And the student presenters for Ink/Pixels are…

Thanks to all of the students that submitted talks to be considered for Ink/Pixels. Here is the list of the students that will be presenting!

Colleen Roxas from the Maryland Institute College of Art will present “Embody,” a presentation on typography explored as unique, abstract form.

Colin Dunn, also a student from the Maryland Institute College of Art, will discuss exobrain and a web-based tool in development in his talk “Outsourcing Our Brains to the Internet.”

Malcolm Rio of Towson University will present “A Postcapitalist Design,” a condensed version of a presentation he completed for Left Forum Conference.

Jasper Crocker from the Maryland Institute College of Art will discuss typographic legibility in his presentation “Breaking Univers.”

And lastly, Erin Good from Millersville University will present “Do What You Love,” a presentation on her relationship with graphic design.

And if you haven’t registered, do it now so you get into the session you want! We hope to see you all in a couple of weeks!

Deadline extended

The deadline for PechaKucha talks has been extended to March 21! Check out the details if you’d like to be a speaker at the Ink/Pixels conference.

See Paula Scher for FREE!

Society of Design (SOD) has offered AIGA Baltimore Members a great opportunity to listen to Paula Scher for free on March 29, 2012. This offer is only available for the first 20 members that register.

Visit SOD’s site for more information on the event and to register.

IMPORTANT: To register for free, choose the “Member” option on the registration page for the event and include a note in the Comments field that you are an AIGA Baltimore member.

Complimentary registrations should be completed by March 22.

Event Details
Society of Design presents Paula Scher
Thursday, March 29, 2012
6:00 p.m. Registration; 7:00 p.m. Presentation
Whitaker Center, 222 Market St, Harrisburg, PA

Speak Your Mind!

AIGA Baltimore will be holding Ink / Pixels 2012, a design conference for students on April 21. Since this is a conference for students only, we thought you might be excited to speak your mind. We are looking for students to submit proposals for PechaKucha talks to be given at the conference. Deadline for proposal submissions is March 12th March 21.

What is Pecha Kucha?
If you had six minutes and 20 images, what would you say? PechaKucha is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images for 20 seconds each. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.

Here are some examples to see PechaKucha style in action:

• Ignite Baltimore
• Designing Obama by Scott Thomas
• Other Pecha Kucha Examples

Suggested Topics
These are just suggested topics to get you started. We are open to any topics that involve the subject of design.

• Design and Social Media
• Social Design
• Design and Business

How to Submit
All submissions are due by 11:59pm, March 12th March 21.
Entries received after the deadline will not be considered.

Email the following information to pechakucha@baltimore.aiga.org:

1. Speakers’ first and last names
2. School(s) you attend
3. Email address we should use to contact you if your talk is selected
4. Title of your proposed talk
5. Description of your talk in 300 words or less.

Selected proposals will be announced after March 19 March 23 on our blog.

Eligibility
You must be a student and planning to attend the conference. You do not need to be an AIGA member to present. Teams of speakers may submit one proposal if you plan to present together as a group.

Award
We will select up to 5 presentations. It is assumed if you are submitting a proposal, that you will be the speaker(s). Selected speakers will receive a $5 reimbursement when they arrive at the conference.

Questions?
Please email alissa@baltimore.aiga.org if you have any questions.

You don’t know Jack: A conversation with Jack Anderson

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, taking a look at everything from afar – it is often good to get up out of your comfortable setting and listen to others speak to their experiences and have an in-person conversation.  Last week, I had the privilege of attending ADG’s event: Branding With Jack Anderson, which was both motivational and inspiring.

Jack Anderson of Hornall Anderson is one who is inspired by the people at his office and strives to help create new environments giving people the ultimate human experience. He describes himself as a student, a designer, and a strategist – commenting on the fact that designers are not just part of the service department anymore, but that we are vital in the collaboration process. We all can be creative no matter who we are in an organization, and when you foster an environment with no fear and give employees the permission to fail – your people grow.

The Hornall Anderson Experience Lab (HAX) is brilliant. It is a space created for the fostering of creative ideas with multiple technologies and the space to test them. Yes, not every company can have one of these, but we can take the concept and foster creativity by listening to the main ideas Jack commented on in his talk:

• Anyone can be creative. The next best idea for your company can come from the receptionist. Hornall Anderson’s receptionist came up with the idea of a culture wall, a wall of photos of all the employees showing different expressions. Maybe someone has an idea for ping-pong tournaments or company retreats, etc. Letting people be able to express their ideas in an open environment with no fear keeps the moral positive.

• Don’t love your ideas to death. As creative beings, we sometimes try too hard to keep an idea and love it so much it fails. Push for quick no’s and prototyping. Let ideas come and let them go – understanding that not all of your loved ideas are going to be the ones that make it.

• Create your own story. You make your own success. Don’t let others write it for you. If there is something you want to do, go for it. Pave your own way, but understand that it will not always be easy.

• Give the permission to fail. Make mistakes and make them on purpose, giving yourself or the staff the ability to think quickly and effectively. Giving people the permission to fail allows a weight of fear to be lifted and helps open the doors to more creative collaboration and a better flow of ideas. It allows people to take risks they may have been scared to take before.

• Open environments. Get people off their butts and into meetings and out in the open. Take field trips, build space to allow for creative collaboration, and allocate a budget for ideas.

• Even ground. Even though Jack is the CEO of Hornall and Anderson, when in a room his voice does not carry anymore weight than any other person in the department. Allow for good ideas and creativity to come from anywhere.

• Recommended Reading: Good to Great By Jim Collins. This book changes how we think about success, talking about a Hedgehog concept and helps the reader learn how a good company can become a great company.

Thank you to ADG and Jack Anderson for an inspiring and motivational event, where we have grown our knowledge in understanding of creativity, branding, and appreciation for those that inspire us to do more. Here’s to all of our ongoing education that feeds our sense of curiosity.

Presenting: The Standard 4, Scoring & Folding FOLDED INSPIRATION

AIGA Baltimore, Sappi Fine Paper and Lindenmeyr Munroe invite you to the debut of

The Standard 4, Scoring & Folding FOLDED INSPIRATION
A Members’ Only Event Presented by Trish Witkowski & Daniel Dejan

When: Thursday, July 14, 2011
Where: Matthew’s 1600 Restaurant
1600 Frederick Road, Catonsville, MD

Time: 5:00 – 6:00pm Cocktails & Hors d’oeuvres
6:00 – 7:30pm Speakers/Presentation
7:30 – 8:00pm Questions & Answers

Members, in Advance – $10

Stevenson University & AIGA Baltimore Present: Dan Pink, May 25th!

A conversation with Dan Pink about his recent book, DRIVE… (100 copies of the book available to the first 100 registrants)

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people—at work, at school, at home. It’s wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his new and paradigm-shattering book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today’s world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of our lives. He demonstrates that while the old-fashioned carrot-and-stick approach worked successfully in the 20th century, it’s precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges.

In Drive, he reveals the three elements of true motivation: Autonomy- the desire to direct our own lives Mastery- the urge to get better and better at something that matters Purpose- the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward. Drive is bursting with big ideas— the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live.

About the Author – Daniel H. Pink is the author of the long-running New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller A Whole New Mind, as well as The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and Free Agent Nation. He has written for The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Wired, where he is a contributing editor.

He has provided analysis for CNN, CNBC, ABC, NPR, and other networks in the U.S. and abroad. Pink lectures on economic transformation and the new workplace at corporations, associations, and universities around the world.

ADVANCE
AIGA Members – $15
Non-Members – $30

DOOR
AIGA Members – $25
Non-Members – $40

Seek & Find … Then Design it All!

Thursday, February 24th, Deanna Kuhlman-Leavitt spoke at the Creative Alliance. She talked about her company’s transition from a print-based design firm to a multi-disciplinary firm, willing to take on many types of design projects from non-traditional trade show displays and interior design for restaurants and retail stores, even going so far as to leverage her trade show development into launching a trade show presentation product.

(c) Courtesy of Kuhlmann-Leavitt

She and her designers have found inspiration from diverse things such as landscaping, Japanese design and unique lighting. When designing in a space, Kuhlman-Leavitt and her team seem to take advantage of what could be perceived as a weakness and/or inexperience and use their fresh observations to revolutionize the way things are perceived in these new spaces.

Thanks to Deanna for coming all the way from St. Louis to share her story.

Design Thinking Lectures

Design Thinking

Tune in for a series of lectures on design coming your way, beginning next week!!

Announcing the 2011 William O Steinmetz ’50 Designer in Residence at Maryland Institute College of Art:

This Monday February 21, 6:30pm
“Process is King but a Queen Is a Bitch”
Eddie Opara provides a free lecture in Falvey Hall at MICA
1301 Mount Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD

Pentagram’s newest partner, Eddie Opara, is a multi-faceted designer whose work encompasses brand identity, publications, environments, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces, and software, with many projects spanning across multiple media.

Next Thursday, February 24, 6:30pm
“Seek & Find”
Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt provides a lecture at Patterson Theatre
3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD

Registration’s free for members through Saturday, February 19th!!

What is the best solution? Not the easy answer! Seek & Find is a way of working that is inquisitive and playful, disciplined and rigorous. Whether working in print, new media or the built environment, Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc. asks how volume and scale, materials and objects, color, type, imagery and text can be used in an original and meaningful way to create experiences that inform and delight.
Also for Thursday:

FREE program. All are welcome.

An Event by the Society for History & Graphics:
Pioneers of Modern Design – An informal book discussion on Chapter 2
February 24, 7:00-9:00pm
MICA, Room M110

Info posted at: http://shag.squarespace.com

This SHAG program is sponsored by Dolphin Press & Print at MICA and MICA’s programs in Graphic Design and illustration. SHAG website is sponsored by AQUENT, the talent agency for marketers and designers.

Next Monday, February 28, 2:00 pm
“Jonathan Barnbrook: Graphic Designer”
Jonathan Barnbrook provides a free lecture in Falvey Hall at MICA
1301 Mount Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD

Recently recognized in a major exhibition at the Design Museum of London, Jonathan Barnbrook is confirmed as one of Britain’s best-known graphic designers. Since 1990 he has chosen to work with a mix of cultural institutions, activist groups, and charities as well as completing a steady stream of personal works.

Thursday, March 10, 6:30 pm
“Design Ignites Change!”
Mark Randall provides a free lecture in the Center for the Arts Harold J. Kaplan Concert Hall at Towson University

Creativity holds enormous power for fostering social change. As designers—contributors to the material world—we have a responsibility to make choices that benefit society in positive ways. The challenge we face is how do we expand our profession to have greater impact?

Debbie Millman Speaks To AIGA Baltimore Audience On Brands …

Debbie Millman presents to the audience.

Debbie Millman, president of Sterling Brands, presented to an AIGA Baltimore audience of approximately 70 people on the topic of the essence of brands. The talk discussed brands, not so much from a pure design point-of-view, but discussed the nature of brands, their development and where they’ve gone and where they will go in the future.

As people, she categorized the human existence as “making and marking,” each with a valued role in the distinguishing of the tools, products and services that are in our lives. The talk spanned the quintessential meaning of what branding was (the physical impression bof ownwership on livestock…) to the development of simple and then more dramatic iconography, the elaboration of which we live with today.

She also delved into the nature of branding and discussed the evolving nature of modern brands with the modern era legalization of the trademark in 1876. She even uncovered the first “modern brand” for the audience.

As for the nature of brands, 5 waves of modern branding:

1. brands guarantee of quality (1875-1920) and safety. Brands were often first associated with particular people. (Qualities and values of those folks).
2. brands become “human”… (1920 – 1965)
3. brand as self-expressive statements… (1965 – 1985) brand –status
4. brands as an experience…
5. limbic brands — brands as connectors/communicators

Brands are now ways to frame conversations for increasingly divided and singular audiences. These brands now connect people to experiences, initiatives beliefs and ways of living. In an increasingly individual existence, brands and modern technology increase or enhace our connectedness to the world.

She pointed out some staggering facts: Average young people in the US spend approximately 8 hours a day online. Human brains create new frameworks to connect in the computer and digital age to keep up with the evolving technology of communication (low and high-tech).

She maintains: “We can create symbols that create ways for people to understand and live”. We have the power to craft a view of how people relate to life.” All this underscores the value of both the maker and the marker.