What is designing today? And how do designers define their own influence within the dichotomy of making versus thinking? “Make/Think” — AIGA’s biennial design conference to be held in Memphis, Tennessee from October 8-11 — will examine just that.
Today’s designers span a wide range of disciplines and areas of expertise. Yet even within specialties such as interaction design or motion graphics, the arc of a designer’s career or even the trajectory of a particular client relationship may transition from a maker of artifacts into a role focused on integrative design thinking. “Make/Think” will explore the ways that designers focus both on making beautiful things and thinking about problems strategically, and the unique and powerful combination of both roles.
“The greatest value a designer can contribute to a client is in the process of thinking through solutions,” AIGA Executive Director Richard Grefé explained recently. “This strategic perspective is often more valuable to the client and is also less likely to be treated as a commodity, which is always a threat to the role of designer as the maker of things.”
AIGA members can attend the conference for $775, and AIGA student member pay just $350. Nonmembers may attend for $1,075.
Inspiring presentations from leading designers
Discussions about making things and design thinking will infuse the many activities and sessions taking place this October at the Memphis Cook Convention Center and Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. Main-stage presentation topics include:
The Seven Year Itch — Hear and see why Stefan Sagmeister, graphic designer, typographer and founder, Sagmeister, Inc., closes his studio every seven years for a yearlong sabbatical, and see how his studio’s work has improved as a result.
The Design of Google — As its products reach people from 150 countries speaking more than 100 languages, Google’s design team has had to develop a unique philosophy for user-centered design. Marissa Mayer, vice president of search and user experience, will explore how both empiricism and personality are essential to good design.
The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage — Roger Martin, dean of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, will make the case that we can understand innovation through a new model of how businesses advance knowledge, and that businesses can do a better job at innovating if they embrace design thinking.
Design-led Advertising — Fifty years of marketing driven by the TV narrative is coming to an end. Join Nick Law, North America executive vice president and chief creative officer at R/GA, for an in-depth look at how design thinkers are stepping forward as narrative thinkers step aside.
Makers and Thinkers — Stefan G. Bucher, the man behind 344 Design and the online drawing and storytelling experiment dailymonster.com, will discuss the creative challenges of being both a maker and a thinker, communicating to large audiences across a wide range of media.
A wide range of interest areas to be covered
“In addition to the stellar main-stage presentations, we’re going to have a broad spectrum of affinity’ sessions on everything from in-house design to sustainability, multiculturalism to practice management,” noted Michelle Stanek, AIGA program curator. “Every designer will come away refreshed and recharged with new ideas and energy.”
Dozens of affinity sessions throughout the weekend will provide practical resources and tactical advice for designers in interest areas that include:
Government Design: Branding Obama — Sol Sender, VSA Partners, Inc.; Scott Thomas, SimpleScott and The Post Family
In-house: In-frastructure — Emily Ruth Cohen, consultant to creative professionals; Andy Epstein, AIGA In-house Design
Interaction Design: Art Direction on the We — Ian Adelman, nymag.com and menupages.com; Agnieszka Gasparska, Kiss Me I’m Polish LLC; Khoi Vinh, NYTimes.com
Motion Graphics: The Story of Communication through Time-based Desig — Jakob Trollbäck, Trollbäck + Company
Multiculturalism: Experience Design — Aaron Marcus, Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
Practice Management: Managing Through the Recessio — Robin Tooms, Savage; Shel Perkins, Shel Perkins Associates
Social Responsibility: Illuminating the Energy Issue — Matt Rollins, ICONOLOGIC; Kirk von Rohr, Kirk von Rohr Design
This article was last modified on December 14, 2022
This article was first published on September 15, 2009
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