Focused sessions 1
2:30–3:30 p.m.
Choose 1 session from the 10 described below. Sessions are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and space is limited. Please have a second and third choice ready in case your preferred session is full. A second set of focused sessions follows this one with a 30-minute break between.

Living higher on the food chain: the power of design research
Brenda Laurel
The distinguished brand/identity designer David Canaan has wryly observed that “the role of the designer is no longer simply to educate the rest of us about good taste.” Designers who can harness the power of research will live higher on the food chain, both as independent contractors and within organizations. A designer who knows how to deploy research appropriately betters the odds for a successful, even delightful, match between an audience’s needs and desires with a product, service or experience. Good design research can unite all aspects of an enterprise and align the goals of every contributor. Research happens throughout the life cycle of a successful design and of an effective designer. Brenda Laurel’s talk will focus on how research can make design more muscular as a practice and as a profession.

Better living through typography
Tobias Frere-Jones
Jonathan Hoefler
In lean times, graphic design can find itself considered a discretionary investment. So why is it that against the backdrop of a flagging economy, typeface designers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones are doing their best work ever? During the last recession, Hoefler and Frere-Jones learned that the most significant typefaces aren’t borne of caprice or vanity, but arise from the compelling need to solve practical problems. For fifteen years, their work has focused on providing measurable benefits to clients, and has helped to create an environment in which fine typography has become essential. The strategies they’ve developed for helping clients conserve economic, human and environmental resources are now more relevant than ever.

Used Blues by Studio eg: A case study in creative reuse
Studio eg
As designers in the 21st century, we need to ask the question: “Where do our raw materials come from?” As citizens of a finite, crowded planet, we must ask: “What can we do with all the trash we’re creating?” At Studio eg, the guiding principle has been to look creatively at materials commonly thought of as trash, and to discover new uses for them. The Used Blues project is one such undertaking, redirecting thousands of pounds of hard-to-recycle architectural blueprints out of the waste stream, and giving them new life as marketing materials, notebooks, envelopes and bulk paper. Studio eg designers Erez Steinberg and Gia Giasullo will discuss the process of developing a system for transforming waste into beautiful and useful products.

Protecting creative rights in a global marketplace
Jacqueline Famulak
Frank Martinez
The global economy expands the dimensions of a problem that designers have always faced: protecting their creative property rights. The issue is a critical one and seems to be increasingly challenging as technology facilitates the ease with which your work and others’ can be exploited without permission. AIGA has taken a strong position in protecting designers’ rights and, as an essential corollary, assuring that designers respect the rights of other creators. AIGA’s special counsel, Frank Martinez, and the president of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST), Jacqueline Famulak, will address what designers should do, as both creators and clients for creative property, to protect rights into the future. Questions and examples from the audience are encouraged.

Designing for life
Fritjof Capra
The great challenge of our time is to create sustainable communities, designed in such a manner that their ways of life, businesses, economies, physical structures and technologies do not interfere with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life. The first step in this endeavor must be to become “ecologically literate”; the second step is to move from ecoliteracy to ecodesign. Fritjof Capra will expand on his theories for a smaller audience and engage the audience in the discussion.

Give us hope!
Kali Nikitas
Students from five post-graduate programs have been invited to design and present comments and/or solutions to living and dealing with the uncertainty that exists in today’s culture, economy and environment. Generally speaking, we never know what tomorrow brings. Uncertainty is constant. But, there is always the search for solutions and tools for living productive and meaningful lives. These students have been asked to help us (the audience) cope with life. Most of all, they have been asked to give us some hope! Following the presentations, there will be discussions with representatives from the programs. Post-graduate programs participating are: Fabrica (Italy), Sandberg Academy (Holland), Institute without Boundaries (Canada), CalArts (USA) and Yale (USA).

From products to the profound: designing an organizational sea change
Lauralee Alben
As designers grapple with the diverse challenges of our modern condition in business, society, and the environment, design seems uniquely suited to help us find our bearings. Our challenge is to boldly design for sea change—marked transformations both rich and lasting. Designer and consultant Lauralee Alben will share the story of a cultural sea change that reached from the research labs to the store shelves to the spiritual depths of a product development organization in Procter & Gamble. It began as a quest to build a sustainable innovation capability that balanced quality products with quality of life. It continues on today, sometimes through uncharted territory, with design as its compass.

Cultures of violence, cultures of peace: Anti-war graphics in a digital age
Plazm
This session examines the history of American post–World War II anti-war graphic design, and how designers have used their skills to create powerful messaging in opposition to war. Using the last Gulf War as a case study, Plazm designers will analyze how digital media has changed the fundamental manner in which we observe, analyze and consume conflict and violence as well as how it changed the graphic environment of Gulf War protest efforts, both in the US and abroad. Joshua, Niko and Pete will also discuss anti-war.us, a new site they are developing to collect and distribute anti-war materials to other graphic designers as well as to activists all over the world.

Sustainability
Tim Davis
Companies should–and will–be judged on their behavior as rigorously as they are judged on their products. Learn how to separate truth from jargon as Tim Davis brings clarity to a complex subject, and gives designers the knowledge they need to form intelligent, responsible partnerships. Don't wait for your clients to tell you it’s something you need to understand. Lead the way.

30-minute break between focus sessions

Focused sessions 2
4:00–5:00 p.m.
Choose one session from the eight described below.

Visceral inquiry
Wowhaus
Wowhaus shares their unconventional design process: a multisensory, experiential approach that taps resources outside the technological realm. Through hands-on exercises (including a tasting of local fruits in season), Wowhaus invites you to explore tools and inspiration found in everyday life.

The best of poster design from around the world
Steff Geissbuhler, panel moderator
Can we still think big and handle large formats, or has our little screen spoiled our ability to think to scale? Is there still a need for the poster? Can you display them anywhere (post no bills)? What about communicating an idea at a glance—while zipping by in a car, subway or bus—from across the street, partially obstructed, in the fog, at dusk? Come and see the very best in poster design from the most important designers around the world. Too much talk? These designs will knock your socks off!

Design as a life skill
Eames Demetrios
Eames Demetrios will weave a presentation from various facets of his recent far-flung design-related endeavors, including his Eames Primer book, his alternative universe www.kymaerica.com, the Powers of Ten enterprise, his authenticity consulting work and his ongoing directorship of the Eames Office. Together, the ideas will give a sense of the value of historical understanding for the contemporary designer, but, just as important, suggest that design is not just a professional skill, but a life skill.

Design education and the future of design
Doug Powell, panel moderator
In order for the dramatic and powerful new ideas being presented at this conference to flourish, they must first take hold at the point where designers are being molded. This session will address the question, What is the role of design in the 21st century from the point of view of our current model for design education? How can a system already stressed by crises in curriculum, enrollment and staffing respond to this new vision? A panel of top educators and designers moderated by AIGA national board member Doug Powell will discuss this and other questions with plenty of opportunity for audience involvement.

Sustainability in practice, from a design, paper and production perspective
Don Carli
Bob Lewis
Jeff Mendelsohn
Steve Turner
While environmental responsibility is a well-established mindset, integrating these values in design is challenging. This panel will discuss their successes in incorporating sustainable principles into design projects for leading corporations such as Gap, Hewlett Packard and IBM. The panelists will take you through the steps of how to incorporate sustainability into the communication materials you design, starting from the strategy and design phase, to the choice of paper, through to the print production phase. The panel will also share some key findings from recent studies of North American business attitudes, trends and issues toward environmentally responsible design, publishing and packaging. In conclusion, the session will use the AIGA Conference Program brochure as a case study. Attendees are invited to sit down and discuss the paper, printing and design of the AIGA conference program brochure, as a sample of a sustainable design, with the authors of the piece; Jeff Mendelsohn, New Leaf Paper; Michael Hodgson, PhD Design; and Bob Lewis, Anderson Lithograph.

The value of craft and tradition
Chuck Byrne
Jack Stauffacher
This is a session for people who love typography and fine printing. Excerpts from a recent film by Jim Faris about the legendary printer and typographer Jack Stauffacher will begin this session. Chuck Byrne will then discuss with Jack how his background in the historic craft of typography and traditional book design merged with his interest in Modernism. The resulting philosophy has led Jack Stauffacher to produce books and experimental works of integrity and great beauty.

The nature of design
David Orr
David Orr will explore indepth and with the audience how most of our ecological problems result from design failures, and will make an eloquent and passionate plea for design in more appropriate and responsible ways.

Managing the design studio of the future
Nick Patrissi
Lonn Lorenz
The challenges of the future are not just economic, environmental or creative. We all know clients are demanding faster and faster responses. We also know that technological improvements both enhance our capacities and demand that we remain current on the new, new software. This session will bring in experts from Creo and Adobe who are conceiving new ways to manage the creative and work processes of the studio more effectively. They will share their vision of the studio of the future and will discuss the systems they have developed to address your challenges. Both Creo and Adobe are eager to hear how attendees envision their needs in managing the creative process in the future.

Images and cultures: the challenges and sensitivities
Lewis Blackwell
Denise Waggoner
Getty Images’ Denise Waggoner and Lewis Blackwell must deal daily with one of the challenges that has become so evident in recent years: in a global communication environment, the images designers use to enhance the power of their work in one culture may carry just as powerful an offensive message in other cultures. What are the dimensions of sensitivity that a designer must develop in order to work effectively in this global economy?