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

Adobe Breakfast Workshop: Exploring Creative Suite 4, Claudia McCue
What it was: The latest features in CS4 presented by one of Adobe’s evangelists. What I thought: It was nice to get the highlights presented to us by a pro, and better to get her email address for later!

In between sessions I browsed the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers of 2008 exhibit, and the PostGig poster exhibit. What it was: the best-designed jackets and books, and some beautiful band posters from some of the best artists and designers in the country. What I thought: Would security notice if I walked out with these?

Affinity Session
Pricing Your Work, David C. Baker. What it was: A hard-nosed business consultant giving valuable tips on positioning, contracts, estimating and more. What I thought: I’m gad I have salaried job.

In the afternoon we skipped some of the conference to see Sun Studios, the Memphis Mecca where Elvis, Carl, Johnny and Jerry Lee recorded. The tour, by a guy named “Dave” might have been the best guided tour I’ve ever had!

General Session
Welcome and Introduction, Kurt Anderson
Command X: Season 2. What it was: Five students redesigned Cap’n Crunch. What I thought: Psychedelic type looks surprisingly good on a cereal box
The Design of Google, Marissa Meyer. What it was: An explanation of the minutia of Google’s semi-minimalist interface. What I thought: OK, but it needs better design.
Design and the Liberal Arts Education, Elizabeth Coleman. What it was: The Presidet of Bennington bemoans technical education and the timmidity of the tenure system. What I thought: These design profs had better not catch her alone on Beale Steet.
Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing and Citicism, Willam Drenttel
Makers and Thinkers, Stefan G. Bucher. What it was: A German makes monsters from ink and compressed air. What I thought: Very cool drawings.

Happy Hour in the Exhibits Area
Student Portfolio Review. What it was: dozens of design students presenting their work in “speed interviews.” What I thought: MTSU students looked really good.

Film Night: Typeface, directed by Justine Nagan
What it was: A film about a wood type museum. What I thought: This film makes me sad for letterpress.

We skipped the Design Observer party at the New Daisy Theater and stayed in on a rainy night.

Richard Grefé welcomed us, and Kurt Anderson moderated, introducing speakers, making relevant comments, and keeping things moving along. Al Bell, chairman of the Memphis Music Foundation, and former Stax Records entrepreneur welcomed us to Memphis with a rousing sermon-styled presentation on creativity with courage. His comments linked music with art and design and introduced the history and culture of Memphis.

Stephan Sagmeister talked about his recent sabbatical in Bali, and was my favorite for creative visuals and philosophical thinking. His message was that we should avoid boredom and repetition by quitting our jobs every few years—a solution that the economy is already forcing on some of us.

Carin Goldberg talked about inspiration and motivation, presenting her work, including music packaging, book design, and editorial design.

The Command X competition pitted seven young designers against each other, competing for “cash and prizes.” Michael Beirut hosted as the designers presented their logo designs for Graceland. Panelists made comments and selected two designers to cut from the first session. The next assignment is packaging for Cap’n Crunch cereal.

The closing presentation was 20/20, hosted by AIGA president Debbie Millman. It invited a group of young designers from 20 AIGA chapters across the country, each giving a one-minute presentation. The subjects ranged from a critique of the lack of African American designers working in the U.S. to a video of three designers destroying a Kindle reader with a baseball bat. Fun!

Photo by Nate Hofer

I’m packing my bags and practicing my Elvis voice for the AIGA conference this week in Memphis. Make/Think is October 8–11, 2009, which means (hold the applause) I won’t be teaching my Thursday Typography and Design I classes, but there will be work to do and attendance will be taken.

Meanwhile back in Memphis I’ll be checking out the speakers, events, and Command X, the graphic design reality show. It’s pretty cool that the AIGA folks are heading to Tennessee for a national gathering, and I for one plan to show some southern hospitality. Karen and I were stuck at the Ecolodge, but thanks to a last-minute call we’re upgraded to the Crown Plaza, where we’ll be sipping mint juleps in the jacuzzi, or whatever it is people do in 4-star hotels.

We’re fortunate to have a national AIGA Design Conference is in Tennessee for the first time in years. The Make Think Conference is October 8–11 in Memphis. It’s a great opportunity to rub shoulders with great designers from across the country, to learn tons, and to check out the new “design reality competition” called Command/X. I’m not able to make this one, but our AIGA pres. Angie Hardison is looking for folks to go.

Erin Garty just dropped by my office and spilled about Make/Think. It’s an AIGA Design Conference and it’s coming to Tennessee October 8–11, 2009. And no, I’m not planning to miss it. There are speakers, events, and even a graphic design reality show for students.

Update: I’ve heard the Creative Summit was canceled for this year. Hopefully it will work out next year.

The Dish student design conference in Nashville is February 5–7, and it’s organized by my friend Noel Lorsen at MTSU, and you should all go. I took a carload of students last year—we had a great time, got some nice swag, met some cool design students, and did some networking at design studios in Nashville. Codelia Norris says she’s driving down anyway, and is looking for a couple of others to go along. I don’t want to post her email here, but you can reach her through Facebook, or by emailing me with a message I can pass along. Wish I could go, but I can’t put off my tenure proposal any longer.

The student rate is $30. I went last year, and recommend it highly. If anyone else is interested, it might be fun to get a group together and carpool over.