Peg Light

This week, a lovely industrial design thesis by Steffi Min was posted on Vimeo and deservedly made it round the web in 24 hs. I wanted to show it yesterday at the Summer School 2011, my college’s yearly young entrepreneurs workshop weekend.

Unfortunately there were downloading probs with the clip the night before and I knew we would have no internet access at our otherwise lovely location and did not want to rely on my surfstick either, so I made a few screenshots, turned them into a quick-and-dirty-pan-and-zoom movie file in Picasa and would simply present the slideshow.

Video_peg_light

Image: screenshots from Peg Light video.

As a back up, I created a story board like collage image file as well, and a good thing it was, as it turned out I had forgotten my MacBook DVI-to-VGA adapter, needed to present from PDF instead of Keynote, then there was no Quicktime or VLC on the organizer’s Windows notebook to show my .mp4 files, and as I said, no internet to quickly install it… Life doesn’t get much realler than this.

As I keep saying: Always have a plan B. Or two. It was a great lesson in how to adapt adhoc, think on your feet, change plans, and survive. I left away half of my slides, decided to work with what I had seen from the group presentations and took it from there. A room full of people beats five videos. It is all there: the small insecurities, the nervous feet, the strong claims.

It was a great working atmosphere. Thanks to everyone involved in setting it up. And good luck with your projects.

And yes, I bought a second adapter for my handbag this morning.

Peg Light Video:

Simple. Plain. Minimalist. Love at first sight.

I have only two issues with the project.

  • Will it come only in red?
  • Can you please change the soundtrack?

It is such a nerve wrecking loop, I need to mute it every time I watch the video. And I watch it often, as I find it a marvelous design.

So for class I went for the first 37 seconds of In the darkest place by Elvis Costello. Perfect fit. Just as the light bulb begins to glow, he sings: In the darkest place, I know that is where you’ll find me.

Better. Much better.

Even if I never got a chance to play/show it. See above.