The Highlights

Being as this is my first year attending the HOW Design Conference, I thought it appropriate to document my experience, even if in a summarized fashion. These are just some of the many sessions I attended and are the ones I took the most away from. I hope to get Ann to build on this. I'd love to get her perspective in here as well.

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Day 1

SUNDAY, MAY 18 2008

Entrance to Hynes Convention Center

View from 3rd floor

Today kicked off the event for the hardcore attendees with some awesome workshops. 

Creating Your Own Pre-Fab Letters with Ken Barber from House Industries (houseind.com) was incredibly inspiring and generated a lot of ideas on how to make your designs unique and rewarding. It was a great hands-on experience with one of the best in the industry. Ken made his way to each table as we tried techniques on hand drawn lettering and offered helpful tips and suggestions on how to improve. 

My shot at pre-fab

Next is was on to Tips and Tricks in PhotoShop CS3. At first, when Russel Brown (the creative director at Adobe Systems) said the session would be on masking, I was like "ugh" I know that already, but listen, you have no idea what this dude covered. It was unbelievable. There are so many nuances in CS3 it's crazy. And the nice thing is there's a CD that accompanied this session with all of the methods that were illustrated. He also did a brief presentation on retouching. His example was making someone old look young and working with flesh tones. Awesome!

And to finish out the night, Jeremy Gutsche founder of Trendhunter.com spoke on how to foster a culture of innovation at the office. Really insightful ways of creating motivation and creativity. 

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Day 2

MONDAY, MAY 19 2008

I attended A Designed Life with speaker Joe Duffy of Duffy & Partners (duffy.com). Despite his dry presentation approach and monotone delivery, his design methodology was refreshing. And although I was glad not be a family member who would be expected to create a visual brief to accompany each family vacation discussion, I could see how this process could positively affect the work process.

Then it was on to Designing Change: One Studio's Effort to Combat Climate Change. This session focused on taking action to eliminate waste in the design world. Eric Karjaluoto, creative director at smashLAB (smashlab.com), offered some creative advice on reducing waste and adopting sustainable practices to combat climate change. Suggestions like avoid burning CDs and DVDs when you can. PDFs are more efficient and those plastic CD packs are a waste. Consider your dimension size. Smaller is better. Talk to your clients about post-consumer options.

To kill some time, Ann and I decided to check out the exhibit hall. We saw some of the latest printing technologies, paper samples, management software, you name it. And of course, lots and lots of free stuff. Unfortunately, a free vespa wasn't in my cards, but plenty of other things were.

Check out the swag!

Ann and an unsuspecting origami lover present the latest in folded paper techniques

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Day 3

TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2008

A personal highlight for me was meeting Michael Bierut. I attended Design Matters: Live with Debbie Millman and Michael Bierut. Debbie, president of Sterling Brands interviews design icon Michael Bierut, partner and creative director of Pentagram. She asks a range of questions from how he got his fame, interviewing potential designers, and firing clients. Michael's lighthearted and human approach kept us all engaged and slightly in awe of his humbleness. He had a surprising nervousness on stage and rambled at times, but I didn't see a single attendee leave. Michael even briefly talked about the new Kodak logo amongst others. He felt it was strong mark.

Michael Bierut and Debbie Millman on stage

Book signing

Brief logo discussion

I was so inspired by his talk I ran right to the bookstore following his session and purchased his book; Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design. So far it's been worth the money.

Combining Type and Image with Nancy Skolos and Thomas Wedell (skolos-wedell.com) shared their strategies for combining type and image to reinforce your message and offered examples and insights from top design studios around the world. Though I didn't particularly care for some of their aesthetic, I did enjoy the examples they showed and discussed. Another great session for creative inspiration.

After being exposed to so many great examples of type and image, Ann and I decided to take a look at the type show. We saw a range of great packaging designs to Ken Barber's work to student work. Take a look:

To end the last night of the conference, Neenah paper sponsored a black and white themed reception. It was a great opportunity for networking and getting to know some people in our industry in a more relaxed environment.

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Day 4

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 2008

For the last day, we attended Branding is Like Dating: A Study in Packaging Design with Marcus Hewitt, chief creative director at Dragon Rouge US (dragonrouge-usa.com). He took the audience case study by case study. From initial concepts and sketches to final product.

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To conclude, the HOW Conference experience was irreplaceable. I can only hope I'm able to attend again next year. I can't say enough how much personal and professional growth I took away from it.