John Maeda: New RISD President. Interesting.

The Board of Trustees of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) announced on December 21, 2007 that John Maeda, Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab, has accepted the offer to become the 16th president of RISD.

For those of you who don't know him, this won't interest you. For those who do, it's hard to imagine the endless possibilities of this announcement. It's also interesting to see a working designer (albeit a somewhat limiting title for his actual accomplishments and qualifications) become a school president. That sort of changes the playing field a bit. Wow. I have enjoyed his blog over the last 2 years, and his book Thoughts On Simplicity is amazing. Even though this is a surprise to many, I do see it working and I so applaud the trustees of the school for making such a bold move.

Hum....

On an unrelated note, the RISD video announcing the new president is by no means representative of this forward thinking university. In fact, it reminds me of late 80's IBM quick cuts. Some of the video is just plain awkward and uncomfortable, and it's uncharacteristically contrived. Hey, that's my perspective. And that's why they call it BarryBlog. (I'm still a Maeda fan).

( via Businessweek )