No Rain or Thunderstorms can Stop a Party Here, especially a free one!
We’ve been having a few sever thunderstorms here over the last coupla days. But in spite of the rain, we were still able to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of our Hispanic neighbors, put on display this past weekend on River Street.
Always trying to learn from mistakes (and recovering from getting stuck in DC for a day) I had time to reflect on the last few days and here are just a few of the pearls I’ve gleaned from my recent trip to the How ‘08 conference in Boston.
1. Know Thy Limits. Don’t overload your day. You want to maximize the amount of info you get since you’re paying all that $$ after all, but remember the ADD and small attention span you normally have at work? Well it’s still there even when you’re at a special event.
2. Build in some time to explore the city you’re in, especially if it’s your 1st time in that city. Again, you spent all that $$ on airfare, why the heck not? I spent my last day in “Bahstun” roaming around the North End and soaking up the ambiance.
3. Have an exit strategy. Now I know why the front rows were so empty in most of my sessions. If you picked the right conference, more than likely they’ll have a lot of overlapping sessions that’re interesting to you. If you’re not sure if a session’s going to be worth your hour or so of precious attention, sit where you can make a inconspicuous exit and try and catch that other session that looked interesting.
The Best Party I’ve been to in a Long Time
Last night was the Black & White Ball.
What can I say? Sushi, live Music, dancing, good vibes… what more could you ask for?
The Banner says it all
10 Secrets of Typography
Well it turns out there are only 4. But the error’s easily forgiven since Allan Haley from Monotype brought a ton of useful tips and examples on how to woo your audience with type.
The basic run-down flows like a mating ritual:
He had tips like:
In short, build a relationship with the reader and somehow make it fun.
One of the many examples Mr. Halley delighted us with
Now the learnin’ part of today’s over for me, I might take a nap before tonight’s Black & White party. Yeah right! Apple store here I come!
The Design Matters Live session was great. Kinda like sitting in on a conversation between two friends. Not so much insight into Michael Bierut’s design sensibility but about who he is and what makes him tick. Besides being a Rick Moranis look-alike (in my humble opinion) he’s just as funny. He shared stories of some of his more embarrassing mistakes and his tips on maneuvering through the politics of client relations. His theory in a nutshell is:
Success as a designer = talent + good work + convincing clients that you have talent and do good work
The suggestions he gave for client control stem from the fact that most clients enter into a relationship with a designer with a little bit of fear. Fear that you won’t listen to them. That you’ll come up with some crazy design solution that’s way off and that they’re gonna waste time and money through the whole ordeal. So he compensates for that by being great listener, preferring to err on the side of being too good a listener all so that the client’s made to feel comfortable and (here’s that T word again) TRUST you with their baby (see: company’s image).
The Applying Color session didn’t reveal anything ground-breaking or new so nothing to report there… so it’s off to lunch with my DC friends!
Michael Bierut’s the one to the left…
Just finished the early morning session called “The Greatest Photoshop Show on Earth” lead by Russell Brown and Julieanne Kost. Their banter was fun to watch but the tips were just ok. We did get free tutorial CDs though. Now I’m waiting for Design Matters with Debbie Millman and Pentagram’s Michael Bierut.
Design can change
Where Day 1 was physically challenging, Day 2 turned out to be mentally challenging. Eric Karjalouto of SmashLab brought up a lot of thought provoking topics when talking about his firms attempt to be more responsible about their practice.
He spoke about the paradigm shift currently taking place from the “produce and consume more” mentality to “conserve and reuse more.” But he challenged us as designers to go further than that. We need to challenge even the most basic assumptions if we’re to come up more effective solutions. Assumptions like if the client asks us for a brochure, do they really need a brochure? Will 3000 4 color brochures solve their problem? What is the problem they think brochures will solve?
(more…)
I know it’s out of order but here are some pics from the excitement that was Day 1.
On the way to Sametz in lovely South Boston
Inside Sametz’ design studio
Staircase 1 of 20 for the day
Well, I have a few minutes before SmashLab’s session on Design can change. The 1st session of the day was a more technical one, on designing and color management for digital printing. Besides a few details about certain color profiles and such, it wasn’t very informative. Ironically, the best part was the shortest. Illustrator Jeff Moore talked about his experience working with Variable Data printing where you can customize the text and even images with the same print job. It’s the print equivalent to dynamic websites. No details on how you actually go about creating a file for that kind of print job, but at least it’s good to know what’s possible.
Inspiring Design for the Greater Good
This was by John Bieleberg, who talked about his work with Project M. A month long design intensive with mostly young fresh out of school designers, where they cultivate their ability to “Think Wrong.” His mantra for how creatives should think in order to effect change or bring innovation and/or meaning to their work. For the last couple of years his Project M team have created projects to help inner cities in Baltimore and more recently rural Alabama where they created a printed piece to help raise funds to buy water meters for Hale County. So far the outings have not only raised enough for 100 families to get clean water but the alumni have gone on to propagate the Think Wrong credo in their own practices and lives as a whole.
P.S. What is it with people and not wanting to sit in the front row?
John talking about Project M
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