Conference Wrap Up
28 May 2008 | Conference, People | No Comments
The HOW Design Conference 2008 may be over, but this blog sure isn’t! We’ll be going over left-over notes, adding a few new sessions, videos and a few photos. We want to thank all of our readers and the wonderful speakers & presenters (especially those who sent us kind words!)
Still looking for more, beefy coverage? Doug Bartow of id29 did an amazing job doing in-depth coverage of the conference on Speak Up. He did some great interviews and posted plenty of meaty session notes. Check out Doug’s coverage on
Special thanks to Stefan for inviting us to his little 344 Mixer.
Until the next event…
Designer Sobriety
21 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | 5 Comments
Justin Ahrens is about to do his presentation on balancing life, joy and great design. (Special shout out to Cheech, Dan, Kerri, Keri and Lauren who are back at the R29 studio cheering Justin on.) A 12 step program featuring some familiar faces.
- You Gotta Love It / Pash
Contact old friends, dream, sketch, write. - Peeking Behind the Curtain / Marc Stress
It’s not all dollars and cents. Teach employees about the business. Truth builds trust. Justin is showing how he tells his employees how the business is doing. - Committing to Both Lives / Billy Healy
Having something other than design in your life. Live a life that inspires your work. - Grow From the Brilliance of Others / Terry Marks
Get out of your comfort zone. Talk to people you admire. Commit and allow yourself to be pushed. - Create a Great Work Eco System / Kevin McKonkey
Understand you and your culture. Little things are big! (Snacks, music, chairs.) Have fun projects everyone can be a part of. - Believe in Something Bigger Than You / Dawn Hancock
We have great skills and talents, let’s use them. It’ll change the way you think/feel. - Reduce Frustrations / Barry Smith
Look and listen to your clients. Make friends with decision makers. Turn frustration into motivation. - Don’t Be Afraid to Evolve / People Design
Create an advisory group. Have an idea? Do it. - Work Where it Makes You Happy / Armin Vit
You spend so much time there, enjoy it! Happy you = better design, better work. - Be a Link in the Love Chain / Sean Adams
Be a part of a community, have a voice, lend a hand. - Do New Things / Stefan Bucher
What areas do you wish you have time for? Plan for it, look for it. Read a book, take a class. - You Can Be Great Anywhere / Steve Hartman
Break down stigmas. Technology lets us work anywhere. - When All Else Fails
Go on vacation. Do something on your life “To Do” list. Reach out, talk to the people you actually grabbed business cards from. Challenge yourself.
Make yourself sober.
10 Secrets for Typographic Success
20 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | No Comments
Allan Haley, the director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging, is drawing in a big crowd into the auditorium. For whatever reason, they cranked the speakers up really loud.
The likes of Scher and Bierut know these four secrets of type success—so does Allan. Sounds like we’re looking for love.
Building Off These Secrets
- Embrace White Space
- Play with Inititals
- Play with Punctuation
- Make a Game
- Create a Shape
- Make a Pun
- Create a Time & Place
- Clever Crops
- Wreck the Grid
- Supersize It
- Use a Non-Font
Making Creativity Work
20 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | 4 Comments
Currently at Petrula Vrontikis’s session on Making Creativity Work. She kicks off her talk by having the audience stand based on if they’re still at their first jobs, own their own company, freelance (I stood) and run an in-house agency.
Making Great Workshops
- Environment
Eliminate distractions. Avoid the daily grind. Let creatives feel safe/free to experiment and fail. Let creatives feel loved and accepted. Let creatives know you’ll back up their ideas. - Facilitation
Create the time to explore the possibilities versus the realities, it’s how innovation happens. - Follow-Through
Leaders should be relied upon.
- A place where creatives aren’t going to be judged/isolated for their ideas.
- Creatives need to be seen, heard, included.
- Collaboration is not an assembly line.
- Awards help everyone feel proud, not just the designers.
- Let people play & build upon each other’s skills.
When the spirit of child’s play enters into the creative process, it’s a wonderful force and something to be nurtured. — Joni Mitchell
Letterpress 101
20 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | No Comments
Judith Berliner from Full Circle Press is giving us the rundown on how letterpress is used today and a step-by-step process on what goes down.
It’s broken down into die cutting, foiling, numbering and ink on paper.
Letterpress Process
- File to RIP
- File through RIP
- Image-setter to Film Processor (turns .pdf over to film)
- Film to Plate, trimmed on light table.
- Placed on Photopolymer Plate material
- Plate material is exposed to lamps (plate is stuck up onto a magnet & then dropped into water wash out vat)
- Plate is steel and is placed on magnetic Bunting Base, bringing image and text to type high level.
- Lining out the sheet before trimming w/ crops ( Judith does “Nazi Double Checks,” and swears by crops)
Patent Press can only hold up to a certain size & can only hold up to a small amount of impression.
Cylinder Press does a lot of die cutting.
So what is different about normal printing?
- One color at a time is put through the press for EVERY color
- Small job = huge budget
I think the coolest thing that Judith mentioned was that she loves to collaborate with the designers to make sure the job is done completely right. Even working on small budget can bring out some great results through the selection of complementing papers accented by a hit of letterpress.
Combining Type + Image
20 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | No Comments
Stayed in the auditorium for Nancy Skolos and Thomas Wedell’s presentation on Combining Type and Image.
They discovered Matt Siber from Chicago, who setup a great foundation for their book. Their four core topics:
- Separation
Type and image operate independently. (Layering. Bordering. Framing. Compartments.) - Fusion
Type and image blend to form a unity. (Optics. Shared surfaces. Motion/gesture.)
Don’t be afraid to make type LARGE. - Fragmentation
Type and image disturb/disrupt each other. (Interruption. Irregularity. Displacement.) - Inversion
A form of fusion where type and image trade places. (Image as type.)
Design Matters
20 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | 1 Comment
Currently at the live session with Debbie Millman and Michael Bierut in the auditorium. (Got here late, crap!) They’re both right into answering the audience questions that Debbie had asked for within the past couple of weeks.
Advice For Finding New Business
- Tipped from Bill Drentell, if you dig a project send out 15 copies. 5 to the press, 5 to your current clients who may want to see it, and 5 to people you don’t even know.
- Posted something similar to “I want to die.” in reference to the AT&T logo on Armin Vit’s Brand New blog.
- His friend calls UPS the “Golden Comb-Over”
- He likes to write, but hates deadlines, the time to publish, and no clue as to who reads it
- Blogs solve all of that
- Design Observer
- SAGMEISTER WINS. (Of course, Nate Voss would ask that question.)
- Last two client breakups were VIA email.
This skank is so far up my ass I can taste the Loreal.
Daily Monster: HOW Edition
20 May 2008 | Conference, People, Sessions | No Comments
Yesterday, Stefan treated everyone with a monster specially drawn for the HOW Conference. Here’s the video if you couldn’t catch it live!
If you haven’t already, check out our coverage of Stefan & John’s session.
Tags: 344, Daily Monster, Stefan Bucher
Visuals & Verbals
19 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | No Comments
Nick and Mig are here at Andy Epstein’s presentation, Visuals & Verbals: How to Succeed as a Designer in a World of Words.
We are the visual. Clients and corporate peers are the verbal, but definitely not the enemy.
Bite-Sized Rundown
- What’s in your head is what will come out of your mouth.
- How you communicate verbally should be just as well designed as your visual work.
- Words & sentences have color, tone, gradations, size, etc.
- When engaged in dialogue, Retreat + Reflect + Respond.
- Effective communication is speaking to the issues.
- Effective communication is saying things in a way your audience wants to hear it.
- Effective communication is listening.
- Take notes. (Document emails, markup hard copies, use lists.)
- Use spell check!
- Use a salutation.
- Don’t abbreviate.
- Use a signature.
- Leave a detailed out-of-office message.
- Use voicemail playback feature.
- Record unique voicemail message.
- Don’t eat when on the phone.
- Don’t multi-task while you’re on a call.
Write drunk—Edit sober.
Arriving at Creativity
19 May 2008 | Conference, Sessions | 4 Comments
Without a doubt, the crowd is hyped up for Stefan Bucher and John Foster’s presentation, Arriving at Creativity. We’re here just a few minutes early and the auditorium is nearly packed. Almost as full as the opening keynote.
John & Stefan are “backed up” with creativity.
Their Shared Thoughts on Creativity
- If you have an idea, go with it. See it through.
- Failures are private. (Paris & Lohan would mess up and you’d know.)
- People only see what you want them to see.
- Create some structure for yourself, ideas will come.
- It’s not the ideas you have, it’s the ideas that you make real. (Commit.)
- When the idea comes, be ready to work with them. (Your space, writing it down.)
- You never know where you’ll find inspiration.
- If it’s a good idea, keep it around.
- Keep the momentum going! Do a little bit everyday, just don’t stand still.
Their Shared Thoughts on Clients
- Ask the client about your idea, they usually never hear it.
- Learn to love your clients.
- They don’t know what the actual problem is, nor do they know how to talk about it.
- Vaguely embarrassed to talk about it, because they don’t have the solution.
- Become really good at asking questions.
- Don’t say clients will hate it, you don’t know that. (They will, however, pick the idea you -do- hate. Ha!)
Use every moment as an excuse to make something. Collaborate with people who don’t think like you. Of course, don’t be afraid to fail.
Slap some f*cking rockets on the thing!
Mental note: try out playing with Sharpies on paper towels. Special HOW Edition Monster from Stefan, video will be up shortly!