UCDA Design Conference 2011: What to wear, what to eat!

Desert Apparel

The conference is just three weeks away, and it’s time to get packing! So... what should you wear?

Conference speaker Dion Zeuss, from ecoLingo, provided some great information and tips, and you can expect the temperatures to be in the 80s and 90s. Dion says Phoenix celebrates summer all year long, so t-shirts, shorts and sandals will definitely be appropriate. (You may need a sweater or light jacket for attending sessions in the air conditioning). Fashionistas, don’t worry about wearing white after labor day or fall colors, because everything goes in the desert!

The opening kick off party is outside and casual. The ground at Hidden Valley, the site of the party, has a pea gravel and sandy surface, and when I wore sandals there, I had to shake the sand and pebbles out, so be advised.

If you haven’t checked out the site for Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs, take a look at all the amenities. There are lovely pools throughout, so bring swimwear if you want to take advantage of the water features. There's an onsite gym, and speaking of working out, the resort is located on the side of a mountain so a good hike around will also be good exercise.

Good eats

There are several onsite restaurants where you can get a decent meal at fairly reasonable prices, including a small gift shop for snacks and beverages. If you plan to rent a car, then Dion Zeuss suggests these choices:

AJs is an upscale grocery store with a cafe/coffee bar, deli, fromagerie, and a bistro (lunches and hot meals). There’s an AJ’s very near the Resort, located at 13226 N 7th St.

Also in the same direction, (heading North on 7th Street) then turning right (East) at the first light on Thunderbird, will take you across the State Road 51 and onto Cactus Road to Paradise Valley Mall where one can shop, eat, etc.

Probably the best collection of good restaurants in one stretch would be South of the resort on the Camelback Road corridor, which includes the Biltmore area. You can check out general restaurant info.

And then there is the Biltmore itself, it’s a great place for evening cocktails on the patio. But if you are looking for an elegant and upscale venue for dinner, consider the resort's Different Pointe of View, which features delicious food and wine with an incredible view of the valley.


If you want to get out and experience local, one-of-a-kind favorites, Dion suggests these establishments located in the Camelback/uptown Phoenix area. Click the links for more information:

LUX coffee bar
Luci’s Healthy Marketplace and Coffee Bar
La Grande La Orange cafe/grocery (super cute place to grab a bite, sit on the patio and peruse the gift shop).
La Grande La Orange Pizza
Postino Wine Cafe
Smeeks (A cute little sweet shop, and while you are at Smeeks, check out Frances Vintage next door)
Churn (artisan ice cream)

So there you have it... Leave the office behind and relax in shorts and summer gear, and sample some great cuisine. De-stressing will surely get your creative juices flowing. You'll return to work inspired and ready to put into practice the many things you’ve learned!

Creativity and Collaboration: Wil Heywood. Kevin Smith. Cindi Farmer

Hello everyone,

I hope that you have had a chance to read through these posts for insight on the speakers we have lined up for the 41st Annual UCDA Design Conference.

When I started organizing this year’s event, I researched the topics from past surveys where members indicated what they'd like to learn about. Not surprisingly, at the top of the list were new technologies.We have planned programming to address everything from best practice and theory to the technical nuts and bolts of new technology. A second theme emerged from the surveys, which was basically, “how do we be creative, stay creative, and stimulate creativity” at a time when enonomic pressures have left many of us with smaller staffs and increased workloads?

Back in May, I highlighted our opening keynote, Bob Hambly of Hambley and Woolley. Bob will start the conference of with an inspiring speech on creativity. We have two more speakers that will also address this topic, Dr. Wil Heywood of Arizona State University, and Kevin Smith of Auburn University. And Cindi Farmer from ASU will tell how collaborating among designers resulted in a better photo-sharing solution.

Designers are uniquely qualified to help their institutions harness the power of creativity, technology and communication to prosper and grow, but sometimes we need a little help in how to convey our ideas, and how to collaborate with campus partners.

Dr. Wil Heywood comes highly recommended by ASU designers who have taken his course on creativity. He has an interesting background as a Clinical Psychologist, and at present his research and practice explores the role of team building, creative collaboration and mindfulness as it relates to design education and critical visual thinking.

Join Dr. Heywood for his session, “Creativity, Confidence & Collaboration.” This is a session for those who understand the need to bring more creativity, playfulness and flexibility into their work. The ability to respond creatively to new challenges is demanded by everyone, but making the switch from imitative and rule-bound behavior to creative innovation and flexibility requires a profound change in our attitudes about ourselves and our capabilities. Learn how this energy can be applied with confidence in your individual work and collaborative efforts with others.

Kevin Smith, an educator from Auburn University, will present his session, “IDEATION: Generating Idea Bubbles.” Ideation is the process of forming and relating ideas, and relating them to design which is the visual sum of these ideas. Tap into your creative juices and find out what idea generating methods are new, what methods have stood the test of time and which methods seem to work best.

In addition to teaching, Kevin also runs a small design studio, which, just like all of us, found themselves in the position of having to adapt to new technologies and online expectations. His session “Small Studio Transitions from Traditional Print Media to a Multimedia Studio,” will tell how, with limited resources, they were pressured to be more creative and resourceful in a multimedia environment. He will outline the studio’s path to become a successful multimedia studio, and the tips and tools he used to get there.

Our last speaker to be profiled is Cindi Farmer, from Arizona State University, who will present “Flickr Photo Management.” ASU struggled for years with how to manage and share a sprawling photo library at their large university. Several designers worked together to find a solution and decided the best solution for them was to use Flickr. She will share their experience, and talk about the models and processes that have worked for the community of designers at ASU. Come join the conversation.

The conference’s theme of “THRIVE” truly resonates with me. We all must do everything we can to stay on top, and the past few years for colleges and universities have been challenging to say the least. Armed with resources and knowledge, I do think that it is not only possible to survive the current crisis, but to evolve, grow and thrive.

Use what you learn in Phoenix, because you can be a great resource for your institution!

Featured School: Northern Arizona University. Susan Kirtland

Inspiring Online Insight

Continuing with our theme of “Thrive,” we have some great presentations on online practices that will help keep you on the cutting edge to help you reach your audience...

For our featured school presentation, join Sandra Kowalski and Trey McCallie from Northern Arizona University for their presentation, “Elevating the Digital Experience.” NAU recently undertook the gargantuan task of revamping their entire system, taking 300 web sites that were under performing, to make them into something that helped them achieve their mission and strategic roles. Sandra Kowalski leads the University Marketing and Printing Services departments at Northern Arizona University, and Trey McCallie is the university’s web master. They’ll show you how the team conducted research and changed management strategies that influenced the design, photography and content creation, resulting in a more relevant, revitalized web presence.

Susan Kirtland, of Propeller Communications, will present “What Your Visual Messaging Really Says About You.” She is a nationally recognized expert in strategic marketing and positioning. Susan will demonstrate how a more powerful approach to brand positioning includes the identification and use of accurate visual cues that will trigger the desired perceptions you want for your college or university. Through the use of actual case studies, she will explore the five elements of successful visual messaging. Learn the important role graphic design plays in your institution’s brand positioning and how it directly impacts target audience perceptions.

Another key aspect to success is your website’s usability. Susan presents “Do-It-Yourself: Testing Your Website’s Usability.” Learn how to use in-house resources to test your institution’s website for effectiveness and ease of use. Topics include how to assemble a concise questionnaire to achieve optimal feedback, how to conduct the testing on your campus and how to use the data to determine the appropriate refinements to make a positive impact.

The Means for Great Magazines

Schedule change: Domenica Genovese and Brenda Foster from Greatest Creative Factor, a firm that specializes in marketing for education, will present two sessions to replace Marc Oxborrow’s sessions scheduled for Monday, October 17.

The new programming should give designers who are searching for quality content on magazine design something that will not only be extremely helpful, but also inspiring. This programming provides The Means for Great Magazines...

So, alumni magazine designers and editors, what are your issues with your magazine? Too little time? Too much copy? Too little budget? Too many cooks? Join Domenica Genovese, partner and creative director at GCF, for her session, “Having Issues?” This presentation will focus on ways to make great magazines in spite of the obstacles you may face. Topics include designing a flexible grid, beginning with great covers, creating memorable feature stories, using contrast, pace, and rhythm, and more. Domenica will encourage you to participate in the discussion with your own thoughts, observations, and success stories.

We’re all on this speeding train known as “technology,” and it’s becoming a clear expectation to have your magazine available online...

Do you ever wonder how your online magazine compares to others? Are you interested in ways to make your magazine more compelling? Should you keep or kill the print version of your magazine? Brenda Foster, partner at GCF, explores these questions and more in her presentation, “100 College Online Magazines.” She shares results of a survey she led last year, where survey participants from 100 online college magazines answered 24 questions in five categories—the landing page, marketing, design, navigation, and technology. This data was analyzed and supported by interviews with alumni magazine editors who spoke about their specific challenges and successes. The presentation will reveal the do’s and don’ts and best practices for creating and launching a great online publication.


I’m excited about this great new programming. See you in just 4 weeks!

Elizabeth Scarborough. Aisling Kelliher. Lauren Candito

In today’s economic environment, designers must work smarter than ever in order to thrive. This might mean using research and data to your best advantage, or finding new ways to connect with your audience. The trio of speakers showcased here can give you that smarter edge...


Working smarter with research data

Elizabeth Scarborough will present a general session, “Bridging the Gap: Building Design Strategy on Marketing Research Data.” An engaging speaker who is an industry leader, Elizabeth promises to prove, once and for all, that data geeks and graphic designers can live together in harmony!

More and more, colleges and universities are conducting comprehensive, multi-audience marketing research in order to establish a brand positioning strategy. And once the positioning strategy is established, a creative concept needs to be developed to bring that brand to life. But, how do you really bridge the gap between research and creative? How can data lead to design?

Elizabeth will present powerful case studies to illustrate how colleges and universities on the cutting-edge of higher education marketing have drawn creative concepts directly from market intelligence. She’ ll highlight the research findings and then walk through the creative concepts that spawned from lively discussions!

In addition to clocking more cell-phone hours in airports and rental cars than George Clooney in Up in the Air, Elizabeth Scarborough is CEO and Partner of SimpsonScarborough, and is a nationally recognized expert in the use of research to drive marketing and branding efforts, with 18 years of experience in providing strategic solutions to colleges and universities.



Working smarter with an emotional connection

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 lived experiences. Join Aisling Kelliher, media systems designer from Arizona State University, for her session, “Mediated Storytelling: Telling Something to Someone about Something.” An expert in her field, Aisling will explain how today’s social media platforms, mobile applications and hybrid physical/digital environments present rich opportunities for creating new forms of storytelling experiences. Join her as she demonstrates how to design, build and evaluate engaging mediated storytelling platforms.


Working smarter with social media

Lauren Candito from Social Media Solutions offers two sessions that will help you reach your audience using today’s tools and practices. Her first session, “Game Changers: How Educational Institutions are Using Social Media,” explores the advent of new technologies, such as the internet and mobile, which have given rise to an inter-coupling of relationships across vast numbers of digital social networks. The speed at which these communications take place, their lack of geographic or social boundaries, and their ability to convey complex information and synthesize millions of viewpoints into easily digestible formats is unprecedented in the history of man. Higher education has not been immune to these changes, and our traditional educational systems find themselves buffeted by social media and the various technologies that it rides upon. Learn how higher education institutions can leverage social media to your advantage.

Lauren will also present “How Today’s Students Use Social Media.” Today’s college students use social media (i.e., Facebook, Myspace, Twitter), cell phones, blogs, and instant messaging at higher rates than people from other generations.Yet faculty members generally lag behind students in their use of technology. While some embrace it, most faculty have negative views of newer technologies, believing that technology use hurts students academically and socially. Nevertheless, research shows that students utilize newer technologies that are beneficial to them. Recent research has shown that students who use Facebook at high rates have more positive educational outcomes. And the use of blogs, cell phones, and instant messaging have all been shown to promote student academic and psychosocial development. Learn the trends so that you can “talk the language” of your key audience and communicate effectively!


Check back soon to learn how your online presence can be the best it can be. Sandra Kowalski and Trey McCallie from Northern Arizona University recently revamped their entire online system and will share insights and lessons learned from their experiences. Susan Kirtland, of Propeller Communications, with present two sessions about what your visual messaging says about you, and how to to a self-audit of your website’s usability.