Thursday was the final full day of Design Week Vancouver at Canada Place. The topics of discussion ranged from The Cultural Value of Art in Design to Global Design Procurement... so a bit of everything. Eyjafjallajokull (the volcano in Iceland) caused David Lancashire to send his presentation over the internet. The conference officially closed last night but there are still special events going on around the city. Today's main one is an Education Roundtable (1 to 5) and Grad show preview (6 to 9) at Emily Carr.
Once again the rain stayed away and the sun poked its head out to give slices of sunlight for the conference participants.
Many more sketches and photos to see!
The amazing, time consuming, ornate and beautiful work of Marian Bentjes blew everyone away. She is based just off Vancouver, on Bowen, but makes images and content for clients worldwide.
A bit of Marian's inspiration comes from manuscripts and the decorated initials from hundreds of years ago. She believes there is a role for ornamentation and art in the world of design.
Notes from Marian's talk.
Rod Roodenburg, of Ion Design and one of the Design Currency 2010 Co-Chairs had a question for Marian.
After a coffee break, Ian Grais, whose firm Rethink Communications (of Vancouver fame) did the branding for Design Week, spoke of how we, as designers need to use "stratecution" in the creation of ideas and content. Picture are some of the older media formats he is still attempting to retrieve images and sound from, to his kids bewilderment.
Ian had a couple audience members do some Kung Fu moves on each other.
A local Vancouver designer, Tetsuya Shiba, brought a paper trimmer for his plethora of notes.
Tetsuya Shiba is originally from Yokohama but makes one of its sister cities, Vancouver, his home.
Frank Chimero from just down the road (Portland, OR) was on just before the lunch break and keep minds active with his Rules of Engagement talk.
One of Frank's main goals in his philosophy and work is to DELIGHT in some way. In his opinion it adds much value to the design we see online or in the physical world around us.
The internet is... made of cats.
With sustainability a big buzz-word for the conference, lunch was provided in a compostable container.
A magazine and design lovers favorite, International Designers Network magazine was showing its stuff.
A flip through an issue of IDN.
Emily Carr University of Art and Design also had a presence and supplied a good number of the hard-working volunteers.
Current is "an academic journal intent on demystifying the design process. As an established centre for research and innovation." published by Emily Carr University.
Ali Gardiner and Ben Hulse were a part of the team that worked for years putting together all the visual communications and branding for this past Vancouver Olympics. An amazingly massive job of approvals, co-ordination and creativity.
Ali and Ben could easily talk for a week about the once-in-a-lifetime experience of the Olympics. So much great and detailed information!
Even super design nerd stuff like colour palettes had to have sign off from who knows how many people and committees. Cool to see.
The mood boards and research for the Games visuals were exhaustive.
Ben Hulse and Ali Gardiner.
Notes and sketches from Ben and Ali's talk Value for the Brand.
The Global Design Procurement panel discussion had Blair Enns (who moderated), John Gleanson, Debbie Millman and Ali Gardiner talking about "money" and how it is very difficult to purchase design that will be right for the project.
Notes on Procurement.
A second panel discussion brought Valerie Elliott (sketched above), Nathan Shedroff and David Berman (not the Silver Jew) to present their thoughts about Sustainable Practice.
Valerie said we have to "change our thinking".
Nathan told us "change can't be made on our own".
Mr Berman emparted to the audience that we must "Do Good", not just Good Design.
Sketches from the Sustainable Practice discussion.
Due to the volcano in Iceland, David Lancashire, presented his thoughts and work with Australia's indigenous culture through the magic of the digital world.
David's life has grown close to the land and first nations people of Australia.
Debra Sparrow, of the Musqueam nation spoke of her experience and reconnection with her people's design culture and past.
Notes from David and Debra's talks about Design & Indigenous Culture.
The last talk was by Dr. Tony Golbsy Smith of Australia and was about Design's Higher Calling to change thinking so innovation can happen.
Dr. Golbsy Smith drew live notes during his presentation.
Old-school pen and paper notes.
Dave Mason was the MC for the conference and did a super job with his quick wit and snappy jabs.
Thanks again to ICOGRADA and the >GDC for allowing Vancouver Is Awesome to experience this event able be able to share a bit of the content.
Another form of notes and comments can be found at Design Week's twitter.
