About a year ago, a University of Minnesota Professor, Dr. Abimbola Asojo of the College of Design was at Bukola Braiding in Spring Lake Park for her hair braiding appointment when she watched Imprisoned Show for the first time. As a professor of Architecture, it was not difficult for her to spot the flaws in the aesthetics of the set. She told her hair braider, Bukola Oriola, who doubles as the producer of Imprisoned Show that her students could design a professional set for the show.
Dr. Asojo, a person who takes pleasure in giving back to the community thought it would be a great project idea for her lighting second year students in spring of 2013. She made good on her promise when she told Oriola in December 2012 to be getting ready for acquiring a brand new set. Asojo went further to apply for a grant to make sure that the design of her students transformed from mere designs on the computer to real life features.
Luck was on her side when she was announced as the winner of the 2013 Fairchild Topical Issues Grant competition category of the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC). for her project titled An Interior Design Project Focused at Alleviating the Sufferings of Victims of Human Trafficking during the 2013 IDEC Annual Conference in Indianapolis held from Sunday, February 17 to Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
Asojo was in Indianapolis when she delivered the good news on the phone to Oriola. Oriola, who models Imprisoned
Show after a cross between Oprah Winfrey and Wendy Williams’ shows, was glad to know that some of the features she admired from the national talk show icons would be accomplished on her own show. On April 15, Asojo and 25 of her students visited the North Metro TV (NMTV) where Oriola produces her show. They asked Oriola series of questions to implement in their proposals for the new set. They also had the opportunity to have many of their technical questions, especially that of lighting answered by the NMTV Studio Manager, Eric Houston during their tour. The students had been divided into groups of eight by their professor. Oriola encouraged the students to create designs with light-weight items that would work both in and out of the studio. In short, she asked the students to design a mobile set for Imprisoned Show.
The students produced excellent proposals in just one week. On April 24, Oriola and her crew visited the students in their classroom where they presented their proposals in a PowerPoint. It was a hard choice to make at the end of the presentations. However, Oriola was able to identify her best design. She presented the students with electronic award certificates through their professor a few weeks after. Meanwhile, she appreciated the students efforts at the end of their presentations by giving each one a mug engraved with Imprisoned Show.
Thereafter, Oriola handpicked pieces of items from some of the students’ designs – director’s chairs, custom rug, stool, custom mugs, banner, flower vases and floral. It was not an easy task, but with the help of Dr. Asojo and Cheryl, another staff member at the university that helped with the purchases, the mobile set was a nice set to behold.
Imprisoned Show Sale and fundraiser event is only about a week and half away and the new set will be on display for public exhibition.