Grey Eyed Creative

Pardon the wait on this one.  But let’s get back to it.

So I was in Austin.  Hanging out with fellow designers from around the country, and the world actually (I met a nice girl from England during one of the networking sessions. We talked football, Arsenal, and Manchester) and I was enjoying every minute so far.

Here are a few of my favorite sessions and events from the next few days.

But first, let’s set the mood a bit for this post. Here’s a little something in tribute. I hope you rock this song while you read.

Thursday - June 25th
Von Glitschka’s - Living a Creatively Curious Life A great session about looking outside yourself for inspiration. Von Glitschka delivered an entertaining and inspiring talk about how to increase your own personal inspiration and how something unexpected can lead to great opportunities.

He described how a simple tribal design turned into tattoos for people and eventually an energy drink deal he landed. Let’s just say at the end of it, he had the entire audience up and dancing. Good times. Check out VG’s work at Glitschka.com

Jesse Harding - Working with Indecisive Clients Something I think every designer has run into is the indecisive client. Whether to increase the logo size or change color schemes last minute, there will always be “those type of clients”. Jdawg delivered a great talk on some techniques to implement to deal with these type of clients. A few highlights that I’ve already implemented myself are:

• Outlining talking points for meetings with clients. A simple email prior to a meeting will help both of you stay on point, and make sure you get done what you need to get done. How many times have you had a meeting where at the end of it, nothing really gets resolved? Helping your indecisive client stay on-point will help. Productivity is what it’s all about it.

• Mood Boards!

This was a great tool that seemed to be the norm that everyone knew about except me. Safe to say I’ve jumped all over it because I love the idea. Mood boards are a great way to keep you and your client on point when it comes to overall theme of your job. Whether that be a website or book cover design, providing your client with your early ideas via a digital version of a mood board is a great way to keep indecision at a minimum. Check out Jesse Harding’s site here.

Designer Marketplace - Homemade goods by designers
This was a good time. Designers had the chance to sell products and pieces of theirs to anyone who wanted to stop by and pick something up. Found some great bookmarks from Melissa Ivone of Operation Nice. To call her a sweetheart is an understatement. Thanks for the good times Mel.

That night we all rocked the Lanai Rooftop Lounge downtown Austin. That was also the night Michael Jackson past away. Every car, club, and bar was rocking his music all night. It definitely made for an unforgettable night.

Friday - June 26th
Cameron Moll - Good vs Great Design
Personally, I enjoyed this session the most. Being a web designer himself, much of Cameron had to say was directly related to work I personally am doing now. A small piece of advice that I think was great was the idea of blurring your design and gray-scaling it to check for hierarchy. I was taught something similar a while back but never have put it to use. After Cameron mentioned the power this technique can wield, I’ve started using it myself. And it’s definitely helped.

Also, portable mood boards via butcher paper! Great idea. Making your mood boards mobile can be great for meetings with clients on-site. You can simply roll that puppy out and show exactly what you’re thinking and the direction you’re considering. Check out Cameron Moll’s site here.

Rolaine was nice enough to snap a photo with Cameron and myself.

Keep Austin Weird Party
Friday night was the Keep Austin Weird party which brought out some crazy characters and good times. I’d thought use this time to share some of the great people I had the pleasure of meeting.
@adamschlosser - Adam. My wingman.
@delatweet - Brian De La Torre. Impeccable web-designer. You hiring yet, dude?
@rolaine - Sweet sweet Rolaine. OPTIMUS SURVIVED!
@chanie22 Cindy, you were the first person I met. NYC, represent!
@razviti - Jenny. Representing Texas with me.
Fabienne David - My studio tour partner. Connecting on all sorts of levels. Working for Clorox in California. How awesome.
Mario Chaney - Dude. You won the Wii Bundle. Well done.
Lydia Grossgov Mmm..expresso.
Melissa Morris Ivone Just plain Nice.
Joseph DiDomizio Buffalo NY! Holla.
Justin Raju You’re my boy, Blue!
Amy Shock Amy, greatest last name.
Chris Maddox Two words. David Cross. Good times man.

Sincerely, one of the greatest experiences ever. I took away a lot of great information, and met many great people. HOW Design Conference, you get two very big thumbs up!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.