New Orleans & Apple/design question...
okay, i know there's probably not many folks here from New Orleans or its surrounding areas, BUT i figured this was as good a place to start as any...
y'see, my wife and i are moving back to the big easy later this summer (we met there at tulane university and spent four years there from 1992-96), as she has a job on the north shore wiaiting for her. we're very excited, and we're starting to make plans, remote house/apartment hunting, etc.
BUT (you knew there had to be a "but," right?)...
when i was there i wasn't much into design or anything, but now i have parlayed a little talent and a whole lot of experience into a pretty good career in graphic and web design, and working on macs as a studio systems admin for the past three years (alongside design).
now, if there's someone who can correct me, feel free, but i can't find JACk re: the design community or macs in new orleans. i mean, sure there's an AIGA office there, but there seems to be no apple dealerships or repair/sales/retail. the new orleans mac users group has some "presentation issues" from their website, and every example i can find of design down there seems like a cross between the grunge distressed type of the mid-to-late 90's, crossed with the mardi gras colors of purple green and gold.
heck, i can't even find much info. on hi-speed internet access down there. if i have to give up hi-speed, i may implode (or will have to take up whittling as a new professions).
anyway, anyone want to pontificate on the area? any help would be appreciated. thanx.
y'see, my wife and i are moving back to the big easy later this summer (we met there at tulane university and spent four years there from 1992-96), as she has a job on the north shore wiaiting for her. we're very excited, and we're starting to make plans, remote house/apartment hunting, etc.
BUT (you knew there had to be a "but," right?)...
when i was there i wasn't much into design or anything, but now i have parlayed a little talent and a whole lot of experience into a pretty good career in graphic and web design, and working on macs as a studio systems admin for the past three years (alongside design).
now, if there's someone who can correct me, feel free, but i can't find JACk re: the design community or macs in new orleans. i mean, sure there's an AIGA office there, but there seems to be no apple dealerships or repair/sales/retail. the new orleans mac users group has some "presentation issues" from their website, and every example i can find of design down there seems like a cross between the grunge distressed type of the mid-to-late 90's, crossed with the mardi gras colors of purple green and gold.
heck, i can't even find much info. on hi-speed internet access down there. if i have to give up hi-speed, i may implode (or will have to take up whittling as a new professions).
anyway, anyone want to pontificate on the area? any help would be appreciated. thanx.
Comments
<strong>okay, i know there's probably not many folks here from New Orleans or its surrounding areas, BUT i figured this was as good a place to start as any...
y'see, my wife and i are moving back to the big easy later this summer (we met there at tulane university and spent four years there from 1992-96), as she has a job on the north shore wiaiting for her. we're very excited, and we're starting to make plans, remote house/apartment hunting, etc.
BUT (you knew there had to be a "but," right?)...
when i was there i wasn't much into design or anything, but now i have parlayed a little talent and a whole lot of experience into a pretty good career in graphic and web design, and working on macs as a studio systems admin for the past three years (alongside design).
now, if there's someone who can correct me, feel free, but i can't find JACk re: the design community or macs in new orleans. i mean, sure there's an AIGA office there, but there seems to be no apple dealerships or repair/sales/retail. the new orleans mac users group has some "presentation issues" from their website, and every example i can find of design down there seems like a cross between the grunge distressed type of the mid-to-late 90's, crossed with the mardi gras colors of purple green and gold.
heck, i can't even find much info. on hi-speed internet access down there. if i have to give up hi-speed, i may implode (or will have to take up whittling as a new professions).
anyway, anyone want to pontificate on the area? any help would be appreciated. thanx.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Rok,
Congrats on moving back to NO. Its has lots to do and the culture/food is wonderful, as you know. I am from about 3 hours north of you and visit quite often (see pics of me and fiance in French Quarter not too long ago <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/darrenducote"; target="_blank">here</a>)
Don't worry about the high speed. Cox is the cable provider down there and their cable modems/service is rather good. I have used it down there before. <a href="http://neworleans.cox.net/"; target="_blank">Cox</a>
Mac only work in Louisiana as a whole is slim. Most of NO's business is Oil/Chemical Industries, Shipping Ports, and of course tourism. I can only guess that the first too don't deal with Mac/design pro's too often, but the tourism surely does I would imagine. Between all the restaurants, hotels, fashion, sports teams (new NBA team ya know), bars, festivals, commercial industry...surely you can find something. "New Orleans jobs" returns some sites worth looking into. Now the design appetite of NO'eans is very much, and always will be, that purple and gold dirty blue grass jazz feel. That is just something you will have to learn to appreciate again.
Good luck. Hope you find something great!
IM me sometime.. Tristan30852
yeah, i figured cox might be the way to go for quick and easy access. good to hear they're not totally terrible (here in toronto, rogers cable is beyond terrible). we're not exactly sure where we will be (the job is in hammond), but covington is looking tempting, as it is smack-dab between baton rouge and new orleans. but we can't even confirm from cox's website whether they even service covington, hammond or even mandeville (though if cox doesn't, i have no idea who would). bell south might be another option via DSL, but it depends on how far removed we are from the rest of civilization.
wish there was an apple store in n.o. -- the closest is houston (!).
have any recommendations on mac dealerships in the area? i suppose i can always resort to the online apple store, but i always prefer to buy from someone with an on-site repair facility, so if something goes wrong, i'm not playing phone tag and shipping game.
re: design... yes, that appears to be the "look and feel" that new orleans is happy with. sigh. it looks as though marketing and tourism may be the way to go for any inroads, and the universities, too. there's also a fairly well-known design firm "zehno" in the area (you may have seen their yellow-and-black striped zehno-mobiles driving around the area -- they're hard to miss). i recall tulane being a strong mac-centric university, so there may be some contacts and inroads there, too.
p.s. yeah, i heard about the "new orleans hornets." pity they couldn't buy the "jazz" name back from utah. oh well...
p.p.s. if you want to see "life in a northern town," here's my .mac homepage, with somepix from a couple years ago.
<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/rnorris"; target="_blank">Life in a Northern Town</a>
[ 03-16-2003: Message edited by: rok ]</p>