D.Talks is an ongoing series of panel discussions presenting practical information about current trends and hot topics in the world of design and business. Our goal is to foster robust dialog and critical thinking, so crowd participation is an integral part of each event.

Can your best work be even better? How do you continue to “think outside the box” while spending most of your day in a cubicle?

Join AIGA SF as we discuss best practices for conceiving that big idea and then bringing it to the real world. Topics will include:

• Understanding and defining the problem 

• Finding the best tools for ideation (e.g., brainstorming, lateral thinking)
• Winning support for your solution 

• Maintaining your original creative concept in the face of adversity

Please Note: This is a lunch time event and lunch will be included.

Panelists:

Ji Lee, Facebook

Born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Ji Lee studied Communication Design at Parsons School of Design in New York. Ji works as a communication designer at Facebook. His past jobs include Google, Droga 5 and Saatchi & Saatchi. Ji was recently listed as one of the 50 most influential designers in the US by the Fast Company magazine.

Ji Lee is the founder of the Bubble Project and the author of three books: Word as Image, Talk Back: The Bubble Project, and Univers Revolved: A 3-D Alphabet. Ji’s work has appeared in ABC World News, Newsweek, Wired, Huffington Post, Fast Company among others. Ji is a frequent contributor for the New York Times.

Rick Byrne, CBS Interactive

Rick has been designing for 20 years in Dublin, London and San Francisco. He currently works for CBS Interactive where he heads up their Fast Track team, specializing in dealing with short deadline projects. As a result he has to manage creative people and projects in a fast paced environment.

Rick has been writing a blog since 2009 focusing on the career of being a designer designcareer.wordpress.com He started it because there were many blogs about good design but few blogs about being a designer.

By setting up his own experiments Rick has written on topics such as creativity for RFPs, entering design competitions, being creative in a cubicle, crowdsourcing design, off-the-shelf portfolio sites and working with recruiters. He’s always open to suggestions if you have a topic in mind.

Maria Giudice, Hot Studio

Maria’s passion is creating thoughtful, people-centered products through close collaboration. Since 1997, this passion has served as the guiding principle for Hot Studio, the experience design firm she founded and built from a two-person outfit into a full-service creative agency with offices in San Francisco and New York City.

Straight-talking, accessible and, ultimately, humanist, Maria has shaped Hot Studio into a people-centered product in its own right—a company that people want to work at, and clients love to work with. The formula has proven remarkably potent: Hot Studio has been named to Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 fastest-growing businesses every year since 2008, and in 2011 was inducted into the San Francisco Business Times’ Hall of Fame.

Maria’s professional life began in Richard Saul Wurman’s East Coast office, where she was an early practitioner in the then-nascent fields of information architecture and design. Her experience led to work as co-author and designer of several award-winning books, including Elements of Web Design, a guide for print designers crossing over to the Web, and Web Design Essentials.

Maria has more than 20 years of experience working with and mentoring people from different disciplines. She has spoken about design and the power of collaboration at conferences throughout the U.S. and abroad, including TEDxPresidio, South by Southwest, and AIGA’s Design conference. She teaches regularly at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and in California College of the Arts’ DMBA and MFA programs.

Maria holds a BFA from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She was recognized as Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by the Women’s Initiative, a Bay-Area non-profit that helps provide economic opportunity and education to low-income, high-promise women.

Moderator and Host:
Josh Levine, Director of Strategy
Great Monday
For over a decade brand strategist Josh Levine has helped local and global organizations engage customers and empower employees. Today his agency Great Monday designs employer brand programs for business leaders passionate about building cultures to deliver more powerful customer experiences.

Josh holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Factors from Tufts University and a degree in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University. He regularly speaks, writes, and leads workshops about the intersection of brand and business.

Identity by Shawn Rosenberger, Thermostat

If you need special assistance to participate in this program, please contact AIGA SF at aiga@aigasf.org or 415-626-6008. For reasonable assistance accommodations to be provided, please RSVP for the event and notify us at least five business days in advance. If we do not receive timely notification of your reasonable request, we may not be able to make the necessary arrangements by the time of the event.
More information about accessibility, public transportation and parking.