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You’re a designer, not a data scientist! And yet you have to work with data: you use it to construct documents like directories, price lists, or product catalogs; explain it with charts, graphs, and infographics; present it in slide decks or annual reports. That’s why we created The Design + Data Summit — an event for designers who work with data: online, September 21–22, 2023.
In two days of information-packed sessions taught by industry-leading experts, you will learn practical, helpful, HOW-TO techniques to boost your productivity, efficiency, and design quality.
- Using design to tell a data story
- Personalized print and digital direct marketing for mail, email, and social media
- Simplifying your story with infographics
- Choosing a graph or chart style based on the data
- How to work with the people who actually understand the data
- Data Merge with InDesign + Illustrator + Photoshop + more
- From big data to great design
- Excel for designers (you’ll be amazed how easy it can be)
- Building presentations with data in PowerPoint and Google Slides
- Automating InDesign: from desktop to server farm
- Creating catalogs, directories, ads, price lists, and more… fast!
Day 1: Thursday, September 21, 2023
When faced with data, most designers react with the ol’ “fight-or-flight” response, but it doesn't have to be that way! In this ground-floor, beginner-friendly session, data publishing veteran Coletta Perry will give you an overview on how data projects generally work, what the key components are, and how the pieces fit together.
Topics include:
- What a “data project” actually is
- Examples of the kinds of things that are possible when data and design work together
- Overview of how a data-driven project “works.” Is it just spreadsheets and CSV files? How and why are databases and servers sometimes involved? Is there a difference between data merge and variable data?
- Understanding industry jargon and acronyms like DAM, PIM, and CMS
Few things help convey an idea or message better than a good story. As humans, we're hard-wired to communicate important information through stories. And we all know and appreciate how much impactful visuals contribute to any story – especially data stories. As designers, we can leverage this by presenting data and information in story form for greater impact and increased effectiveness. Legendary data viz guru, Bill Shander, shares his insights on the best practices for translating data into narratives and creating compelling visualizations that maximize impact.
You'll learn:
- Techniques for creating a narrative based on data
- The neuroscience and psychology behind how your audience will receive your story and visuals
- How to pick the right chart for your data
- Research-driven best practices for effective data visualization
Does the idea of working with spreadsheets make you want to run? STOP! Let's embrace data and Excel. Oz du Soleil, Excel MVP, specializes in helping the Excel-averse feel comfortable with the basics of everything from sorting data to working with pivot tables and power query. In this session, Oz will show you potent but easy-to-use Excel features to make your raw data useful, accurate.
Join Oz to learn:
- Sorting data
- Using Pivot Tables to get quick summaries and check your data quality
- Stacking data in one place when it’s spread across multiple sheets
- Splitting data when multiple fields are in the same column
Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours copy/pasting into InDesign and Illustrator. Learn how to spend more time doing what you love and bring your marketing publications into the digital era. Join Jonathan Dropiewski, President of priint Americas, and Mike Zahorik, VP of Business and Channel Development, as they talk about how to integrate and automate data from any type of corporate system into a datasheet, flyer, labels, packaging, catalog, etc. in seconds. Learn how organizations are using automation to enhance their omnichannel marketing. Automation of data driven layouts can save you hours, days and even months. Spend more time Creating!
As a designer, even with the full arsenal of Adobe apps at your disposal, sometimes you'll need to work directly in Excel. Believe it or not, designing data in Excel doesn’t have to be an oxymoron! By learning your way around a worksheet and a few simple tricks, you can create fabulous data visualizations you never thought possible with Excel. This session is for the designer who wants to be more comfortable designing charts and graphs in Excel, and could use a taste of Excel’s data visualization capabilities. Get hands-on practice with written directions and practice data included for each example.
You'll learn:
- General anatomy of an Excel spreadsheet
- Excel data viz basics
- Choosing the right chart/graph to use
- How to go beyond the basics with specialized charts like heat tables, waffle charts, back-to-back bar charts, diverging stacked bar charts, overlapping bar charts, and dumbbell dot plots
PowerPoint and InDesign don't seem like they would have much to talk about at a cocktail party, but when it comes to producing data-rich reports and materials, Microsoft’s reliable slide software can be an excellent partner for Adobe. In this session, Nolan Haims will walk you through his workflows for creating attractive charts and data visualizations in InDesign that all begin life in PowerPoint.
We'll cover:
- Using Acrobat and Illustrator as a go-between for PowerPoint and InDesign
- When to use linked PDFs and when to import charts as vector shapes
- Using PowerPoint as your ideation sketchbook
- Building and editing charts manually in InDesign
The job of presenting data to the world comes with great responsibility, requiring an awareness of (and sensitivity to) the way your work is perceived. Just as we carefully consider our written words, we should be equally careful in how we present data visually. Taking a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) approach to data visualizations means considering how the specific lived experiences and perspectives of your audience will impact the way your work is interpreted, and making conscious choices to maintain and ensure a more just and impartial representation.
In this session, you’ll learn:
- How to recognize potential bias or inequality in data representation
- Techniques for presenting data more inclusively and equitably
- How to use language with greater sensibility and insight
- The ways lived experience impacts the interpretation of visualized data
Day 2: Friday, September 22, 2023
Infographics distill information into a picture-driven format that viewers can more easily grasp and retain. A good infographic can communicate complex ideas and make data and statistics more engaging. In this session, Nigel shares examples of eight common types of infographics and how to create them in Illustrator. You'll see the role that key design principles like hierarchy, proximity, and alignment play in telling effective stories with data.
Topics include:
- Visualized Numbers
- Maps
- Decision Trees
- Timelines
- And more!
Working with variable data, text, and images in Photoshop and Illustrator can be a life-saver—if you know how. Whether you need to create business cards for your entire organization, generate marketing graphics with integrated price points, or design marketing mailers, data merge can do it all.
In this nuts-and-bolts session, Bastiaan will show you how to:
- Create and prep a spreadsheet for import
- Set up a document with variable text and images
- Work with multiple datasets
- Export datasets into separate files
- Work smarter and faster
Data Merge is InDesign’s built-in, go-to tool for creating direct mail campaigns, business cards, sequential stationery, and many other “data publishing” documents. Using techniques already present in InDesign, it is possible to take a regular template to another level and provide a truly unique experience for each recipient.
Topics include:
- Best practices for preparing Data Merge projects
- Harnessing InDesign’s features to make projects more dynamic
- Advanced techniques
Grab a bite to eat, and come chat at our “virtual table” along with our speakers and experts from around the world.
Begin generating reports, catalogs, name tags, tickets, directories, and more — regardless of whether your data is in XLS, CSV, JSON, or XML formats. Discover the many ways to bring this data into InDesign for automatic formatting.
Topics include:
- Scripts and plug-ins that extend the power of Data Merge
- Scripts and plug-ins that go far beyond Data Merge, link InDesign directly to databases, offer advanced layout logic, and more
- The limitations of InDesign’s XML features
- Ways to generate pie charts, bar charts, and more without leaving InDesign
- When custom scripting is useful for data-driven layout
Sure, you can do great things with InDesign’s Data Merge tools, especially when you add additional scripting. But to overcome Data Merge’s serious limitations, you’re going to need to upgrade your workflow to include a third-party plug-in. We’ll explore the options available, and the pros and cons of each.
Topics include:
- Why EasyCatalog is used for so much
- Why InData takes merging to a new level
- When to consider Priint, DataLinker, LiveMerge, and other tools
Whether you’re building catalogs, creating personalized marketing, or laying out books, newspapers, or magazines, the pressure to publish, create, or simply do more is always increasing. Each step change in technology, from movable type to desktop publishing, has enabled more content to be consumed by more people faster. But how do we keep up, without flaming out? Join publishing automation expert, Caleb Clauset, as he guides you along this road to the land of Content Velocity, Publishing at Scale.
You’ll learn:
- The difference between InDesign Server and InDesign or InCopy
- That anything InDesign can do (InDesign Server can do better)
- What you may already be doing that’s required for InDesign Server
- What’s missing out of the box and where to find it
- Who else is already using InDesign Server (and why)
Designers often need to pull important information out of complex Excel files. In this Design + Data Summit sneak peek video, Oz du Soleil shows how to use simple functions that anyone can learn to distill a long list of data into a short and useful set of information.
Data Merge is InDesign’s built-in, go-to tool for creating direct mail campaigns, business cards, sequential stationery, and many other “data publishing” documents. In this Design + Data Summit sneak peek video, Laurie Ruhlin explains how to take the raw data in an Excel file and turn it into a customized InDesign layout using Data Merge.
Download our “Why Attend” PDF brochure to see why The Design + Data Summit needs to be in your 2023 plans now!
Need to convince your boss? Download our Convince Your Boss kit today—it contains our “Why Attend” PDF brochure and an email letter template you can personalize.
Bastiaan Doolaard
Bill Shander
Caleb Clauset
Coletta Perry
David Blatner
Jon Schwabish
Jonathan Dropiewski
Keith Gilbert
Laurie Ruhlin
Mike Zahorik
Nolan Haims
Nigel French
Oz du Soleil
Sheila B. Robinson
Registration is now closed
Your registration includes:
- On-demand access to all session and Q&A session recordings until September 22, 2024
- Speaker handouts and resources from the world’s top experts
- Savings on future live and online CreativePro events with the alumni discount.
Pricing:
2-day pass — Non-members: $695
2-day pass — members*: $595
If you currently are a member, click here to access your members-only discount code now.
Please note: CreativePro member discount cannot be combined with other discounts.
Discounts are available for nonprofit, government, education, CreativePro members, and alumni of CreativePro events.
*Discounts cannot be combined (including CreativePro member discount). Discounts cannot be added after you have registered.
Please contact us here for discount information prior to registering.
DOWNLOAD OUR 2023 BROCHURE
Download our “Why Attend” PDF brochure to see why The Design + Data Summit needs to be in your 2023 plans now!
Need to convince your boss? Download our Convince Your Boss kit today—it contains our “Why Attend” PDF brochure and an email letter template you can personalize.
CreativePro and its brands are independently-owned and not endorsed or authorized by Adobe Systems Incorporated or Microsoft. Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft.
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