Stepping outside my comfort zone, I decided to attend the Registered Graphic Designers Design Thinkers conference in early November. I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the other side, meet some new designers for potential collaboration, and expand my horizons. I started by asking my existing designer colleagues/contacts whether they were attending, so that led to another connection opportunity as well. Here are a few takeaways from the conference:
Creatives live in parallel universes
This is where I got to learn the most during the conference – not surprisingly, designers nerd out on the designer equivalent of what we writers obsess about. I always say if you want to start a fight with a writer then ask them how they feel about the Oxford comma. Seems like designers have their potential scraps over serif versus sans serif fonts, or fonts in general. Fun to see people so passionate about their own set of concerns, ones that those outside the profession may even fail to notice. I gained insights into the colour wheel, the origins of famous logos, and which fonts are most accessible. I also learned who are some of the rock stars of the design world (see: keynote Paula Scher)
But we have a lot in common
Not surprising perhaps that the AI session was the most packed in the designer conference, same as it would be in the writer sphere. Some amazing things are already happening and possible when it comes to AI and imagery, although spoken about in the same nervous voices as we use as writers. I also appreciated a session by a designer advocating for other creatives to hold on to their copyright and hold out for better contracts.
And a good conference contains many forms
Having recently co-chaired the Editors Canada conference in June, I was freshly attentive to the work that goes into a conference, and I appreciated that this one had a lot of different opportunities for meeting and learning. In addition to the standard keynotes, there were concurrent sessions, lunchtime discussions, and even a speed networking event (my favourite – I love a facilitated introduction). Longish lunch hours and caffeinated breaks were also good for staying fresh.
