If you are serious about your career as a designer, and want to learn from the world’s top experts while participating in an important dialogue about the nature and value of our industry, leaving you better equipped to tackle social, environmental and economic challenges, then you should attend Design Currency: Icograda Design Week in Vancouver 2010.

Presented by the International Council Of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda) and hosted by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) from April 26–30, 2010 at Vancouver Convention Centre, the theme of this international, multi-disciplinary design conference is Design Currency: Defining The Value of Design, with the concept of “Currency” being expressed as the state or quality of being current; general acceptance or reception; a passing from person to person, or from hand to hand.

Design Currency: Icograda Design Week in Vancouver 2010 will offer designers, business leaders and government the opportunity to experience current design thinking. Design brings clarity and enhances meaning and has the power to influence our core values, our identity, our expectations and our worldview. The conference will help reshape our mutual understanding of the value of design by exploring the various levels of identity as it relates to processes, sustainability, economy, innovation, change and authenticity in communications that help define who we are and where we are going as a culture.

Preceded by GDC’s national AGM and Icograda’s regional board meeting, the conference will kick off with a keynote presentation of thought-leadership on how design is shaping, and being shaped by, our global community. The following two days will include highly interactive presentations, panel discussions and workshops led by a host of world-class international design experts that will maximise the opportunity for interaction between presenters and delegates. All delegates, presenters and sponsors will have free access to exhibits, forums and Design Trade Fair featuring the latest products and services from manufacturers, retailers and event partners. The conference finale will be the Awards Gala dinner for Graphex 2010, Canada’s national awards programme.

A partial sample list of confirmed speakers include:

• Nathan Shedroff – Experience design pioneer, Chair of the Design Strategy MBA, California College of the Arts (United States)
• Marian Bantjes – Designer, typographic illustrator and educator (Canada)
• Freeman Lau – Kan & Lau Design Consultants (Hong Kong SAR)
• Gregoire Serikoff – Designer and facilitator, Founder of The Value Web, member of Accelerated Solutions Environment network, Icograda board member (France)
• Ashwini Deshpande – Founder and Creative Director of Elephant Strategy + Design (India)
• Debbie Millman – Brand designer, author, radio host, President of Sterling Brands, President of AIGA (United States)
• Mark E. Sackett – Designer, radio host, President of Reflectur, Founder of BOX SF (United States)
• Jason Santa Maria – Interaction designer, Founder of Mighty, Creative Director of A List apart, AIGA board member (United States)
• Martin Miruka – Designer, author, Founder and Lead Strategist of ATOM-tdf, Chairman of Diversity Africa Foundation & KenyaOne (Kenya)
• Lise Vejse Klint – Designer, Architect, Director of INDEX: Design to Improve Life, former Secretary General of Icograda (Denmark)
• Oscar Pena – Designer, Global Senior Creative Director of Philips (The Netherlands)
• Cameron Sinclair – Architecture for Humanity (United States)
• Dr. Tony Golsby-Smith – Designer, strategist, Founder and CEO of Second Pty Ltd (Australia)

Register online before January 16th and take advantage of the early bird discounts!

Icograda has formally announced Design Week 2010 to be hosted by GDC in Vancouver with official event profile information on their website.

There’s an old saying about 15 minutes of fame—that “all publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right.” Well maybe my appearance this week on ESPN’s Jim Rome is Burning was the closest thing to my 15 minutes, but they mispronounced my first name (Mike?) and got my title wrong, listing me as an “industrial designer” as opposed to a designer from Industrial Brand. Oh well, at least I looked like a badass in my photo with flames in the background (flames to light my spliff with perhaps?). I hope fame doesn’t change me.

After months of work in secrecy, the design team at VANOC has revealed the new graphic identity system and sport pictograms for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. VANOC’s Design Director, Leo Obstbaum, said “The sport illustrations bring the athletes to life in a way that’s never been done before.”

Right on cue, the design community began buzzing with opinions about the work. Some raved about how fresh, friendly and fun it was. Others moaned that it seemed too much like stock illustration or too busy. Many seem to appreciate the new sports pictograms while others miss the simpler abstract quality of previous games’ icons. I don’t disagree with any of these assessments, yet find myself attracted to the new identity system.

Long ago I learned that it’s hard enough to please a client, let alone a large group of opinionated graphic designers who probably all think they could do better (yeah, right). But whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to respect the hard work that went into the process of creating an arguably beautiful and expressive graphic identity system. And what a treat to see VANOC’s research process and inspirations revealed in their “Transmoflection” video.