We just received the Call For Entries for Graphex 2010—GDC’s biennial national design awards. The concept is “A Reflection Of The Best Designers In Canada”, so I photographed myself reflected in the shiny mirror postcard. Does this mean I’m now among the best designers in Canada? No, but maybe it’ll bring some luck as we get ready to submit a bunch of work from the past couple years. Fingers crossed!

I see GDC has created a public Graphex 2010 group on Flickr, so hopefully more designers across the country will post similar photos of themselves.

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!

Mark Busse gives his final speech as President of GDC/BC in January, 2009.

GDC/BC‘s President, Marga Lopez, recently asked me to submit an overview of 2009 from my perspective as a GDC Executive. After a little thought, I jotted down the following, which I thought I’d share here.

I’ll never forget 2009. As far as my career goes, it was filled with breathtaking highs and terrifying lows. I’m not ashamed to admit that my own company suffered when the economic crisis hit and I was gravely concerned when numerous friends scaled their design firms way back or even found themselves without a job altogether.

This was my mood as the year began, but I’d have to say this was a rather good year for GDC/BC—and for me. Deciding to not run for another term as GDC/BC President was difficult for me as our team was gaining momentum and there was much work left to do. But in retrospect it was the right thing to do as Marga Lopez has blossomed as a leader we can all rally around. My hope is that Marga will not make the same choice and decide to run for another term. I would follow her into battle blindfolded.

Beyond supporting Marga as Past President, my duties included serving as Co-Chair of Design Week have kept me busier than ever. Sometimes my role seems to be one of catalyst and conduit, generating ideas or fostering relationships, other times I seem to be the voice of dissent, expressing strong opinions about issues that can rub people in the wrong ways at times.

Money was tight for our chapter this year, but we budgeted smartly and kept our eye on expenditures. Sponsorship has been a struggle as companies are reticent to spend money on marketing when they are laying off staff, but we also managed to create a new partnership with Rogers that brought enough savings to members to offset annual dues—and I finally got an Apple iPhone!

I was encouraged to see our public image gain traction this year, with improved PR efforts and the press interviewing GDC Execs, industry speakers, and running stories about the efforts of GDC in British Columbia, such as the “Vancouver’s Ambassadors of Design” article in Design Edge Magazine. Having been on the receiving end of interviews a few times this year, I have much to learn before I feel “media savvy”, but I’m getting better at navigating those trecherous waters and feel it’s an important thing for the GDC to be aware of in the coming years.

I really enjoyed this year’s events. Michael Strassburger’s hilarious presentation at the AGM in January, Michael Osborne’s irreverent yet enlightening talk at the 2009 Salazar Awards, the eager students I met at POGO ’09, and watching people gorge themselves on my moose chili at the association BBQ were all memories I’ll cherish. Our professional development breakfasts were spot on and well-received, the Graphex exhibit in China was a resounding success, and Practivism was once again the crown jewel—who would have thought our little idea to make a design lecture series about using design as a practical approach to activism?

Serving as a co-chair on the Design Week committee has been terrifying, exciting, challenging, and rewarding. It’s hard to believe this all started with a casual comment to an Icograda colleague at the 2007 World Design Congress in La Habana, Cuba. I think I said something like “What would it take to bring Design Week to Vancouver?” Another lesson in being careful what you wish for perhaps. Planning for the conference has progressed well and we have been truly blessed that so many world-class speakers have agreed to be our guests and contribute their time and energy toward this dialogue about defining the value of design.

Speaking of Design Week, leading a GDC delegation to China to promote our conference was an experience I’ll never forget, and one I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues in GDC (especially Patricia Xu) for helping make happen. I truly believe that the Graphex exhibit, combined with the lectures and presentations that Rod Roodenburg and I gave to universities, general assembly and conference audiences helped improve the reputation of Canadian communication design internationally. I’ve already received invitations to return to China, so at least I didn’t offend anyone. :-)

This year included some sadness for many of us who lost friends and loved ones. The sudden passing of my friend Leo Obstbaum left me shaken, but I am glad his community has chosen to honour him in death by inducting him posthumously into our fold. And learning that our mentor and friend Jim Rimmer was struggling with throat cancer was a shock. Thankfully Jim is fighting back and the prognosis is positive, and witnessing Hemlock name their new scholarship fund in his name was a high point for me this year.

As the year winds down, our struggles are not over. Many of us still seek work and worry about the year ahead. But I am hopeful. The last year has forced me and my company to really look inward, make sacrifices and refocus on what we’re best at. By not compromising and working harder than ever to be examples of the GDC ideal, we’ve not only survived, but thrived.

So too with the GDC/BC community and executive. Some have disappeared from our ranks, while many others have recognized that this is exactly the right time to be involved in our professional association. In fact, those generous souls who sit around the GDC/BC executive table each month have grown in number—with more passionate professionals than ever committing themselves to a term of service to our industry. For them I am deeply grateful and proud.

Each year we write these reports to summarize our recollections and thoughts about the year. This year I find myself asking what lessons I learned? My answer is twofold.

First, our situation—that being the struggle for recognition, fair pay and respect as design professionals—is really our own doing. There is no one to blame but us and the sooner we realize that, the better. We aspire to be experts in branding, positioning, and messaging, yet our own lack of business and marketing acumen has led us to drift off course. Instead of focusing our learning on become better skilled business specialists and communicating our value to business community and public we serve, we have been (poorly) marketing to gain more membership and self-pleasuring ourselves on design fodder—designsturbation. This must stop.

Secondly, change and improvement in the communication design industry will only happen when if we want it to and actually DO something about it. We need more passionate leaders within our community to step forward and lend us their brilliance. We then must celebrate those among us that excel and learn from them. Together we must boldly infiltrate non-design networks and demonstrate our value by the things we DO, not the things we SAY. If we want government support? We must meet with government, give presentations to their ranks and convince them that the future of our province depends on design thinker like us. If it pisses them off, so be it. And if we need more revenue, we need to not only seek more sponsorship by proving the value to those who want to do business with us, but seek other ways to create revenue for our chapter so we can operate more like the businesses we work for every day.

Here’s wishing happy holidays to all my friends in the design industry and a prosperous new year to you all!

IMPORTANT UPDATE – See amendment below for some good news.

I love living in Vancouver for a myriad of reasons. The more I travel, the more I realize how good we have it here. But I have to say, as a creative professional who makes his living in the communication design field, my city’s lack of support for creative industries leaves me frustrated. I feel a personal rant coming on.

Vancouver has a real opportunity to emerge as THE next significant creativity and innovation centre in Canada, yet City Council seems uninterested in supporting efforts to that end. Content, it seems, to leave that role to other cities like Montreal and Toronto—both of which have wonderful design centres. Vancouver has none and it’s our turn. There is exciting stuff happening in this city, but no one knows much about it on the other side of them hills.

When the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), in partnership with Icograda, presented an appeal to the City’s Mayor and Council seeking support for the Design Week Vancouver international design conference, their polite response was that this globally-promoted event “does not meet criteria as set by City Council,” specifically quoting a policy that states:

“That Council not consider financial support, in the form of hospitality grants or otherwise, to conventions being held in Vancouver, sports teams holding championships in Vancouver or to other events of this nature, except in the event that senior City staff, in their professional capacity, are directly involved in the event, and the topic is particularly relevant to the business of the City.”

I’m sorry, what? Excuse me, but are they saying that the burgeoning design community coming into its own in Metro Vancouver is not “particularly relevant to the business of the City”? Uh, aren’t Electronic Arts, Rainmaker and Bardel major employers in Vancouver? Didn’t Disney just set up a Pixar studio here? Aren’t some of Canada’s most successful advertising studios such as Cossette, DDB and Rethink located in Vancouver? Or brand design firms Identica, Karacters, Fleming, or Karo? Hasn’t ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver been selected to host SIGGRAPH’s massive international computer graphics conference in 2011—the first time ever outside of the US? Is New Media BC wrong in estimating there to be over 1,100 digital media design companies currently in BC? Aren’t schools such as VFS, Capilano, VCC, Emily Carr, SFU, Kwantlen, BCIT, Langara, AI, and Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina) all enjoying tremendous growth in their design programs? All true.

I can assure you Mr. Mayor, that the various facets of design, including branding, communications, advertising, web, product, interior, architectural, and game design, are indeed relevant to this region’s culture and economy. Very relevant. In fact, the secret to achieving your goal of making Vancouver the greenest city on Earth may very well lie within the design industry itself.

Tourism Vancouver seems to see the relevancy, having been a key supporter of Design Week, helping GDC/BC win the original bid last year. BC’s Ministry of Housing and Social Development also seem to understand the importance of this event, recently awarding significant funding in support of Design Week. And the BC Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts calls Design Week “an important international cultural and business event, creating an international profile for British Columbia, bringing the global community of designers to Vancouver and reinforcing BC as the international hub for design.”

In 2008, former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan wrote a glowing letter of support during the Graphex national design awards, hosted by GDC/BC in Vancouver, saying, “Design is an important part of our everyday life and business, and Vancouver is fortunate to have a thriving creative community.” Even Premier Gordon Campbell, infamous for slashing arts & culture funding in BC, wrote “The Province of British Columbia is committed to excellence and innovation in visual arts, media arts and design” in a letter of support of GDC’s efforts. Well, Mr. Former Mayor and Mr. Premier, maybe you guys could talk to your buddies back at your old mayoral office and convince them to recognize the value and relevancy of supporting the design community before it’s too late. And it really is almost too late. Design Week Vancouver is less than five months away.

Vancouver is spending millions on the 2010 Olympics to lure potential business investors, but I believe they are short-sighted and not showcasing the best Vancouver has to offer. The “afterglow” of the Olympics everyone is counting on will have to be founded on something other that just our pretty geography, overpriced real estate, and fancy new sports facilities. What is Vancouver’s real “mojo”? Its great appeal? Could it not be our emerging dominance as a creative force so we can be more competitive with the country’s existing economic centres to the east?

If we truly want to convince companies and investors to shift their attention to Metro Vancouver, then we have to make sure we showcase what Vancouver really stands for post-Olympics. Having recently returned from Beijing, China, I saw first hand what is happening there and frankly it scared me. Many have accused China of overspending on the Olympics in unsustainable ways, but do you think they are sitting on their laurels, hoping the world shows up to do business with them while they’re in town touring the Bird’s Nest Stadium or Water Cube as a tourist? I assure you they are not.

In fact, Beijing just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hosting the Icograda World Design Congress and 1st Beijing Design Week. There were literally dozens of corporate sponsors, with one print sponsor alone donating $150,000 to be a sponsor of such a prestigious event. They even invited their respected friends from Canada to showcase the best designers at a Graphex 2008 exhibit at Tsinghua University’s prestigious Visual Arts Center Gallery—an initiative that GDC paid for out of its own coffers with no support from government or corporate sponsors, although thanks are due to Martin Charron, Senior Trade Commissioner in China from the Embassy of Canada, for generously hosting a packed opening reception.

The Beijing World Design Congress opening ceremonies were attended by 2,500 delegates from around the globe, and was held at The National Center for the Performing Arts. The opening of Beijing Design Week was held at the National Art Museum, with over 2,000 witnesses to one of the most impressive ceremonies I’ve ever attended—all part of their plan to change their reputation from one of “Made in China” to “Designed in China“.

They are very serious about this folks. Check out this review of their recent conference to get a sense of the scale of their commitment to their design community and its reputation. I spoke at four of the top universities in the country during my visit, and learned that there are hundreds of thousands of students (some say upwards of a million) currently enrolled in design programs across China, and new design studios are opening in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing every day. These will be our competitors very soon.

Now, I’m not saying that Vancouver is just like Beijing, but I do fear Vancouver may be putting all its eggs into the Olympics basket and forgetting to invest in an important industry that will help our fine city to flourish. I certainly don’t want to live in a city primarily known for hosting overrated, over-budget sports events.

BC’s economic base has begun shifting away from natural resources as our chief export, and tourism, real estate and finance aren’t rock solid economic foundations either—just ask Dubai how it’s going for them. Markets are now globalized and continue to evolve at break-neck speeds. In order to compete over the long haul, Vancouver needs to become an economy that values innovation—an economy based on the flow of ideas and imagination.

We already have a strong basis for that economy in place in Vancouver, one that’s ready to grow, mature and take its place on an international stage, but we cannot do it alone. Without the clear and present support from our municipal, provincial, and federal government, I fear we may be just spinning our wheels, destined to host a lovely little design conference and little more. A conference that will show off how pretty our city is, but also demonstrate how small-minded our City is in terms of supporting design thinking. I’m sure Brisbane and Madrid, the next two Icograda Design Week host cities, will do a terrific job of positioning themselves as world-class design communities thanks to the significant support they are receiving from their city councils and regional governments.

We’re living in the design age where long-term economic growth is based on creativity and innovation. Having spoken with Mayor Gregor Robertson about this in person, I thought he agreed with me on this point, yet his City Council friends with the purse strings still seem to think that a national design association hosted international design event featuring presentations from some of the most notable design experts on the planet isn’t “particularly relevant to the business of the City.” Disappointing to say the least.

Enough ranting for today. If you have any thoughts on this or any ideas what we can do about it, let me know in the comments below. Or if this bugs you as much as it does me, fire off an email to the Mayor’s office and City Council yourself and tell them your thoughts on the matter.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Since posting this personal rant (which is in no way the opinion of GDC or Icograda), The City of Vancouver’s economic development arm, appropriately called Vancouver Economic Development Commission (VEDC), has indicated they intend to financially supporting Design Week which is a positive sign indeed and I am encouraged. In no way am I claiming that this post had anything to do with this recent development, but I am happy to eat my words and and update this post to declare Vancouver DOES  support the design industry!

Leo Obstbaum, Design Director for VANOC 2010 Olympics

My friend and colleague Leo Obstbaum, the creative mastermind behind the designs of the Vancouver Olympic Games, died suddenly in his home of natural causes in the early hours of Friday, August 21st. He left behind his beautiful wife Monice and young daughter Dakota. He was just 40 years old—the same age as I am.

Leo and I spoken numerous times that week and even had plans to meet that day after work to catch up over drinks and discuss a presentation he’d been preparing about his work on the Olympics. It was a talk he hoped to refine and present during Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 next spring. I’ll never forget hearing the tragic news and trying to come to terms with the fact that my friend was suddenly gone. It really shook me up. As devastated as I felt, I couldn’t imagine the feeling of loss his family was enduring.

Click here to read the entire article on GDC/BC’s blog.

The latest issue of Design Edge just hit the streets and features our own Mark Busse on page 14 in the Newsmakers section! For those of you who don’t know (and that’s not many), Mark has been instrumental in reviving and enlivening the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada BC Chapter as its president for the last two years.

Together with the current president and others, they are bringing Icograda Design Week to Vancouver in April 2010. This is huge. Kudos to Mark, Marga, Rod, Matt and the rest of the GDC Icograda committee. Should be amazing, and help put Vancouver firmly on the global design map! Speaking of which, why doesn’t Vancouver have a design centre of some sort? We should.

Click here to download a PDF of the Design Edge article.

During the research and planning phase of an upcoming GDC event—Practivism: Practical methods for radical sustainability in design—I came across Alyssa Walker’s article Conventional Wisdom: Eight Ways to Save Design Conferences. In it Walker claims that design conferences have become “exercises in regenerated, wasteful spectacles,” feeling “less like intellectual retreats and more like conspicuous consumption.” In her forthright Core77 post she shares her perspectives and offers numerous ideas for making them more sustainable and relevant. Perhaps her most profound recommendation being to cancel conference plans altogether and replace them with more organic, local, spontaneous and sustainable alternatives.

Having attended numerous conferences and helped organize various events over the years, this article really hit close to home and resonated with me. I even did a little ranting about the traditional conference format myself after attending the HOW Design Conference in Boston earlier this year. But more importantly, it made us in the GDC/BC Executive reconsider our own choices regarding events and role in hosting competitions such as Graphex and conferences such as Icograda Design Week.

Our goal for the Practivism event is to host an enlightening, rhetoric-free evening of wisdom and discussion as our sustainability experts share their experiences and insights, attempt to demystify green speak and provide attendees with practical answers and strategies they can apply in their lives and design practices. But as we discussed the event logistics, such as printing invites, posters, flying the speakers from New York and California, etc, it was a harsh reminder of the impact we have on the environment even when putting on relatively small industry events such as these.

We’re making every effort possible to make effective choices to promote and host our event within realistic parameters, such as reducing our print requirements and ensuring we use production techniques with the smallest environmental input. We even considered remote web video technologies and web streaming as an alternative to needed the speakers to be on-site. Hopefully as we move forward we can make innovations to how events and conferences are organized an produced.

GDC‘s Designer Speaker Series event Practivism: Practical methods for radical sustainability in design will be held on November 13th at Science World in Vancouver. Speakers include, Innovation and Sustainabilty Expert Marc Alt, Green Graphic Design author Brian Dougherty and Design Can Change Founder Eric Karjaluoto. Information and tickets are available at www.practivism.ca.

The winners of the 12th annual Webby Awards were just announced and the Graphex 2008 website, designed and developed by Industrial Brand Creative, was chosen as an Honoree out of more than 8,000 entries in 70 categories. To be selected among the best is an honour and we’re very proud to be recognized.

The creative tournament ladder-inspired theme exploring the connections and possibilities of good design was thoughtfully developed by our friends at Rethink Communications, who are also producing the beautiful catalogue showcasing all the Graphex winners (available at GDC.net soon). The creation of a promotional website that paralleled their campaign in a clever way was a challenge our team devoured with vigor, so this award feels really great. Thanks to Ben, Kevin, Cameron, Amanda, Leigh and Haig for making it happen. And thanks to GDC for the opportunity to do what we do best.

Having served as a volunteer with Graphex this year, the memory of a sea of tables displaying 600 submissions is still fresh in my mind. The notion of organizing, categorizing, review and judging over 8,000 entries submitted to the Webby Awards this year makes me a little dizzy. No wonder they charge $275 for each entry. Wait a second: $275 x 8,000 = $2,200,000. Oh my goodness. Someone is making some huge money.

After much feedback, evaluation, planning—including a healthy dose of debate and discussion—the all new GDC.net website has launched at long last, with a section devoted to the GDC BC Chapter.

Having served with a number of my GDC colleagues on the web committee over the last two years, I am personally very proud of the result and grateful to the bright, colourful and friendly concept designed by Tetro Design in Winnipeg and developed by SmallBox Software using the latest version of their custom CMS.

There’s still a ton of content to port over, such as the entire back catalogue from the old GDC/BC blog to the new, integrated system, but the new site has a sleek, intuitive navigation system, built-in events calendar, integrated e-commerce system, email campaign management tools and much more.

Special thanks to David Coates FGDC, Web Chair and Rod Roodenburg MGDC, National VP of Communications, and everyone who worked hard to make this happen—it’s bound to be a success and usher in a new era of the GDC brand and message online.