Thursday, May 26, 2011

Breakout Session Overview

We all need to keep up with technology and follow communication trends, and we can use techniques to refresh our creativity, too! The breakout sessions at the UCDA Annual Design Conference will provide tools to help us keep our edge and thrive in the higher ed market.


Here's a brief overview of the Breakout Sessions:

Lauren Cantido, of Social Media Solutions will provide valuable insight on how social media is being used. Check out Game Changers: How Educational Institutions are Using Social Media, and How Today's Students Use Social Media. You'll come away with information to help you take advantage of this fast-paced media platform.


Brad Mitchell, from Missouri State University transitioned their print magazine to online with minimal in-house staff and just a few students. Learn how they did it with Transitioning Alumni Magazines from Print to Web. He will also provide Ten Tips for Creating Online Videos.

With over a decade of design experience in eco design and visual communications, Dion Zuess from ecoLingo Studio believes that designers have a unique opportunity to integrate talent, communication strategies, and social responsibility. Join Dion for Why Sustainable Design is Smart Design, and explore opportunities to rethink design roles, gain tips to "work smarter" and gather inspiration from world changing design solutions from around the globe.

Trish Witkowski is Chief Folding Fanatic at FoldFactory.com. Ever seen a twist fold, snake fold, reveal folder, angled roll fold or bidirectional accordian? Trish will show how fresh new solutions can maximize the success of your projects in her session, Escape the Tri-fold Funk.

When is Creative "Too Creative" for Admission Campaigns? You're a designer. You crave those opportunities to exercise your creative chops and push the design envelope. New recruitment campaigns present just that opportunity! Or do they? Lori Schmidt of Lime Twig, and Todd Haynie from Eastern Arizona College will talk about the definite ideas today's students have about being "marketed" to. EAC is a campus with unique marketing distinctions, and their recent marketing strategy pairs eye-catching design with primary marketing messages to reach the right students. Explore this successful campaign and others that have resonated well with students.

Wil Heywood is a Clinical Psychologist whose recent research explores the role of team building, creative collaboration and mindfulness as it relates to design education and critical visual thinking. In Creativity, Confidence and Collaboration, find out how to bring more creativity, playfulness and flexibility into your work.

You're looking at that really bad photo that you just to have to use... Can you fix it? Join photographer Earl Richardson to learn techniques from his session, Lipstick on a Pig—tips that can help salvage that problem photo.

Along the same lines of working smarter, join Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich and Matteo Bologna for their Survival Type session. Imagine this scenario: You have no budget, the computer has hiccups, and the artwork was provided by the (air quote) gifted (air quote) three-year-old daughter of your client. Enter Typography to save the day! Explore the versatility of creating type from thin air with this class exercise.


Garrick Chow, from lynda.com presents two can't miss sessions. He will revisit the popular iMovie in an Hour which he presented at the 2008 Savannah conference. iMovie is the easiet way to import, edit and share videos, and Garrick shows you everything you need to know to go from raw footage to final product.


Garrick Chow also is presenting Preparing Your InDesign Documents for the iPad. He will walk you step-by-step through the process of tweaking your existing inDesign documents and converting them into the ePub format for viewing on the iPad. Garrick will also provide an overview of the options that are available for distributing your publications to the iPad, and how to convert them to other eBook formats for use on devices like the Kindle and Nook.

From Auburn University, Kevin Smith is an educator who teaches design and runs a design studio. His studio faced the same pressures of adapting to a multimedia environment that we all do, and he'll share the tips and tools he used to get there. Kevin will also present his session, IDEATION, Generating Idea Bubbles. This session will explore the process of forming and relating ideas, and design is the visual sum of these ideas.

Check out Do-It-Yourself: Testing Your Website's Usability. Susan Kirtland, of Propeller Communications, will present how to use in-house resources to test your institutions website for effectiveness and ease of use. Susan will also present a session, What Your Visual Messaging Really Says about You. Through actual case studies, you'll explore the five elements of successful visual messaging.

Telling stories is a fundamental element of what makes us human. It is also a highly intuitive way in which we make sense of our everyday lives. From the earliest cave drawings to Polaroids, blogs and tweets, we have always used a rich variety of media and technologies to represent and understand our life experiences. Today’s social media platforms, mobile applications and hybrid physical/digital environments present rich opportunities for creating new forms of storytelling experiences. Join media system designer Aisling Kelliher for Telling Something to Someone about Something, as she demonstrates how to design, build and evaluate engaging mediated storytelling platforms.

Arizona State University struggled for years with how to manage and share a sprawling photo library. Several designers worked together and found a solution by using Flickr. Cindi Farmer will talk about the models and processes that have worked for the community of designers at ASU wiht her session Flickr Photo Management.

Okay, folks, this was long, but we have such exciting sessions planned, I wanted to give you all an overview of what's to come. Next week I will begin to share in-depth session reviews and bios for our speakers...

Monday, May 23, 2011

Get ready for Phoenix!

It's time to grow, evolve, and THRIVE!

We're well on our way to another great UCDA Annual Design Conference in Phoenix, October 15-18th, 2011! The lineup of speakers will inspire, educate and provide the relevant tools that you need to THRIVE in your job.

Check this blog weekly for updates and insights on programming and activities. You can find detailed information on the UCDA website as well, just follow this link: http://ucda.com/conference.lasso, and click on the conference activities listed on the left side.

General Session highlights include:

Keynote speakers Bob Hambly, of Hambly and Woolly Inc., with his session, "Curiosity: The Designer's Secret Weapon;" and from Pentagram, D.J. Stout with "Content is King."

Bob Hambly's session will take a close look at Curiosity, and how it can be nurtured and encouraged rather than feared and undervalued.

D. J. Stout will talk about the importance of content. The most effective publications deliver content with good writing, powerful photography and thought-provoking illustration in a fluid combination of all these elements.

General session speakers include Elizabeth Scarborough of SimpsonScarborough, Sandra Kowalski and Trey McCallie from Northern Arizona University, and Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich and Matteo Bologna, masters of typography.

Elizabeth Scarborough promises to show how research findings can spur creative concepts that prove, once and for all, that data geeks and graphic designers can live together in harmony.

How do you take 300 web sites that underperform and make them into something that really helps you achieve your strategic goals? Sandra Kowalski and Trey McCallie of Northern Arizona University will present a fascinating case study of the NAU process.

Because English is the second language for Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich and Matteo Bologna, they communicate with type. Come experience the power of typography and visual imagery.

Next up, breakout session highlights...
See you in Phoenix!