I have the good fortune of having my work place sponsor me to be a part of the Design Thinkers Conference in Toronto each year. It’s something I look forward to, as for me it’s MY time – to sit back, be with myself and my thoughts, being inspired, or not. Nonetheless, I am in my introspective heaven.
Each year the conference is based off a broader theme. This year’s theme was ‘Questioning Tomorrow’ which in my opinion was a very relevant to the current times. I was excited but also a bit vary, as last year’s conference for me did not hit the spot and left me a bit thwarted.
DAY 1
The conference started with Chris Do as the keynote speaker. His talk was focussed on how to sell yourself, which personally I didn’t connect to on an inspirational level, but was relevant for the younger audience new to the field and entering the market. One thing that he said which I really liked was; whosoever asks more questions is in control of the relationship – focusing on the importance of listening.
On the first morning, the speaker that stood out for me was Emmi Salonen @studioemmi. She spoke about creating personal eco-systems nurturing and sustaining our creative well-being.
During one of the talks by Rejane Dal Bello, who questioned the importance and the need for design. – and how design is not a privilege as the world sometimes sees it. Design is about practicality, it’s about doing good. I liked what she said that a designer’s oath should simply say ‘DO NO HARM’.; I think I will make a poster with that line.
Renato Fernandez’s @renatofernandez talk was focussed on current AI driven trends and its impact of design. His talk was hopeful, it did not demonize tech and also it did not put it on a pedestal. He spoke about how ‘attention, curiosity and focus’ will be our new currency – I found that idea very interesting [I can say so much on that, my dilemma these days is how to cultivate that in the current stuck-on-the-screen generation, but let’s keep that for another day]. He said that the ‘design of the future will not look like design of today and the advertising of the future won’t look like advertising today’ – this line in itself has the potential for a whole new conversation. He talked about how Gen AI will raise the bar on how we work and how we use it will determine its success or not.
‘AI will not replace you, but the person using AI will’
As I said earlier, this is my space to be introspective. CURIOSIRTY- was a word that was repeated during the span of the day many times, in many talks, with multiple dimensions. My questions – How do we get our learners to be more curious, in a space that has so many distractions – a constant bombardment of words, messages, images, static and moving.
Day 1 ended on a high note with Paula Scher. The fact that she turned 75 last week blew me – What energy, what a spirited individual, with so much to share. She shared some of her amazing work and more importantly some of her key pieces of wisdom.
‘Design is a great profession for people who want to make things … we can influence a whole group of people to make things better. Have the passion. There is no one way to make this profession work for you. Just do it! Be there – great accidents happen when you actually do things’
Day 1 ended for me well. I was mentally stimulated and excited for the next day, with the hope for some more insightful futures questioning.
DAY 2
The keynote for day 2 was Tina Ross Eisenberg @swissmiss
I have had the pleasure of listening to the in the past one of the earlier conferences. I like her as she exudes positivity and her talk this time was about how creativity is a discipline of optimism and how dreamers are the ones who shift norms and come up with possibilities. As much as I loved her talk and I was constantly aligning it with the direction my life is going in these days and found it relevancy there in making my life my biggest design project, I will be honest I was finding it a bit tedious to focus on all this sunshine and high vibe at this point with the condition of our world.
Day two, after the keynote speaker, started off being more portfolio focussed, and hence a bit of a downer for me as I was looking for more depth and not glossy exteriors of design. And finally, there was a talk that inspired – Catalina Estrada @catalinaestrada who also shared her work but from such a dynamic perspective. Her work was pure, raw and with immense focus on making the world a better place by doing what she does best – an idea that I love and truly believe in. She spoke about how small actions from our side can lead to meaningful change. Her work is beautiful, check it out on instagram @catalinaestrada
‘Always make room for design that brings people together.’
Honestly, over all day two was making me question and realize what we don’t need rather than what we do. In a world where everything needs to move, excite, incite and be dramatic, Catalina’s work was breath of fresh air – with soul, authenticity and true purpose. It was real, not trying so hard to be out there and ‘trendy’. I am so done with pretentiousness, loud clothing, profanity to appear cool, disclosing sexual orientation 35 times in 35 minutes [who really cares] and being proud of their laziness [ I had no clue it was also now cool to be lazy]. Yes, I am probably old-fashioned, just give me good, solid work – if you are up on that stage, you have a responsibility. Tell me how your design or your design, your thinking or your action makes a positive impact on our world. Ok that’s my rant.
The last speaker of the day was Stefan Sagmeister, with his talk based of his new work and his most recent book ‘Now is Better’ [project linked here – https://sagmeister.com/work/now-is-better/]. Finally, after two full days someone mentioned the current stare of our world. So, thank you!
Up to this point I was wondering how in a design conference of this magnitude, in one of the leading cities, with worthy designers questioning the future, have we not yet brought this important aspect up. Also, I loved the positive message of his talk and his recent work.
‘Shorter the news, more negative the messages. Good news needs incubation; time to develop and a look from a more long-term perspective. It is important to stay positive and think in the long-term.’
He rightly spoke about how media constantly provides us with the stick, how we as human beings, as designers, need to provide the carrot.
The day, and the conference in general, ended on a high note.
