"A Story of Transformation and Transcendence"

Shin'en Kan, Work by John Coy

On Thursday night we had a lovely and lucky opportunity to meet a John Coy, a well known man in the Design community. I must admit that as a design student, I am terrible at my information when it comes to other designers, I recently declared and I am just learning more about the entirety of the field. I am glad to know who John is now and how much he has contributed to our community. 

Thursday for me started at 7 am. I hate that. No sleeping in for me any day of the week. That makes me cringe. I got up after repeatedly abusing my snooze button, well not really, my phone's touch screen. I lugged around my wire sculpture to class, dreaded presenting, got coffee while at school, presented got over it and headed home. I only have one class on Thursdays and Tuesdays, so admittedly I was a bit annoyed that I had to return to school. But not to worry Jimmy, it wasn't  because of the meeting, it was because I had to get up for work early the next day. I should have used it as an excuse to call off. 

I made sure to leave early because traffic doesn't move for hours. I got there too early though. So I went to eat. From every one's blogs it seems I'm the only loner in class! Everyone seems to find each other and do all sorts of fun things to get to know each other. Ouch guys, ouch. I did find a group of my classmates near by afterwards (Ow, loner again)  and joined in, sorry if I totally butted in!

Soon the music hall was filled with my classmates and other students, and we patiently waited for the meeting to start, cracking jokes, Kum bay ya circles and random things. I will also admit I was a bit annoyed at the technical difficulties, it seems it was only the slides and that is something that I would expect to have had fixed before the start, it is part of preparing for a presentation. That and the room was awfully hot. Astrid is amusing and energetic I love that, it was entertaining and kept us on hold. I love you guys. 

We went in around 8 and were seated in the center. John Coy is an enigma. There in front of me was a person I assumed to be incredibly well know and super talented (and he was), and yet he seemed so down to earth. I think that's what I liked most about him. I assumed he would be there in his 'highness' and lecture us onto what we should and shouldn't do. He did not. He asked us to ask him any questions we had. He showed us his work, how he had lived as a student, as a designer and what his experiences have been like. He was so..like us, with you know a super repertoire of amazing work. (I shouldn't say that I'm sure some of my classmates have as well.) He mentioned he liked meditating, awesome, that he didn't know the computer all too well, how down to earth? I don't either!...eh..not too proud of that. 

I have a feeling Jimmy was disappointed we didn't ask enough questions. I must admit that I, like Astrid, didn't feel like I learned anything knew, but I am very glad I got to meet John. He is clearly a very accomplished man. I can only hope to live and work half as well as he does. He does work he genuinely enjoys and that's all I could wish for in a career. His work is inspiring and I hope to see him again at some point. 

Thanks for making it a requirement, it might not be the most desirable thing to do on a work night, but I got to meet a great designer and experience my classmates outside of class.

Oh and in searching up John Coy, I found Jimmy!