Robynne Raye
Since co-founding Modern Dog Design Co in 1987, Robynne Raye has continued to do work for entertainment and retail companies both local and national –counts posters, packaging and identity projects and some of her favorite work. Recent clients include Coca-Cola, Adobe Systems Inc., Blue Q, Olive Green Dog Products, Shout! Factory and Seattle Theatre Group. They are found on the pages the of all of the major design magazines and books in the United States, receiving hundreds of awards from publications such as Graphis, AIGA, Type Directors Club, The 100 Show and Communication Arts, Their work has also been exhibited around the world.
Robynne began speaking about how she co founded Modern Dog Design Co way back in 1987, she then began by showing her portfolio from when she was a student and the materials that she brought to interviews in her job hunt, it was incredible to see that none of her work was done of a computer but it was all done by hand.
It was inspiring to hear her talking about how she started Modern Dog Design Studio's with a couple close friends and how Modern Dog has since stumbled upon one of it's largest clients K2 Sports, which they have been successfully working with for several years.
One of Modern Dog's most comical pieces were the Blue Q: Gums with product names such as, "Hello My Name is Douche Bag," "Instant Asshole," "World's Best Beyotch" and "Wanna Hook Up?" I don't know about anyone else, but seeing that a professional design firm does work with this nature makes being an aspiring Graphic Designer much better. Robynne Raye's presentation in general was a very inspiring, enthusiastic and enjoyable to listen to.
Stephen Farrell
Stephen Farrell's presentation at the 2009 Driven conference was the kind of speech someone might want to download as an audio-book and listen to a few times through on repeat mode. The associate professor from SAIC took the podium in the Union Ballroom on Saturday afternoon and guided the audience through the fascinating but convoluted world of his design, touching on subjects that included human biology, the ideas of Michel Foucault, and the nature and perception of time. Although the heavily intellectual nature of his work occasionally seemed to overshadow the graphic design aspect of it, Farrell's presentation was nonetheless enriching, challenging, and inspiring.
The first topic of Farrell's speech involved the philosophy of Michel Foucault and the tendency of humans to conceptualize the world in two different ways: analogizing and categorizing. He elaborated on categorization and introduced the idea of super-categories, explaining that a very complex phenomenon, like surgery for example, can be thought of as a multi-layered process involving separate, distinct subcategories. He went on to describe one of his essays (featured in Emigre Magazine) which discusses the construction of narratives using brooms he found in his basement as signifiers of past stories. And just as some members of the audience started thinking that they might have mistakenly sat down at a seminar about Foucauldian epistemology, Farrell tied all of this to his first work, an image-text novel entitled Vas.
Vas: An Opera in Flatland is a book that seems to break away from every standard of what a novel is supposed to be. Written by Steve Tomasula, with art and design done by Farrell, Vas is a strange story filled with unusual visual and literary juxtapositions, where the human body is the main character, and the plot, though subtle and seemingly skewed, is expressed through the narrative of DNA and biology. By introducing different ways of interpreting the body, Vas was presented as an extremely intriguing piece of literature, both in its literary content and visual design.
Farrell’s presentation took a mind-boggling turn as he switched gears and showed a clip from his recent film, TOC, an interactive, “multimedia novel.” TOC explores the nature of time using poetic, paradoxical narration placed over the backdrop of haunting, black and white imagery that morphs endlessly. The video illustrates a multi-layered, “embedded” narrative that seems to criss-cross and twist through dimensions, as though the limits of physical reality have been shattered. In its ebbing and flowing, TOC is an expression of what Farrell described as “the excruciation of time,” and its curious ability to seem fast and slow at the same time.
The end of Stephen Farrell’s presentation seemed to come as a disappointment for some but as a relief to others. It’s hard to deny that the extremely dense, intellectual quality of his lecture made it challenging to fully absorb, especially toward the end of a long day. But even for people who aren’t particularly interested in the genetic narrative of a DNA strand, or the excruciation of time, it’s safe to say that Farrell’s speech provided the audience with a glimpse of how incredibly far-reaching and ambitious design can be. It was a refreshing reminder that design isn’t just limited to magazine layout and corporate identities, but can be a means of exploring some of the most profound areas of human thought.
Juliet D'Ambrosio
Juliet D’Ambrosio proved quite the draw at the Driven 2009 Conference. As early as registration, the Editorial Director of Iconologic had a lot to live up to, as both her morning and afternoon session signup sheets filled rapidly to their 20-person limit. This limit was hardly enforceable though, as she managed to fill the Union’s Alumni Fireside Lounge room nearly to capacity. The session fielded a crowd well beyond what the signup sheet would predict. Her popularity also drew a fair number of the event’s organizers into attendance, and caused some of the attendees to apparently sneak into see her sessions, leaving only the rare chair unused.
After a brief introduction of who she is and what she does, Juliet launched immediately into one of the more impressive projects on the Iconologic Resumé: the rather extensive job of effectively brand-building the entire country of The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Here she described the ethnographic approach she and her team used in researching, designing, developing, branding, and selling the identity of the country.
This bled into talking about another high-profile client: André Benjamin who better known in popular music culture as Andre 3000. She spoke of how their conversations led to the development of his Benjamin Bixby clothing line, its symbology and products.
Through her presentation of these two clients, and brief references to several others, her no-detail-is-too-small conversational interviewing method emerged as the true focus of her presentation. Juliet finished her session by stepping away from the slideshow to actually sit across from an audience volunteer for a short conversation-like interview. Through this interview and her final few minutes, the true value of her breakout-session emerged: that to her, the future of graphic design is as much or more interpersonal as it is sitting behind sketchbooks and computers. The skills one uses on either side of the desk in a job interview are very similar to those in gleaning new clients and promoting a career in the design industry.
In the end, her audience found themselves both entertained and informed, providing a much deserved applause before exiting the Lounge room. Juliet D’Ambrosio displayed eloquent speaking skills, brilliant graphics, a rich and diverse portfolio, and may have helped those in attendance gain a new understanding as to the state of the art of professional graphic design. She was well-received, and would most certainly be welcome again in Driven’s next iteration.
Chris Komnick
Chris Komnick is the owner and founder of Redmark in Cincinnati, OH. Chris attended Purdue University for Industrial Engineering and then on to Miami University for a masters in business. His focus was on marketing. Chris resides and works in Cincinnati with his family. He has been linked with companies that have partnered with Apple to develop software being used now on all Apple computers. Redmark is a branding agency that looks to strategically set company’s to be recognized and successful based on their identity as a whole. The goal is to cover every part from the identity mark, marketing, and to capture the culture in everything that they design and create for their clients.
Chris is the business strategist of the company. He helps to get a client that comes to Redmark moving on the right path. People don’t always understand the importance of a brand and what it all entails. Chris is able to help clients understand that importance in a way that sticks. The name came out of the idea that when a brand is created it sticks like a red mark on someone’s arm who just got slapped. The mark is evident, the culture and identity of the company is clearly conveyed, and it just sticks.
Chris dove in his breakout session into an area that we think about but never seem to verbalize. What do we have in our toolbox? What is it that we bring to the table as designers as we leave school and enter the work force? We discussed some of the things needed to be successful with clients, and what were crucial as designers. Chris talked about his ability to invest his time with clients and take part in what they were doing as a company. One approach that Redmark takes is to actually take on clients where they do work for a part in their business. The business might not have the start up funds to pay for a full branding experience, so Redmark will work as if they were co-owners. This allows for great work to be done, with the added motivation, which is to see your ‘own’ business do very well! There is a pride in the work being done and you can see that through the character of Chris and his ethics of business. He believes in the clients of Redmark and the potential of each client that he takes on! It was great to hear from Chris and find out more about the work of branding and what the full process entails. It is no longer just a logo.
Kevin Stohlmeyer
Kevin Stohlmeyer, an Adobe Certified Instructor, presented new features, tips and tricks in Adobe Bridge, Acrobat, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator CS4. While discussing each program, Kevin projected his monitor for the group to follow him through the new features.
His presentation began with a discussion on the differences and major upgrades from CS3 to CS4. While working in Adobe Bridge, Kevin explained the importance of metadata and collections. Kevin showed us the metadata from President Obama’s first official presidential portrait, which showed that the photographer used Adobe Photoshop CS3. After Adobe found out about this, they sent the white house the CS4 collection. The white house cannot accept gifts, so they purchased the collection.
His discussion in Photoshop concentrated on the new improvements of 3D renderings, the improved panels, the fluid canvas rotation, improvements in camera raw capabilities and content-aware scaling. Kevin also showed us some tips and secrets when working with content-aware scaling to best preserve our content.
His discussion evolved into InDesign and Illustrator, concentrating on their improvements and how all of the products easily integrate with each other. In InDesign, Kevin showed us how to create documents with the popular page-curl interaction. In Illustrator, we learned about the new blob brush and the benefit of multiple art boards. His presentation ended with a discussion on Adobe Acrobat’s portfolio options, providing a better option than zip to send multiple documents.
After Kevin’s presentation, he handed out freebies from Adobe and answered numerous questions from his audience, including: How do I become an Adobe Certified Instructor? How many computers can I install the software on with one license? When will the next version of these products be released?
Tim Decker
Tim Decker came in a little late, and immediately had technical difficulties getting his laptop hooked up to the presentation lcd screen. He did not skip a beat, however, as he got the group working on a caricature of Lisa Simpson. Having spent years working on the longest running animation of all time--for a period holding the prestigious title of head animator--Tim's presentation was a little surreal. His skill and speed while drawing are really amazing. While he could have drawn a perfect rendition of Lisa quickly and easily, he took it step by step and showed the class how animators keep continuity through each frame. His tips and tricks for animation were unexpected and insightful.
After all the technical wrinkles had been ironed out, Tim showed some animations that his students have done recently. A three-minute or more claymation by Tommy Simms really stole the show. A lot of the projects his students work on are professional and innovative. He also showed a few videos from his puppeteering class. I think most of the audience was amazed that this sort of class is offered. He also showed a "Poetry in Motion" series, in which his students' work was featured on public transit monitors all over the nation.
Overall, Tim is a charismatic and inspiring lecturer. He always takes time to emphasize that we, as artists, should be doing what we want to do. He spoke a lot about being scrutinized by instructors, employers and the general public. "Do what you want to do and if they don't like it, screw them," he asserted. I think he revealed a lot of the unknowns of the film department, and opened some doors for students to experiment.
Bill Bensman and Sara Gehl
Bill Bensman and Sara Gehl came to Driven 2009 to promote their Milwaukee-based creative services agency that recruits bright, creative, and tech-savvy local college students and recent grads, and cross-trains them in a variety of fields—from social media strategies to web-design techniques. They spoke to an intimate group of students where they explored social media and students can better brand themselves to their community.
Students discussed tips on how to promote themselves through various social media strategies. They started their session with an overview of their company, Spreenkler, and how they’re creative agency began. The founder, Steve Glynn, dreamed up Spreenkler in 2006 while mowing his lawn. He thought, “what if there was a group that worked sort of like a sprinkler—a Spreenkler—siphoning off creative people from all sorts of different industries, pooling their knowledge and talents, then dispersing their combined strength throughout the community?” In January 2009, creative services agency, Spreenkler Creative, was launched. One creative idea inspired another, and over time, there was an ocean of like minded individuals.” This current of creativity could revolutionize businesses, nonprofits and governmental agencies throughout the region—or even the world.
Through Sara and Bill sharing their experiences about Spreenkler with the attendees of Driven 2009, students left with a better knowledge of how to brand themselves by using various forms of social media.
Jeff Ganger
Jeff Ganger, a Milwaukee-based freelance designer, discussed tips on how to start your own freelance career. He began with an overview of his professional experience, which included his time in a design firm working on national campaigns. Initially, Ganger did not intend to work towards a freelance career, but the small work he was doing for friends attracted new clients. Now as a successful freelancer, he is able to choose which projects he wants to work on and develop relationships with his clients.
Ganger's tips and recommendations were geared toward new designers and freelancers. He outlined the various steps needed to get yourself legally and professionally established, providing online resources to help us get started. When asked how exactly he knew he was ready to be a freelance designer, Ganger stated, "when you have enough confidence to know your designs are great, then you know you're ready."
David Baskin
David Baskin ended up becoming quite the area of interest for many Driven attendees. With David being an industrial designer, he was one of the few sessions that featured something apart from 2 Dimensional design. Because of this, his session filled rapidly and he ended up having more attendees in his session that what the session was capped for.
David started out rather nervous, as this conference was his first time presenting his work in front of a body of students. However, this was not David’s first time to present his work on a professional level, and this really showed as he continued his presentation with ease and confidence. He really captivated the audience when he began to explain where Industrial Design fits in to the corporate world. From here, he shared the exact process that industrial designers follow, and provided some beautiful examples of his own work, as well as student’s work as he explained this process. Some of these projects included new and innovative playground equipment that he took part in researching and fabricating, as well as the designing of a new gift shop.
The most important thing that David touched on in his presentation was the fact that some clients may not know what it is that they want until they see what the designer has initially created. He spoke in detail what it has been like being the creative source for the CEOs that he has been working for, and that sometimes designers may only come up with ideas that the client ultimately does not want in the beginning of the process, in which case, they have to start the process over. The discussion of this topic was extremely informative to the members of the audience as most of them were students who have not had the privilege yet to do client-based work.
He closed his presentation by touching on where he can still go with his education and where he, specifically, wanted to put his talents as an designer, which was marine and yacht design. While David completed his presentation fifteen minutes before the session was scheduled to end, it proved to be a benefit as questions from the attendees of his presentation about his area of study continued on for a half an hour. He was able to answer all of the questions concisely, and confidently, sharing his knowledge and experiences as well as those experiences of recent graduates. Upon completion of his session, David received a great amount of thank-yous and applause. David really left his audience members well informed, but more importantly, he left the students in his session inspired.
The Little Friends of Printmaking
The Little Friends of Printmaking were just as named! They were two down-to-earth friends that loved what they were doing and wanted to share that with a group of people. James and Melissa are a husband-wife duo that are printmakers, through the medium of the screen-printing process. They do multiple color prints and monotone print that leave you wondering how they got so many colors out of only one color. Printing on french paper that leaves you with a dropped jaw. They are very passionate about the art that they are creating and the process in which they do it. It is great to see such excitement radiate throughout their personality and get other people excited and inspired.
People are drawn in by the style of their prints and get absolutely sucked in by their personality. These two shared with us their process all the way up to the final prints that they create. Both begin the ideation process together in sketching and end each project together in the printing of it. Team work to the max! The two have a very distinct style that started in the UW-Madison printmaking area of the art department. A teacher suggested they work together because of their complementing styles and have been together ever since. They enjoy being together and working on the prints that have brought them all over the US.
Their studio is in their own house. The Little Friends of Printmaking is James and Melissa, using screen-printing to create beautiful designs that inspire and capture our attention. Some prints purely capture by color and others by the oddity or distinct style that bleeds through. Most of all, their excitement to teach their craft and see more people know about how they create art in printmaking draws the masses. You wish you could spend your life in their basement with them creating prints for the rest of your life.
Carol Kerr
Carol Kerr's session was an intimate and engaging presentation. Her topic of interest was how to stay inspired throughout one's design career. She also showed her work to date and talked about her design process. Carol's work is diverse, ranging from web site design to branding, packaging and book design. Having worked in the professional world and educational world of design, her experience was evident while looking at her work. One of her students actually inspired her to come up with now design scheme for one of her clients; Australian client Harrison's Pharmacies. The images for the interior of the store are derived from scanned natural objects like flowers and whole foods. The tailored presentation of her design for Harrison's adhered to their target audience while also respecting the brand.
While speaking about her work, she intertwined stories about her young life as a designer in school. She shared stories of Australia's warm weather and living life on the beach. Her husband and daughter were also present for the afternoon session and chimed in with comments and even questions. Those in attendance had several questions for Carol and her responses were encouraging and insightful. She finished her presentation with a few words of advice and encouraged the fact that design can take you anywhere you want it to. Staying inspired is simply the means with which to do so.
