md words

TEDxPHXDC happened this past Thursday. The event was an experiment on several levels, and I want to talk about the successes and failures, hoping others can get something out of them.

Goal: Uncomplicated –

I run Phoenix Design Week. A huge endeavor with tons of wonderful volunteers, all with different roles and responsibilities. The process can be frustrating, confusing, overwhelming, all while still being wonderful and a statement to the value of shared passion. It’s a complicated event, and needs a complicated organizational structure. This is true for other events I’ve been involved with.

I’ve also been involved in an event where the main organizer was overbearing, overly detail-oriented, demanding and stressed out the volunteers. (I hope I don’t do this with Design Week, though I know I’ve had my bad moments.) This event didn’t need to be so complicated, or stress inducing, or drawn out. The event content was all that mattered, and thankfully that’s what shone through during the event itself, but the process was miserable for all involved.

I wanted to do things differently: I wanted to put on a small event that focused on content, and didn’t stress anyone out, other than me.

The Success:

I organized all the speakers, I organized the venue arrangement, I put the website together (with some bug-fix help from Andrew Coppola.) I did 98% of the leg-work up until the week of the event. I’m not saying this as a compliment to myself, but rather as a way to show that I didn’t need to stress other people out, I didn’t need to over-complicate a simple idea with cumbersome leadership. To be fair, TEDx has a robust set-up kit, and I always knew I could count on Tomas Carrillo for some advice, as he’s done TEDxPhoenix. I did need to bring people in at the end, to pick up items (Thank you Bully), to manage the audio (Thank You Andrew), to record the A/V (Thanks to Andrew, Safwat Saleem, Bill Binder & Jose Gonzalez). And a huge thanks to Chanelle for taking pictures. I think I did this without stressing them out too much.

The Failures:

Lots of last minute “Oh shit, I didn’t think about that…” stuff. Could these have been avoided? Yep. Will the from now on? Yep.

Also, I accidentally sent Bully on a traveling adventure for the giant TEDxPHXDC letters. I owe him some gas money. Double check the addresses of places you’re sending people to pick things up from.

The Future:

Double check things like power and lights and audio. Bring people in earlier for those event day logistics. But really, these events don’t have to be hard. Talk to Tomas Carrillo if you’re interested in hosting a TEDx event in the valley, he will help you get started. I highly recommend it. I’ll be doing these again.

Goal: Focus on Content -

The event was a curated selection of speakers in the design field. I asked people I knew and trusted. This isn’t favoritism, because I didn’t pick people just because I liked them. I like them because they are talented and intelligent.

(For more information about the speakers/eventually the videos of their presentations, visit tedxphxdc.com)

The Successes:

Without a doubt, the content of this event was stellar. There is no way to pretend otherwise.

The Failures:

None. There is no way you can go wrong with an event if you focus on the content. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The Future:

This is the only way to go!

Goal: A Curated Audience –

TED asks that people apply to attend. The way you know you’ve made it is if you see a $3000 charge to your credit card. I wanted to do something similar. I set up a small, easy barrier for people to show they wanted to attend. I asked two questions: What are you passionate about? & Why do you want to attend this event?.

I didn’t want this to be fancy. I wanted a small event, with smart people who want to change things. In the acceptance emails I wrote:

We’re counting on you to do something valuable with the knowledge and inspiration you’re going to get. So, expect to leave this event with an actionable idea to change the world, or Phoenix, or even just the life of a single person.

Come prepared to hear great stories and to share your own with the other attendees.

Each attendee was given a sharpie and an index card. They were asked, at the end, to write something down: “What are you going to do to change the world?” and then hold that card up and have their picture taken with it. Accountability!

Also, to spark the conversations between attendees after the event, each attendee received a puzzle piece. After the presentations they had to find the other 3 parts of their puzzle and talk to them about their ideas. It was a small icebreaker, but a unique one I think. (Tanner Woodford was nice enough to print them out for me.)

The Successes:

The applications were, for the most part, wonderful. The barrier also seemed to be a great de-motivator. Which, in my viewpoint, was a bonus. There were no serial attenders at this event (Those who attend every event they can without having any real connection to the content or adding much value to the conversations.) Those who were accepted to come, came. All of them. 100% attendance for an event. No one was rushing to buy a ticket, then having a twitter contest to give it away. These people wanted to be at the event. It was a huge compliment to both the event and themselves, showing their passion.

I can’t say for sure how successful the event conversation/activities themselves were, I suppose the attendees will have to speak to it. I think everyone enjoyed the activities, and enjoyed the prompts for ideas.

The Failure:

I don’t see a huge downside to the curation approach, other than the unfortunate situation of people who I know and am friends with not making the event. I will keep the selection process to myself, but it was not a matter of names, but words. A small downside, but avoidable if people understand they don’t just make it in because you like them.

As for the activities, a small logistics thing, but some people had to leave early, and some of the puzzle pieces disappeared. Maybe its something you hand out at the end of the event, to be sure everyone can find each other.

The Future:

This event was a success for the quality of attendees, not quantity, and I will do it this way next time as well.

Goal: Highlight the community -

I could’ve done this event without the TEDx moniker. I wanted to include it in the hopes that the videos we produce and the content of the presenters eventually get placed on the main TED site, or in other similar avenues. I want to be able to facilitate the great Phoenix design community getting as much attention and praise as it possibly can.

The Successes:

The content was great, the audio came through great. I am not sure about the video yet, due to the spot-light blowing a breaker, but I think it is salvageable.

The Failure:

Stupid light. I hate it so hard.

The Future:

Less reliance on lights/technology.

Goal: An alternative venue -

I had the event at Gallo Blanco, which is housed inside the Clarendon Hotel. There was a little mystery to the location, only being announced to those who were accepted. I wanted to try and have the event at a unique location, thats not usually used for events like this.

The Successes:

The venue was intimate, small, and wonderful. The Gallo Blanco staff was beyond amazing, helping set up chairs, and making fun of me for running around crazy. They’re great people, and I can’t thank them enough for the chance to try something new with them. The conversation and atmosphere was great before and after the event, and they space itself is beautiful and perfect for a design-centric community like those of PHXDC. The mystery location part was really fun too.

The Failures:

I didn’t take into account the dinner crowd. We were right next to the restaurant, during dinner. There was a steady and loud hum from the dinner crowd that made it hard for people to hear the speakers at times, if they weren’t really loud in the mic.

The Future:

I will host other events with Gallo Blanco, such at PHXDC Happy Hours. I will also try and have an event on the roof, when the weather permits. As far as using the lounge area for an event like this, I think that its just a matter of the timing. Make sure its during a weekday and that its not during a meal time! And make sure the speakers are loud! Otherwise, no real downsides.

For other events, I want to continue to explore alternative venues. I think the next TEDxPHXDC will be in a parking garage. Just take over a level of a garage, people park a level below and walk up the ramp with chairs and drinks they’ve brought themselves. Less reliance on technology, and again focuses entirely on the content.

Overall:

I think the event went great. From the uncomplicated build-up, free of stressing out anyone, to the long conversations after-wards, I am proud of what I was able to do thanks to the speakers at TEDxPHXDC. Did it go perfectly? Not even close. But I still think it was a success. And I think its entirely due to the speakers.

Last thought:

There is nothing an event can actually accomplish, for the most part. But the conversations they cause can spawn action. There is always that “Why another event?” conversation that happens in Phoenix. You know why there should be more events? Because there are so many amazing people in this town that deserve attention and an outlet to share their talent. I will have more TEDxPHXDC events. I will help put on as many design related events as possible, because this city’s community is great, and there’s plenty of talent to go around.

There is no way you can go wrong with anything you do, if you focus on the message and the people delivering it. If you focus on sharing stories, and on enriching minds, then there will always be room for another event.

I’m going on a vacation starting Saturday. Its memorial day weekend, and I have off the whole week, so I can attend a conference in Chattanooga. But, I am going 4 days early. 4 days of nothing.

I’m not bringing my laptop, I’m going to send it off to get a fix thats been pending for almost 8 months.

Even though I’m going to be forwarding all my calls and texts to some hidden place where I won’t find them….dont call. or text. Leave me be! Seriously.

I’m not going to check twitter. I might tweet, but I’m not going to read a damn thing on that.

I am going to detach myself from all the crazy for just a few days.

So, GET OFF MY LAWN! Don’t bug me. Starting Friday night. kthnx.

Yesterday at the award ceremony for the Phoenix New Times big brain awards, I didn’t win, but I felt just as good as if I had.

SeeSaw Designs took home the award, and I’m insanely glad they did.

Let me explain:

Phoenix Design Week, Phoenix Design Community, Design Culture Coalition, Phoenix Layers, etc etc: All of these things I started or am involved in are not about me doing design, they are about helping create avenues and paths along which the talent in Phoenix can be recognized for being great. I am an okay designer (I’ll concede that point just so people will shut up about it), but I am more excited about the big ideas of making this city better. Most of my passion, what gets me up in the morning, is not in creating pieces of design. It is in creating ways that design can be valued more, especially Phoenix design.

I’ve known the 3 women at SeeSaw for almost 4 years. I’ve had a crush on them all at one point or another. I’ve always thought their work was great. I remember when they told me they were starting their own studio right out of school. I still have their first business card. We have their calendar at Dojo. We love showing their work at galleries, and I’m trying to get them to move their letterpress & sell their work in the future Phoenix Design Museum (they don’t know this part yet). They are among the very best that Phoenix has to offer, and are a key example of why I’m so driven to work hard at the things I am: They need the recognition.

So, when they won last night, I was relieved! It felt like a little piece of all that we’re doing was making progress in Phoenix: great designers being recognized for their great work! They deserve it! If there was an “Awesome event” category, I’d have been pissed, but this was Design. Phoenix Design Week happened because of them and people like them.

So anyway, long story short: I still have a huge crush on SeeSaw. And I hope that they, and many more #phxdc designers, keep getting the credit they deserve.

I was nominated for a Phoenix New Times Big Brain award in the design category. I am with some excellent company, SeeSaw Designs. Also, nominated in other categories are friends like Daniel Davis of Monster Commute, Dave & Jacqui of Cenpho.tv, Tony Arranaga, the Light Rail Blogger. Then there is the bane of my existence Safwat Saleem + Robert Kalman for the Film category.

Now, while SeeSaw was nominated for their amazing work, I am fairly certain that I was nominated for starting Phoenix Design Week, among other things. To those of you who may have nominated me, thanks so much, I really appreciate it.

I was asked to provide some of my work to the New Times. Since, like I said, I wasn’t really nominated for my design (my website hasn’t been updated in 4 years, though I’m trying to finish something today) I thought it’d be better to take this opportunity to show off #phxdc and my design friends here in town. In addition to showing the PHXLayers Season 1 final panels, and some work from the Sprawl projects, I was really hoping some of you might send me your favorite work so that I can display it at the event. It’s better to show off #phxdc, I say.

So, shoot me an email to post@markdudlik.com, or tweet at me, or something. I want to get a piece from some of our great Phoenix designers and let everyone know how great this community is.

I was going through some twitter lists, hoping to find more Phoenix designers for the #phxdc list. I love the idea of having a huge all encompassing list of our local design crew for people to connect with. I noticed something however: Lots of people were mis-categorizing people as designers. (Edit: The #phxdc list isn’t just designers, its those in the design field in Phoenix. I just happened to be looking at lists of “designers” when I noticed this.) Whether this is through a misunderstanding of what design is, or through people misrepresenting themselves, I don’t know. Not important. But when I said something on twitter, I got a lot of feedback (yay!)

What is design?

Design can have a thousand definitions, all nuanced and often blurry in where it ends and begins. When Phoenix Design Week started, there were several conversations about what exactly the “design” part of that meant. While it ended up being primarily visual communication design, there are other areas where I hope we branch off into next year. Here’s my effort to define what it means in the context of my career and Phoenix Design Week.

Who ‘designs’?

As far as industries (not definitions) are concerned, design is visual communication design (often called ‘graphic design’) and industrial design. Thats it! Now, there are tons of sub-categories of these two main headers (motion graphics, print design, interaction design, etc etc) but the main point is that “design” should only mean Visual and Industrial. Fashion design is Fashion. Some people might include Interior Design, but I think that is grouped more with Architecture.

Web designer, you aren’t.

When people say they are “Web designers” they are often mis-categorizing themselves. Web design is when you create the visuals for a website, such as the look and feel, and often includes the way people interact with it. However, if all you’re doing is the development (or for that matter, if that’s what you’re good at, but also happen to make visuals) then you are Web Developer, not a designer.

Devs shouldn’t design.

There, I said it. Web Developers (coders, programmers, 1337ists, whatever you prefer) should not design. I won’t name names, but there are people who call themselves web ‘designers’ who wouldn’t know their Helvetica from their Arihole. Ugly sites with really great code are too often made by people calling themselves “Web Designers.” Stop it! Ask a designer to do the front, and they’ll be more likely to ask you to help them create a backend for their projects. I’ll talk about this more in a future post called ‘Designers are Ninjas, Developers are Pirates”

“Design” is often misused.

Have you ever driven past a ‘hair design’ shop? This is just one example of the misuse of the word, as it relates to the industry. People often equate the word “style” to design. Hair Stylist. Fashion Style. Etc.

Art is not design

Sorry, but its not. They are two distinctly different things, with a lot of overlap, but still completely different. The world’s most tightly grouped Venn Diagram? Perhaps. But, as was talked about on a recent episode of Design Matters: Design has to work, Art does not. Design HAS to function, has to have an end goal. Art doesn’t. Art is great, and designers are often making art, and artists can often jump into design, but Graphic Artists don’t exist anymore. This is true for Illustrators and Photographers too. There can be overlap, and designers can be both, but being one does not make you automatically/easily the other.

Marketing, Advertising, PR: Also not Design

These are NOT design. They are related, and often intertwined, but not the same. Designers need to understand some parts of marketing and advertising (advertising here means media buying and target audiences, not the ads themselves) but they cannot do those alone anymore than a Marketing person can design a website.

Jeff Moriarty asks if he is designing his writing and if programmers are designing when they code, I say “No, you aren’t.” You’re being creative. This is the same reason the ‘Creative class’ isn’t just artists, that its designers, entrepreneurs and anyone who has to problem solve. Creativity ≠ design ≠ creativity.

Can’t I do more than one of these?

Yes. There are some rare instances when people are capable of being equally great at a number of things. Designers who are great at coding, and programmers with an eye for design. Does that change the meaning of the definitions though? No. As Austin Baker puts it, its just a matter of wearing different hats. It’s when people misrepresent themselves as one thing, when they are actually another, that it becomes a problem.

Keep things going

I’m making this a ‘live’ post. I’d love to get some feed back and update it with some more conversational points. What do you guys think ?

Additions to the post

Why does this conversation even matter?

This question kept getting asked in comments and on twitter, so I thought it warranted an addition to the original post.

The way the word design is used is functionally incorrect, not grammatically. Its not just a personal, subjective preference, but a strict need of the design industry as a WHOLE.

Architecture has a diverse and powerful lexicon that puts its status on the level of medical and legal professions. To accept the commonality of how our industry is viewed and spoken of simply keeps us down when we should be taken just as seriously as those professions.

Defining design is a start, not an end. The lexicon of our industries needs to be vast and consistent for it to rise above where it is now. This is again going more deeply than I intended here, but there is a need for design to have a stronger lexicon and an awareness of that language. This is because we are not in a position to have things like licenses and other methods of certifying our skill set. Start with what design is, then continue with definitions of how design is done. Then add how it can be done better. etc etc etc, until there’s literature, expectations and theory. Then design becomes a practice in line with Architecture and Medicine. This is a conversation that started in my university education, and I’ve seen continued in grad school papers, professional journals all the way through to PhD mailing lists from around the world. Rising above the common “Oh, so you are good at photoshop” or “Oh, so you make lamps?” ideas of design is a long term goal in the design field.