Social Studies Conference

This weekend, I attended the conference Social Studies: Educating Designers in a Connected World. There were many sessions to choose from, and I had a difficult time deciding which ones to attend. Even though the speakers were focusing on educators, it still gave me inspiration even as a professional in the field. Here is some of what I gleaned from the sessions.

Saturday morning’s keynote
Mieke Gerritzen is a Dutch designer who focuses her work on cultural issues. She is similar to Sagmeister in that her work is sometimes more on the verge of contemporary art, using graphic design as her medium. She spoke quite a bit on the topic of fake vs real. Gerritzen created an interesting game challenging you to discern fake from real.

In graphic design, it is common practice to touch up images. I think this over saturation of perfection has caused our perception of real to be the fake. Touching a little on this topic, Atlantic’s article “The Politics of the Retouched Headshot” discusses the untouched cover photo of Sarah Palin published in Newsweek. Fox News attacked the magazine stating “any respectable magazine should be doing a little retouching.” Maybe Newsweek should be thanked for giving us the real image. There are too many magazine covers with photos of famous people that somehow don’t quite look like themselves anymore or seem to never age.

Community Service

• I love the idea of Create-A-Thon. The organization receives finished designs, and you can know you gave a little back to the community all within 24 hours.
• By utilizing public space, you bring your work to the public, exposing them to the design experience. This reminded me of the importance of getting to know your client, the product and the audience. Sometimes the best way to research is to get away from the internet and go outside.
• When designing for a client, don’t forget to step back and define the true needs. Just because a client wants a brochure, does not mean this is really what they need.
• Don’t be afraid to rename an organization. If you see a huge benefit from renaming, sell the idea to the organization. Dig Trees became Take Root.

Sustainability

• There are many ways to be sustainable. Try to do at least one. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by it all.

• Try to not create new goods. How can you rebrand or promote an entire company from used materials? Can you repurpose paper or clothing, etc.?
• Sometimes a new product can be sustainable because it is informing the consumer to become more sustainable. Scott Boylston of the Savannah College of Art and Design gave an example of a student’s project. She designed a package for mailing used batteries back to the company for recycling. This would help inform the consumer of the environmental effects from improperly discarded batteries.

Saturday evening’s keynote
Stefan Bucher is the creator of 344 Design. He reminded me it is important to keep design fun and don’t forget to sketch. Bucher started blowing ink blobs on paper and created monsters from them. He created a new monster each day for 100 days. Check out the Daily Monster. Bucher also talked about some of his experience having his own studio. He noticed since leaving college, he didn’t have a community to dialogue with anymore, so he created his own community. By visiting other studios in other locations (non-competitors), he developed a great network of people to be resources, friends and mentors.

New Careers

• Graphic design is changing. We were once focused on the product and then we became focused on interactive experience, now we are also creating tools to make design accessible to non-designers (like Etsy, Threadless and Blurb).
• Rather than waiting for clients, designers are designing for themselves, often creating their own products.
• If you don’t know how to make something, you don’t have to do it on your own. Find others to help.
• Self-initiated projects are becoming more common for the designer and the non-designer.
• Design is becoming more accessible to the general public.

Sunday’s keynote speaker
Steven Heller showed many examples of design entrepreneurs. These are just a few that he touched on:

• Charles Spencer Anderson
• Todd Lippy
• Hans Dieter Reichert
• Josh Berger
• Shepard Fairey
• Maira Kalman
• Paul Budnitz
• James Victore
• Gary Panter
• Constantine Boym
• Deborah Adler

Additional links:

• Pictures from the conference
• Louis Vuitton felt Gerritzen’ Fake For Real first edition packaging verged on copyright infringement.
• Metropolis article Designer as Ghostwriter