Hello city,

It took nearly seven years of living in Canada for me to finally feel like I was home, and now I’ve uprooted myself and am starting the process anew. San Francisco, you are a weird city. I’m not accustomed to the kindness of your strangers, and the impatience of your traffic. After one week, I’ve barely begun to learn the layout of this place, and I’m trying to find landmarks to help me determine east from west, and north from south.

My first day here, I crossed the Bay Bridge from Emeryville into a very foggy and cold place. It didn’t seem like the San Francisco that I had anticipated, though I guess that’s a common tourist mistake. Then I found out that this has been the coldest summer on record in the past 40 years. Just my luck. After unpacking my hoodie, calling my landlord, and hailing a cab to my new apartment, I witnessed the cabbie nearly get into a fistfight with some angry guy off the street.

Welcome home?

A few days in, and the city is becoming slightly more familiar. Long walks don’t seem nearly as epic, and the street names are beginning to creep into my long-term memory. I’m still not sure where downtown ends and the other neighbourhoods begin. I’ve accidentally strolled through the tenderloin past 10 PM (it wasn’t as bad as I was told), and purposefully ventured through a leather daddy festival that was going on right outside my doorstep. Both were really interesting experiences, in vastly different ways.

I’m starting to like this city, and I feel just as comfortable after a week here as I did a week into living in Vancouver. The last traces of homesickness for Canada have pretty much left my system, but I’m definitely pining for money that comes in different colours. If that’s my only real irritation, though, I think I’m doing well so far.

Q and I would like to keep this place ‘in the family’ so we’re offering the place to our friends and friends-of-friends before we list it on craigslist and elsewhere.

Here are the details:

$1450/month
1 Bedroom
Incredibly high ceilings
Brick wall in living room
Hardwood floors
Subway tile in the bathroom with pretty, modern fixtures
TV in bedroom
Full kitchen with kitchenaid fridge, double sink with garbage disposal, kitchenaid dishwasher, stove/oven and microwave
In-suite laundry (freeeeeee!)
GIGANTIC SEMI-CIRCLE WINDOW!!!
Just under 800 square feet
Big storage closet (for all your crap)
Hallway closet (for coats, shoes and storage)
Stupidly cheap to heat
Bike locker downstairs
Elevator in building, with secure entry/key fob system
Great neighbours who are super friendly

Gastown is a great neighbourhood, and anyone who lives in the city doesn’t need to be convinced of how great it is to live right next to Waterfront station, or to walk across the street and grab a panini from Brioche.

If you’re interested, email me (hello@stephanievacher.com) or call, or tweet, or send smoke signals.

The apartment is available August 1st, or a few days before then if you’re flexible.

Note: Our landlord is currently reviewing applications for the people who have applied.

During my time at Emily Carr I was assigned a number of textbooks and coursepacks, most of which were really excellent and worth the cost. For the most part, though, my instructors used Moodle to distribute coursework and links for online readings. In my last two years of school, the majority of my coursework was done online and I don’t think I bought any textbooks. For that, my bank account is thankful.

I know that my education wouldn’t have been complete without help from a few hard-copy sources. I’d like to introduce you to a few who have helped me to expand my world:

Before University: Nicolaides -  The Natural Way To Draw

This book belongs to my mother, and she used it during college. Though it was written in the 30′s, the information is current and the teaching methodology is sound: it’s all about the experience of drawing, and creating with all of your senses. Even before I started University, I learned that creativity is not about working from divine knowledge, or a special ‘gift.’ Creativity is learned, and practiced, and that your style is developed from your experience.

Foundation: Tufte -  Beautiful Evidence

In my first semester, my drawing teacher dragged me by the arm to visit the design school and introduced me to some of the instructors. At some point, Tufte’s name was mentioned and I decided to embark on some independent research. This book is incredibly good propaganda for encouraging young people to decide their major.

Second Year: Hofstadter – I am a Strange Loop and Turkle – Evocative Objects

I bought Evocative Objects on the suggestion of a communication design instructor who used it as a textbook for her design core class. The book was also one of my first introductions to MIT’s Media Lab, and became a motivating force in the development of my grad project.

The impulse to read I am a Strange Loop actually came from an xkcd comic. This might seem almost entirely tangential, but I’m not lying when I say that the book is the leading motivating factor behind being willing to navigate the infinitely silly complexities of bureaucracy at University. It’s the tome that taught me how to keep a smile on my face.

Third Year: Sowa – Conceptual Structures

There is nothing more important in design school than being able to justify and defend every decision you make. I didn’t buy this book solely for its practical components. You can get an O’Reilly book if you want to learn how to program. Conceptual Structures contains a philosophical and scientific defense for programming and knowledge representation. Design can learn so much from this kind of critical and analytical defense.

Senior Year: McLuhan – Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man and Buxton – Sketching User Experiences

There is one paragraph from Sketching User Experiences that I want to highlight:

“…you must foster an overall culture of creativity within your organization–one that not only has good ideas, but also understands them, is receptive to them, and knows what to do with them. Otherwise, you will lose both the benefit of the ideas that you paid for as well as your most creative people. Good ideas are not sufficient and innovation and creativity cannot be compartmentalized.” (p. 223)

That says it all, I suppose. This book is about much more than teaching the designer new ways to sketch.

Admittedly, I read Understanding Media well before my senior year. I would suggest this book to everyone, ever, and think that it should be mandatory reading for anyone who has ever used technology. It wasn’t until my senior year that I began to apply the learning from this book into my work, and I was delighted to watch my designs grow and change rapidly with the advent of each new medium.

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Each of these books is special to me, in ways that are more profound than what I’ve described. I wouldn’t call this list definitive, nor would I ever guarantee that these books would help a design student to become a better designer. I really believe that your education will only become what you make of it, based entirely on your willingness to learn and grow. Books help, though- whether digital or hard copy, they contain the ingredients for learning.

I’m graduating on May 1st, with a Bachelor’s of Design (BDES). You should really join the party, and check out the work done by my grad class. We’ll be exhibiting our work from May 1-16, and the Industrial + Commercial Design work is being exhibited in the South building on the Granville Island campus.