The halls of VFS campuses are always abuzz while students network, brainstorm, and collaborate. But sometimes you need to bring everyone together – kind of like Voltron.

So it was last week, when Digital Design held a program-wide assembly – with a special appearance by a giant glowing ball.

After welcoming the incoming class and holding a post-mortem presentation on July’s Commercial Slam, students heard from Digital Design grad Collin Waldron (left), who fielded questions all the way from his home in North Carolina.

He’s working as a motion graphics designer for the broadcast arm of international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse. Collin ended up accidentally driving home the point of the whole get-together – “Working together as a class is really where the learning takes place.”

After Collin signed off, student Aaron Bell took the podium to present his generative interactive trees, a very cool Flash project designed in a Physical Interface class to make use of the tactile possibilities of our in-house multi-touch display. (The multi-touch aspect is why the version on Aaron’s site is sideways.)

Then came the evening’s flashiest guest.

Alex Beim of Tangible Interaction Design held a decidedly hands-on demonstration of his Zygote Interactive Ball.

In essence, Zygote is a helium-filled balloon with an accelerometer and powerful LEDs, meant to be deployed at music concerts and the like. It changes colour when hit, and has a simplicity and instant appeal that’s difficult to explain.

Alex answered student questions about the genesis of the project. “The creative side of this project was really short,” he explained, while noting that the actual execution was years in the making.

He closed with advice relevant to any young designer. “Once you have something in your head, once you feel it in your gut, you have to go with it. You always have to feel ownership over your project.”