My First Conference (Part Two)

I’ve been trying to work a seemingly random collection of thoughts into a follow up post about New Adventures conference. It’s not really happened so I’ve chosen to just throw them out there to anyone who is interested. Overall I enjoyed the day, it was fun, informative and pushed me out of my comfort zone, teaching me things about design and myself that are valuable and I am processing in order to improve.

Most enjoyable was Brendan’s talk. He was the most entertaining in delivery and engaged the audience excellently. His passion for design is infectious, but something I felt myself identifying with straight away. I don’t obsess over using the right pencil, but my friends can attest that I do obsess over other seemingly pointless items. Most disappointing was Veerle Pieter’s talk about inspiration. I really enjoy Veerle’s blog, and so was looking forward to hearing her talk but, for me, it had too much example and not enough insight. I was hoping for some processes which people could adopt or adapt to make their own and use as triggers in the creative process. I know we all work differently, but hearing how someone goes about finding inspiration when all they are hitting is brick wall after brick wall can be inspiring in itself. Veerle also seemed to contradict some of the talks from the morning, with a theme of doing something a certain way because you like it rather than for a particular reason. Whilst design is subjective and sometimes we go with our gut, there’s usually reason for doing it beyond “I like it”.

Most thought provoking was Dan Rubin’s talk on maturing the industry by developing a language that has meaning and that everyone can understand. Having moved to a new job around 3 months ago and having had the opportunity to work on a couple of web jobs, this struck a cord. The things I mean when I refer to something and the things they mean when my new colleagues refer to something are easily confused on these jobs, however, when it comes to a print job everyone knows exactly what the other person means.

Elliot’s talk, Andy Clarke’s, Jon Tan’s and Mark Boulton’s were also some of the most informative, interesting and thought provoking talks that left me feeling inspired and motivated. Good stuff that I have already noticed is informing the way I work.

New Adventures was a really good day, which I thoroughly enjoyed, hopefully I’ll get to a few more in the future and I’m certainly hoping that I can make it to New Adventures 2.