Part of the Brooklyn Digital Foundry crew—myself (@cfohlin) and partner / Creative Director @brianlemond specifically—made the annual pilgrimage to RIT last Thursday for Creativity: Careers in Motion. This year was our third trip to the University and each time the crop impresses. A prime example of typical Foundry efficiency, we touched down in Rochester around 11am and were back in the New York Digital District by 9pm. While our trip was quick, we saw some great work and interesting trends.

Great work is coming out of both the New Media and Imaging and Graphic Design majors. Mobile application design seems to be getting more attention, a trend that will undoubtedly grow exponentially in the years to come. We would be ecstatic to see the New Media Interactive Development major start to support the application design. While app development can be an intense realm to enter, perhaps the solution is a course that spans multiple trimesters in order to provide the students opportunity to delve deep enough.

One deeply encouraging trend has been increased diversity of candidates. As in other venues and through our general application pool, we continue to see more gender, ethnic, and racial diversity in the people we speak with. RIT was no exception, and the diversity was apparent both in the design and the development backgrounds, offering great opportunities to companies committed to accurately reflecting changing demographics. A lot has been said over the years specifically about gender balance, or lack thereof, in digital industry and events like this team with progressive employment practices to create meaningful shifts.

We interviewed a lot of candidates, had great discussions and, as usual, had a few hurried resume drop-offs as we packed our bags to head to the airport. Also, a big thank you to Adam Smith for shepherding students of interest to our table. Now that we are back at our home base we are sifting through portfolios and following up with those that fit our current needs.

If you did not have a chance to strut your stuff on Thursday, please check out our openings and inquire at jobs@brooklynfoundry.com. 2011 promises to be a great year of expansion at the Foundry and our sibling company Brooklyn United. You can also catch announcements of new job opportunities on Twitter (@brooklynfoundry, @brooklynunited).