12 January 2017
Helena Price : The Techies Project

Thu, January, 2017

6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

AIGA San Francisco

130 Sutter Street, Suite 600

San Francisco

Event is over
schedule
6:00 pm
Door opens
8:30 pm
Event Ends

Diversity in the Tech industry is a well-known issue that has received much attention from journalists. San Francisco photographer Helena Price took this issue one step further to put a face and name to this void, now known as the Techies Project- which has received international acclaim. She has interviewed over 100 underrepresented individuals for the project, from women and people of color, to seniors and the LGBT community.

This is a special gallery showing at the AIGA space with a few select portraits. Helena Price will be there moderating a panel of designers from the Techies Project to discuss their journeys, their experiences in Silicon Valley and the issues facing gender and design. You’ll have the opportunity to hear their stories, participate in discussion, and share experiences of your own.


About the Techies Project

Techies is a photo project focused on sharing stories of tech employees in Silicon Valley.

The project covers subjects who tend to be underrepresented in the greater tech narrative. This includes (but is not limited to) women, people of color, folks over 50, LGBT, working parents, disabled, etc.

The project has two main goals: to show the outside world a more comprehensive picture of people who work in tech, and to bring a bit of attention to folks in the industry whose stories have never been heard, considered or celebrated. We believe storytelling is a powerful tool for social impact and positive change.

Since its launch, the Techies Project has been profiled on ABC, CNN, Newsweek, Fortune, Fast Company, The Guardian, Elle and more.

Read the process and FAQ here.


moderator
speakers
Helena Price
Helena Price is a commercial, editorial and portrait photographer based in San Francisco, California. Raised in a small town in North Carolina, Helena has been making photos since she was six years old, getting her start shooting with disposable cameras from Wal-Mart.

At 25, Helena ditched her Silicon Valley career to try and make photos full-time. Within two years, she was named “Silicon Valley’s Most Wanted Photographer,” working on projects with Airbnb, Facebook, Fitbit, GM, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber and more. Her personal projects have been featured on ABC, CNN, Newsweek, The New York Times, TIME, Glamour, Fast Company, Fortune, The Guardian, Inc. and more, and Huffington Post named her one of the “Top 30 Most Influential Photographers on the Web.” She no longer shoots with disposable cameras from Wal-Mart.

www.helenaprice.com

speakers
Chloe Madison Parfitt, Product Designer at AlphaStreet and Founder at Queird
Chloe Madison Parfitt is a visual artist and designer in Oakland, CA. She currently works full-time as a product designer at AlphaStreet, a social investing platform focused on user experience and reducing the learning curve to invest. Chloe will tell you that she leans heavily on her previous experiences in front-end development, video productions, motion graphics, photography, and even print design to make her work as a product designer more effective. She moved to the bay from Detroit in 2015 for three reasons: less cold, more tech jobs, and more queer people. She hasn’t looked back since.

In her free time Chloe has been working on building a non-profit for queer artists called Queird (www.queird.com). It currently exists as an ecommerce shop focused on tank tops and art prints, with more coming in 2017. Future goals include a retail/gallery space alongside co-working DIY space. She also recently launched printed leggings brand Radleg (www.radleg.com) and regularly creates art across various mediums — from vector illustration on an iPad to large format canvases made out of shipping pallets.
Michelle Morrison, Design Program Manager at Facebook, Organizer at Designers + Geeks
Michelle Morrison's career has been focused on creative strategy and operations. She currently works as a Design Program Manager at Facebook. Previously she held post at Square and IDEO.org. She also runs Designers + Geeks, San Francisco's largest design community and lecture series. Her emails are signed with all cream, no sugar.
Melanie Araujo, Product Designer at Young & Co, Founder at Front & Center
Melanie Araujo is the Creative Director and Founder of Front & Center, an organization founded to increase diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley through design. Through Front & Center, Ms. Araujo combines her academic background in neuroscience and experience in product design to illuminate education and career opportunities for a work force from a low-income background, primarily through design workshops and events. When she’s not mentoring young adults on how to break into tech, she collaborates with design leaders from Facebook, Google, Honor, KPCB, and others. Ms. Araujo works as a Visual and Interaction Design consultant in San Francisco, CA, focusing on brand, communications, UI/UX, and prototyping.
Ana Arriola, Founder, CEO & Executive Creative Director, Minimalisms
Ana Arriola celebrates the renegade spirit of California by designing products and experiences that are - Human. Simple. Authentic.

Currently, she is the Global VP of UX & Design at Samsung for Visual Display and Digital Appliances + UXV Studio. Ana also runs a bespoke skunk works product design consultancy - Minimalisms.

Working with craftspeople around the world Ana has designed iconic objects and experiences such as the world's first heirloom electronic - Runcible, by Monohm. Designed to be quiet. Fundamentally calming. Humanistic.

Previously, Ana has led multidisciplinary teams of industrial design & CMF, visual & interactive design, and product management focused on product design at Apple, PlayStation, Sony, Theranos, Adobe.

Ana currently splits her time between San Francisco, Suwon, Seoul, Tokyo, and Kyoto.
Dan Miller, CEO at Level Therapy
Dan Miller is a serial entrepreneur who is currently building Level Therapy. Before launching companies, Dan held various research and product roles at SurveyMonkey, Salesforce, Forrester Research, and StyleSeat.