The last day included some informative Affinity Sessions, a trip to the Civil Rights Museum, and some dramatic presentations in the closing General Session. Here’s what I thought about what I saw.
Affinity Session
From Shepherd Fairey to Fair Use: What’s Law Got to Do with Us? Linda Joy Katthwikwel. What it was: a copyright attorney and design educator explain the complexities of intellectual property law. What I thought: This was one of the most informative sessions I attended.
After the morning sessions Karen and I met up and took the trolley to the Civil Rights Musem, a historic site documenting American anti-black racism culminating in the tragic assassination of MLK at the Loraine Motel. It was hands-down the most moving experience of the trip, telling the most heroic story of the late 20th century with graphics, text, video, and a smattering of artifacts.
Affinity Session
Branding Obama, Sol Sender and Scott Thomas. What it was: Two designers talk about branding a Presidential candidate. What I thought: Wow. These guys should restore our belief in design in the service of Something Really Important.
Design Fair
Bookstore. What it was: The best books on design, typography and illustrations, cherry picked just for us and discounted. What I thought: I wonder what my credit car limit is?
Vendor Booths. What it was: Tons of vendors promoting sustainable design, beautiful books, and cool hands-on activities. What I thought: I should have brought another suitcase for the books I bought.
Hands-On Activities. What it was: Jim Sherridan of Hatch Show Print demonstrating letterpress. What I thought: Says print: “The reports of my daeth have been greatly exagerrated.”
Command X Workstations. What it was: Mac workstations set up for Command X contestants What I thought: This is my worst nightmare: an impossible brief, rediculous deadlines, and clients in your face. And yest, it is a reality show.
Microsoft Game Lounge. What it was: Grown men playing guitar hero.
What I thought: where’s the bar?
General Session
Welcome and Introduction, Kurt Anderson. Anderson did a nice job of thinking up questions for the presenters.
Making Pictures to Make You Think, Jill Greenberg. Greenberg is a talented magazine photographer and interesting personality who showed her latest work and told how she punk’d McCain with some mean-spirited pictures posted on her website during the ’08 election. What she did was legal but not very honest, and it made a lot of the attendees uncomfortable, judging from the comments on Twitter.
Redesigning Design, David Butler. Butler is a VP for Coke who talked about the power of mega-brands in a global economy. The opposite of Greenberg, he was apolitical and talked about design thinking at the macro level.
Command X: season 2. The final round had the three finalists designing a “response” to the Civil Rights Museum. With a wide-open design brief these designers wandered a bit afield, though the winning design, a socially-conscious social network-ish website about human rights was handsome and thought-provoking.
We ended the conference with a night out in Memphis, sharing a trolley with Chip Kidd and Michael Beirut on the way downtown. We had some Pinot Grigio at a private party in the Rock and Soul Museum, later grabbing some barbeque at Rendezvous with Jim Bryant and his design students from Murray State.
Sunday we checked out and had brunch at Automatic Slims before heading home. Make/Think helped me undrstand how design is being reshaped by the economy and emerging trends; I drove east on I-40 feeling inspired and recharged.
Photo by Nate Hofer
