In this rapid-fire interview, RGD President Nicola Hamilton sits down with Alex Center to ask him 20 questions about design, working in the industry and everything in between. See more from Alex when he presents at DesignThinkers Vancouver this May 30–31.
Group Creative Director and design educator Dominic Prevost has created award-winning, fully-integrated campaigns for some of the world’s most notable brands. In advance of his workshop at DesignThinkers Vancouver, we asked him a few questions about delivering presentations, why we fear it so much and the lesson he learned from one of the most memorable pitches of his career.
I’m so excited to give this workshop, I wish I had the whole day to do it. Participants can expect a fast-paced, hands-on session where we’ll go through four unique exercises meant to level up their presentation skills while also staying true to themselves (meaning no one’s going to walk away from my workshop thinking they need to sound like a corporate robot to succeed).
In Design School, I’d spend hours labouring over kerning and sleepless nights photoshopping my comps within an inch of their lives, because that’s what my instructors cared about. Very little attention (or guidance) was given to the art of the presentation, setting up the insights, outlining the process and doubling down on why your creative solution is the right one for the client.
Not only that, but the creative process itself is very intimate. You’ll either work by yourself or with a small team of like-minded individuals until the idea is ready to be presented to the client. But when presentation time comes, simply describing what’s on the slide just won’t cut it.
Presenting – just like kerning, or copywriting, or Bezier-curving, or front-end developing, or retouching or concepting – is an acquired skill… and the only time most creatives get to practice it is in front of a client when the stakes are the highest! No wonder creatives feel like they’re not good at it. You have to work the muscle, starting with a different mindset.
My most memorable pitches always begin with a team of amazing people who are all committed to creating work we can be proud of, whether we win it or not. One such pitch was over a decade ago during my time at Sid Lee where we were pitching for the Diesel global account.
The process was intense and relentless. Multiple creative teams from both the Paris and Montreal offices came together to create a massive campaign that was funny, weird and forward-thinking (in an Instagram before Instagram kind of way). We made it to the final round, gave it everything we had… and then months later, Anomaly released Diesel’s iconic ‘Be Stupid’ campaign, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes. So yeah, we may have lost the pitch, but we lost it to the best creative of the year.
I still look at the pitch deck from time to time because it was completely wild, because we almost pulled it off, and also because it brings back fond memories of late nights brainstorming with colleagues who are still dear friends more than a decade later.
I love Vancouver. It’s a super interesting city full of momentum and creative opportunities (cool tech startups, lifestyle companies, creative shops with global aspirations) with the same West Coast creative vibe as LA or SF, without the pretenses and a lot more bike lanes.
I’m itching to connect with old friends and colleagues as well as meeting new like-minded creatives and leaders. I’m looking forward to being challenged, inspired and going “ooooohhhh” and “ahhhhhhhh.”
Dominic’s workshop takes place on May 30 at 3:15 p.m. Pre-register for this workshop when you register for the conference.
With the support of our sponsors, the RGD is awarding eight scholarships to emerging designers to attend DesignThinkers Vancouver this May 30–31.
Student RGDs, Junior Affiliates and Provisional RGDs were invited to submit their social good work for an opportunity to win a scholarship to the conference
Sponsors 123w, Hangar 18, Pendo, Pound & Grain, PS&Co, Rethink, Roodenburg Design and Will Creative each provided $500 for each winner to use to cover their costs to attend.
Bella Sanchez Student RGD (awarded by Rethink)
Cali Martin Student RGD (awarded by Roodenburg Design)
Christina Tran Student RGD (awarded by PS&Co)
Ellie Kim Student RGD (awarded by Pendo)
Grace Abbey Provisional RGD (awarded by Pound & Grain)
Matteo Ferralasco Student RGD (awarded by 123w)
.png)
Melissa (Nhung) Pham Student RGD (awarded by Hangar 18)
.jpg)
Yas Fakhr Provisional RGD (awarded by Will Creative)
.jpg)
If you’re not sure how to ask your employer for the means to attend the conference, we’ve got you covered.
Use our templates to explain to your boss why you want to go, how much it costs and why it’s beneficial for the company if you attend.
Don’t forget these are templates, so change up the wording, delete things, add them — whatever you need to make it work for you.
We hope this helps you spend less time stressing over whether you can attend DesignThinkers, and more time deciding what sessions you’ll go to when that approval email comes in.
Victor Szeto RGD, Creative Director at Green Living Enterprises, first attended DesignThinkers 16 years ago. With many conferences under his belt, Victor shares about his favourite talks over the years and what you should keep in mind if you’re attending your first conference.
I want to say that my first DesignThinkers would’ve been while attending design school at York/Sheridan, but I still have my old notebooks and it only dates back to 2006. I know I skipped a year or two attending, so maybe I was still in school or shortly after I graduated? In any case, it was fun to look back at all the themes throughout the years and all the effort into changing it up every time.
The most noticeable difference for me is the range of micro-design disciplines the industry entails. Some of them are technically/software-based, but the ones I follow most are changes in the impact that design has on social change, behaviour and the planet. Given how politics have also gone bonkers over the last decade, I’ve noticed how design and politics have been intertwined more than ever. Going to design school, it never occurred to me how design could be a form of activism, but I see how it gets weaved in more and more over the years and I think it’s important that we recognize the significance of the work we do.
My favourite occurrences are when I have no preconceived notions of the speaker or session, and I leave feeling inspired and activated. A few that stood out for me in no particular order:
It’s too easy to live and work in your bubble, whether you’re conscious of it or not. DesignThinkers is a tangible way to break out of it. For me, it’s like a forced break from the daily work grind without it counting towards vacation days, I’m listening to industry experts who I may not have otherwise met or heard of, and I get to geek out on specific topics with my people that I don’t typically get to geek out on in the office! The other big reason I keep coming back is to be inspired by speakers who are passionate about their projects and how it affects and shapes the world we’re living in.
It’s easy and understandable to become overwhelmed by the volume of choices and sessions. Doing a little background research on the topics and speakers will help make decisions easier, but also go with an open mind and a have-fun attitude. Some of the best sessions I’ve been to were completely random selections where I had no expectations at all.
The last two years were a wonder in accessibility as everything went virtual, the content was spread out over two weeks and geography wasn’t a barrier. This time, I’m looking forward to concentrating all of that back to two days, and connecting with the people who I was only able to see on screen in real life!
John Baljkas (top left) is a Professor at Conestoga College. For years, John has attended DesignThinkers Toronto with his students. Below, John shares about why he finds the conference so valuable for himself as an educator and the emerging designers he teaches.
I attended DesignThinkers for the first time when working in design studios in Toronto. At the time, I was two years into my career and was inspired and motivated to learn more about design practices, and specific speakers, their work and have new perspectives and approaches for my own design practice. There were gap years in attending the conference, but for the past 10+ years as a full-time faculty member, the value of DesignThinkers for myself and students is invaluable for defining future careers.
The presenters at DesignThinkers often show a balance of design skills and empathy in their projects. As an educator, this is inspiring and informs and expands our collective understanding of design practices in relation to other disciplines and communities. I’ve seen many talks that discuss design in relation to creative goals, business, accessibility, sustainability, cultural artifacts, social justice and technology. The curation of speakers from different parts of the design community offers different perspectives on the roles designers have in businesses, communities, and education.
I’ve had a lot of ‘aha’ moments over the past decade. For me, the great part of the conference is the ability to see a speaker’s talk and then talk to them after their presentation or contact them after the conference. It’s also a great time to meet up with former colleagues!
I keep coming back to DesignThinkers for the speakers and sense of community built by the conference. There’s such a great energy in the theatre during the in-person/live talks. Personally, I enjoy hearing peoples’ perspectives on design and seeing their work.
As design practices are continually changing, DesignThinkers and associated events are extremely relevant to maintaining a current [and up-to-date] curriculum. Students attending the conference, studio tours and social events get excited about the design field, their work, and inspired to pursue new paths in design they may not have considered before.
Relevant.
Lauralee Sheehan is a design thinker and digital addict, but above all, an artist. In advance of her session at DesignThinkers Toronto, we asked her a few questions about her talk, switching careers and how you can stay grounded when the rate of change in the industry gets overwhelming.
I was realizing that experience design was something we were doing in the band. Digital and design were becoming a huge part of band life in 2015ish (digital posters, vid’s, web assets, social media, etc) and that opened up a lot of doors. Coming from an extremely creative and wild industry like music, I had an edge in how I thought about digital experience design and the concepting that goes along with it. AND … I needed a break from music. Sometimes you have to break up with your passion to rediscover and reimagine it for yourself.
Around 2012, the music industry was drastically changing with major digital disruptions. It maybe started with Napster back in the day and then MySpace, etc. I think musicians had to think about their art in a whole new way, and that meant from process to format to sustainability to intent. The digital and design space seems to be going through something similar now, with online content and consumption blowing up, as well as the impact of design communication. There are a lot of lessons to think about when being on the producing side, so I will give away some of my key lessons that helped me weather major disruption in music and keep my art process agile and responsive.
This is a great, big question. And one that I think about a lot, having a digital company. Digital is great, but it’s not great for everything, always. Kind of like in film, I’m always trying to figure out how to “break the fourth wall” in our digital builds and design systems/visual communication. My team is really fantastic about what the experience will be for the user, and we think about how to layer in and embed connection, even in an asynchronous experience. It’s not easy and especially now, there is a lot of digital fatigue, but I always look at digital design as a way to augment and support IRL connection.
Keep your creative vision close to your heart and mind always. Through massive change, you can easily forget about your unique design style and perspective. Use your vision as a bit of an anchor, but also as a point of iteration. Maybe there are things you can try that you didn’t think about before that don’t take away from your design perspective but maybe, in fact, add more to that perspective and push you out of your comfort zone.
Everything! But mostly being in the room with people who really, really <3 design. There’s a buzz that happens when you gather to think about things, big and little, and DesignThinkers Toronto is always such a classy and thought-provoking space to do so!
Catch Lauralee’s talk on October 27 at 11:00 a.m.
Roundtables are your chance to connect with other creatives in a small group setting. Led by senior design professionals, roundtables are being hosted on both conferences days from 8:15 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Bring your questions, offer advice and participate in conversations that will leave you feeling engaged and energized.
Here’s just a sample of the topics on this year’s schedule:
Mitch Goldstein is a designer, artist, author and educator based in upstate New York. In advance of his session at DesignThinkers Toronto, we asked him a few questions about his talk, making the most of imposter syndrome and what’s inspiring him lately.
Mostly what I want people to learn from my sessions is this: expertise is overrated, and you can exploit your own amatuer-ness, lack of knowledge, and newness at stuff to try things you normally would not. Leaning into this is a gift that should not be wasted!
It took me a while to realize that what we call ‘imposter syndrome’ is really just ‘being human’ — everyone I have ever admired admits to feeling like that sometimes, so I think it is simply part of the human condition; and when we can use this feeling to our advantage, that’s when it becomes useful and fun.
Endlessly and always. As an educator, part of my job is to be actively curious. Realizing that not knowing exactly how to do something is not necessarily a good reason to not try it is a game changer. This is especially important for new designers — if you only did exactly what you know how to do… you would not get to do much!
I have been focusing mostly on my MFA thesis in Furniture Design, which I should (hopefully) finish this Spring — what I am looking at is manifesting life’s chaos, complexity, and unpredictability in visual art.
I have not been to an in-person conference in almost 4 years! It will be amazing to see a bunch of people, all interested in similar things, all together for 2 days — I am very much looking forward to seeing people.
Catch Mitch’s talk on October 28 at 2:15 p.m. ET.
Art Director, Information Officer for the ADOTom attended the very first DesignThinkers in Toronto in 2000, and he’s attended every single conference since! We spoke with Tom about how the conference has changed over the years, and what keeps him coming back 20+ years later.
By 2000 I had 14–15 years of experience, but no career development since college. Computers were starting to take over the industry like a wild fire and changing everything about the industry.
RGD recognized this critical distinction and redirected its focus to developing our profession as a business first and helped us realize that digital technology needed to follow, not form, the direction of our creativity.
I’ve really loved seeing some of my design idols presenting, as well as being introduced to new ones.
The desire and need to continue learning keeps me coming back to DesignThinkers.
This is one of the few things I’d say you can’t afford to miss, if you are serious about being a communications professional – regardless if you’re a student or seasoned professional.
Definitely the in-person aspect this year is very exciting for me for 2022. Even though I’ll probably wear a mask.
