Phoenix Design Week 2009

• Where is the Valley Going?

  Join a panel of local professionals for a discussion about how design should play a part in the future development of Phoenix—from urban community layouts to the buildings themselves.

• It's Cool to Be Flat

  This session has been developed to defend the flat aesthetic and rebuke the dated tendency to add played-out 3D effects, drop shadows, 'reflections,' and other unnecessary ornaments to design layouts.

• Agency Evolution Panel

  Listen in as agency representatives discuss the makeup of a "traditional" design or advertising agency vs. the evolution of new, smaller shops. This session will explore the pros and cons of company hierarchy, billing methodology, client service tactics and more.

• Web Anatomy:
  Introducing Interaction Design Frameworks

  In this illuminating session, Robert Hoekman, Jr., author of "Designing the Obvious", "Designing the Moment", and the upcoming "Web Anatomy" (with coauthor Jared Spool) introduces interaction design frameworks as the perfect starting point for a usable design and reveals how to extrapolate design criteria from them to go beyond the standards without sacrificing usability and understandability.

• UX Design and the Mind

  This session serves up an introduction to using psychology and cognitive science as guidance in user experience design, and will reflect on concepts introduced by Eisenberg, Cialdini, Norman, and Fogg.

• Talk to Your Client Like Your Mom

  Creative professionals often struggle when it comes to educating or presenting to clients. This session will cover strategies for communicating with clients in the areas of education, the art of presentation and effective ways to talk about complicated, design-related subjects.

• Illustration Design Panel

  Join us as we discuss the daily process, long term lifestyle and practical minutia of being a professional illustrator. The session will be chocked full of samples, demos and handouts, and will also feature a Q&A section for those inquiring illustrator minds.

• Monthly Installments of Brand Management

  Take an in-depth look at how niche magazines manage their brands on a monthly basis in order to become—and remain—consistently successful.

• The evolution of graphics

  Technology allows us to image anything everywhere - why you care - and how to take advantage.

• The Phoenix EDGE

  Move beyond signs, billboards and posters to discover a world of environmental graphic design in Phoenix. This session serves as an introduction to the real meaning of environmental graphics and will educate participants about hot topics such as wayfinding and placemaking. The session will touch on the opportunities and responsbilities for designers, as well as what environmental design really means to the Phoenix community.

• Designing for Web Standards

  This session serves up an introduction to web standards and how designers can use them as a basis for creating a site design. It will touch on the fundamentals of standards-based HTML and CSS, as well as correlated design theory.

• Green Design Thinking

  This panel will feature speakers from a variety of business and design perspectives who will be fielding your questions about "going green." The panel will also discuss trends, influences and ideas that can lead the way to greener design across different design mediums. Through this session, each attendee can learn how sustainable design practices lead to innovation in business, and why using and wasting less makes good business sense.

• Motion Graphics Phoenix

  Sit in on an open roundtable discussion with motion graphics designers from throughout the valley. The goal of this discussion is to unite motion graphics designers so that they may share experiences and network with one another. This roundtable also serves as a great way to introduce web or print designers to the wonderful world of the moving image.

• State of the Phoenix Creative Class

  What is Phoenix Design, and who represents the creative class? What does the Phoenix design culture look like from the outside? We've brought together several great minds to discuss the current state of the creative class in the valley, and what is to become of it in the future.

• Looking, Thinking, Sketching

  This presentation is based on an experiential approach to drawing, and is based on the premise that everyone can draw. This session functions on the understanding that drawing has nothing to do with technique or aesthetics, but everything to do with the act of observation and getting in contact with objects through the use of all five senses.

• Death to Traditional

  The world has gone blind to traditional forms of media. Explore new ways to think, create and execute alternative tactics that will truly connect with consumers and deliver the results your clients demand.

Schedule