SD – Day 3 – Ain’t too tired to blog…

Oh my, what a long day. Thio spost should have been on the 18th, but I didn’t get in until after midnight, so… It was a full day, that’s for sure. It all started off with a great speaker, Karen Salmansohn, acclaimed author, giving her How to Be Happy as a Designer, Dammit! shpiel. It was pretty funny stuff. I enjoyed it and I think I may even have learned something other than the fact she loves to call people on the phone and say the word “PENIS” to them to make an impression. LOL!

Next it was off to Hillman Curtis’s session called Putting Your Heart Into Your Design. Awesome work and an intersting speaker. He spoke a lot about how the current state of affairs worldwide has gotten to him and affected his design work both for better and for worse. He was in NYC for 9/11 and very briefly touched on that. I was thousands of miles away and still feel the effects of what I saw and felt that day. I guess artsy fartsy types are just more sensative to that stuff. Either that or it’s more important to us so we pay closer attention. I’m not sure whci it is, perhaps a bit of both.

The third session I attended was by Jay Jung, Creative Director of New Product Development for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Yes, he supplied enough fresh doughnuts to feed the entire room more than once, and no, I didn’t cheat. I went doughnutless. Jay’s talk was called When Executives Have an Idea (something all designers have dreaded from time to time). He gave creative solutions on dealing with the problems that may arise as a result of an executive’s idea. Interestingly he shared four Krispy Kreme related stories about brand development and dealing with creative tasks.

The fourth and final session I went to today was called The Process Makes the Difference by Deb Fiorella of Franke+Fiorella. Simplifying and defining the creative process brilliantly Ms. Fiorella gave her firm’s re-branding of Cargill Foods as an example of how the creative process works i application.

This evening I went out to dinner with Brendon (who I play first-person shooters with) and his wife Brandy. Brendon is in the US Navy and Brandy works at the San Diego Airport for the Department of Homeland Security as a security guard checking people’s baggage for nasty stuff. A very patriotic family to say the least. We went to Seau’s and I had another steak. Afterward we went back to their place where I got a fix of Call of Duty on Brendon’s gaming machine and showed them my lunch and this blog; nice folks. I’m always surprised by how comfortable I am with these people I’ve never met face to face. After the final session tomorrow we and a few of the other dudes we game with are going to see Shrek 2. Could be fun!

Finally, I went to the How Conference Tuesday Night Reception aka The White Party put on by Neenah Paper a good time was had by all. Everyone was dressed in white and was given blue glow sticks and little battery operated and magnetic LED lights to decorate them selves with. Here are three pictures I took … … …