photo by Aaron Arthur

I am not a “trekie.” I grew up on “Space 1999” and “Thundercats,” however I can draw the parallel to a bunch of manic, lunatic fringe designers. We are “trekies” in our way—spooky, serious and devoted to the craft of making stuff pretty. Think about 3,500 geeked-out designers in Atlanta for 3 days…

This is the “Creativity Business & Technology Conference for Graphic Designers,” and as I found, a great forum to recharge my creative batteries. HOW was able to provide design seminars, inspiration and creative advice with some of the industry leaders like: Chip Kidd, Gary Baseman, Deborah Sussman, Kit Hinrichs, Marc English and many more. These creative professionals lead the charge in how we see things, and it was a pleasure the see their creative fervor first hand.

Here is a play-by-play of my HOW experience:

Sunday

ARRIVE´… check in and register. Ooh nice room. Hit the expo.

BFG has a large offering of Art Directors and we hit the expo area in “Reservoir Dogs” style. Riley and myself—in the spirit of Smirnoff—grab a quick libation and begin to work the room. Lots and lots and lots of paper vendors: Wausau, Neenah, Mohawk, Xpedex… they must have given away 50 tons of paper samples. The irony of a tattooed and pierced designer carrying around paper bags full of paper samples, wearing a beret with a “STOP GLOBAL WARNING” button provided much comic relief.

We are far too lazy to carry paper samples, but we did get in line for free swag. For a moment I thought I was in line for Space Mountain, but I was carrying a cocktail, and you cannot do that (legally) at Disney World. Riley kept picking up discarded wine glasses, still nearly full, free wine is good wine. One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure.

“Spaulding!!!!!!”

We made buttons at the HOW button craft table. Riley’s said, “Look at my dumb friend.”

Thanks bro.

The expo area remained open each day with Adobe sponsored previews of CS3 and other cool “Enter to Wins.” Riley tried to get me to do the Adobe “Design in 15 Minutes Contest,” and by the looks of what was happening on there, I had a real chance.

BFG regrouped and grabbed some dinner at a local ATL microbrewery. Some of our group packed it in—some got weird. Whatever your fancy… Toby almost tackled me. He’s strong.

We bump into Scott Harper (former BFG compatriot) “Duuuuuuuuuuuude.” Who now works for UF. I love that guy.

Monday

Free breakfast. Yum.

“A Number of People” with Chip Kidd. Awesome, this cat is a trip. He shared his creative process, client quirks and how to approach being truly creative and unique. Only at HOW can a speaker use certain superlatives, reserved for drunken brawls, and get away with it. This guy is the wizard.

HOW records these sessions and the mp3s can be purchased online. It’s an empire, and we are on the death star.

What I did notice is, how engaged my peers and I were. It was refreshing to be immersed with a group of other professionals that get it. I felt like I was in a club, a cult, or something like that.

“How To Make Burnout Delicious” with Grip’s Kevin McConkey. This guy was super-cheesy, but he had a lot to share about staving off creative burnout. And as jaded as some of us are, this was an interesting exploration. After this seminar I wanted to hug everyone, walk old women across the street and kiss babies. Creativity is a resource that needs to be fortified. Good stuff.

Lunch. Hooters was the only resource close by, I swear… they do make a mean chicken sandwich.

“Staying Creative” with Shelley Armstrong, headed up the in-house design group for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. I have a 360 and I love games. A no-brainer. She and her team had to wrangle many moving parts. I will never complain again about moving parts—her team had 3 continents involved. They had weekly design top and bottom 10s and collages of good and not-so-good work.

Part of their approach to design included a lot of the things we have at our office. The display wall, light, textures, sound…

Next seminar:

I coerce Riley into bailing on his seminar choice and joining Amy and I at “Transitioning from Order Taker” seminar. BIG MISTAKE. After about 10 minutes, Riley and I bailed, leaving Amy all alone. We did manage to make a bit of scene as we left. I felt bad (sort of) as people hung on every word and scribbled pages of notes.

Off to Marc English’s “The Way of the Design Shamen.”

Very passionate and loud… I like him already. “Boy this guy is a fruitcake,” says Riley. I am still unsure how his ego can fit in the room with 1,500 of us egomaniacs. However, his perspective and work were stunning. He can bloviate all he wants. Marc weaved his life experience and traveling with his insight. And he gave a very inspiring body of work and backed it all up with personal experience and connection.

Dinner.

A rainy bike ride followed by Harry & Sons (The Highlands) sushi and sake with Riley and local ATL friend Wes. Soon we ended up at a Heavy Metal karaoke bar with a live band. I was floored. We begged Andy and Statts to share the $10 cab ride and join us. They declined. Cheapskates.

I soon broke rank and Wes and Riley stayed out a little later, so says the 3am text messages I received. In my experience, I have found any sort of decisions made at 3:00am or later are usually flawed.

Tuesday

Did I mention free breakfast?

“Using Story Telling in Design” with Kit Hinrichs of Pentagram. Pentagram is one of my favorite design shops, and they do really good work. He coupled other storytellers (photographers, writers, etc.) in the collaboration process. Plus being a patriot, I loved his American Flag collecting exhibit. To me, Kit is Yoda and I am a young Padiwan.

Color Management: The Why and How of Color Communication. Boy, was this NOT what I thought it was. I wanted more of a color theory approach… I got a 101-level course in how to calibrate your monitor and a “How To” on gamuts and L.A.B. color. I would rather have eaten Draino. Starbucks saved the day…

Cool HOW bookstore, I got some great books at a discount price. I wanted to get Photoshop for Dummies for Riley—he didn’t get the joke. The goth chick in line next to me did.

Next…

“Designer’s Anonymous: A 12-Step Program” with Chris Elkerton and Dave Gouveia of 3 Dogz Creative gave a very open-ended, organic session. They identified the 12 everyday hassles that bother us designers. They even poked fun at some horrible mainstream design. These guys had me rolling. Honestly, I thought their work was average, but they were dam funny.

Snack. Has anyone seen Justin or Statts?

Another Shelly Armstrong seminar, “Collaboration: Keeping Multifaceted Projects Cohesive.” I really dug her vibe the 1st seminar, so I went back for more. This session jumped into the depths of collaboration and offered some strong advice on keeping large projects consistent. The take away on this was very helpful and useful in the juggling acts we do here at BFG. The more I see what other people do, the more I agree with our process. We get it done.

Overall, HOW was a great experience. I encourage everyone to check one of these out. I took away some great ideas and ways to apply new concepts and keep the creative stream flowing. Atlanta treated us in a very hospitable way. Good sushi, good beer and great Heavy Metal karaoke.