Small community beginnings

- This is an audio course. Thank you for listening. (bright music) - [Instructor] Let's go back in history and talk about young Tanner, baby Tanner, baby Tanner. So baby, baby Tanner. Where did you grow up? - [Student] Macomb, Illinois. I was born and raised on a farm. I spent time between the farm and the city and the town. - [Instructor] Okay. Macomb, that's western? - That's Western Illinois University So it's 200 miles south of Chicago. So southwest. And it's a great little town. About 20,000 people when Western is in session. 10,000 when it's not. So there's this fluctuation Yeah, that goes back and forth. And though I say that I grew up on a farm, I was not good at the farm stuff. I was in my room playing around with toys and tools and once the computer came I was playing around with the computer and the laptop. - [Instructor] What sort of farm stuff could you have done had you wanted to? - [Student] So I had my arm broken by cow. I was stepped on by a cow. Kicked on my left knee. So not much is what I'm getting at. - (laughter) Okay. I could follow dad. I could follow my brother. And they were supportive and wanted to sort of teach me different things but I couldn't go to a farm today and do anything. Aside from be a great, a great sort of secondhand. - [Instructor] Farmhand Tanner's career was short lived- - [Student] Nonexistent. - [Instructor] You went from there to, did you go to college? - [Student] Yep. So I ended up out at Arizona state. I was in Tempe, Arizona. I was out there for about seven or eight years. It was an interesting transition. I followed a girl out and it worked out for a while and then didn't work out and that's all good. And ended up Going to school and doing a lot of side projects, learning about the world. - [Instructor] Why ASU? I mean, obviously you said you followed a girl, but- - [Instructor] It ended up being an incredible, crazy design school. And I lucked into that did not expect that to happen. So I went and ended up in school for five years. The first year I showed up told one of the academic academic advisors that I wanted to make websites. And they put me in the game design department and was miserable. It was just not what I expected. So I spent a year in art school, which was amazing. Color theory, we did drawing, did photography. those sorts of things. and then transition to the design school, which is very, it's sort of like UIC here, It's very regimented. It's a four year program. - [Instructor] It's a great school. - [Student] It's amazing. And because of the way that that school works, once you start, you have to go through all four years. There's no, you can't come and go. And, and that kind of thing. So I lucked into the fact that it was a really good design school and then just fully embraced it and it completely shaped and changed who I was and who I am.