I started as an online student with the International Academy of Design & Technology in Oct. of 2007 as an AS in Web Design candidate. I have worked for a school at Northwestern University for 10 years now, and my co-workers all had snide remarks when I chose IADT Online. “What do you know about this program? Have you compared it to others? Aren’t you worried about the stigma of online education?” My replies were always very simple. IADT Online offered a ‘Web Design’ degree, which was very important to me (versus visual communications or digital media or whatever…) I felt an online degree was my only chance at going to college.

I believe in using the Web to its fullest: for communication, productivity, and of course, education. Why attend a fairly new program in the already murky waters of online education? To make an impact. There is newness all around me. I’m a new artist to a new media, a new student in a new school. There are two major ways to deal with newness: resistance, and complacency. However, I believe that all the great people of history, (and many other great people that will one day become great people of history) dealt with newness as an opportunity.

So…my first tangible effort of making an impact at IADT Online is starting the Graduation Committee, GradComm. To this effort I will be traveling to Tampa, FL, the campus that houses the Academy Online staff. The nitty gritty of GradComm is for another forum. This post is mainly to announce my trip to Tampa and a general idea of why.

Now for the fun…if you are in the Tampa area and would like to meet myself and other design minded, social media driven, fun times loving, and all around TEH AWESOME people, join us at Splitsville Lanes in Channelside Plaza, Friday March 20, around 9pm.

Listen to all the happenings of my GradComm trip online via:

	@IADT_GradComm on twitter
	TreoBenny on brightkite
	@TreoBenny on twitter
	TreoBenny on qik
	TreoBenny on viddler
	TreoBenny on seesmic

The trend is to install WordPress in the root directory, such that ‘mydomain.com’ takes you to the blog. I don’t use this model, and in this type of example I think it benefits me…and my viewers. Modular information that you can selectively view, I like that. The home page is clean and straightforward, the traffic light of the site so to speak.

I have many more ideas for my site, and my blog specifically. I have a new theme in mind for 2009, which will require a little more work on my part to get up and running than any theme previously. But, to me, that’s the whole point

Scenes and images that interest me are art in my opinion. Because I almost always create imagery from existing scenes and objects, I feel most of my photographs, illustrations, and other designs are art of art: MetaArt.

What opinions | comments | theories do you have on the concept of MetaArt? In your personal experience that is. We can leave the haggling over the term in general to the ‘experts.’ LOL!

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It started back in high school (over 15 years ago) with a DTP class and a part-time gig as a Graphic Editor for a youth newspaper. I didn’t revisit any of my creative skills (or so I thought) until just a few years ago when I started doing basic Web edits and some publication design at work.

Things started very slowly, but finally in the last few months I’ve made leaps and bounds towards a career in (and lifestyle of) design. I sold my first design a little over a month ago…in my mind, this was the point of no return. I’m no longer a guy that designs, I’m now and forever will be, a designer. The more I think of myself as a designer, the more I can recognize that I’ve always been a designer. My definition of a designer follows. It has changed a bit over the last year and I hope it will continue to evolve as long as I pursue design.

A designer recognizes that the senses shape thoughts and applies this concept through various channels of communication.