programs, increase qualified traffic, conversion, revenue, efficiency and growth from the programs. The Associate Manager – Digital will be responsible for integrating the marketing efforts for the enterprise into all digital channels. The right candidate will be highly organized and detail oriented. Demonstrated skills in achieving shared goals and commitments. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; must build strong relationships with key internal and external business partners and be able to seek out the resources and support needed to achieve goals. Excellent analytical, presentation, conceptual, planning, follow-through, time management, and project management skills required.
Download Full Details (pdf)
If interested, contact: Bob Humphrey (rbhumphrey at purefishing dot com)

Software Engineer

The Software Engineer will play a pivotal role on the corporate IT team supporting existing application platforms as well as new end-to-end development projects and everything in between. Responsibilities will also include participation in process improvement initiatives, data management and manipulation efforts, and other developmental endeavors. The Software Engineer works closely with co-located and extended teams from across the globe. They will participate in multiple projects and support efforts spanning the full project and product lifecycle, as Best Practices are utilized to engage, establish and execute Projects.
Download Full Details (pdf)
If interested, contact: Jason Howard (jhhoward at purefishing dot com)

A little background: the competition was designed to be the “Anti-Addy’s,” meaning that instead of having a huge category structure with many tiers and multiple awards, InShow’s concept was a simple one: You’re either “In” or you’re “Out.” Once submitted, work is divided up by category and three judges from outside of the South Carolina market decide their fate by judging it either “In” or “Out.” Judges are not given quotas, or rigid judging requirements, so the show totals and types of entries vary from year to year.

There are some pretty cool judges this year, who are really hip to interactive work. So you should seriously consider entering this year.

User Experience & Enterprise Software

By: Sean Rankin

Come out August 31st at 6:00 PM @ IT-Ology – 1301 Gervais Street

If you’re a designer or developer working at one of the fancy-pants design studios around town, this talk is going to make you cringe and want to drive sharp objects under your fingernails.

Increasingly, companies that build enterprise tools are trying to insert experience design into their development process. For practitioners, that spells opportunity – but it’s important to note that this opportunity comes with many challenges. This session will focus on the ins-and-outs of user experience design in the feature-rich, overly-complex, and head-spinning world of enterprise software; The software that runs businesses.

Selling your ideas in a culture based on technology rather than design can be tough. Sean will offer some background on what to expect if you decide work with these guys, as well as some ways to pitch the concept that the UX discipline is a valuable asset that should have the proverbial “seat at the table”.

As a bonus, you’ll be treated to a carefully curated Enterprise Software Wall of Shame that he only brings out on special occasions.

Sean Rankin

User Experience Designer
Duck Creek Technologies (Now: Accenture)
sean [at] internetwonderboy [dot] com
Twitter: @srankin

Sean’s Bio

Sean Rankin is one of those relics that witnessed the dot-com bust and lived to tell. His story starts back in 1994, when he wandered into a computer lab at USC to check out this new thing they were calling the “world-wide web”. Thankfully, that encounter derailed a future career in law enforcement, and our community is a safer place.

Over the last ten years, Sean has focused his career around software design in the insurance and financial services industries. He currently spends his days leading the user experience efforts at Duck Creek Technologies, a provider of enterprise solutions for the insurance industry. When asked by the technology folks about what he does for a living, he proudly replies “my job is to make technology easy and fun to use”.

In his spare time, Sean can be found running downtown with his dog Isabel, freaking-out about first-time parenthood, and cramming for one of his b-school exams.

Slides from Sean’s talk

For those of you who are looking for this, here is a link to Sean’s presentation slides.

Questions you may have might be something like:
“How do I get into mobile development?”
“Should I start using Fireworks for my web designs?
“Why do I always have color matching issues when I save for web?!”
*And for those of you that are just really shy, submit your anonymous questions as a comment on this post.

Where/When

We have reserved the side room of the Publick House on Devine St (Google Map) for Wednesday, 27th 6-8ish.

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a great mingle space with mostly tall bar tables, pool tables and dartboards. This is a casual meetup to get people talking and maybe answer some questions for a few people. And also Beer.