2017 AIGA Eye on Design Conference Recap: Design Education

There’s hardly a hotter topic for young adults and recent graduates in the United States. No, I’m not talking about Fake Melania or Bernie Sanders. Well, kind of Bernie, maybe. It’s college and the crushing debt that comes with it.

College has become an institution. Basically, you’re expected to get into a four-year university, rack up some debt, and then maybe graduate. In fact, it isn’t like that very much at all. College is still treated like a right, but more and more students aren’t graduating. Even if you graduate, you’re talking about some crazy debt. I’ve been paying on my student loans for the past six years and I’ve taken roughly two percent off my principal balance.

In the world of design, there are a lot of distinguished schools, but also a lot of individuals who have succeeded without that schooling. I know that one design program at a smaller university in the region I live in requires a portfolio before admittance to the design program. I also know people who have no degree, yet they do work for some of the biggest names and labels in the music industry on top of agency careers.

That’s where the afternoon panel at the Eye on Design conference picks up: do you need the degree or is it more about your body of work and how did each of the panel speakers get to where they are today?

Eric Hu, director of design, Ssense

First off, this was my favorite part of the day. This panel was comprised of people doing things that I want to be doing, and each of them had some similar element to their background as what I’ve lived and experienced.

Hu is the director of design for Ssense and I happen to really like that site. I wasn’t familiar with their editorial section right away. I mostly found my way to their site because they have one of the best collections of men’s clothing on any site in North America. Naturally, I can’t afford the Acronym line of items, but when they run a huge sale on their adidas and Champion reverse weave items, I’m there for it.

The site is exceptionally clean, modern, forward-facing, and chic. Hu and the crew at Ssense have put together one of the best sites for fashion with the editorial end acting as the stimulant for your mental after you’ve emptied your wallet.

My biggest takeaway from Hu was this: You must be willing to work and take work when you get it. Don’t treat design projects like they are beneath you if they can pay your bills for three months so that you can spend those three months chasing the projects that you really want. He also mentioned that finances are huge for those who are new to the industry, acknowledging that the only people who can afford to take their time and only work on the what they want are people who come from money. I think that is an extremely underrated element of the young professional experience in 2017. If you don’t have a parent bankrolling your lifestyle, you can’t afford to be picky about the jobs you take.

Erik Brandt, graphic designer + educator; department chair, Minneapolis College of Art + Design

While Hu resonated with me because of his acknowledgement that you need to take the work you can get and that only the rich can afford the luxury of exclusively taking on projects that they feel like doing, I liked the contrast of Brandt.

Brandt is a well-traveled designer and department chair at MCAD. That’s kind of a big deal and not the kind of thing one achieves without some type of degree. Brandt mentioned lots of travels, a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, some time in Egypt, Germany, and southeast Asia if I recall correctly.

Now in Minneapolis, Brandt is inspiring and challenging the future minds of design. He had a wealth of information to share and seemed like a true student of the life experience, which probably aids him in his role as educator.

My favorite thing from Brandt’s contribution to the panel was not his socks, those were a close second. I appreciate most that he has a mini-art installation on the side of his garage. The rotating art and his choice to display the art others create was a lot of fun and I think it would be great if more of us supported developing artists and spiced up the sides of our ugly garages.

Hassan Rahim, designer-artist-director

This panel was such a home run. Hu and Brandt were fantastic, but Rahim said a lot of things that were right on the mark for my personal life and the way I’ve carried it for several years now.

Rahim said that he came up through the skateboard scene in SoCal and had a love for music, that still pervades all of his work today (as I write this, I’m wearing a Jacques Greene shirt that Rahim designed). There came a point, Rahim shared, where he was either going to download Fruity Loops or Photoshop and the Photoshop file was smaller and that’s how he became a designer.

He mentioned Boiler Room, skateboarding, Jacques Greene, Nike and his work ethic. All of those things were direct hits with my taste and experience.

Work ethic, more than a degree or an MFA, is what Rahim said you should acquire. He mentioned that when your day job ends, that’s when you need to not join your co-workers at happy hour – you need to go home and start working on the stuff that you really want to be doing, the things that you’re passionate about and want to be your future.

This blog doesn’t look like much, but this is just one of five or six sites that I’ve written at over the past five years. I’ve made it on to some large website networks, I’ve improved. It opened a door into a marketing position. Now, I write and learn design every single day – and every single night. It me so hard that Rahim was essentially affirming my position on work and the way I’ve lived the past three or four years. Your day job will pay the bills, but it’s all the other work, disciple, determination that you do in your own time that will determine who you become.

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Daniel Coughlin - @xvanwilderx

2017 AIGA Eye on Design Conference Recap: Design + Sex Conversation

Sex is pretty cool. I tried it twice.

One of the funniest scenarios is the coming of age story about the boy buying his first condom(s). You can have stories like Superbad or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but beneath all the horny, exploratory adventures, there’s an awkward transaction.

Eva Goicochea believes that part of this is due to the terrible design of products from the leading contraceptive producers in the market. I’d argue that the gold foil of the Trojan Magnum condom is great, but I’d also agree that everything else I’ve seen on the market in my many years on this earth is cringe-worthy. There was one particular box from a major condom producer that made its way into the presentation – it was very ugly.

Then again, it seemed oddly on-brand for, say, the user of Axe Body Spray.

For the rest of us, Goicochea and her lead designer, Hamish Smyth of Order and Standards Manual (and formerly of the legendary Pentagram), set about the mission of creating the most sophisticated, adult, and hip product line for condoms… and all the extras that go along with it.

Smyth explained their clever approach for the brand, Maude. Take an “m” and then dissect it to create countless mutations that could each represent a different product or aspect of the intimate experience.

It was a lot of fun to hear an established designer sit in a full room and say words like “penis” and “butt,” but it was even more fun to see how a little creativity and a little sophistication can make the acne-ridden, horndog branding from competitors into the smart, fun adults-only escapades we all love. Or have heard about, even if we’ve never gone there ourselves.

Elaine: I love this idea and I love the design. I also love that it was a collaboration between men and women and either sex would feel comfortable buying their products. The designs and brand just have a classier feel and look compared to others in their industry. They made sex chic and I think it’s awesome. That’s all I have to say about that.  

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Elaine Coughlin - @airlainey
&
Daniel Coughlin - @xvanwilderx

2017 AIGA Eye on Design Conference Recap: Leta Sobierajski + Wade Jeffree

It’s a weirdly relatable experience to have a young married couple speaking to you and a room full of strangers about the experience of finding a creative synergy that also respects the space of the other, your partner.

To say that the apartment I share with my beautiful wife is small is true, but it isn’t just because of square footage that I occasionally daydream of something larger. For example, tonight, I was yelling from excitement about how we needed to paint the wall. I knew this was both unrealistic and outlandish, but Lainey and I have a creative energy that synchs. We’re fortunate, not everyone has a shared experience like what we have.

Of course, Leta and Wade are significantly more artistically inclined than either of us. They’re very, very good at what they do. They also love Japan and manga and really loud J-Pop jams that are very catchy. I guess I enjoyed it and their work washed over me. The skill with the physical, turning themselves into their props, and then creating the most vivid portraits – great stuff.

But you have to be good when Google comes calling because they want you to design the creative for the launch of their first smart phone offering. More power to creative couples.

Elaine: Whoa. Live, work and play together. Something I do with my partner every day.

Occasionally, I wonder if other couples like us exist and I think they do. I found that in Leta & Wade (a whole other level, but still). These two totally made me (and probably everyone else in that room) so pumped for design. They made the big leagues seem attainable, and being the few people there with their significant other, it felt like we were meant to hear their story. These two are amazing in their craft. Collaborating is one of my favorite things about design and creativity and these two are proving that feeding off each other (figuratively, but literally too if you check out their Instagram) can make for some amazing results.

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Elaine Coughlin - @airlainey
&
Daniel Coughlin - @xvanwilderx

2017 AIGA Eye on Design Conference Recap: Jon Burgerman

I was standing at the very end of a very long line for lunch at the AIGA Eye on Design conference. At some point, I was really trying to find things to occupy my brain as the line was very much not moving. And then, as if fallen from the sky, a cardigan-clad angel with a British accent gazed upon me with mercy, jutted forth his arm and said, “Breadstick?”

Yes, Jon Burgerman offered me (and everyone else in line, but nevermind that) a breadstick. Really, they were dried, almost more of a crisp. I was grateful either way. I figured he had to be someone involved with the event because his sweater was too cool be a casual mistake. Also, the girl in front of me in line requested a picture with him and also had to get a snap of it for her Snapchat. I’m dumb and oblivious, so I just smiled and devoured the breadstick.

Burgerman was supremely entertaining. He covered his full range of Snapchat/Instagram art, his curious projects, and the idea of sketching without always knowing your destination. His approach made it seem as if he was the embodiment of the idea that if you’re opening to seeing a good opportunity for a design or a doodle or a sketch, you will find one.

Indeed, Burgerman was so inspirational that I had to find my own inner artist in the moment.

Alright, I suck at it and I’m definitely not an artist on Snapchat or anywhere else, but it was fun and if the Burgerman himself likes your attempt at humor, you’ve succeeded.

Elaine: Doodling sounds easy enough, but it’s not as easy for everyone as you might think.

For someone who really likes to plan ahead and be over meticulous, doodling can sometimes create a little bit of anxiety. Jon Burgerman’s talk was engaging and super laid back. He encouraged his audience to look for things that are not the most obvious and the expand on what’s right in front of you.

I used to do this as a kid. One of Burgerman’s thing is finding faces and I remember doing that as a kid; always looking for smiley faces, sometimes mad or sad ones, but usually happy ones. This talk has reminded me to look at the ordinary in a new way, or maybe it’s the old way from when I was kid. I also would love Burgerman’s sweater, but it probably looks better on him than me.

by
Elaine Coughlin - @airlainey
&
Daniel Coughlin - @xvanwilderx