conferences

In a move that we hope will land him the network-TV variety show he so richly deserves, Chip Kidd will give a talk at this year’s TED Conference, which gets underway on February 27 in Long Beach, California. The charismatic author, editor, art director, book jacket designer, Batman expert, and rock star will lead off a March 1 session entitled “The Design Studio,” according to the program line-up released today. Kidd will be followed onto the TED stage by Andrew Bolton, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who may shed some light into the global phenomenon that was “Savage Beauty” (he organized the McQueen blockbuster) or just help to get the audience thinking outside their boxy polos and khakis. Rounding out the session is IDEO founder and Stanford professor David Kelley, who is expected to address his passion for “unlocking the creative potential of people and organizations to innovate routinely.”

Meanwhile, New Yorkers have a couple of imminent opportunities to get their Kidd fix (and wouldn’t Kidd Fixx be a great name for that TV show?). Tomorrow evening, the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art hosts an evening of Bat-Manga. Kidd will discuss the Japanese Bat-mania phenomenon, the basis for his 2008 book, amidst the museum’s current exhibit of original artwork and lavish cover art from the Batman-manga comics. And on Thursday, January 26, he’ll be on hand for “The Next Chapter,” an AIGA/NY-sponsored look at e-publishing dynamics. What does Kidd know about digital publishing and the future of the book? Absolutely nothing, so he’ll be moderating a panel of people who actually do, including Carin Goldberg, Craig Mod (500 Startups, Flipboard), and Jeremy Clark (Adobe).

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

New York’s Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) pulls out all the stops for its annual fashion symposium, and this year’s confab is even more star-studded than usual, as it will take place in the midst of the museum’s ambitious and exquisitely realized Daphne Guinness exhibition (on view through January 7). The couture maven herself is among the headliners of the two-day symposium, which begins next Thursday, November 3, with a conversation between Guinness and Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at FIT. Subsequent sessions will tackle topics ranging from Jean Paul Gaultier and Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers to “vampire dandies” and how luxury goods like the Hermès Birkin have replaced living, breathing fashion icons. Featured speakers include designers Sophie Theallet and Joseph Altuzarra, Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey, and Thelma Golden of The Studio Museum in Harlem. Check out the full symposium schedule and register here, then start planning what you’re going to wear (we’re debating between ostrich feathers or a kooky Courrèges ensemble that turned up in our grandmother’s attic).

Get out your fancy pens and draw an elaborate box around November 4-13. That’s Illustration Week, an event bonanza featuring exhibitions, talks, panel discussions, and parties that will draw out a crowd of people who don’t blink when faced with questions such as “Prismacolors or Copics?” The fun begins next Friday, November 4, as Parsons the New School for Design plays hosts to the third annual Pictoplasma Conference, which invites designers, illustrators, fimmakers and producers, artists, and character connoisseurs to discourse freely about the world of character-driven art and design. The two-day event features lectures by global superstars such as Siggi Eggertsson, Wooster Collective, Jon Burgerman (whose work is pictured above), and French-Swiss Technicolor enfants terribles Ben & Julia. The Society of Illustrators follows up that character-building bunch with a presentation on the history of illustration by Murray Tinkelman, an Illustrators Sketch Night featuring the musical stylings of the Half-Tones (illustrators Barry Blitt, Joe Ciardiello, and Michael Sloan, joined by guest guitarist Kenny Wessel), and an evening with children’s book icons and illustrators including Ted and Betsy Lewin and Jerry Pinkney. Check out the full schedule of events here.

Eager for the inside scoop on retrofitting the Manufacturers Hanover Trust building on Fifth Avenue (pictured) for retail use? Want to know how Beyer Blinder Belle restored the Beacon Theater? Fancy a peek inside the restored and renovated Gracie Mansion? Don’t miss “Living With History: Restoring, Redesigning, and Reviving New York’s Landmark Interiors,” which takes place tomorrow at the Museum of the City of New York. In showcasing some of the extraordinary projects aimed at bringing historic NYC buildings back to life, the half-day symposium will highlight the various and sometimes controversial approaches to preserving the past while accommodating the needs of modern life. The presenters include architectural historian Matt Postal, Frank Mahan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, designer Jamie Drake, and Franklin D. Vagnone, executive director of the Historic House Trust. UnBeige readers can register at the $25 member rate by clicking here and entering the discount code Living1022 at checkout.

Why and how does color motivate, trouble, persuade, and feed our spirits? How does Pantone decide upon the “color of the year” and does it involve alcohol—a mimosa, say, or a Bombay Sapphire martini—and/or a dartboard? Why do we feel giddy when walking by the Farrow & Ball emporium that recently opened a few blocks from UnBeige HQ (hint: paint colors like “Dead Salmon,” “Mouse’s Back,” and “Clunch”)? Answers to these questions and many more are on the agenda at Print magazine’s first ever Color Conference, a three-day confab that kicks off on Tuesday at the Art Directors Club in New York. Among the creative thinkers and experts in visual culture scheduled to “reveal their passion for color, their processes, and their ideas on how color connects us all” are Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute, Pentagram’s Eddie Opara, and Cooper-Hewitt director Bill Moggridge, whose tireless engagement with the design community leads us to believe that he has managed to transform his ground-breaking GRiD Compass laptop into some sort of time machine that allows him to be in many places at once. Sign up for the conference here and enter code UNBEIGEPCC to save $50 on the $595 registration fee. And whatever you do, don’t wear beige.

After 16 years in Berlin, the annual TYPO Design Conference is returning to London for a three-day inspirationfest and creative boot camp that kicks off on October 20. And don’t let the “typo” title fool you. Along with typography, the deliberately broad program will include aspects of visual communication, film, emerging media, design, education, technology, and information. “Our aim is for people to leave the event with strong talking points, controversies, new favorites and, most importantly, new perspectives and knowledge,” says conference director Robin Richmond. Among the speakers that will tackle this year’s theme of “places” are Neville Brody (Royal College of Art), Michael Bierut (Pentagram), Chip Kidd (Knopf), and—would you believe?—artist Lawrence Weiner. The agenda also has plenty of new faces (read: design minds to whom you haven’t already constructed elaborate shrines in your basement), such as the dynamic duo pictured at right. That’s Togbe Ngoryifia Céphas Kosi Bansah, King of Hohoe, Ghana, and designer Julian Zimmerman. King Bansah works as an automotive mechanic in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and governs his people in the African Volta region from there. As part of his undergraduate thesis, Zimmerman created a corporate identity for the king. Their joint presentation at last year’s TYPO Berlin Design Conference brought many delegates to tears and garnered standing ovations.
(Photo: Gerhard Kassner)

Why and how does color motivate, trouble, persuade, and feed our spirits? How does Pantone decide upon the “color of the year” and does it involve alcohol—a mimosa, say, or a Bombay Sapphire martini—and/or a dartboard? Why do we feel giddy when walking by the Farrow & Ball emporium that is soon to open a few blocks from UnBeige HQ (hint: paint colors like “Dead Salmon,” “Mouse’s Back,” and “Clunch”)? Answers to these questions and many more are on the agenda at Print magazine’s first ever Color Conference, a three-day confab that kicks off on October 4 at the Art Directors Club in New York. Among the creative thinkers and experts in visual culture scheduled to “reveal their passion for color, their processes, and their ideas on how color connects us all” are Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute, Pentagram’s Eddie Opara, and Cooper-Hewitt director Bill Moggridge, whose tireless engagement with the design community leads us to believe that he has managed to transform his ground-breaking GRiD Compass laptop into some sort of time machine that allows him to be in many places at once. Registration is now open, so sign up for the conference here by September 15 to save $30 on the $595 registration fee. And whatever you do, don’t wear beige.

Dwell on Design is back. The West Coast weekend of modern design events—from seminars and discussions to exhibits and self-guided tours of modern homes—kicks off on Friday in Los Angeles with a keynote address by William McDonough. The architect, designer, and author will describe how Cradle to Cradle thinking about design, architecture, and industry can create a future that is “more good” rather than “less bad.” Also part of McDonough’s discussion of the future of dwelling: the non-profit Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. Other featured presentations at Dwell on Design will focus on landscape design, sustainability, and what it’s like to live in an Airstream (we’re thinking more good and less bad?). On Sunday, Architecture for Humanity will cap off the three-day confab with a regeneration-themed Pecha Kucha. Ready to seize this opportunity to donate your heartbeat to a good cause and meet Ed Begley Jr.? Tickets are available here. Enter code DWELLUNBEIGE83 to receive $15 off Conference Plus and $15 off Exhibition Plus tickets.

What do get when you combine six design world stars who have collectively held senior positions at more than 35 leading publications, one amazing moderator, and the delightful destination of Portland, Maine? ABSTRACT, a conference on the future of design in media to be presented by AIGA Maine on Friday, June 10. Alice Twemlow, chair of the unstoppable MFA Design Criticism program at the School of Visual Arts, will guide the day of in-depth, highly visual, and interactive sessions led by names you know: Gael Towey, Luke Hayman, Florian Bachleda, Arem Duplessis, Dirk Barnett, and Scott “The iPad Whisperer” Dadich. Come for the business-focused discussion of design as a driver of innovation (and revenue), stay for the practicum on launching an iPad publication. Ready to register? We’ve finagled a $100 discount for UnBeige readers: simply enter the code unbeige2011 at checkout. Think of it as our Memorial Day gift to you.

Motion graphics by Erick Fletes

Positioned between intrepid polar photographer Paul Nicklen (who killed it with his snapshots of adorable polar bears and tales of befriending a leopard seal) and one-man band Bobby McFerrin, architect Thomas Heatherwick was one of the highlights of this year’s TED Conference, held earlier this year in Long Beach, California as you may recall. The founder of London-based Heatherwick Studio followed the usual TED talk format of “here are a few really cool things I’m working on.” With his charming Dickensian air and otherworldly projects, Heatherwick dazzled the crowd with a video of his studio’s innovative bridge that can be raised by curling back onto itself rather than breaking in two. “We liked the fact the two furthest bits of it would end up kissing each other,” he said, as video footage showed the bridge contort into a backbend and roll into a tight circle. Heatherwick’s firm is now at work on redesigning London buses and a Malaysian housing development topped by a giant rainforest. Meanwhile, today the TEDsters posted this video of his talk for all to delight in: