Conference schedule

Thursday 24th January 2013

0830 Registration

0930 Opening remarks

0945 The Nimble Process with Jason Santa Maria

Design processes vary from person to person, but there is always room to improve and evolve the way we work. We have many tools to help us achieve polished designs earlier than ever now, but many times knowing which tool or method to choose when can influence the strength of our ideas. Is analog better that digital? At what point do you start working in a browser instead of Photoshop? Learn how getting ideas out quickly through prototyping, sketching, and iteration can help you work and test more quickly, while also working smarter.

Jason Santa Maria is the founder and principal of Mighty, a Brooklyn-based design studio. He is creative director of Typekit, a faculty member in the MFA Interaction Design program at SVA, former vice president of AIGA/NY, founder of Typedia, a shared encyclopedia of typefaces online, and creative director for A List Apart, a magazine for people who make websites. He discusses design on his award-winning website. @jasonsantamaria

1030 Appropriate Tension with Tyler Mincey

For our work to solve meaningful problems for the people we care about, we need to excel at working together. Designing, building, distributing, and sustaining products require deep collaboration between an interdisciplinary team. We'll discuss the characteristics of a team where everyone is a designer in their own right and the requisite culture of respect and challenge, of learning and teaching. With experience comes the ability as a team to truly innovate: by moving constraints and not just designing within them.

Tyler Mincey Hi, my name's Tyler, my friends call me Tyler. I worked at Apple for 5 years managing the engineering development of the touch screen for the first iPhone and the iPod product line. These days I work with my good friends at Fictive Kin building new web and mobile products, organizing Brooklyn Beta, and trying to live a life I'll be proud to tell the grandkids about. I like loud music. @FictiveTyler

1100 The Inertia of Ideas with Michael Heilemann

On listening to ideas, yours or others', large or small. Michael will draw from his experiences in web development and present a brief guide to persevering through the chaos and darkness – and emerging victorious before it's too late.

Michael Heilemann grew up in Denmark, studied in Scotland, married a Brazillian, and lives in New York. He spent a decade making computer games such as Hitman and Kane & Lynch, before a growing obsession with content management systems and web development lured him away from his day job. Michael is known to some as the creator of 'Kubrick', a WordPress template that went on become the default template for all versions of WordPress since 1.5. Michael joined Squarespace in 2010 as Interface Director and oversaw the launch of Squarespace 6 in July 2012.

1115 Refreshments courtesy of Hoefler & Frere-Jones

1145 Responsive Teaching with Tiago Pedras

We have been used to the ever-changing dynamic nature of the web. It's part of our jobs to keep accumulating fresher knowledge and to stay up-to-date with the new super important aspects of it. The process of explaining this whole deal of Web Design to someone that is just starting out from a clean slate can be a daunting task. But this doesn't need to be slow and boring as any other old school class would be. Can teaching Web Design be a truly responsive and adaptative process?

Tiago Pedras is a web designer, teacher and entrepreneurship enthusiast from Porto, Portugal. He's worked around the web since 1998, been teaching web standards and good design practices at ESAD, Matosinhos since 2006 and founded his own web studio TPWD. His main focus is about thinking and developing positive experiences for the users, making the web a tool for a better world. @tiagopedras

1215 Billboards and Novels with Jon Tan

Journey into the science and technique of beautiful, functional type for the web. We’ll explore the technical landscape of screen type, detour into choosing good fonts for the work we face every day. We’ll also delve into science that will equip us to make the business case for beautiful web typography. By the end of our trip, we’ll have discovered the nuances of typesetting that can help our employers and audience get their work done, and enjoy what they’re doing along the way.

Jon Tan Jon Tan is a designer and typographer based in Mild Bunch HQ, the co-working studio he runs in Bristol, UK. He co-founded the web fonts service, Fontdeck, and is a partner in Fictive Kin, where he works with friends making things like Brooklyn Beta and Mapalong. He also writes for publications like The Manual, speaks at events like An Event Apart, and works with organisations like the BBC. He can often be found wrestling with his two sons, and losing. @jontangerine

1300 Lunch in a bag (provided)

1400 New Adventures in... Code! with Seb Lee-Delisle

When you mix creativity and code, exciting things happen. In this entertaining and down to earth presentation, Seb will show the best examples where creativity and code collide, and prove that it’s not that hard to extend your skills outside your comfort zone.

But Seb isn't going to bully you into learning to code. Instead he'll show you how easy it is to code some simple visual effects, and before you know it you'll be a creative coder yourself. Expect some live (and therefore risky) demos.

Seb Lee-Delisle is a creative coder, speaker and teacher, working across platforms including JavaScript, Processing and openFrameworks. He works to bring people together with large scale installations like PixelPhones, interactive firework displays or glow-stick voting systems. His work has pushed the boundaries of what is possible both on and off the web, and won two BAFTAs with Plug-in Media, the agency he co-founded in 2004. A sought-after speaker, his recent Creative JavaScript / HTML5 workshop series sold out within hours. He also co-hosts the Creative Coding Podcast. Website / @seb_ly

1445 The Beauty in the Impermanent with Stephanie Troeth

As designers, makers and creators, we often think in terms of form and function—but what about time? We tend to build and design as if time didn't exist, as if everything were made of plastic that is to last for thousands of years. Could we perhaps learn from an ancient aesthetic movement that began in medieval Asia, and embrace impermanence in our digital world?

Stephanie Troeth is a user experience strategist who loves maturing ideas and making things real. She has worn many hats, including a product lead for a startup in digital publishing and a studio director at a digital agency. She is also known for her grassroots contributions to best web practices through the Web Standards Project and the W3C. Well-travelled and living on her fourth island, she speaks several flavours of English, a few languages, and possesses an indecipherable accent. Website / @sniffles

1530 Refreshments courtesy of Hoefler & Frere-Jones

1615 Wayne tells it like it is! with Wayne Hemingway

I will be telling the story of how my wife Gerardine and I built Red or Dead into an international fashion label from humble origins as a stall on Camden Market and then went on to create our current HemingwayDesign and Vintage brands across housing, interiors, products and fashion. The story is about bravery, risk-taking, vision and sheer hard graft.

Wayne Hemingway is a fashion designer and co-founder of Red or Dead. With his wife Gerardine, he built Red or Dead into a fashion label that received global acclaim. He is also chairman of the South Coast Design Forum, and chair of Building For Life (the national standard for well-designed homes and neighbourhoods forum). In 1999, having sold Red or Dead he set up HemingwayDesign which specializes in affordable and social design. Wayne and Gerardine were both appointed MBE in 2006 for services to the design industry. @HemingwayDesign

1645 Procrastiworking with Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische is a letterer—at least that’s what she does to pay the bills—but aside from client work for folks like Wes Anderson and Penguin Books she leads a second career as a professional “procrastiworker” or someone that procrastinates from what they’re supposed to be working on by starting up other fun projects. In this talk, she’ll explain why procrastiworking is the key to professional and personal happiness, take you through her process for side projects and client work from start to finish, and talk about why sticking to plans or aspirations too strictly can be the quickest way to kill your enthusiasm.

Jessica Hische is a letterer and illustrator best known for her personal projects Daily Drop Cap and the Should I Work for Free? flowchart. Just six years out of college, she’s been named one of Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists and an ADC Young Gun, one of Forbes 30 under 30 in Art and Design, and currently serves on the TDC board of Directors. She has been profiled in many publications, has traveled the world speaking about lettering and illustration, and has probably consumed enough coffee to power a small nation. Website / @jessicahische