Sid Lee has signed on to develop the branding for the RGD's 24th year of DesignThinkers Conferences, taking place in-person with an option for online streaming in Vancouver May 30-31 and in Toronto Nov 2-3.
The team at Sid Lee took up the challenge to craft the entire 2023 identity using everything that was free and open-source. "Conceptualizing a theme and visual world for 2023, with such a broad range of applications, touch-points and experiences is a dream project we couldn’t pass on. It is a rare and exciting opportunity to speak to the design community within Canada and beyond," offers Michael Mavian, Creative Director at Sid Lee.
"DesignThinkers, an important event for the design community, brings together so many creative people to share and learn from one another. With the influx of creative tools, evolving technologies, A.I. generated content and open-source software, our approach to next year’s concept was to provoke questions and conversations about the future of design," says
Michael.
In their research, the
Sid Lee team immersed themselves in the world of open-source photographic, typographic and 3D resources as well as technologies newly available to designers such as A.I. generation, photogrammetry, LIDAR and 3D scanning. "The growing number of quality open-source resources and new technologies available to designers and, most importantly, an uncertain future are the driving forces for this identity design. The only thing we can do is ask questions and try to remain open to more than one answer. The tension surrounding the future of graphic design is simultaneously daunting and exciting and we played off that," explains
Michael.
"Designing for designers is definitely a challenge. We looked introspectively at our own practices, processes and community for guidance. Our goal was to create a timely yet future-facing concept that was playful and unexpected to inspire the speakers at the event and spark conversations across our community. Interestingly, a big part of the process ended up with us having to constantly remind ourselves not to take ourselves too seriously and push ourselves outside our comfort zone."
Registration for
DesignThinkers Vancouver 2023 opens in December 2022.
To learn more about sponsoring DesignThinkers, email Michelle Pereira Hampton, RGD's Director of Communications & Development, at .
If you would like to submit a proposal to speak at the event, apply here.
General conference inquiries can be sent to Abdul Omar, RGD's Programs Coordinator, at .
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