Review of HOW Design Conference by Paul Browning
Monday I was in a class called Caffeine for the Creative Mind, Using a bag of scraps and junk to make a Bug Carnival Ride with a small team of creatives. Creatives is a good word for art directors, designers, illustrators and copywriters that are supposed to be inventive and imaginative all day. The cool section of the office. The floor where the party’s happening. It is the coolest group of people in the entire world, and this hotel (Mandalay Bay) was lousy with em (4,000)!
Then we had the Opening Reception, and the keynote speaker was a gentleman named Michael Moeschen (michaelmoschen.com). Check out his Press Page! He started juggling and he dropped a few balls and I thought he might be NOT good choice for keynote speaker and then he started juggling with his feet and I realized that he actually intensely awesome. His performance included glass ball manipulation and freeform dancing with various shapes and objects. And the coolest thing was, we could all see how it related to our lives as creatives. We came out of there inspired to learn more, see more, and practice our craft until we, too can astonish others with what was once “impossible”.
Classes were enjoyed. Receipts were saved. Education and ideas were poured into our heads in large quantities, and we were thankful to be there. If a class dragged, or started telling us things we knew, it was nice to have the freedom to move to another class that interested us more. We learned the value of branding, the quality work that comes from us when we simply PLAY, and ways to make our portfolio a work of beauty.
Thursday’s seminar about Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead was a perfect way to end it. After wowing us with her portfolio of great ad campaigns, she inspired us with stories and radical ideas like “aspiring to be the dumbest person in the room”.
Let us all be dumb. Let us learn to play. Let’s make Bug Carnival rides, because then we will create the amazing work that changes the world.