Hallmark Design Symposium Series Speakers
Spring 2012
January 30, 2012: Kate Bingaman-Burt
Kate Bingaman Burt is an illustrator and educator. She has been making work about consumption since 2002, teaching since 2004 and drawing until her hand cramps since 2006. Her first book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where, along with being an Assistant Professor and the co-program coordinator of Graphic Design at Portland State University, she also makes piles of work about consumerism: zines! pillows! dresses! drawings! paper chains! photos! Starting in 2002, she photographed everything she purchased (finished in 2004). In 2004, she started drawing all of her credit card statements until they were paid off (finished in 2010). In 2006, she started drawing something she purchased everyday (still drawing!).
February 13, 2012: Elliott Earls
Elliott Earls is a designer, performance artist, and musician. Earls' hybrid multimedia work blurs distinctions between high and low, performance and object, design and art. Earls is currently Designer-In-Residence and head of the graduate graphic design program at Cranbrook Academy of Art. As a designer his work is part of the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. The writer Rick Poynor has said of Elliott: "If ever a designer seemed like a certified oddball, pursuing a trajectory far removed from the obligations of institutional life, it is Earls. He is one of those unclassifiable, mutant blooms thrown up by the fractured landscape of 1990's graphic design.
February 27, 2012: Jim Moran
Jim Moran the Museum Director of the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, WI.
Hamilton is a living museum - 30,000 square feet of space and a 4,500-square-foot printing studio that students, designers, and bookmakers are encouraged to make use of. In some ways, the Hamilton Museum's mission is analogous to that of the "slow food" movement, which encompasses farmers who make heirloom crops and livestock viable for cultivation, as well as chefs and restaurateurs that prepare dishes with these ingredients and make them available to an interested public. All of this work-preservation, production, and promotion - quietly takes place under the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum's roof.
March 12, 2012: Alex Nabaum
Alex Nabaum's art has appeared in the pages of TIME, Rolling Stone, WIRED, Oprah, National Geographic and on the cover of Newsweek, the Economist, Forbes and ESPN magazine. Some clients have included Microsoft, Harvard, Stanford, Leo Burnett and United Airlines and he is a regular contributor to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He has received a Gold medal from the international 3x3 Pro Show, a Gold medal from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, a Silver medal from the Society of Newspaper Design and a First Place award in the annual Altpick Awards. His work has also been included in the award annuals of the New York Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, American Illustration, PRINT and the Society of Publication Designers. He has also exhibited in group shows in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Berlin. This year he was included in Luerzer's Archive of 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide. He grew up in Denver, Colorado and now makes his home in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.
March 26, 2012: Terry Lin
Terry Lin is currently a Sr. Manager of Trend, Product Development and Merchandising Innovation at Walmart.com. One of his primary roles in this position is to explore the intersection of profitability, product development and social good. Prior to Walmart.com, Terry was the Vice President of Calvin Klein Furniture where he oversaw all aspects of product development including design, merchandising, sourcing and production. Before Calvin Klein, Terry worked at Williams Sonoma/Pottery Barn as Head furniture designer for 8 years where his designs have generated over 2.5 billion in sales during his tenure. He started out his career as an industrial designer where he worked for the world's most innovative product design consulting firms including IDEO, Razorfish and Design Continuum where he led brand strategy and product innovation initiatives for McDonalds, Specialized Bike Components and the HK based Kuok Group. He has designed everything from Open-heart surgical equipment to fresh food concepts for 7-11 and everything in between. The diverse experiences have helped shape his creative design process. He received his BFA, specializing in Industrial Design, from Rhode Island School of Design in 1994.
April 16; 2012: Dawn Hancock
Dawn Hancock, Firebelly Design, Chicago, IL - Dawn calls the shots. As managing director, owner and founder of Firebelly, she cultivates the studio's culture and inspires the best work with vision, compassion and an infallible gut instinct. It's that gut feeling-the fire in the belly-that motivates Dawn to take risks and challenge the status quo. And it's ultimately what caused her to renounce the safety net of corporate America and do her own thing. Dawn started the studio in 1999, at the height of the dotcom era, a time when all the big agencies were buying up the boutique firms. Leaving behind inflated budgets, corporate greed and style-over-substance, she cashed-in her 401k and started creating Good Design For Good Reason™. From fledgling nonprofits and hungry startups to major corporations looking for complete brand overhauls, clients of every size and industry trust Dawn's independence, ingenuity and proven approach to authentic, broad scope branding. Under Dawn's guidance, the studio has won awards in nearly every American design journal and was made part of The Newberry Library's permanent collection and the Society of Typographic Arts' Chicago Design Archive. But Dawn doesn't dwell on awards and achievements: she trusts the work to stand on its own and believes success comes from listening to clients not listing them. When she's not designing for world change, Dawn mentors the next generation of maverick problem solvers through job shadowing, studio tours and portfolio reviews. She also spends time on the lecture circuit, speaking at design schools and conferences as far away as Doha, Qatar and teaching workshops on sustainable design. In addition to inspiring young designers, her other endeavors include: the annual Firebelly Design + Marketing Grant, Camp Firebelly, the Firebelly Foundation, and its first nonprofit program Reason to Give.
April 30, 2012: Chuck Fischer
CHUCK FISCHER is a best-selling author and multi-media designer who has taken his unique painting style and effortlessly transferred his signature look to an acclaimed series of pop-up books and home furnishings products, making his remarkable artistry available to a worldwide audience. After graduating from The University of Kansas in 1977 with a B.F.A. in Advertising and Editorial Art, Chuck moved to New York City and opened Chuck Fischer Studio, Inc. Chuck was soon collaborating with some of the nation's top interior designers creating hand-painted murals in some of the finest homes in the America. In the early 1990's Chuck was asked to create a signature collection of wallpaper and fabric designs for the venerable firm Brunschwig & Fils. Designs from this collection were chosen to be part of the permanent collection at The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Other home furnishing product collections followed including three collections of table top designs for LENOX, fine paper products for Caspari and C.R. Gibson, fabric and wallpapers for Schumacher, holiday designs for Kurt Adler, and a bedding collection for Martex. The next phase of Chuck's career began in 2002, with the publication of his first pop-up book, Great American Houses and Gardens: A Pop-Up Book (Rizzoli). Following the success of this book Chuck has created six more pop-up books and one interior design book including the best-sellers; The White House: A Pop-Up Book (Rizzoli), Christmas in New York: A Pop-Up Book (Little, Brown), and Christmas Around The World: A Pop-Up Book (Little, Brown). Last year Chuck entered the exciting world of the Apple iPad and iPhone when he launched two interactive book Apps, Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol and Twas The Night Before Christmas. The Digital Publishing Innovation Awards recognized Twas The Night Before Christmas interactive app, as a finalist for Best Book App of 2011. Fischer continues his multi-platform design career with upcoming publications in traditional and digital media, and ongoing introductions of home furnishing products including an exclusive collection of giftware for the White House Historical Association. Chuck was chosen as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome and Guest Artist at Civetelli Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy.
Fall 2011
August 29, 2011: Bryon Darby, New Assistant Professor in Photo Media
Photo-based artist Bryon Darby was born and raised in the high desert mountains of northern Utah. Initially trained as a graphic designer, Darby received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Utah State University in 2001 before switching his primary focus to photography. After working for most of a decade in commercial and fine art photography, he went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Arizona State University in 2011. Darby's work is featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally including recent shows at the International Photography Festival in Pingyao, China, the Museum of Anthropology at Arizona State University, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville. His work is held in many private and public collections including the Tempe Center for the Arts and the City of Phoenix Portable Works Collection. Currently, Darby is Assistant Professor of Photo Media at the University of Kansas in Lawrence where he lives with his wife and daughter.
September 12, 2011: Pedro Ayala
Pedro Ayala received his BA Architecture from the University of Houston-College of Architecture. He has twenty plus years of corporate Interiors experience and prior to working for Kimball Office, Pedro worked for such architectural firms as Gensler in San Francisco, Bottom-Duvivier, and Mancini Duffy San Francisco + New York.
He is a professional member of IIDA, and former Board Member of the IIDA Northern California Chapter, in addition he is a LEED Accredited Professional.
September 26, 2011: Scott Pobiner
Scott is an Assistant Professor of Information, Design and Management and the former Director of the Design and Management Program in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons the New School for Design where he currently teaches courses on design research, technology, and innovation. His research focuses on the relationship between design, digitality, and analysis in era of adaptation, adoption, and accommodation. He received his doctorate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he studied the impact that digital displays have on interaction and pedagogy in design education, publishing his dissertation entitled Design Education: A System for Enhancing Interaction using Multiple Displays. He also holds a Master of Design Studies degree from Harvard University (GSD) and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University's School of Architecture, Art, and Planning. His professional work has included architectural design and construction of schools and campus planning, software development for digital collaboration tools, product design, and interaction design, and the design of new technologies and environments to support collaborative work and learning. He has worked with companies in technology and design industries including Herman Miller Inc., Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard. Prior to joining the faculty at Parsons he was a visiting professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey and a teaching fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
October 17, 2011: Douglas Sellers
Doug Sellers is a creative director at Siegel+Gale, where he puts his powerful hands to peaceful and profitable use leading the charge for Moody's, CleanRest, HNTB, Comcast, Sprint, Motorola Pivot, American Express, Merrill Lynch, Cummins, and Keane. Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Doug directed design at Wolff Olins's New York and San Francisco offices. You can see Doug's design legacy anytime you encounter GE, Carter's, Smith & Nephew, Weil Gotshal & Manges, and UNICEF. During his close to 20-year career, Doug has also lent his talents to Landor, Meta Design, and CKS Partners, where his clients included FedEx, Pathé, Exploratorium, Agilent Technologies, Barclays Global Investors, and NeXT Computer. Doug earned his bachelor of fine arts in graphic design from the University of Kansas in Lawrence and his master's in graphic design from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Despite his strict schooling in Swiss design, Doug, on occasion, and if the mood is right, can be talked into considering a serif typeface.
November 7, 2011: Fernanda Cohen
Fernanda grew up in Buenos Aires and moved to New York in 2000 to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts. Her work has received over 100 awards worldwide, including gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators of New York and Los Angeles; first prize by Creative Review and Altpick; Communication Arts, HOW and American Illustration among others. Fernanda's client list includes MTV, The New Yorker, Scholastic, Soho House Hotels, W Hotels, Doubleday, Ikram, The New York Times, Target, The Gap, DDB, Sex and the City, BBDO, Draft FCB and UCLA.
Fernanda runs a lecture series at the Society of Illustrators of New York, teaches at SVA, writes for Dart and 90+10 magazine, and lectures around the world. Fernanda has her own lines of illustrated T-shirts (The Gap), shoes (Keds), porcelain kitchenware, post-it notes, tea towels, and notebooks.
November 21, 2011: Bruce Dale
With over two thousand photographs published by National Geographic, Bruce Dale's vision and creativity twice earned him the title "Magazine Photographer of the Year." In 1989 he was named "White House Photographer of the Year" and more recently, his innovative work with digital imaging brought him honors from the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to many other awards, one of his photographs now journeys beyond the solar system on board NASA's Voyager Spacecraft, as testimony about planet Earth.
Dale has photographed in over 75 countries throughout the world including 10 trips to China. His work ranges from sensitive people studies such as his books on Gypsies and American Mountain People, to his highly technical work such as working with pulsed laser photography to help produce a hologram of an exploding crystal ball for the Geographic's 100th Anniversary cover.
One of his more memorable photos involved mounting two cameras on the tail of a Lockheed TriStar jumbo jet to make spectacular views of the big jet in flight. One, a 23 second time exposure, led to a three page gatefold in the Geographic—the other a cover on the magazine. He considers his favorite images are those serendipitous moments totally alien to the well planned picture. "I actually plan on the unplanned picture in an attempt to capture the spontaneity and mood of the moment." Dale left National Geographic to pursue a blend of editorial and corporate and advertising photography. His book, The American Southwest, was published by National Geographic in January of 1999.
From high tech to board room portraits, Bruce brings his patience, problem solving ability, and experience in working with "real people" to good use in making images come to life. Corporate and advertising clients since leaving the Geographic include: Acura, Allstate, American Airlines, Caterpillar, Epson America, Getty Foundation, Harriet & Henderson, Mack Truck, Nikon, Matsushita Industries, Quintile Corporation, Shell Oil, Southwest Airlines, Southwest Parks, The Tropical Forest Foundation, Trammel Crow, and Willis & Geiger.
December 5, 2011: Cheryl Towler Weese
Cheryl is a partner in the Studio Blue graphic design firm in Chicago, IL. She began her design discipleship at age nine, when she learned to proofread galleys at her parents' weekly newspaper. She attended college sporadically, preferring to work or study in a different country each year. This love of culture and language is integral to her design sensibility, and her projects often marry design thinking with the development of visual language. She founded Studio Blue in 1993. She acts as creative director and oversees the mentoring of the design team. Cheryl's influence on the studio's work shows in her contextual approach as well as her intrepid demand for craft and innovation. She has served on the national board of the AIGA, the professional association for design; taught and lectured on design at universities and conferences; and juried numerous design competitions, including AIGA's 50 Books/50 Covers competition, which she has chaired and juried four times.
Past Speakers
