Pica 2011 Summary

The 2011 Pica conference, organized by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, wrapped this Tuesday with 200 creative folk spending 3 days in Banff and looking to learn about design in an “un-conventional” way. With a great line up of speakers, a mountain backdrop and an extremely entertaining host (Laurie Rosenwald), the Pica conference was “beyond” my expectations.

Myself (Adnan) and Brad Blasko attended on behalf of Vision Creative. After eating, listening and note-taking this is what we came away with.

Laurie Rosenwald – New York artist extraordinaire and conference MC
Aside from showing us her collage illustrations, Laurie entertained us with jokes and her unique sense of humour.  I won’t try and write her biography, so you will have to visit rosenworld.com to learn more about her. Here is what Laurie had to say:

1. A blank computer screen is the devil – Laurie used a blank illustrator artboard as an example and said that it’s the scariest thing a designer could look at. She wants us to stop thinking so hard while staring at a blank computer screen and begin our ideas with something tangible (a sketch, object, inkblot…etc).
2. Do it for love or money – There is no in-between.
3. Make mistakes on purpose – Laurie’s workshop Making Mistakes on Purpose teaches people how not trying works better than trying.
4. Steal from yourself – Make something. It doesn’t have to make sense at the time, but you might be able to come back and re-use it. She gave the example of a triangle shape she drew quickly one day and then later, under tight deadlines, turned it into a canary by adding a beak, eyes and feet.

Randy Hunt – Etsy – Pattern Recognition
A New York designer working at Etsy, Randy Hunt’s Pattern Recognition talk was about how observing patterns can simplify the way we execute complex tasks and solve design problems.

1. Observe then inspire – For example, by observing the pattern of people’s movement in Union Square, New York architects were able to recreate the same behaviour in one of their building designs.
2. Patterns produce a “shared language”, patterns reduce “redundant effort” – Etsy creates back-end code called Patterns for their website, that is then used by staff to simplify repetitive tasks when editing the website content.
3. “The world is moving quickly, we need to make change quickly”

Armin Vit – Under Consideration – The Good, The Blog and The Ugly
Armin was not able to make it physically to Pica (see his tweet below), however, the Pica team got a Q&A with him over Skype which made the presentation a lot more spontaneous.

Apologies to #PICA2011 attendees: I didn’t make it to Banff, as Mexican citizens (i.e., me) need a visa to go into Canada. #foundouttoday.

Quick Facts:
Armin works from home in Austin, TX with his wife Bryony and one intern, sticks to a rigid routine and is author and creator of the popular blog Brand New.

Answers:

1. Advice to graduates: show your portfolio to everyone even if they aren’t hiring because getting feedback is very important.
2. Send your blog address to lots of (well known) people because if they like it they will pass it on.
3. His blogs make money from advertising.
4. Writing on blogs is equally as important as the design. Even though it’s all about the content always make sure that the design is considered.

Thanks to Farin Manji for the above notes.

Blair Enns – Win Without Pitching
Blair Enns wants to change the way creative services are bought and sold the world over, one creative firm at a time. His Win Without Pitching Manifesto is available on his website as a free download, but I would advise everyone to purchase it and place it in your desk drawer next to your coveted client list.

Here are a few excerpts from his manifesto:

1. “The world is drowning in undifferentiated creative businesses. What the world needs, what the better clients are willing to pay for, and what our people want to develop and deliver, is deep expertise”
2. “We claim to have been raised in a family or a culture where it is impolite to talk about money, but we know this is only a half-truth, don’t we?”
3. “We will take seriously our professional obligation to begin at the beginning, and we will never put our clients or ourselves in the position where we are prescribing solutions without first fully diagnosing the client’s challenge.”

Ray Fennwick – Illustrator – Why do it by Hand? Seriously, Why?
Ray Fennwick is an author and illustrator of Hall of Best Knowledge and Mascots living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. You have to love Canadian illustrators! In his talk, Ray shared some valuable lessons he learned through his experience.

1. When doing a T-Shirt design for Threadless.com, Ray created an ornate “Hi” as one of his submissions. The design didn’t win many votes and had a few negative comments to go along with it. Nonetheless, the people at Threadless decided to print it and now it lives on T-shirts, mugs, baby onesies and was recently been published as a cover for his own postcards.
2. Ray received a photo from a friend of someone that had used his hand lettered typeface for their own commercial work. He made this comment: “People taking your typeface (or scroll) is like taking your skin, putting it on, and going out in public pretending they are you and peeing on things”. He quickly took action against this un-original culprit.
   

Jason McCann – Taxi
Jason McCann (not to be mistaken for the Jason McCann a.k.a Justin Bieber that recently trended on Twitter) finished off the Pica conference in a unique fashion. He wrote his presentation on paper from his notebook and then photographed it individually all over New York using Instagram and then placed on his iPad and presented using the Flipboard app. This is why he is the VP, Co-ECD at Taxi Toronto (quite the fancy title) and works for clients like Mini, Telus and Gatorade. Jason raised some good questions we should all ask our selves when looking for that BIG idea.

1. Does the pressure to replicate outweigh your instinct to innovate?
2. Are you solving the problem or solving the brief?
3. Are you iterating instead of innovating?

You can see more of Jason’s work at Taxi.

How about you? Did you like or dislike any talks? Did you learn anything that will help you become a better designer/person? Did you see any wildlife? Let us know what you thought of Pica 2011.