Creative South 2017: What We're Looking Forward To

Wow - has it really been four years since I wrote my first blog post recapping Creative South? In 2013 our design team (then just Lenny and I), packed up the car and headed to our first-ever design conference. We didn’t know then what to expect, but we left feeling rejuvenated, inspired, and ready to knock out new design ideas and side projects. We’ve returned every year since!

This conference has pushed us to add to our skillsets, get more involved in our local design communities (we’ve got team members on the Raleigh AIGA board, started Dine & Draw CLT and CLT Design), speak (catch us at CreateGood, FusionConf, and WMCFest), and even organize our own local conferences.

We can’t wait to see what year five has in store for us. Here’s what we’re looking forward to most:

Workshops

I always love attending the workshops at CS and leaving with some new skills in my pocket. In previous years, we’ve learned icon illustration, type design, and block printing. This year, Shannon and I will be taking “Creating a Logo that Lasts” with Steve Wolf and couldn’t be more excited. Our team has been focusing more on branding in the last year, and it’ll be great to see behind the scenes of another designer’s logo process. Of course, we also can’t forget the workshop Lenny is co-instructing with Victor Davila on Character Concepting, Illustration, and Beyond!

Speakers

The lineup at CS is always great because it pairs up fresh faces along with designers we’ve admired for years. This year, we’re most excited to see Erick Reagan and Alicja Colon (we’re big fans of the work Focus Lab puts out and their Instagram feed!), Ced Funches (we love all the work Vox Media has been doing on the web), and Antoinette Carroll (we’ve taken her workshop before and are excited to see what lessons from Creative Reaction Lab we can take back to our own communities).

Fun stuff

While the workshops and speakers draw us to the this conference, what keeps us coming back is just how fun this conference is. This year, look out for a pin I made in Super Team Deluxe’s Sci-Fidelity Gallery. I’ll also be a judge in this year’s Ink Wars at the Bridge Party on Thursday. You may remember Niki and I participated in this fun event at Hopscotch Design Fest in 2015 - I can’t wait to be on the other side of things!

Of course I can’t forget about reuniting and meeting new design friends. We are a small design team, so getting the chance to meet and talk with other designers about work, process, and life is what truly makes this conference fun.

Are you heading to Creative South this year? If so, we’d love to meet you! Be sure to find one of the NMC designers and say hello!