Wednesday, October 11
Beat the morning rush! Pick up your name badge and say hi to fellow attendees in the lobby of the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.
Thursday, October 12
Pick up your name badge and say hi to fellow attendees at the lobby of the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. Please note, a name badge is strongly encouraged for any add-on activities you have registered for. Attendance will be taken at arrival.
All Thursday 10/12 add-on activities require advance sign-up.
Please note add-on registration is now closed. Registration will be allowed on-site for Workshops taking place at the Sheraton only. No on-site registration will be allowed for offsite activities.
Friday, October 13
Pick up your name badge and say hi to fellow attendees at the lobby of the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.
Join us for breakfast at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.
8:30–9:15 a.m. ET | Breakouts
Choose from a presentation, a design dialogue, a workshop, or a panel. Fancy a break from sessions? Head to the Design Fair and catch up with a friend or meet with one of our vendors!
Beyond Words: Dyslexia the Superpower
Dyslexia is not a weakness. Oh no, it's a strength. Dyslexics possess a unique way of seeing the world that is leveraged in design. People with dyslexia are highly creative, think outside the box, and are not afraid to take risks and push boundaries.
That's what makes them exceptional graphic designers. Some of these dyslexics you might know are Paula Scher, Jonathan Barnbrook, Emily Oberman, Neville Brody, Kate Moross, David Carson, Holly Andres, Quentin Blake, Janine Vangool, and Brian Duffy.
This presentation welcomes the perspectives of neurodivergent thinkers through both personal and professional stories. It offers advice on leveraging neurodivergent strengths in your career path by taking emotional, financial, and physical risks. In addition to practical online resources for dyslexic creatives to use in the future. The 30-minute session includes open dialogue Q+A.
Speaker
Jeffrey Conger, Co-founder of the Dyslexia & Innovation symposium
Jeffrey Conger is a professor of graphic design and co-founder of the Dyslexia & Innovation symposium at Montana State University in Bozeman. As a lifelong dyslexic and outspoken advocate, Professor Conger has developed innovative pedagogy through experimental pilot courses for those neurodivergent students with learning differences.
In his client based creative work Jeffrey is a professional designer, photographer, and author who specializes in motorsports. Known for his candid storytelling and photo journalistic style, his images and articles have appeared in publications across North America and Europe including Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Classic Trucks, Super Streetbike and Automobile.
Pepsi: Re-Designing an Icon
Presented by PepsiCo
Carl Gerhards, Pepsi Design Director, will share the genesis and execution of the re-design of Pepsi, one of the most iconic brands in the world.
Speaker
Carl Gerhards
Carl is the Senior Director of Design for Pepsi in North America. In this role he leads the 360 design of the Pepsi brand across packaging, retail, campaigns, experiences, digital, licensing and more. Carl previously served as the Senior Director of Design for Mtn Dew, Flavors and Energy at PepsiCo Beverages North America, where he delivered elevated experiences for Mtn Dew and the NBA and breakthrough flavor innovations like Mtn Dew Major Melon. Carl also led the creation of new visual identity systems for Rockstar, Brisk and Pure Leaf.
Before joining PepsiCo, Carl spent over a decade honing his skills at the design agencies Sterling Brands, Landor, and Interbrand, where he delivered long-term global design solutions for brands like Hershey’s, Campbell’s, and Gillette.
Carl holds a BFA in Graphic Design and BFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art & Design.
Design Mentorship is for Everyone
Growth takes many forms in a designer’s career, and design mentorship is one of the most impactful forms of learning. Mentorship introduces new perspectives and connections for mentors and mentees alike. From exchanging career experiences to navigating the creative industry landscape, designers have relied on mentorships to grow their design practice. The AIGA NY chapter has organized one of the biggest design mentorship programs in the US, with 960 total participants since 2019. You will hear from AIGA board members who run and participate in the program in this panel and gain insights about how mentorship opens minds and doors for everyone.
Speakers
Ashlyn Stewart Cavitt is a multidisciplinary designer based in New York City. Currently, she works as a designer at The New York Times, teaches as an adjunct professor at CUNY Queens College, and serves on the board of AIGA NY. She has been participating in the AIGA NY Mentorship Program since 2020 and was honored to be appointed Program Lead in 2022.
Raven Mo is a designer based in New York. She serves as a board member in AIGA NY’s Mentorship Workgroup. Previously, Raven served as a Programming Chair with AIGA Chicago and as the president of SAIC AIGA, one of the largest AIGA student chapters in the Midwest. Raven has experience as both a mentor and a mentee, as well as a mentorship organizer.
Jane Kim is a Head of Business Messaging Product Partnerships at Meta, focused on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger platforms. Previously, she worked as an Innovation Strategy Consultant at Salesforce Ignite. Starting her career as a product designer at IBM Design, Jane transitioned into Product Management, opening doors to diverse opportunities outside of design. She served on the board of AIGA NY from 2019-2022 and co-founded the AIGA NY Mentorship Program. Passionate about helping designers thrive in the business world, Jane is dedicated to expanding opportunities for early career professionals.
Activating Equity + Social Impact in Design
This dialogue creates space for conversations around equity in design. Join industry leaders who are making a difference by creating opportunities to diversify the profession. Learn how early exposure to design through mentorships, support through scholarships, and diverse hiring practices can create more diverse and equitable studios. Share your thoughts on how to create positive social impact through the practice of visual communication, graphic design, illustration, and photography.
Speakers
Mark Randall serves as the Associate Dean and an Assistant Professor in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design. For over twenty-years, he has worked at the intersection of design and social impact through his communications firm and non-profit, Worldstudio. In 2017, Mark was the recipient of the prestigious AIGA Medal.
Reggie Tidwell is the Owner of Curve Theory and an award-winning, multi-disciplinary graphic designer and content creator. He moved to Asheville, NC in 2003 and is helping advance the area’s creative community through service on several key Boards and committees. Reggie is the founding president of AIGA Asheville. He has dedicated his career to helping small and large businesses and organizations effectively connect with their audiences.
Carlos Estrada is a Creative Director and Designer at Agency 512. With over 13 years of experience in print and digital design, he has a keen eye for aesthetics, typography, and user experience, as well as a solid understanding of marketing communications and branding strategies. Passionate about equity in the design field, he serves as AIGA National DEI Chair and AIGA Detroit Chapter President.
Sadie Red Wing is a Lakota graphic designer and advocate from the Spirit Lake Nation of Fort Totten, North Dakota.Red Wing urges Native American graphic designers to express visual sovereignty in their design work, as well as encourages academia to include an indigenous perspective in design curriculum. Currently, Red Wing serves as an Assistant Professor at OCAD University (Toronto, ONT).
Dian Holton is the NYT bestseller art director of Do The Work! and senior deputy art director at AARP where she oversees creative for TheGirlfriend.com, Sistersletter.com and The Ethel. She routinely contributes art direction and design to AARP The Magazine and specifically cover stories and entertainment related. Her passions include education, philanthropy, fashion, travel and pop culture.
Mindfulness and the Creative Process
What is creativity? What actually happens when we’re designing?
As graphic- or communication designers we’ve been making creativity and the creative process the foundation of our careers — but as everyone knows these “creative juices” are pretty unpredictable. Based on my research and exploration at the intersection of art, design, yoga and meditation practices, as well as Buddhist and Vedic philosophies, this hands-on workshop focuses on the intangible nature of creativity itself. “The View from Here” is turned inwards, so participants can explore their individual creative processes and workflows from the vantage point of the present moment. The process — the embodiment of creativity and structure — is the goal in this stress- and judgment-free space where the concept of a “final design” becomes meaningless. Combining meditation and other mindfulness practices with artmaking and visual problem solving allows participants to strengthen their awareness of their own individual creative process and its requirements.
Activities include sitting, walking and gazing meditations, intuitive drawing and collaging, as well as discussion and integration time. Participants will also investigate how art and design can in turn be used as an instrument for mindfulness, as demonstrated in the use of sacred geometry in Buddhist and Vedic mandalas and yantras.
Speaker
Annika Kappenstein is a designer, thinker, tinkerer, and teacher with over 20 years of experience in the graphic design industry. She received her MFA in Communication Design from the Braunschweig University of Art in Germany. In 1998 she moved to the States and has worked for large brand consultancies in New York City as well as smaller agencies in both countries. She is the co-founder of a startup that produces mobile voice training apps.
Before joining the Lamar Dodd School of Art faculty Annika taught graphic design courses at M.AD Atlanta, The Creative Circus, Georgia State University, and has been a Professor of Graphic Design at SCAD. Annika’s specialties include brand strategy, visual identity systems, UI/UX design, typography, and data visualization. Her academic research is focused on the role of communication design in human-computer interaction (specifically electronic learning systems) and the visibility and acceptance of marginalized people at the intersection of Autism, ADHD and LGBTQ+ communities.
Can an Alphabet Save a Culture?
Presented by Microsoft
Join us for a panel discussion on how to strike the balance between marketing and design for good. We will explore the Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning case of ADLaM, an alphabet created by two Fulani brothers for a language spoken by over 60 million people across West Africa. We will examine the role Microsoft’s innovation and creativity played in empowering them to achieve success and will discuss the intricacies of designing for good.
Speakers
Cristina Reina is an EVP, Global Executive Creative Director, and Head of Art McCann North America, with more than a decade of experience developing award-winning campaigns and leading creative teams through a variety of projects across different platforms. Throughout her career Cristina has proven her ability to bring her artistic vision to every project she has worked on, always striving to deliver memorable and groundbreaking campaigns.
Sven Seger is a General Manager of Global Creative at Microsoft, where he shapes the vision for how the Microsoft brand shows up in the world and strengthens connections with the billions of people that the company empowers.
Kaity Butcher is a Creative Producer at the Microsoft Brand Studio, where she uses design and technology to make a positive impact on the world.
Aleksey Fedorov (Moderator), is a Director of Global Brand Marketing at Microsoft, where he builds brand love for Microsoft in diverse ways through the company’s largest initiatives.
Design Educators Community Taking the Pulse: Where We've Been, Where We Are, Where We're Going
This is a discussion and examination of concerns, hopes, and aspirations of design educators regarding the current state of design education, and an exploration of how the DEC can better support them. Design practitioners are also welcome to join in this important conversation.
Speaker
Natalie Tyree is an associate professor of graphic design in the Department of Art and Design at Western Kentucky University. A designer, maker, and educator, Natalie’s creative research focuses on both client-based design and mixed-media fine art practices. She seeks to explore popular culture themes in her work related to contemporary trends and generational mindsets in this media and influencer obsessed world we find ourselves in. An "old millennial," her research focuses on Millennials and Generation Z and her mission to demystify and mock pre-conceived notions of those generations. She aims to bridge the gap in preparing students for the workforce by drawing from her own professional background, as well as engaging them in discussion about professional practices and the ever-changing environment of the creative industry.
Liese Zahabi is an assistant professor of interaction/graphic design in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Hampshire. She previously served as faculty at the University of Maryland in College Park and at Weber State University in Utah. She earned a Master of Graphic Design degree from North Carolina State University, and a BFA from Eastern Michigan University. She teaches courses across the design curriculum. Professor Zahabi’s academic research focuses on search as a cognitive and cultural process, and how the design of interfaces can change the experience of digital search tasks.
9:30–11:00 a.m. ET | General Session
Join all attendees in the Metropolitan Ballroom for our general sessions, hosted by Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut.
Conference Chair
Bobby C. Martin, Jr.
Designer, Apple
Conference Chair
Jennifer Kinon
Co-founder, Champions Design
Conference Host
Debbie Millman
Designer, Author, Educator, Podcast Host
Welcome to New York: The Daily Heller and New York Nico
Join host Debbie Millman in conversation with Steven and Nick Heller, discussing life, creativity, and family.
Steven Heller
Art director, Author, Coauthor, Editor, Curator, Lecturer
Nicolas Heller
Filmmaker, Heller Media
Neville Brody
Professor of Communication at Royal College of Art, Creative Director at Brody Associates
The Shock of the Newest
Technologically, politically, socially, we live in an age of unprecedented change, experiencing extreme transformation and rapid shifts as never before. These ever-accelerating developments fundamentally affect the way we live, work, create, posing equally major challenges and extraordinary opportunities.
In this space, how is our practice as designers, creatives and educators being transformed, and how can we embrace and supercharge that for the benefit of all?
The present is new, the future is newer. Our response will be to pivot this towards the benefit of all.
Neville Brody runs his design agency, Brody Associates, from his London studio, working worldwide with clients such as Coca-Cola, BBC, Sony Music, Channel 4, Christian Dior, Supreme, The Times, and Shiseido.
Previously president of D&AD, he is Professor of Communication at the Royal College of Art and a Royal Designer for Industry.
Brody leads his practice with experimentation, exploration, and discovery through influential projects such as FUSE and the ADF. He has always been focused on education and how it can change to better support creative development and opportunity.
11:00–11:45 a.m. ET | Break
Network with attendees, meet speakers, or connect with one of our vendors in the Design Fair!
11:45–12:30 p.m. ET | Breakouts
Choose from a presentation, a design dialogue, a workshop, or a panel. Fancy a break from sessions? Head to the Design Fair and catch up with a friend or meet with one of our vendors!
Advocating for Design
Are your clients not seeing the value your creative firm provides? Do you struggle to communicate your value? Does this impact your team, your bottom line (i.e. clients taking advantage of your generosity), and your happiness at work? Our industry is at a value crossroads. Our clients don’t understand the value that design brings to their business while our competitors, colleagues, and even our own professional associations don’t always do enough to advocate for and communicate our industry’s value. We also contribute to this value challenge by not advocating for ourselves, which can result in our team feeling undervalued and disrespected. Does any of this sound familiar? In this talk, we’ll explore the current state as well as the perception of our industry’s value and discuss how we all can better advocate for our profession. Let’s get paid what we’re worth and ensure the design industry and the people in it are valued for their incredible work!
Speaker
Emily Cohen, Founder & Partner at Casa Davka, is a no-nonsense business consultant who has partnered with 500+ leading creative firms worldwide. At Casa Davka, Emily offers customized business solutions to creative businesses so they are able to: envision and plan for their future, position themselves to stay competitive, attract and qualify new business prospects and talent, refine, evolve, and elevate their organizational structure and reimagine existing processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Emily is a frequently-requested main stage speaker within the creative industry and has spoken at hundreds of international, national, and local conferences and events. In 2018, she self-published her business book for creatives, Brutally Honest: No-bullshit business strategies to evolve your creative business. Brutally Honest has become a go-to business book for creative industry professionals worldwide and several universities use it as a teaching tool.
Emily is a designer by degree, an avid reader, a dog-lover, a trend-spotter, a connection-builder, and an industry advocate.
Beyond Laughter: How Internet Memes are Shaping Our Online Community
Meme culture has become a ubiquitous presence in online social communication. Its pursuit of eye-catching, novel, and humorous effects resonates with the expressive and playful psychology of the younger generation (Gen Z). By compensating for the weaknesses of dry text communication and inaccurate expression of attitudes, memes effectively improve communication efficiency and have spread widely.
In this presentation, we will explore the impact of internet memes on user behavior and emotional expression, and how technology and social media companies are applying "meme thinking" to their online experience design.
Speaker
Xiaojun Huang is a designer, curator, and educator based in Toledo, Ohio, with ties to Shenzhen, China. She holds a BFA in Book Arts from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and an MFA degree in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Arts, providing a strong foundation in artistic expression.
With teaching experience at Creative Studies and Upper Iowa University, Huang's creative vision extends beyond academia. She served as the gallery director at Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery, curating exhibitions that push the boundaries of contemporary design and showcase emerging artists.
Currently an Assistant Professor at Bowling Green State University, Huang shapes the next generation of designers through innovative teaching methods and research initiatives. Her design practice explores the blending of Eastern and Western cultures, reflected in her typographic graphics and imagery installations that offer unique perspectives and bridge gaps between diverse audiences.
Designing for Culture: Appreciation or Appropriation?
The world is a small place. While I do not have the same worldview as an astronaut, I do have a global experience. Living in 5 countries and speaking multiple languages gives me a unique view on culture - and the most complicated answer to where are you from?
While concepts of appropriation or localization are nothing new, our sensitivity to usage of cultural content is becoming increasingly important. In our digitized world content travels across the globe faster than we can. The fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation is ever blurring. Becoming a design grey area where work becomes stale or too safe out of fear of retribution from particular communities or stakeholders. How can designers craft compelling work with cultural content, for both diverse and specific communities, while challenging the boundaries of woke-ness and political correctness in a sensitive but sophisticated manner?
Speaker
James Tupling is a graphic designer based in New York City. He grew up with Argentine/Canadian parents in South East Asia, receiving his BFA in Graphic Design from SCAD Hong Kong. Studying at a western institution in an eastern context led to his interest in multi-language design and the concept of appropriation. He later pursued research on topics surrounding culture, appropriation and its usage within design during his MFA in Communication Design at Pratt Institute. Channeling his international experiences he produces work that combines language, street culture with NYC texture and volume. Currently, he works at an environmental graphics firm known as GHD Partners.
Lost in Translation
This isn't a mirage. Designing for culture in the Middle East is having its moment. Designing identities for the future of the Middle East is more complex than it seems. Amidst the cliches and tropes, there is a healthy resource of inspiration and reference that is a bit more difficult to access digitally. So, how do we do it?
The talk will showcase the creative process of Ya Khadijah and methods centered around storytelling. We will briefly touch upon the visual cliches that have suffocated and stunted SWANA culture around the world and why this alone is a call to have more nuanced and authentically crafted identities.
We will showcase a couple of case studies that revolve around custom hybrid identities and how we were able to construct them. Our methods of resourcing references and navigating SWANA culture as a hybrid studio, and we will end by sharing our point of view on how we see SWANA culture developing and changing in the near future and how we see our studio contributing to this.
Speaker
Khadijah Abdul Nabi is a multi-disciplinary creative and brand strategist currently based in Erbil, Iraq. She is the Creative Director of Ya Khadijah, a female-led design studio in Iraq established in 2017 that creates hybrid identities for culturally relevant projects in the SWANA region and the diaspora.
Born in The Bronx, New York to resilient immigrant parents from Tunis, Tunisia, and Baghdad, Iraq, she has a deep passion for dissecting identity and culture through a creative lens. Khadijah loves learning and is a proud visual arts graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York City, a Barnard College Alumna in Middle Eastern Studies, and (much later on in life) a Shillington College graduate in Graphic Design (London Campus).
Khadijah is a grounded soul with energy and vivacity for life. She loves taking chaos and turning it into order. Her purpose is to help others truly feel seen, heard, and known. Designing is one of the most important things in her life.
Real Design, in Real Places, One Real Person at a Time
As designers continue to swoon under the thrall of new technological tools and data-driven processes, something is being lost. That something, in a word, is our shared humanity. People are not “users,” efficiency is for robots, and getting the most downloads or likes is not the sole marker of success in design practice.
Design is not just for greasing capitalism’s wheels. It also can bind people together and better enable community and care. It can focus on the quality of interaction rather than the quantity.
If COVID taught us anything, it’s that we saw the all-digital future—and it sucked. Turns out we want more in-the-flesh—and more meaningful—experiences after all. And those start with privileging the local, collaboration, purpose, and impact over form, novelty, cleverness, social media currency, and the archaic single genius myth.
This dialogue will discuss alternative strategies around using design to enable and support rich communities and true connections, both in design education and design practice. Examples from the panelists will include leading student-staffed design studios that help local nonprofits and research institutions; how to design more “locally”—whether it’s a city identity, a public park, or even a memorial; how to create a virtual AND brick and mortar community center that offers peer-led courses and public happenings; and using publishing in innovative ways to illuminate a wider diversity of design voices.
Speakers
Eric Heiman is a principal and co-founder of the award-winning, oft-exhibited design studio Volume Inc. Volume creates place-based identities, branded environments, exhibit programs, and other spatial activations but is also happy to design whatever is needed for creative, mission-driven entities out in the world.
He also teaches at California College of the Arts (CCA), where he currently manages TBD*, a student-staffed design studio creating work to help local Bay Area nonprofits and civic institutions.
Eric also writes about design every so often, has curated one film festival, occasionally podcasts about classic literature, and is an AIGA Fellow for his contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within the Bay Area design community. He’s been collecting vinyl records since he was a teenager in the 1980s but has never bought one for the sleeve art alone.
Ryan Clifford is an Assistant Professor of Design at the University of Kansas. He directs the multi-disciplinary Ampersand Studio, and is the founder and faculty coordinator of ColorBar, a unique analog RISO service center, design lab, and maker space where he leads a team of student RISO Design Fellows.
Sam Taylor is Head of Community at Index, which provides space for the exchange of knowledge and tools. They nurture trust within the creative community through generosity and abundance of ideas and care. He’s also a strategist at XXIX, a design and technology studio founded in NYC. Sam is a natural facilitator with a keen instinct for conversation and holding space for multiple perspectives. He joins us from Richmond, VA, where he used to work as a librarian.
nicole killian is an artist, designer and educator based based between Virginia and Italy. killian’s practice oscillates between digital and analog modes for testing publishing projects. killian’s expanded approach to publishing considers objects as containers for language—language that gets activated when read, passed, held, and handled. killian is an associate professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University and directs the MFA program in Design/Visual Communications.
Design Educators Community Design Research & Writing: Exploring a Living Database
This session will introduce, explore, and discuss possibilities for a living database that connects design research/writing communities with similar interests but varied experiences.
Speakers
Patricia Childers (she/her) is a NYC-based designer and professor of graphic design, typography, and design theory. As an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute, The New York City College of Technology (Citytech), and The Fashion Institution of Technology (FIT), she fosters intellectual engagement as a place of possibilities. Throughout her career in education, she has explored the symbiotic relationship between culture and design, and design’s power to reshape cultural narratives.
Besides teaching, Patricia practices professionally through her design studio, P Childers Design. She serves on the AIGA’s Design Educators Community (DEC) Steering Committee, is co-director of Tipo, Cibo, Vino, a letterpress workshop in Italy, and is an active member of several design organizations. Patricia holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and studied critical theory at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science.
Lisa Elzey Mercer (she/her) is a designer, educator, and researcher. Her interests are in developing and executing design interventions that fuel and sustain responsible design for social impact. The developed frameworks and tools are intended to create a space for conversation and knowledge exchange where participants can collaborate in creating new ideas and solutions. This type of methodology is evidenced in her current projects focused on the topics of human trafficking, incarceration, race, and racism. She is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation in the School of Art and Design, College of Fine and Applied Arts, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Zack Tucker (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design in the Department of Art, College of Creative Arts at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Tucker utilizes action research and autoethnographic methodologies to explore civic engagement in the United States. In particular, he has adopted a place-based practice around Freedom Summer 1964 and its relevance to contemporary experiences. His work tends to be transdisciplinary, collaborative, participatory, and reflective. By conducting research through design, Tucker puts theory into practice through radical hospitality—inviting everyone into the joy of discovery and inquiry through collaborative design activities aimed at repairing harms, building relationships, and activating a shared future.
Design Futures: Your Journey Is in the Cards
To be a designer is to consider position, power, and privilege in our work. We must reckon with influence, the real-world ramifications of our decisions, and our responsibility to decenter ourselves and act with deep compassion for others, open-hearted conviction, and a holistic understanding of complex societal structures.
As designers, we’re called to initiate, interpret, and interrogate constant and abundant change within our career paths, our organizations, and the industry at large. Moving between these scales of change can be disorienting, requiring new navigational abilities, and demanding intentional stewardship of self, community, and practice.
To do these things we must carry the right toolboxes. Self-reflection is a multi-purpose powerhouse in this toolbox—providing the self-awareness that opens the door to asking, grappling with, and sometimes answering the tough questions designers face. And, because design isn’t a solo endeavor, self-reflection can also help us connect with and co-create communities of support, practice, and action.
This workshop is a deep dive into self-reflection and the role it can play in your career, starting with yourself and radiating outwards. After introducing ourselves and wayfinding questions that emerged for us over our careers, attendees will participate in a hands-on activity using a deck of tarot-inspired self-reflection cards. We will explore moments of change—from the individual- to the system-level—and the critical questions that precede them. We will ask you to interrogate your power, position, and expertise, and we’ll discuss how you might use the answers to navigate and drive change across disciplines and sectors.
Speakers
Ann Buechner, Betsy Ramaccia, Frances Yllana, and Jess Jones are design leads at Coforma, an agency that crafts creative solutions and builds technology products that elevate human needs. With a combined 61 years in the industry, they use their AARP-level experience to co-design more equitable, inclusive, and human futures for their clients, teams, and communities. Passionate about questioning and shifting norms—particularly those relating to who gets to design and who gets to lead—they work to expand the boundaries, borders, and blueprints of what design is and can be. They’re particularly interested in self-reflection as a tool to be better collaborators, teammates, and leaders.
The New Values of Design Education
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests across the United States, our group (Anne H. Berry, Penina Laker, Meaghan Dee, Rebecca Tegtmeyer, and Kelly Walters) worked with design educators from other institutions to create the Value Design Education Pledge. Our aim was to develop and promote long-term inclusive and equitable teaching practices in design education. The pledge is a set of working principles that evolved into an initiative to construct a foundation for enacting long-term, positive changes in and around how the learning experiences that constitute design education are planned, operated and assessed. Specifically, these involve a commitment to demonstrating accountability for the effects of design decision-making to society, graphic designers, design educators, audiences, user groups, student bodies, given classroom populations, and individual students.
Speakers
Meaghan A. Dee is an Associate Professor and chair of Graphic Design at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She is also a senior fellow at the Institute of Creativity, Arts, and Technology and serves as a docent emeritus for the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Previously, she served as co-chair of the AIGA Design Educators Community (AIGA DEC) Executive Board. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois and a Masters of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University, with a focus in design. She specializes in engaging in and examining design and systems thinking, typography, branding, user-experience design, cross-media design, packaging, and editorial design. She’s also experimented with many different materials, methods, and outputs—such as taking her work into the realms of motion design, AR, and immersive environments. Regardless of the final output, she emphasizes core values, process, and design thinking. Her work can be seen at meaghand.com.
Rebecca Tegtmeyer is a graphic design educator and practitioner. Through her active research, writing, making, and teaching agenda she investigates the role of a designer and the creative process through a variety of forms. Working both individually and collaboratively, she approaches design as a catalyst in facilitating systems that challenge and inspire—further extending the capabilities and responsibilities of a designer in today’s complex world. Current collaborative research projects focus on prioritizing the student experience and strengthening the values of design education. Rebecca is co-author and co-editor of the title, Collaboration in Design Education, published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2020, with Marty Maxwell Lane. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at Michigan State University and a former member of the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) Steering Committee. Rebecca received her MGD degree from the College of Design at NC State University.
Penina Laker is a designer, researcher, and educator at Washington University in St. Louis. Through her research, Penina applies an interdisciplinary and community-engaged approach to co-create and implement design solutions that make complex public health-related information accessible to wider audiences, locally and internationally. She is also broadening the scope and access of design education to young people in Uganda through DesignEd workshops and My African Aesthetic podcast which she co-hosts. She is a co-editor of The Black Experience in Design, published by Allworth Press in 2022. Penina earned an MFA in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University and a BA in Art from Goshen College.
Kelly Walters is an artist, designer and founder of the multidisciplinary design studio Bright Polka Dot. Her ongoing design research interrogates the complexities of identity formation, systems of value, and shared vernacular in and around Black visual culture. In 2021, Kelly was awarded a Graham Foundation award for her curated exhibition With a Cast of Colored Stars. She is the author of Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race (2021) and the Creative Director and Co-Editor of The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection (2022). Kelly is currently the Director of the BFA Communication Design Program and Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Parsons School of Design at The New School.
12:30–2:00 p.m. ET | Lunch
Lunch on your own. Design Fair is open!
2:00–2:45 p.m. ET | Breakouts
Choose from a presentation, a design dialogue, a workshop, or a panel. Fancy a break from sessions? Head to the Design Fair and catch up with a friend or meet with one of our vendors!
Exploring Potential for Mindfulness in Interaction Design for the Aging
We are living longer but are we living better? World Health Organization projects that by 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years. Yet interactive technologies have been slow to catch up to the needs and wants of this growing group of users. Their distinct yet diverse perspectives are challenging to embrace for designers, especially younger ones. I describe student works from a research through design project in my interaction design classroom, seeking to untangle the complex yet universal experience of aging, allowing both the users and the designers to envision a more connected world that anticipates our ever changing bodies, thoughts, and feelings. I elaborate on how mindfulness is at play in the conceptualization and design of each application in order to help users find communities, stay on top of their self care, and connect better with their families. Through sharing these results as well as contextual and technical considerations, I shed light on a slower approach to user-centered design for digital products that anticipate our lives as we age.
Speaker
Linh Dao’s creative and scholarly research practice recognizes identity discourses as pivotal in theorizing the development and implementation of creative and emerging technology. Her research interests focus on emigration, immigration, and migration, minority equality and accessibility.
Prior to her appointment at Cal Poly, she was a Specialist Professor at Monmouth University. She has been awarded several design awards, including the Indigo Design Award, the Graphic Design USA Award, and a Creative Quarterly Design Category Award. Her list of clients include American Cancer Society, Nonprofit New York, Rutgers's National Institute for Early Education Research, New York Historic Districts Council, and San Francisco’s GLBT+ Historical Society Museum. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Germany, Korea, and the U.S., including at the Institute for Art and Innovation in Berlin, Germany, University of Texas at Tyler, and the Imperial Centre for the Arts and Sciences.
Linh has also worked on multi-disciplinary collaborations and grants funded by New York University’s De-cruit, and the University of Texas at Arlington’s College of Liberal Art, improving mental health outcomes for military veterans through theater and other arts-based modalities.
AIGA Symbol Signs Project Turns 50
The original 34 symbols were published in 1974. This presentation looks back at the project’s development; how the system expanded over the years; unique systems that it inspired; and whimsical adaptations of individual icons.
In 1970, the International Civil Aviation Association (ICAA) proposed a set of symbols be developed for use in airports throughout the world. Such systems already existed in other countries but not in the United States. Tom Geismar, representing AIGA, and Henry Dreyfuss, representing the Industrial Designers Society, made a joint presentation to ICAA with recommendations for a cohesive international program. Unfortunately, Dreyfuss died soon thereafter. Geismar put together a team of respected designers, including Seymour Chwast, Rudolph de Harak, John Lees and Massimo Vignelli to consider what was already out there with the understanding that if a specific concept was universally accepted then it would make sense to use that concept. If nothing existed, then they’d come up with something new.
The process included an extensive research phase led by Don and Karen Moyer. Examples of systems from around the world were collected and organized into a book for review by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Based on a list of symbols that DOT requested, Geismar’s committee reviewed the research, selected the symbols that made sense both conceptually and in terms of design, then determined which new symbols needed to be added. Roger Cook and Don Shanosky were hired to draw the icons and develop a cohesive system with a consistent graphic language.
From the beginning, the committee resolved that whatever they did would be made freely available to anyone who wanted to use it. As a result, AIGA Symbol Signs was adopted throughout the United States and beyond.
Speakers
Susan Merritt is a graphic designer; design educator; design researcher, writer, and curator. She completed five years of postgraduate study in graphic design at the Basel School of Design and earned an MA in Design Research, Writing and Criticism from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
During her 30-year tenure at San Diego State University’s School of Art + Design, Merritt developed a comprehensive curriculum in Graphic Design and taught a range of graphic design courses, eventually focusing on typography and graphic design history—all the while maintaining a professional practice. She’s very proud of her former students and the leadership roles they’ve taken on in the community.
Merritt is a founding member of AIGA San Diego, served as education chair on the chapter board, and currently sits on the advisory board. She’s a contributing writer to AIGA’s Eye on Design blog. She researches and writes about visual communication, material culture, and design history.
Neurodivergence + Design
Our view from here: In practicing design, neurodivergence can be a significant asset. This panel, all self-identified as neurodivergent, explores the intersection of neurodiversity and creativity in both industry and educational settings. With 1 in 5 people being neurodivergent, (i.e. living with dyslexia, ADHD, autism) we need to be setting up frameworks that create inclusive space for these divergent thinkers + makers. But that is just the start. Is neurodiversity a superpower yet to be fully harnessed? We think so. In this panel discussion, the moderator will ask questions about this exciting intersection of neurodivergent thinking and the design practice—but will leave 15 minutes for open discussion in Q+ A format with the audience.
Speakers
Meta Newhouse, Chair in Design/Professor in Design at LA+D, is an award-winning designer, design educator and filmmaker with 30+ years of experience in the visual communication industry. Her work is published in 40+ professional design books and annuals, including Communication Arts, Graphis, PRINT, and NOVUM. She is the former Founding Director of DSEL (the Design Sandbox for Engaged Learning) at Montana State University. Her MFA in Communication Design is from the University of North Texas.
Trevor Graves is a father, husband, pioneer snowboard photographer, and CEO of Nemo Design, a millennial brand design agency in Portland, Oregon. The firm works with sports, technology and lifestyle brands such as Nike, Mammoth Mountain, Tillamook Country Smoker, and MasterCraft Boats.
Amber Johnson is a strategic writer for brands, proud ADHD-er, and even prouder parent of a brilliantly creative autistic child. Now a freelancer, following agency and in-house tenures, she has worked on brand identities for Alaska Airlines, Publix, NHL Seattle, Brooks Sports, and many others. Amber is a passionate advocate for inclusion and helped launch the Boston Hub of the nonprofit Neurodiversity in the Workplace, partner to neuro-inclusive employers including Dell and vmware.
Jeffrey Conger is a Professor of Graphic Design and co-founder of the Dyslexia & Innovation symposium at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. As a lifelong dyslexic and outspoken advocate, Professor Conger has developed innovative pedagogy through experimental pilot courses for those with learning differences.
Design Educators Community: Let’s [try to] Demystify Promotion & Tenure
Promotion and tenure can feel like a Rubik's cube for your career: there are endless ways to reach the goal, but the pathway is often complex and ambiguous. This conversation involves discussion of the procedures at participants’ own institutions and considerations for current candidates to keep in mind as they put their packets together.
Speaker
Ashley Hairston Doughty is a visual storyteller, explaining personal experiences through verbal and visual language, utilizing several forms of media. She shares and encourages such art making as an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work is included in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, and the Special Collections of Brown University, Smith College, and the University of Iowa. She has received awards from the Caxton Club, the College Book Arts Association and Arion Press. Ashley is a contributor to the book Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators by Kelly Walters. In 2020, she was invited to work on the Arts & Transportation Rapid Response initiative for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC), funded by national non-profit Smart Growth America, the Kresge Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She holds a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Racism Untaught: Revealing and Unlearning Racialized Design
Racism Untaught is a research study focused on developing tools to facilitate discussions on racialized design. During our workshop, we will guide participants through the Racism Untaught framework and interactive toolkit which examines racialized design—design that perpetuates elements of racism. We have identified three conclusive areas where racialized design can be exemplified: artifacts, systems, and experiences. The toolkit we bring to the workshop includes a physical workboard, cards associated with each step, sticky notes, markers, and prompts for each group. This toolkit cultivates learning environments for academic and non-academic organizations to further explore issues of race and racism. The workshop provides participants with a space to critically analyze artifacts of racialized design. Including shared experiences of microaggressions, implicit bias, and systemic forms of racism and how our culture perpetuates systemic racism.
Speakers
Terresa Moses (she/her) is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown people through art and design. As a designer and illustrator, her work focuses on race, identity, and social justice. She advocates for positive change in her community using creativity as tools of community activism like her recent solo exhibition, Umbra. Terresa is the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt, a social justice-based design studio. She is also an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. As a community engaged scholar, her design research interests include; Project Naptural, which creates spaces to educate, connect, and empower Black women about their natural hair and self-identity, and Racism Untaught, a curriculum model that reveals ‘racialized’ design and helps students, educators, and organizations create anti-racist concepts through the design research process. She earned her BFA in Fashion Design and African American Studies at the University of North Texas in 2008. In 2015, she earned her MFA in Design Research and Anthropology. She is currently a PhD candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto.She serves as a core team member of African American Graphic Designers (AAGD) by helping to organize and craft organizational structure. She also works as a collaborator with the Black Liberation Lab to co-create solutions that support Black liberation.
Lisa Elzey Mercer (she/her/hers) is a designer, educator, and researcher. She is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her interests are developing and executing design interventions that fuel and sustain responsible design for social impact and participatory design. The developed frameworks and tools are intended to create a space for conversation and knowledge exchange where participants can collaborate in creating new ideas and solutions. This type of methodology is evidenced in her current projects focused on the topics of human trafficking, incarceration, race, and racism. She co-developed the framework Racism Untaught with Terresa Moses, University of Minnesota. Racism Untaught is a framework for collaborators to identify racialized design and critically assess anti-racist design approaches. Their book, Racism Untaught, is being published by MIT Press and will be released in October 2023.
Exploring Black History in America through a Generational Lens
An open dialogue on critical points of Black history in America and its impact on the creative fabric of our industry. Narrated by two former AIGA-KC Presidents, Kelly Ludwig, and Sam Yates-Meier. The two recently embarked on a Civil Rights road trip through the Deep South making stops at various American civil rights landmarks from Gee’s Bend to the Lorraine Motel. Their unique perspectives of their different lenses of race, age, and life experiences offer a space for a thought-provoking discussion.
During this 45-minute session of story and imagery, we will cover a range of topics surrounding the telling of the Black experience in America, including exhibit design, preservation, revisionist history, self-taught artists and their environments, graffiti, food, music, craft, appropriation, and much more. We will explore how these various elements contribute to our understanding of Black history and its impact on the creative fabric of our country.
Speakers
Kelly Ludwig is a tactical and strategic creative who oversees a wide variety of creative visual design and UX projects, manages an ever-growing creative team’s workflow and resourcing, creative ideation, as well as new-business opportunities. Ludwig's experience ranges from running a small design studio to group creative director for Merkle, Inc., a global digital experience and commerce agency.
A mainstay in the Kansas City design community, she is President Emeritus of the Kansas City Chapter of AIGA (a professional association for design) and the former program head of the Graphic Design department at the Kansas City Art Institute. Her side passions include photography, documentation of artist-built environments across the country and book design.
Sam Yates Meier is a Midwest-born designer based in Kansas City, Missouri. Meier’s experience ranges from in-house media for Kansas City PBS, experiential design and wayfinding with Dimensional Innovations, to brand experience and identity with D.C. firm, Beveridge Seay. She has been an American In-house Design Awards winner and an American Graphic Design Awards winner through Graphic Design USA (GDUSA).
Meier designs with the Trends and Innovation Studio at Hallmark while teaching at the University of Kansas (KU) in the Visual Communications Department. Additionally, Meier is a MA Student in the Kress Foundation Department of Art History at KU, studying Black American Art and Design and the French Influence on the Harlem Renaissance. She is President Emeritus for the Kansas City Chapter of AIGA (a professional association for design). She spends her free time working with her partner in their shared studio, Yup Yup Design, practicing yoga, or volunteering with various community groups.
AI and Creativity: Unveiling Possibilities
Join a thought-provoking panel discussion on the convergence of AI and creativity. The panel will delve into Generative AI's impact on creativity, shedding light on its transformative potential. The conversation will explore the symbiotic relationship between AI and human creativity, because while AI advances, human involvement remains pivotal. Our speakers will explore the continued significance of the human touch in shaping emotive and meaningful creations.
We look forward to hosting a conversation that envisions a future where AI amplifies human creativity. Discover insights that reframe perceptions and navigate the path to leveraging AI's capabilities while preserving the essence of human innovation.
Speakers
Isaiah Steinfeld is a respected and experienced digital product executive with a strong track-record of success in both the startup and corporate innovation sectors globally. With over 15+ years in the tech-industry, Steinfeld has built a reputation for driving transformative growth and innovation through the development and scaling of disruptive products, programs, and businesses for notable companies such as Nike, Intuit, and Lyft, among others. Inside Amazon at AWS Startups, Steinfeld serves as the head of the ACE organization, where he leads the global strategy and integration for a diverse portfolio of digital products/platforms, innovative programs (e.g. AWS Activate), startup investments, and services. Isaiah is also a member of the national board of directors for AIGA, where Steinfeld is a vocal advocate for the value and impact of design. He also mentors, advises, and invests in various startups, funds, and early-stage accelerators, focused on early and growth-stage companies.
Caitlyn Burke is an award-winning designer and Product Manager on the Adobe Photoshop team, based in Brooklyn. Her passion for design and creative apps began at a young age, earning a Photoshop essentials certification years before obtaining a driver’s permit. Previously, Caitlyn collaborated with top record labels, including Atlantic Records, Warner Music Group, Warner Bros., Fueled by Ramen, and others. Her portfolio includes work for well-known musical acts such as Lizzo, Panic! At the Disco, Portugal. The Man, Jason Mraz, Wiz Khalifa, and many more. During her tenure at Adobe, Caitlyn has contributed to the development of key features related to generative technology. She is dedicated to promoting ethical AI practices and nurturing an inclusive design community for the next generation of creatives."
Grif aka Shane Griffin is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Dublin, Ireland. Most recently, he was named on the Louis Vuitton's '200 Visionaries' list, and has exhibited work globally. Thematically his work focuses on nature, energy, surrealism, and light. His high-level execution blurs the lines of reality, creating worlds with thought provoking concepts, surreal visuals, and encapsulating cinematography. A recipient of the One Clubs ‘Young Gun’ award, and named PRINT magazine's New Visual Artist, Grif’s medium-bending work has been on the vanguard of the new creative class for over a decade. His collaborations boast a range of household names, creating artwork for Kanye West, music videos for Wiz Khalifa, and books for Pharell Williams. As a director, he’s created films for the likes of Apple, BMW, Mercedes, and Givenchy. In 2018, his art film ‘Chromatic’ debuted at the annual TED conference. His studio and art practice is located in Brooklyn, New York.
Ellen Haller is a design leader with experience working across in-house and agency roles. Currently, she oversees an exceptional team of 43 UX designers, researchers, writers, and program managers working to define new products for Buy with Prime at Amazon. Ellen is an advocate for empathetic leadership and strongly believes that designers thrive in a transparent and supportive culture.
Rich Tu is a first generation Filipino-American and award-winning designer and artist residing in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Partner and Executive Creative Director at Sunday Afternoon. Previously, Rich has held creative leadership roles at Jones Knowles Ritchie, MTV Entertainment Group, and Nike Inc. In addition, he hosts the Webby Honoree podcast First Generation Burden, which focuses on intersectionality and diversity within the creative industry, and is co-founder of the COLORFUL awards with the One Club for Creativity, dedicated to creating opportunities for early career BIPOC creatives. Rich is a graduate of SVA’s Illustration as Visual Essay MFA program. He has previously won the ADC Young Guns award and recently received the prestigious Paul Manship Medallion for significant contributions to the Art Directors Club and creative industry. Creatively, his focus is on emerging audiences and energetic brands that benefit from an eclectic and unique point of view.
3:00–4:00 p.m. ET | General Session
Join all attendees in the Metropolitan Ballroom for our general sessions, hosted by Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut. The Design Fair is closed until 6:30 p.m. when it reopens for the Happy Hour.
Juan Carlos Pagan
Designer, Typographer & Co-Founder, Sunday Afternoon
Juan Carlos Pagan of Sunday Afternoon
Juan Carlos Pagan discusses his groundbreaking design work, entrepreneurial spirit, and design expertise with Debbie Millman.
Juan Carlos Pagan is an artist, designer, and typographer from New York. He received his BFA from Parsons School of Design, and completed his postgraduate studies in typeface design at Type@Cooper. Juan has created visual identities, custom typography, and brand campaigns for companies including NPR, Pinterest, Cîroc, Under Armour, Nike, Google, Disney, New York Lottery, and YouTube. He has also designed cover art for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Variety. In 2017 Juan co-founded Sunday Afternoon, a hybrid creative design studio & artist management agency.
Amedea Tassinari
Creative Director, Angel City Football Club
Amedea Tassinari of Angel City FC
Debbie Millman sits down with budding Creative Director Amedea Tassinari to explore the career path that led her to designing the crest and brand identity for L.A.’s professional women’s soccer team, Angel City FC.
Amedea Tassinari is the Creative Director for Angel City FC, Los Angeles’ professional women’s soccer team. She helped to build the brand from the ground up, and currently leads the design team and the club’s creative efforts. Before joining the team as Creative Director, she was selected to design the club’s crest and brand identity. At launch the crest garnered widespread positive global coverage, resulting in 178M in reach, $1.6M+ in Media Value, and 6.28% audience growth rate. Previously Amedea was a freelance designer & creative director, working with brands to build a design system and tell their story. She also worked as a designer for the LA 2028 bid for the Olympic and Paralympic games, where she helped bring the games to Los Angeles. Amedea believes in the power of sports and design to drive social change, and is passionate about shaping a future of equality for women in sports.
4:00–4:45 p.m. ET | Break
Network with attendees, meet speakers, and take a breather in-between sessions.
4:45–6:15 p.m. ET | General Session
Join all attendees in the Metropolitan Ballroom for our general sessions, hosted by Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut.
Museum Design: The Whitney and the Met
We're excited to bring together two titans of museum design who are working with profoundly different systems that sent shockwaves through cultural design when they launched and continue pushing the field today.
Alicia Cheng
Head of Design, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Hilary Greenbaum
Director of Graphic Design and Brand Creative, Whitney Museum of American Art
Joi Fulton
Freelance Illustrator
From 2D to 3D: An Interview with Joi Fulton
Get a peek into what inspires Joi's bright and joyful work as she joins Lisa Babb in conversation on the Mainstage.
The View From Here
Conference co-chairs Jennifer Kinon and Bobby Martin lead a discussion with our host and moderators Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut as they address our conference theme, reflect on Day 1, and engage with the audience about what is to come for the industry.
Conference Host
Debbie Millman
Designer, Author, Educator, Podcast Host
Lisa Babb
Design Educator, Georgia Tech
Michael Bierut
Partner, Pentagram
6:30–8:00 p.m. ET | Evening Activities
Saturday, October 14
Pick up your name badge and meet fellow attendees at the lobby of the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.
Join us for breakfast at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.
8:30–9:15 a.m. ET | Breakouts
Choose from a presentation, a design dialogue, a workshop, or a panel. Fancy a break from sessions? Head to the Design Fair and catch up with a friend or meet with one of our vendors!
Iranian Women in Graphic Design
This presentation will share the research method and process from early stages of asking a question–"Where are all the Iranian Women Graphic Designers?"–to investigation, networking, collecting and archiving historical and visual data.
Roshanak will discuss her research on Iranian Graphic Design History and focus on social, professional and gender inequality in the field of Graphic Design in Iran as well as how most women designers have been excluded from the design history and discourse. Questions such as why women have gained less recognition than their male colleagues and why there are fewer women represented on professional levels will be explored while several Iranian women Graphic Designers who have played pivotal roles in shaping the field will be introduced during the presentation.
Speakers
Roshanak Keyghobadi is an Assistant Professor at the Visual Communications Department, Farmingdale State College - SUNY. She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA (Indiana University) and BFA (University of the Arts) are both in Graphic Design. She studied Visual Communication at Tehran University’s College of Fine Art prior to moving to the United States. Roshanak conducts lectures, does research and writes regularly about contemporary design history and designers in global context. Her essays have been published in the United States (AIGA Voice, Design Observer) and Iran (Neshan). She was also the managing editor of Graphis publications in New York City. Roshanak’s artworks have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and featured in books and magazines (Fiber art Now) and newspapers (NYTimes).
Designing in Crisis
Covid changed so much, for so many, everywhere. For the team at LA Metro, Covid changed EVERYTHING.
Overnight, Metro’s Design Studio - winner of praise and recognition for our transit branding - went from enticing riders to pumping out “do not ride” warnings. Ridership dropped 80%, and we were assessing health information to translate to essential workers, now our core riders.
This talk asks: where can and should design happen when external events shift an established program? How can we rethink brand essence to focus on life-and-death choices amid the changing rules of life in LA?
Yet there is hope. Our team is shifting to a hybrid branding stance; we continue to communicate ‘essential’ messaging while bringing back the punch that fueled Metro’s growth. We are grounded in required information, yet we yearn to tell new stories and fuel new growth. We are at the epicenter of both crisis and opportunity.
Speaker
Michael Lejeune is Creative Director for Metro (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority). Metro’s Design Studio creates award-winning core communications elements for the nation’s third- largest transit agency, including advertising, wayfinding and environmental graphics, timetables, maps, fare media and customer information, bus and rail fleet design, web and mobile presence, and merchandising.
Critiquing the Critique
This interactive dialogue will focus on the critical process engaged in by the jurors of 365: AIGA Year in Design and AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers. The jurors represent a range of communication design practices and disciplines from across the country.
In a continuously evolving profession, this dialogue aims to create an analytical model for judging competitions. Panelists will engage with the attendees in an informal conversation about the process and the culture of reviewing and awarding design excellence based on the hundreds of submitted entries.
As the professional association for design, AIGA advances design in all its permutations and ever-expanding platforms. Through annual competitions, it continues to uphold design as a professional craft and a powerful cultural force. Join us as we advance the conversation around the relevance of design competitions today, and what they reveal about the shifting barometers of creative practice.
Speakers
Lucille Tenazas is an educator and graphic designer based in New York and San Francisco. She is the Henry Wolf Professor of Communication Design in the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons School of Design in New York. Lucille was the national president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts from 1996-98 and was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2013, for her lifetime contribution to design practice and outstanding leadership in design education.
Rob Giampietro is a writer and creative director based in New York. Currently Head of Creative at Notion, a connected workspace for individuals and teams, Rob has also held leadership roles at Google, RISD, Project Projects, and AIGA/NY. At MoMA, he re-imagined a holistic design system and visitor experience with in-house and agency creative teams across environmental, digital, and retail channels in support of the museum’s historic 2019 reopening.
Natalia Ilyin is a teacher and writer. She teaches studios in design, complex systems, semiotics, and writing, and lectures about the stories of design, and about the ways in which design enhances or degrades human experience. She is Professor of Design, Design History, and Criticism at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and founding faculty and advisor for the MFA in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Lynn Kiang is co-founder of Dome, a multi-disciplinary design studio in experience design, graphic design and built environments based in Brooklyn. As an educator, Lynn is Director of the MPS Communication Design program and Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design.
Ramon Tejada is a DominicanYork (of Dominican-America, Afro-Caribbean, and Latinx descent) designer and educator. His design practice focuses on elevating BIPOC voices. Ramon is an Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Department at RISD.
Wael Morcos is a graphic designer and type designer from Beirut, Lebanon and a partner at the New York based design studio Morcos Key. Wael has been featured in Print Magazine’s 15 under 30, was named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club and an Ascender by the Type Directors Club.
Situated: A Dialogue About Design Education's Place and Its Implications
This Design Dialogue will focus on where design education is situated today. The discussion will launch from the position that Design has become a valuable part of many sectors of society, from large and small businesses to non-profits and allied fields. Design crosses disciplines and is valued as an integral part of problem-seeking and problem-solving and as such, sits in different colleges, schools, and institutes across campuses. What are the implications from the way design is now seen and situated in higher education compared to where it was situated in the past, where it was often located in Design Schools or Departments of Art. The facilitators will capture the findings as part of a project visualizing design education’s place.
Speakers
Andrea Marks is a Professor of Design at Oregon State University and a faculty member in the College of Business, where she teaches classes in design management and design thinking. Currently, she is program director for the Design & Innovation Management program in the College of Business. Prior to joining the College of Business, she was the coordinator of the Graphic Design program in the College of Liberal Arts and developed coursework in typography, design and writing and design history.
Ann McDonald is an Associate Professor of Design at Northeastern University. Her current work investigates traces of human activity in the built environment through close observation of physical communications and workarounds created ad-hoc by inhabitants of various environments offering clues about existing conditions and cultures.
A Designers Toolbox: Rapid Visualization and Conceptualization Techniques for the Best Outcomes
The field of Design is constantly evolving, with changes happening daily and even by the minute. However, amidst all these advancements, it's important to remember the foundational tools that allow us to create the best ideas and visions for this ever-changing landscape. Before we even turn to our computers, it's crucial to go back to basics and work on techniques that can help us solve design problems to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. We can make a real difference by simplifying complex information and making it easier for people to understand. While it may seem like we don't have time for this step, taking the time to strengthen our concepts in the beginning, will ultimately save us time in the long run.
During this workshop, we will utilize Rapid Visualization techniques to enhance the conceptualization process and achieve optimal outcomes.
Speaker
Rebecca Bagley is a Communication Design Assistant Professor at Elon University and has her own Freelance Graphic Design business in Pittsboro, NC. She earned her MFA in Graphic Design from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, in 2010.
Rebecca has extensive experience as a designer, educator, and artist. She has worked as a Graphic Design Professor at Elon University and as a professor at The Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham, Temple University, and Moore College of Art & Design. She spends her free time doing freelance design and illustration work. She also likes immersing herself in the art world in the Triangle, selling her jewelry, illustrations, and photographs.
Forging Their Path: Inspiring Stories of Designers with Rural Roots
Opportunities in graphic design are often linked with urban areas. However, many successful designers from rural backgrounds have significantly contributed to the field.
This panel discussion aims to explore the experiences of three successful graphic designers from rural backgrounds, focusing on accessibility and bias in design. The discussion will explore how these designers overcame challenges presented by their rural upbringing, such as lack of resources, limited networks, and bias against rural designers.
Speakers
Leslie Parker is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Arkansas State University, where she has dedicated her career to promoting equity in design education. Leslie is also an accomplished designer with a portfolio that includes clients in the healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.
Destani June is a designer, writer, illustrator—creator of things, whose work revolves around understanding people and exploring how technology and design, function and beauty, converge to solve people problems. Destani has a background in graphic design, strategic communications and product design and is currently working to design a more enlightened way of working at Dropbox.
Darian Deshawn Stewart (b. Hardy, Arkansas) is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York, New York. Stewart attended Arkansas State University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in both Graphic Design and Fine Arts. He is now pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts degree at Parsons School of Design/The New School. He has exhibited at The Bradbury Art Museum at Arkansas State University, 25 East 13th Gallery, and the Window Show at The New School. Stewart loves spending time with his daughter, exploring the outdoors, and being a father!
Lorilee Rager is an optimistic entrepreneur, founder of Thrive Creative Group, designer, writer, professor & podcaster. Living a sober, coffee loving, chapstick life with 2 teenage boys.
Design Educators Community: Mental Health Amidst Constant Evaluation
Most academic institutions continue to depend on student evaluations as a factor in determining teaching efficacy for merit raises, promotions, and tenure despite the mounting data of bias based on gender, race, ability, sexual orientation, and legal precedent that rules in favor of plaintiffs denied tenure as a decision of student evaluations. In industry, evaluators have similar skillsets and expertise, but this practice of student evaluation is contrasted in academia. The impact is long-lasting as faculty respond to feedback that often has little to no awareness of best practices in teaching, can be dissociative, cruel, abusive, and potentially threatening to faculty mental health. How do we advocate to institutions about the lasting impact such feedback has on faculty, particularly underrepresented faculty? Why as educators do we continue to give and what better alternatives exist to give students a voice?
Speaker
Meena Khalili is a professor of design and interaction who makes daily drawings of things. Her research explores her experience as an Iranian-American and daughter of a small business owner, new media in design, cultural identity, and generational storytelling. She has received consecutive International Design Awards and the National Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Graphic Design by the Southeastern College Art Conference. She has exhibited at the Type Directors Club, Chicago Design Museum, galleries through Europe, Asia, several permanent collections around the world, and the Library of Congress. She is featured in Issue 05 of The Great Discontent.
Katie Krcmarik (she/her) has worked as both a graphic designer and educator for the past two decades. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. She previously taught and served as the Communication Design Coordinator at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and taught graphic design at Mott Community College. Her research explores women in graphic design history and bias in design. Her research on women in the Federal Art Project’s Poster Division was published in Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design. Katie earned a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2018, a Master of Arts in Educational Technology from Michigan State University in 2014, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Wayne State University in 1999.
Archana Shekara is a Professor of Graphic Design, Co-director of Ethnic Studies, and Creative Director of Design Streak Studio, a research based social innovation lab at Illinois State University. She uses design as a tool to build cross-cultural understanding, acceptance, and respect. As a socio-cultural researcher, she investigates her transnational identity through a brown cultural lens using ethnographic narratives. Her design pedagogy includes cultural identity, design for belonging, social justice, and community engagement. Shekara is the founder and chair of South Asian Design Educators Alliance (SADEA) which aims to advance and share South Asian design histories, pedagogies, and perspectives globally.
9:30–11:00 a.m. ET | General Session
Join all attendees in the Metropolitan Ballroom for our general sessions, hosted by Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut.
Our Histories: From the Past to the Future
We want to take a close look at how design history is being written today. Morgan Searcy is building The People’s Graphic Design Archive, Silas Munro is developing the BIPOC Design History Course, and Mark Sanders is in progress on co-authoring the 7th edition of Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Together they have a lot to teach us about where we came from and where we are going as an industry.
Mark Sanders
Partner and Creative Director, Q Collective
Morgan Searcy
Designer and Co-Director, The People's Graphic Design Archive
Silas Munro
Founder and Partner, Polymode
Cynthia Pratomo
Director, Instagram Central Design Studio, Meta
Case Study: Launching Threads
Cynthia Pratomo, director of brand design at Instagram, will showcase the Threads brand design story.
Forest Young
Executive Design Leader & Educator
Navigating a Career in Design: An Interview with Forest Young
Join Forest Young and Debbie Millman in conversation.
Forest Young likens his career trajectory to a desire path. Desire paths emerge as shortcuts where more deliberately constructed and prescriptive paths take a longer or more circuitous route, have gaps, or are non-existent. From Arctic ice to electric cars, Forest Young and Debbie Millman discuss significant career pivots, key projects, and new perspective from having worked both agency-side and in-house. Hear the personal story behind some of the world's most influential projects and companies, and exploration into the themes of shifting perspective between working inside and out; finding the courage to pivot in one's career, and ultimately, strategies for seeing yourself in your work.
11:00–11:45 a.m. ET | Break
Network with attendees, meet speakers, or explore the neighborhood for a mid-day pick-me-up!
11:45–12:30 p.m. ET | Breakouts
Choose from a presentation, a design dialogue, a workshop, or a panel. Fancy a break from sessions? Head to the Design Fair and catch up with a friend or meet with one of our vendors!
Design Histories in Southwest Asia & North Africa: Voices from the SWANA Diaspora
Design Histories in Southwest Asia & North Africa: Voices from the SWANA Diaspora is a course created for and published by BIPOC Design History, facilitated by Randa Hadi and Polymode Studio. The course is comprised of nine classes, which are taught by a diverse group of design practitioners and educators from the SWANA region; from Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, and Tunis. The curriculum was designed to touch on several themes and topics that include but are not limited to Arab queerness, liberation movements, theoretical cartographic maps, feminist craft practices, decolonizing the mind, and Arabic script.
Each class is centered around the various visual cultures, varied Arab identities, and design histories from the region, with emphasis placed on providing a platform for the voices of women, who are often unheard. This series revisits, rewrites, and actively archives past and contemporary design practices within the SWANA region to ensure future generations have access to their design histories. The course highlights the diversity of our communities and amplifies the voices that are most vulnerable in the fight for liberation, challenging dominant narratives that are often written about us and not by us.
Speaker
Randa Hadi is is a Kuwaiti designer, researcher, educator, and architect by educational training. She is currently working at Polymode as a Senior Designer and teaching and facilitating courses at BIPOC Design History. She received a grant from Pro Helvetia Cairo to put on the program For Us, With Us, By Us «لنا، عنّا، معنا», a series of conversations run by a team of SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) designers, practitioners, educators and researchers that centers the voices of cultural practitioners, exploring themes of transnational identities beyond the western canon.
ChalkTalk: A Participatory Design Methodology for Designing Resilient Transportation Infrastructures
ChalkTalk is a human-centered design methodology aimed at fostering better collaboration between communities and government and envisioning more resilient transportation infrastructure in the built environment. As American cities shift away from car-centric planning towards more sustainable, “human-scaled” solutions such as biking and walking, emerging transportation technologies like ride-hailing, electric vehicles, and micro-mobility are challenging the ways cities adapt their infrastructure to meet the needs of their communities. To fund these initiatives, more and more cities are looking towards local tax-based funding options like mobility bonds which require significant public input, communication, and buy-in. Contemporary practices of holding open houses, utilizing online commenting systems, and partnering with local advocacy groups help to disseminate information but still fall short of achieving equitable participation and engagement from the public. Borrowing from critical practitioners in urban planning, ChalkTalk reimagines the design thinking phases of inspiration, ideation, and implementation as public life studies, participatory democracy, and tactical urbanism respectively. Using the ChalkTalk methodology, designers, residents, and planning professionals can collaborate and innovate on evolving transportation patterns, laying the groundwork for better participatory design practice.
Speaker
Jacob DeGeal is a multi-disciplinary designer focused on collaboration, communities, and code. While working as an in-house web designer at Illinois State University, he co-founded a bike advocacy organization. This led him to pursue his MFA at The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied the intersection of planning, community development, design, and technology. There created ChalkTalk, a participatory design methodology for designing sustainable transportation infrastructures. He then became a hybrid planner/designer at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates in Boston, MA, working on multi-modal transportation projects with cities nationwide. He also won a 10-month public art residency through the city of Salem with his creative partner, Lauren Smedley, helping local businesses navigate the COVID-19 pandemic through creative queuing, placemaking, and wayfinding. Jacob is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Design at the University of Baltimore. His research focuses on how fabrication and design methodologies can influence human behavior in the built environment.
Zero Waste Signage Strategies
Etsy, best known for their e-commerce website that focuses on handmade and vintage items, also is know for the innovative programs it developed within its NY Headquarters in DUMBO, Brooklyn. One of its signature initiatives is its recycling programs which are committed to reaching zero waste production company-wide by 2020. Etsy asked MTWTF to analyze its current recycling systems and recommend messaging and signage to establish best practices throughout its headquarters.
MTWTF found that "recyclable sorting” was being described in an inconsistent way, which didn’t allow participants to fully understand or feel confident in their actions. In particular, MTWTF found that being able to accurately identify materials was one of the key barriers to sorting recycling and compost. This led to a higher landfill to recyclable ratio.
In response, MTWTF recommended a series of material identification classes within the company to build a clearer connection between the lifecycle of the objects that we come into contact with every day.
To support this thinking, MTWTF standardized the language of signage, visually emphasized the recycling points and positioned “depositing unrecyclables in the landfill bin” at the end of the process. MTWTF created communication and messaging guidelines to help Etsy introduce these best practices, and support them within their particular corporate culture.
Speaker
Glen Cummings is the creative director at MTWTF. Glen collaborates with a wide range of clients to translate complex content into engaging visual and environmental experiences. Glen operates as an editorial adviser and designer, driving the narratives that shape MTWTF’s response to the topics concerning organizations today— from housing shortages to innovative workspaces to New York City’s music scene. His collaborations with performing and visual arts institutions include signage and environmental graphics for Red Bull Music Academy, the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum and MoMA. Glen’s work with the public sector includes identity, wayfinding and placemaking projects commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Construction Company (MTACC), Newark Riverfront Park, Design Trust for Public Spaces and the Brooklyn Public Library. Glen’s work in print has been widely exhibited and published by Monacelli Press, Metropolis Books, and Columbia University.
Sarah Dunham is an art director and partner at MTWTF, where she has been shaping design processes, managing interdisciplinary design teams, and facilitating community engagement since joining the studio in 2014. Acting as project manager and art director, Sarah develops design strategies for projects that are drawn from a rigorous engagement with their content. This approach drove exhibitions including Seeing Equal Rights in New York State,’ an interactive exhibition at the Equal Rights Heritage Center; ‘Climates of Inequality,’ an international traveling exhibition of work on environmental justice by the Humanities Action Lab; and “Utopia—Dystopia’ a multimedia exhibition at Audi’s Design Lab. Trained as an architect with professional experience at OMA and WORKac, Sarah brings a unique ability to translate architectural narratives, both spatially and in print.
Creating a Space for Young BIPOC Talent to Thrive
A generation of young BIPOC designers are vying for their shot, but need our help. The reality is our industry, in many ways, has been inaccessible to them for so long. We as leaders need to invest in developing and building opportunities for these emerging communities of talent before we can ever expect there to be equitable representation throughout the design industry. Simply put, true impact comes from mentorship. But it can be easier said than done.
In this panel discussion, we'll hear from two individuals who are pushing the boundaries of what it means to invest in the mentorship of young creatives of color – those from backgrounds often overlooked by studios throughout the industry.
Speakers
Kapono Chung, Founder + Head of Design, Combo
Kapono Chung is a founding partner and Head of Design at Combo. Prior to starting Combo, Kapono spent over a decade working at notable design studios like BIG at Ogilvy, The Brand Union, AR New York and Mother Design. Under Kapono’s leadership, Combo has successfully created, refined, and transformed some of today’s most innovative brands, including Nike, Away Luggage, Saie Beauty, GAP, Instagram, Chromat, Shopify, H&M, amongst others - work defined by Combo’s diverse team and collaborative approach to creative challenges.
Nadia Lung, Design Director, Combo
Nadia Lung is Combo’s Design Director at Combo, and one of the studio’s longest running team members. Nadia leads and mentors a team of designers through the inception and execution of many of Combo’s most iconic client partnerships. Over the course of seven years at Combo, Nadia has built impactful brands and design systems for the likes of Saie Beauty, Nike, For Freedoms, GEM, The Webby Awards, Burdock Media, Boll & Branch, and many more. Born in Hong Kong, raised in Georgia, Nadia honed her design style and skills at the School of Visual Arts, as well as stints with Mother Design and Doubleday & Cartwright before joining Combo.
Design Educators Community: What Can/Should Design Programs Actually Teach Undergraduate Students in Four Years?
Design educators and students continue to face the pressure to expand a design students' skillset in response to entry-level employment prospects. Colleges and universities are now faced with the challenge to accommodate a broad curricula in a 4-year timeline. This dialogue invites educators and professionals to focus on the following topics:
- The ways in which educators can keep up with an ever-growing portfolio of skills and practices required in the classroom.
- How to deliver permanent design concepts in a profession that changes at lightning speed.
- What colleges and universities can effectively deliver in a 4-year teaching experience, and what should now be left out.
- The skills, concepts, mindsets that colleges and universities should cultivate in its students that will qualify students for a future practice in design.
Speakers
Vinicius Lima (he/him) is a designer and educator. He is an an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Foundations at Grand Valley state University. Vinicius’ creative practice often moves between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces. His work ranges from exhibition design, branding systems, to furniture and objects. Originally from Brazil, Vinicius received an Architecture and Urban Design degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Design from the University of Iowa.
Yvette Shen is an associate professor in the Department of Design at The Ohio State University and the program coordinator in the area of visual communication design. The focus of her current creative and research pursuits is centered on the field of information design and information visualization. Specifically, she is interested in exploring how design can facilitate a deeper understanding of complex information and foster increased interest in learning, as well as how visualization and user experience can promote positive behaviors and emotions.
Taking your DesignOps to the Next Level
Enabling DesignOps at scale brings the promise of effective transformation for design teams—their capabilities, performance, and business outcomes. But what does it take to operationalize this within your own organization?
During this highly-collaborative session you will explore your team's DesignOps needs, and collaborate with experts and colleagues to define practical next steps to take in improving design quality, delivery, productivity, value to the business, and outcomes. Jenny Price along with Kristine Berry, Tosha Brown, and Jenna Lawrence, as IBM DesignOps leaders, will lead you through a series of IBM Design Thinking exercises that will help you bring back ideas for building and scaling DesignOps in your organization.
Speakers
Jenny Price is a design leader, designer, strategist, educator, manager and has extensive experience leading large-scale distributed design teams and program initiatives within enterprise digital technology, healthcare innovation, and higher education. She serves as DesignOps Lead and Manager for the Transformation & Operations team at IBM.
Kristine Berry is a Design advocate, change agent and leader who is passionate about helping teams enjoy their work, and deliver outcomes that delight users and clients. She has 20+ years of experience enabling design practices and people in a variety of IBM roles, including: Enterprise Design Thinking and Agile Transformation, Program/Project Management, Instructional Design, and Client Experience.
Tosha Brown is a Design Strategist, Coach and Program Manager in IBM Consulting, who has been working in the design and product space for public and private sector for over 14 years. Tosha passionately drives teams towards clarity and alignment through facilitation, enables deep discussion and communication, trains and develops Design Thinking communities of practice, and consults in a number of enterprise level organizations in helping them break down silos and communicate the value of design.
Coveting Access, Taking a Seat or Creating the Table?
This Design Dialogue provides a platform for designers at all levels wishing to grow more influential. Employing the metaphor of "seat at the table" and drawing upon quotes about power, authority, and leadership, this Design Dialogue delves into the opportunities created when designers shift from wishing for a seat to becoming the ones who extend the invitations. This interactive format allows participants to share experiences and reimagine possibilities about the evolution from engaging reactively as creative producers to leading proactively as consultants and influencers.
Speaker
Sherra Bell coaches designers through the transition from producer to consultant and strategist. A designer by education and approach with additional sales education early in her career, she has been helping designers and design consultancies position more valuably since 1997. Through Creative Know-Who LLC and Sherra Bell Consulting, she currently offers a mix of private consulting, group coaching and courses to solopreneurs, consultancy owners and corporate design leaders.
The Effects of AI on Graphic Designers and How to Prepare Students
AI technology is changing the work dynamic of the graphic design industry. Graphics and videos can be generated in a matter of seconds. It has flaws, but AI is growing more advanced each month and continues to learn. The fear of being replaced is becoming a reality for many graphic designers and those working in communication. If a client can have AI generate everything for free, why pay someone else to do it?
While AI has some positives, it also has negatives. Influencers and celebrities are having AI-generated images and voice audio files created without their permission. A TikToker named Rachel was DMed AI-generated nudes of herself, which many of her fans thought were real. It poses a risk to everyone as scammers see the potential of using AI-generated voice records. There’s also the concern of copyright. Who owns the work? The US copyright office has determined that AI-generated works are not eligible for copyright protection.
Even if the US bans Artificial Intelligence, it won’t stop people from using the technology. It is a part of our society, and AI will continue to advance. It’s learning more and more from the individuals it could put out of a job. So, I propose the question, as designers, should we embrace AI and adapt to its existence or lobby against it?
Speaker
Nikyra Capson is an Idaho-based contemporary artist and designer. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Idaho State University with an emphasis in Digital Media. She has a BFA in Painting and BA in Corporate Communication with an emphasis in Advertising. She is currently in her fourth year as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Idaho State University, where she oversees the Design majors.
Her research's main focus is the effects of social media on mental health and current political issues. She utilizes new articles and commentary in her typography-driven pieces. Her work has been included in national and international juried exhibitions from California to New York and across the ocean in Italy. When not teaching and creating work, she spends the day in her garden or relaxing with her dogs, Miah and Cricket.
12:30–2:00 p.m. ET | Lunch
Lunch on your own. Design Fair is open!
2:00–2:45 p.m. ET | Breakouts
Choose from a presentation, a design dialogue, a workshop, or a panel. Fancy a break from sessions? Head to the Design Fair and catch up with a friend or meet with one of our vendors!
Designing Responsibility
Responsibility isn’t given or taken—it’s designed.
Designers are in a unique position: as dreamers of possibilities within organizations, we have the potential to help companies avoid the kinds of unintentional consequences that have harmed society. From services that have displaced entire communities; to design choices that have created unintentional bias; to platforms that have undermined the notions of democracy and freedom of speech, we believe that with the right tools, designers can be the voice of reason in a world fixated on progress at all costs.
Speakers
Nathan Carter is a creative leader working at the intersection of brand, innovation, and strategy to put responsible design at the heart of business.
His approach to design is informed by his diverse experience–first as a Creative Director building and reimagining global brands working across the UK and the US; to his time as a Director at IDEO, leading multi-disciplinary teams of researchers, strategists, and designers, to solve complex problems for companies like Google, Meta, Ford, Genentech, and H&M
Kerry O’Connor is a business designer who wants to help people use a life-centered design lens to create and sustain more responsible innovations.
After spending 13 years at IDEO, Kerry is following her interests as an independent designer. She uses her experience as a co-founder of a medical device startup for women’s pelvic health to advise and support entrepreneurs in womens+ health. She co-teaches a course on Designing Responsibility in Stanford’s graduate program in design, and she advises student teams in the school’s Biodesign program.
Hello, My Name is: Immigrant Designer
I’m a creative director and the managing partner of a purpose-driven design/tech agency in NY for 15+ years. I would love to share my perspective as an international design entrepreneur and cultural observer starting with my arrival as a young and struggling Indonesian immigrant to being thankful for where I am today professionally and personally.
We view the world through the lens of cultural upbringing and exposure to the things we see and experience around us. I have the unique experience as an observer of shifting racial perspectives in the U.S. and being directly impacted by this historic change.
The world around us is changing for the better, we need to invest in it collectively.
Speaker
John Kudos is the Managing Partner of KUDOS Design Collaboratory™ and KASA Collective, he is a creative director, educator, and technologist who focuses on creating strategy, design, and storytelling for brands and institutions. His practice embraces collaboration and experimentation informed by emerging technology and diverse cultural backgrounds.
John currently serves on the advisory board of the Type Directors Club and Poster House CMYK Council to bring more diversity and inclusion to their programs. He is a member of AIGA, TDC, SPD, American Alliance of Museums, and SEGD
John’s work has been recognized by the Art Directors Club, GDUSA, HOW, PRINT, The Webby, D&AD, Type Directors Club, American Institute of Graphic Arts, and Society of Publication Designers to name a few. He has 22+ years of design and management experience, including seven years at Pentagram prior to establishing KUDOS Design Collaboratory™ in 2008, and KASA Collective in 2018.
Tangible Graphic Design for Accessibility: Beyond Visual with Material and Fabrication
Visual communication design research and education were driven by visual language for prints and screens. The industry has emphasized the communication of clear visual information for the audience. It is particularly challenging to add inclusive and accessible design methods for visual communication. Inclusive visual design tools or methods were overlooked in design education. It is necessary to ensure the visual material can be understood and used by a wide audience via more than one sensory experience. The use of tactile experience on top of visual language enables engaging communication and even makes it accessible for people with vision issues. Tangible Graphic Design is a multidisciplinary design approach to bring tactile experience in visual communication design with material and fabrication. It suggests another communication design beyond spoken, written, and visual. Various conventional materials, such as paper, wood, fabric, plastic, and clay, can be used to enable tactile communication with fabrication methods, such as 3D printing and digital fabrication. This panel will discuss and suggest future graphic design research and educational approaches using tactile communication.
Speakers
Taekyeom Lee is an educator, multidisciplinary designer, and maker. He is currently an Assistant professor of Graphic Design at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research explores unconventional materials and alternative solutions to create tangible typography, graphics, and even designed objects using digital fabrication.
Yeohyun Ahn is an award-winning graphic designer, educator, and researcher in collaboration with creative coding, diversity, and global leadership. She leads several research projects: the interdisciplinary typography project TYPE+CODE Series; a multidisciplinary project to bring awareness to Asian female faculty in America titled Social Homelessness on US campuses; and Evolving Graphic Design to bring academic diversity.
Ben Evjen began teaching as an adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 2015. Since then, he has been an assistant professor and program coordinator in the Graphic Design Department at Utah Valley University and currently teaches Graphic Design in Lincoln, Nebraska at the University of Nebraska. Prior to beginning his teaching career, he created work for clients in sports, entertainment, and packaging/product design throughout the country.
Power Up: Constructing a Community-built History Using The People’s Graphic Design Archive
In this workshop, Louise Sandhaus and Brockett Horne from The People’s Graphic Design Archive share ideas on how to collect fascinating and unrecognized cultural material from affinity communities. The session will offer a short introduction to PGDA as a resource for collectively expanding graphic design history; introduces practical skills for documenting and researching design histories; and an interactive demonstration in which participants upload their discoveries to The People’s Graphic Design Archives. Our goal is to empower a larger conversation about documenting a more diverse and accessible design history authored by the community in dialogue, rather than solely elite voices.
Tools for collecting history should anticipate a bolder future of design— one we imagine as more vibrant, diverse, and equitable. This workshop will solicit more scholarship in all its forms and from diverse voices, empowering new design histories not currently collected. The People’s Graphic Design Archive can be a valuable resource for designers, collectors, designers, educators, and other influencers who look to work in continuity with history.
*A laptop is required for this session.
Speakers
Louise Sandhaus is a graphic designer and faculty at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and the founder and co-director of The People’s Graphic Design Archive, a crowd-sourced virtual archive that expands, diversifies, and preserves graphic design history.
Brockett Horne is a designer, educator, and writer. Her creative work encourages audiences to question their own ways of consuming design. Clients include the Baltimore Museum of Art, Johns Hopkins University, Decentering Whiteness working group, and Harvard University.
Design Educators Community: New Histories of Graphic Design
In recent years there has been increased engagement around the expansion of the graphic design canon. Design educators, researchers, practitioners, students (both graduate and undergraduate), and self-appointed design historians have been leading efforts to deconstruct, decolonize, and manifest a more inclusive history of communication design. These "new histories" seek to upend the chronological, euro-centric, Meggs-ian narrative many designers were taught in favor of non-linear, non-Western perspectives. These accountings often include untold histories from overlooked personas and places. This session will focus on sharing the myriad ways that educators are addressing pedagogical changes to design history curricula. In addition, it will discuss (and crowdsource) new approaches—and challenges—in the research, instruction, and dissemination of graphic design history from session attendees.
Speaker
Jason Alejandro is a Puerto Rican graphic designer and educator based between NYC and Philadelphia. He is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the College of New Jersey. His work examines, addresses, and questions aspects of cultural identity, professional practice and critical pedagogy through research, making, and writing. Jason has produced award-winning work for brands, agencies, and organizations—as well as publishers, and institutions of higher education. His work has been exhibited in New York City, Boston, Berlin, Minneapolis and Mexico City. He has previously taught at Rutgers University, Lehigh University, Kean University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Jason received his MFA in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Tasheka Arceneaux-Sutton is an educator, graphic designer, image-maker, and writer. She is an Associate Professor of Design in the Design and Creative Technologies department at the University of Texas at Austin. Tasheka is also faculty in the M.F.A. program in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She founded Blacvoice Design, a studio specializing in branding, electronic media, identity, illustration, and publication design.
Tasheka’s research focuses on discovering Black people omitted from the graphic design history canon. She’s interested in the visual representation of Black people in the media and popular culture, primarily through the lens of stereotypes. Her essay, “A Black Renaissance Woman: Louise E. Jefferson,” is in Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History. Her review of Race by Design: How Visual Culture Shapes America appeared in the journal Design in Culture. Her essay, “The Type Behind the Name,” is in the newly released book Documenting the Nameplate. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book Black Design in America.
Lisa J. Maione (she/they) is a designer, artist and an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Kansas City Art Institute. Originally from Japan and raised in California and Texas, her creative practice investigates the nature of the screen as a material that complicates perceptions of histories, social economies, and place. She runs for instance, a design practice where she works on projects promoting vitality and collaboration through communities, the arts, architecture, and the sciences. Lisa holds an MFA and BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design and a post-graduate certificate in Typeface Design from Type@Cooper NYC.
Ask Us Anything: Join Medalist Dr. Cheryl D. Miller and Her Invited Celebrated BIPOC Designers
Get your questions answered from BIPOC design experts! 2021 AIGA Gold Medalist, Dr. Cheryl D. Miller has moved forward from her first advocacy in Print Magazine in 1987, “Black Designers Missing in Action” to further a broad and wide palette of graphic design students and practitioners from across the globe! Her studio Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc., NYC, on Lexington Avenue, was a studio school training and inspiring countless Black designers and pedagogues leading the future of our profession and schools of design today. Today in 2023, Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color (BIPOC) are now the majority enrolled in the many studio classrooms she teaches in colleges and universities North, South, East to West Coasts. Designers of every dispensation are the new voices of discussion for a more beautifully unique and diverse inclusive learning community. Today young scholars are leading storytelling from a transcultural perspective leading publication and branding design dialogue strengthened by the sum of its global design communities today! Cheryl welcomes the values and perspectives of all welcoming four decades of students, colleagues, and alumni to join her in this dynamic design dialogue. Be the change!
Speakers
Dr. Cheryl D. Miller is best known for her tremendous influence within the design profession, her commitment to end the marginalization of BIPOC designers, and her work as a theologian and revisionist historian, including her activism, industry exposé writing, research rigor, and archival vision as a national leader of minority rights, gender, race diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion advocacy in graphic design, Miller is the founder of the former Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc., NYC, a social impact design firm. In addition to her design work, she is also an author, educator, trade writer for PRINT magazine and Communication Arts magazine, theologian, and a decolonizing design historian.
Redesigning the Design Critique
The critique is an integral part of any design education, however, it’s also anxiety inducing, highly stressful, and oftentimes detrimental to a designer’s ability to successfully learn. As design educators, art directors, and design managers, how might we redesign the critique process to provide useful peer and expert feedback, while lessening student’s anxiety? In 2019, Jacob DeGeal and Lauren Smedley led a series of workshops and exercises at the University of Texas at Austin that prototyped new methods and systems that can reshape this process. Through segmenting the critique into zones of activity for peer practice, relaxation, and presentation, participants reported lowered levels of stress, and increased focus and confidence. We would like to open up the Design Dialog with a live interactive exercise demonstrating our redesigned critique, and then move to a discussion about if the critique is still relevant in the design classroom and/or ways other faculty are redesigning their critique process.
Speakers
Lauren Smedley and Jacob DeGeal are multidisciplinary designers and design educators. Together they run Creative Blocks Studio, a placemaking and environmental design collaborative. Alongside their creative practice, Lauren and Jacob teach within the Integrated Design program at the University of Baltimore. Together they have an invested interest in how space impacts a design student’s ability to learn.
Lauren has a background in museum design and designing exhibitions, signage, and graphics. She has worked with institutions such as the Smithsonian Air & Space, the Franklin Institute, Indiana Historical Society, and Boise Art Museum to create visitor-centered interactives.
Jacob is a cross-disciplinary designer focused on collaboration, communities, and code. He has volunteered with numerous local bike advocacy organizations, worked as a planner/designer for city clients across the country at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, and designed ChalkTalk, a participatory design methodology for designing resilient sustainable transportation infrastructures.
3:00–4:00 p.m. ET | General Session
Join all attendees in the Metropolitan Ballroom for our general sessions, hosted by Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut. The Design Fair is now closed for the remainder of the event.
Image of the Studio: A Ten-Year Retrospective
In 2013, Allison Connell and Matt Owens from the brand studio Athletics along with Sasha Tochilovsky, the curator at the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, conceived, curated, and designed Image of the Studio, an exhibition and website of more than 75 current New York graphic design studios and individual practitioners. Original works and portraits were submitted by each participant. In addition, they were each asked to complete a survey on everything from studio size to Spotify playlists to form a data “image “ of each studio. Now, ten years later, Allison, Matt, and Sasha regroup to reassess the view from today, share the how-to of taking such a comprehensive snapshot of a local industry, and share a new tool that allows designers to capture their own individual “image” of design today.
Allison Connell
Design Director, Athletics
Matt Owens
Partner, Athletics
Sasha Tochilovsky
Curator, Herb Lubalin Study Center
Building a Hyperlocal Creative Community: Ourspace Hawaii
A conversation with Erika Lee, Rechung Fujihira, and Lisa Babb.
Erika Lee
Erika Lee, an independent creative director and consultant, melds research, strategy, visual storytelling, and interactions to design emotionally resonating experiences. Globally, she helps ambitious web3 startups build great products with WE3. Locally, she serves as Vice Chair at Ourspace, supporting Hawai'i’s creatives. Erika mentors emerging UX/UI designers through Lady Bandit Studios' Circular Internship and explores place-based design in a Hawaiian context through Purple Maia's 'Ka Maka ʻĪnana' Think Tank. Before living 5 years in Hawai'i, Erika spent 17 years in NYC, including working at IDEO and collaborating with entities like Pentagram, Gretel, The New York Times, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, earning recognition from AIGA and the Art Director's Club. Her boundless curiosity, reverence for nature, and storytelling fuel her vision for a diverse, equitable future and a regenerative economy through design, tech, and community. When not designing, she's either surfing or part-timing at Breadshop, a renowned local bakery.
Rechung Fujihira
Rechung Fujihira brings 10+ years of experience and leadership to the development of creative communities and supportive, collaborative entrepreneurial spaces in Hawai'i. As the co-founder and treasurer of Our Space, an incubator and makerspace for individuals and small businesses, he strives to apply 21st century state-of-the-art technologies to give professional the tools and space they need to innovate. He began his career as CEO of Hawai'i first co-working space, Box Jelly, and went on to become the co-founder of Blue Startups, Hawai’i's first venture-accelerator. A local of Honolulu with numerous honors and awards, including being named one of the 20 people to watch for the next 20 years by Hawaii Business Magazine. He continues to work towards building a resilient and sustainable future for his island.
4:00–4:45 p.m. ET | Break
Network with attendees, meet speakers, or grab a coffee for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up!
4:45–6:30 p.m. ET | General Session
Join all attendees in the Metropolitan Ballroom for our general sessions, hosted by Debbie Millman, Lisa Babb, and Michael Bierut.
Ivy Ross
Fireside Chat with Ivy Ross and Debbie Millman
Ivy Ross is the Vice President of Design for the Hardware organization at Google. Over the past six years, she and her team have launched 50+ products winning over 240 global design awards. This collection of hardware established a new Google design aesthetic that is tactile, colorful, and bold.
A winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Ivy’s innovative metal work in jewelry is in the permanent collections of 12 international museums.
Ivy has held executive positions ranging from head of product design and development to CMO and presidencies of several companies, including Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach, Mattel, Bausch & Lomb, and Gap.
Ninth on Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business 2019, Ivy believes the intersection of arts and science is where the most engaging and creative ideas are found.
Most recently, Ivy co-authored with Susan Magsamen Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.
Alisa Wolfson
EVP Head of Design, Leo Burnett Chicago
Still Working: Design Stories from Chicago
Making the most of persistence, patience and keeping things simple. Being a designer, building a team, raising a child, and juggling everything else along the way. The joys and surprises and unexpected benefits of working at one place for a long time.
Pentagram 50
Emily Oberman
Partner, Pentagram
Giorgia Lupi
Partner, Pentagram
Marina Willer
Partner, Pentagram
Natasha Jen
Partner, Pentagram
Paula Scher
Partner, Pentagram
