Scott Robertson, an Art Center graduate (circa 1990), gave a lackluster presentation to open the conference.  Having heard his name on countless websites and seen his DVD’s on the Gnomon Workshop site, I had expected his presentation to be full of information and process specific to ID.  Instead, I was rather disappointed.  The majority of his time was spent giving a portfolio overview in an informal manner.  There was plenty of eye candy, but not a significant amount of valuable information.  There were several books that were covered during his talk, some of them not released yet, that he was promoting.  The art work was based on concept art, primarily figures and vehicles.  I did not see any ID related work other than a bicycle he produced during an internship 19 years ago.  One of the best descriptions that was attributed to him during the presentation, was that he was a “Digital Bob Ross” (Thanks to James Dangora from TEAMS).

Towards the end of the presentation, he did reveal one bit of relevant information.  He started to discuss some of his design philosophy that he is currently developing.  The concept was called “Proximity Based Design” and was relatively thought through.   He provided a basic list of the components:

1. What you see first
   • Silhouette
   • Proportions
   • Stance
2. Value Graphics
   • A nice comparison on the significance detail.
   • i.e. Black windows on a black limo vs. black windows on a white limo.
3. Surfacing
4. Line Graphics
5. Materials
6. Info Graphics
7. Color
8. Texture