A group of Industrial Design class of 2009 alumni calling themselves “Roji” recently returned from Milan Design Week 2009 with a feature-length documentary in which the freshly graduated students seek starting points for design careers in a cracked economy.

The project was “born out of the realization that we can take our futures into our own hands as entrepreneurial, self-reliant young Americans,” said Roji member Travis Eckmark. “This film is a research project on how to 'make it.'”

In the piece, the students interview well-known designers Ingo Mauer and David Trubridge, and young, up-and-coming designers like 5.5.

The Roji project will make an appearance Friday, May 15, at Design Is Human, the opening exhibition of Modern Atlanta. [tickets at http://modern-atlanta.org/buy_tickets/] In addition, the trailer will precede screenings of the Koolhaas film HouseLife on May 16 at The High Museum Hill Auditorium.

Get to know Roji through updates and bios at http://www.rojigroup.com/.

Connecting science, technology and the arts, the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech champions advancements in the designed and built environment. The extraordinary legacy of its one-hundred year history is evident around the globe - from the invention of the atrium hotel by John C. Portman (1950) to the design for the World Trade Center Memorial in New York by Michael Arad (1999). The College houses seven interdisciplinary research centers, including the Center for Music Technology, the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access, the Center for Geographic Information Systems, the Construction Resources Center, the Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, the Interactive Media Architecture Group in Education and the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development.