One of the trip highlights was having the opportunity to lunch with Jessica Hische (celebrated designer- she was recently cited by Creative Boom as one of the top 20 most influential graphic designers today, author- her beautiful kids book Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave just hit shelves), Josh Higgins (former Design Director for President Obama and currently Executive Creative Director for virtual and augmented reality products and hardware at Facebook), Alex Center (former Strategy and Design lead at The Coca-Cola Company), and fellow Toronto-based designer Ronnie (whom I had been introduced to through Scott Christie from BLVD Agency the previous night at the after party). Having the chance to chat one-on-one with these influential designers about design and life was something I’ll never forget. At the end of the day, despite their fame, they’re just good humans trying to make a difference in the world through their art.
As a mompreneur of essentially 2 toddlers (my business and my human child) the balance can sometimes be precarious. It’s a stressful path that I chose to run my own shop, but this conference really invigorated me creatively, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I am back from this action-packed trip feeling inspired and connected with the design community at large. I was almost taken aback by the outpouring of support upon returning home. I expected my team to hold down the fort and kill it in my absence (which of course they did!). They were super excited to hear all about what I had learned and seen and we immediately geeked out ogling the new design books and inspiring pieces I picked up at the conference (half a suitcase full!). What surprised me is that a few days after I got back one of our ongoing clients was in the studio to discuss new projects and expressed his support of our participation in these types of industry events; understanding the value of continuous education, professional growth and how this could ultimately benefit the work we do for them.
So thank you RGD, thank you DesignThinkers and (despite the Montreal-Toronto rivalry), thank you Toronto. It was amazing to be there and amazing to come home.
Thanks to everyone who came out to hear our Creative Director Elana speak on the latest in web design trends. In case you missed Elana’s talk, you can view the slides here.
Sporting our custom “In Pizza We Crust” DESIGN IS YUMMY tees.
Last week the Design Is Yummy team had the pleasure of attending the One & All Conference hosted by DyanmicMTL (among others).
The conference consisted of a full day of inspirational talks centred around creativity and design. From speakers like Andrew Herzog (co-founder of HAWRAF), Maura Cass (Design Researcher at IDEO, Ali Weiss (SVP of Marketing at Glossier), and Sebastian Spier (Design Director at Nike and an old classmate of our Creative Director, Elana) to name a few, we were reminded of the impact design can have on consumers and in return the impact consumers can have on design as well. Design, as many speakers illustrated, is meant to provide an experience and provoke meaningful connections. Andrew Herzog put it well with “The communications you put out into the world should invite people to say something back.”
We left the conference more conscious of the work we deliver and inspired to get back to work and continue creating.
If there’s one thing we love as much as design, it’s food. Food is a multi-sensory experience that has the incredible ability to bring people together. All these elements combined (taste, touch, consuming, interaction, etc.) lead us to wonder where the future of food culture will lead us, and to question our current relationship with food. Will we interact the same way with food in 20 years as we do now?In its second year, the Bitten Food Conference in New York City is dedicated to openly discuss the future of food culture – what it is, what it means, and what it can be. Different from other food conferences, Bitten reveals itself as a creative, technological, trends conference. This year, 20 panelists will share their knowledge on the topic in hopes to inspire and engage audiences to see food culture in a new light. Co-founders Naz Riahi and Emily Schildt explain, “Food affects everyone. It’s the common thread which is why we’re seeing so many other spaces, from music to art to fashion, tap into food as a means of building an engaging their communities.” The goal of the conference is to “highlight how exciting, innovative and creative the food space is […]”. Bitten makes the conversation on food open and accessible to those outside of the food industry, while encouraging those presently in the industry to share their thoughts on the topic. Yum!
Last weekend our Founder and Creative Director, Elana Rudick, had the pleasure of speaking at WordCamp Montreal. WordCamp is a conference dedicated to learning and sharing all that is WordPress (an open source content management system). The early Sunday morning crowd was an enthusiastic mix of designers, marketers, developers, freelancers and bloggers. Thanks to all those who attended, participated, shared and made the talk so much fun. Hopefully we were able to share some insight into how to chose the best theme strategy for your next project. Overall, the conference was a blast- we learned a lot, shared a lot, made new friends from across Canada and the U.S., and ate way too much candy provided by Planet Hoster. 
Who knows? You may be able to catch the talk in person at an upcoming North American WordCamp in the coming months…stay tuned. For now, the slides are available below:
Montreal Meets 3 is bringing in a great lineup of designers for its 2013 conference on design and creativity running May 27-28, 2013.
The conference provides an opportunity for the creative community to connect with each other and exchange ideas.
Speakers include: Behance co-founder, Matias Core; New York typographer, Dana Tanamachi; Montreal-based art director and graphic designer, Julien Vallée; Michigan visual artist and art director, Chuck Anderson; Brazilian director and graphic artist based in Portland, Oregon, Nando Costa; New York illustrator and graphic designer, Lauren Nicole Hom; designer & co-founder of Ars Thanea, Peter Jaworowski; Montreal-based clay artist and sculptor, Raku Inoue; commercial advertising photographer, Dean Bradshaw; award winning London, UK, art director and illustrator, Radim Malinic; and Nova Scotia visual artist, James White.
The two-day conference will be happening at the TELUS theatre in Montreal, Qiebec.
Tickets are currently on sale for $150 for the 2 day pass ($100 for students).
Find more info or to purchase tickets, click here.