Ringling Design Summit

File this under "What I did this Weekend while you were having fun."
Yours truly ventured back down to Sarasota (home of the best grouper sandwiches in the world) to the Ringling 2010 Design Summit. I'm now calling it the 2010 Design Submit Conference.

I have to be honest about this...the business of design bores me beyond belief. However,the business of creativity is uplifting, inspiring, and optimistic.

This conference was geared more towards the business side although it did have moments of great insight like the seminar with David Bromstead. He was young, funny, bright and talented...and he knew how to engage an audience with storytelling. He didn't seem so caught up in his own persona and success. This made him engaging to hear.

Okay, so next up was The Grand Pooh Bah Stephen Heller.
Talented but one of the most boring, self serving individuals I've every heard speak.
He should seriously stick to writing and not speaking. I even like him a little less now as a writer because I suffered through his talk. I was proud of myself because I sat quietly and listened intently in hopes that some small design crumb of information from all the years of his expertise would land in my lap and it would make me a better designer and teacher. It didn't.

Heller is the co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program and co-founder of the MFA in Design Criticism and MFA in Interaction Design programs at the School of Visual Arts, New York. For 33 years he was an art director at the New York Times. He currently writes the Visuals column for the Book Review. He is editor of AIGA VOICE: Online Journal of Design and contributing editor to Print, EYE, Baseline, and ID magazines. He contributes to Design Observer and writes the DAILY HELLER blog for Print Magazine (http://blog.printmag.com/dailyheller/). He is the author of over 120 books on design and popular culture, including "Design Literacy", "Paul Rand", "Graphic Style", "Stylepedia", "The Design Entrepreneur", "Design School Confidential", "Iron Fists: Branding the Twentieth Century Totalitarian State", and, most recently, "New Ornamental Type". He is the recipient of the 1999 AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement. His website is www.hellerbooks.com.

Lastly worth mentioning was Susan Szenasy, Editor in Chief of Metropolis Magazine.
She was worth the trip and the grouper sandwich.
During her 17 years as Editor-in-Chief, the magazine has gained international recognition and has won numerous awards. Susan began her career with Interiors magazine, rising from a junior position of editorial assistant to senior editor; then she was named chief editor of Residential Interiors, the short-lived offspring of Interiors. Susan is the author of several books on design and teaches design history and ethics.

Lesson learned for me is the same it has been for years in going to these events. Everyone has a story. Some of the stories inspire and others bore. That is why these conferences and seminars have 10-12 speakers. Something for everyone. Sort of a salad bar pick and choose as you wish effect.

What I took away from this conference about design is that the folks who are in the business of design haven't a clue what students want to learn because most of them are not in the classrooms and not listening to the heartbeat of the students who desire to be successful. I love the designers who speak about their work firsthand with their audience in mind of their ever-changing discipline.

P.S. No one liked the name of the iPad. Funny that's what everyone was talking about, except me who kept wanting another grouper sandwich.

www.blogcatalog.com/blog/sarasota-international-design-summit
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/the941/2010/02/02/brand-aid-ringling-college%E2%80%99s-fourth-annual-international-design-summit-highlights-the-importance-of-design-in-building-a-business/