Kumbaya Helen

After a weekend of lectures about how as a designer I can save the planet, I decided to get back to nature and camp! Normally, I would never go a day without my hair straightener or a nice bed, but whats a couple of days without them when I can be one with the woods. Oh yea, it was Oktoberfest...but who really needs a reason to drink?

After a three-hour drive to Helen, well really we got to Helen in the time it should have taken, but someone forgot to print out directions to the campsite...ahem..so it took three-hours instead. We finally got to our campsite where everyone was waiting and wondering where we were...damn cellphones!

The next morning we ate breakfast and some how came up with a new game to play in the woods... Rock Golf. Basically, you throw a rock at a tree and however many times it takes you to hit the tree is your score. Greg was the winner of the first round... here he is kissing his trophy. Notice our locker room... We had a lot of eligible players. By the way, my team won the second game. I think we could have made this game into something big! Am I obsessed?










We then went into to Helen and did the usual... drink, watch football and mingle with the men in Lederhosen! Oh yea! Good times!! Nothing too interesting happened, which I thought would since I haven't camped....never. It does feel free to pee in the woods! ;)

I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a lot rockier than this

That John Denver is full of shit...turns out Denver is a drive a way from the Rockies. For some reason I was thinking of Aspen? We're there! I mean I could go on...

Every two years, AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) holds a Design Conference and this year the title of the conference was called NEXT. "What is next in design?" Obviously, there are many answers to this question, but the one answer that was common amongst the designers at the AIGA Conference was that we as designers can help "save the planet" (sorry to be cliché about the whole thing). Whether it was the type of paper or ink we use for clients or what we can do to help change the future of the Earth by doing small things in our everyday life. Some ideas were definitely doable for me and some were probably too idealistic for how I live my life. I'm not RICH!! It definitely make me think of what the future holds for our planet.

One lecturer by the name of Janine Benyus caught my eye and that there are people...smart people...out there who are not just doing the small things to change the destiny of the Earth, but who are doing bigger than big things to change the destiny of the Earth. Biomimicry-the process of finding sustainable ideas by echoing nature. Who would have thought that the way to save the earth is to follow nature's processes! Please read about it! It's very interesting!

During this 4 day conference, we meet in the morning, break for lectures during the day and then meet again in the afternoon. I attended some inspiring lectures:



House of Bumble: Creative Vice President, Alexander Brebner, talks about the creation of the company's identity.

One World, One Dream, One Look: Design Challenges and Ideas for the Olympic Games. Dana Arnett revealed their process to get Chicago to host the 2018 Olympic Games, Patrick Cox talked about how the London 2012 Olympic identity is a hot debate and Min Wang talked about how he created the 2008 Beijing Olympic identity to enhance the experience of the athletes and spectators.

Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne discussed the beginnings of their magazine, Ready Made. It's a magazine about how the ready-made is an art object and how it's evolving into everyday living.

The wonderful Ellen Lupton gave a heart-warming lecture about how anyone can be a designer... a publisher, a singer or a writer. She promotes the DIY movement and believes that it's the future and next for design.

Overall, it was a great feeling to be surrounded by the most talented designers, Michael Beirut, Michael Vanderbyl and Noreen Morioka just to name a few. I was star-struck! Hopefully, their talent somehow rubbed off on to me!