Feb 2017
Design as Business Strategy | Universidad Francisco Marroquin | Guatemala City, Guatemala

Rooted in English's book "Designing Identity: Graphic Design as a Business Strategy, these hands-on and invigorating workshops help MBA students better understand the role of design and branding in relation to the bottom line, in an engaging and informal manner. Students will leave with a thorough understanding of the design process and how to engage a design studio or creative team, as well as find ways to apply those insights to their own businesses.

Francisco Marroquin University (UFM) is a private, secular university in Guatemala City, Guatemala

UFM's mission is "to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal, and overall economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons."

UFM's philosophy statement is "universities need to place themselves beyond the conflicts of their time so that science and academic freedom - which humankind will need at all times - may be preserved."

1-9 Oct 2016 | AIGA Frontier Design Educators Conference | Bozeman, Montana

The landscape of design is changing quickly and it's time to rethink design education, together. As the field embraces an increasingly amorphous definition of practice and an ever-expanding toolset, educators have a unique opportunity to imagine the many possible futures of graphic design, and to speculate, dream, and ideate on the role of future graphic designers.

More than 100 graphic design professors and professionals attended the three-day national AIGA Design Educators Community conference Oct. 7-9 hosted by Montana State University's School of Art in the College of Arts and Architecture.

This is the first time in the organization's history that Montana has played host to one of its national Design Educator Conferences. Through its partnership with the AIGA, the DEC supports the unique activities and responsibilities of the design educator at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels in a wide variety of institutional settings.

The conference, themed "Frontier," hosted several graphic design luminaries who served as creative instigators during the event giving public lectures and offering panel discussions. The five instigators were:

April Greiman, Graphic Space Instructor Woodbury University, from Los Angeles, recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool.

Marc English, Graduate Studies Professor at the Academy of Art University, from Austin, Texas, a design shaman and author of "Designing Identity: Graphic Design as a Business Strategy."

Saki Mafundikwa, Founder and Director Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts, who wrote the book on Africa's graphic design heritage, "Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika," then opened a school of graphic arts in his native Zimbabwe.

Juliette Cezzar, Assistant Professor of Communication Design New School's Parsons School of Design , a design professional, author, and assistant professor of Communication Design at the New School's Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Rick Griffith, the co-founder of the design firm Matter in Denver. Griffith is also the Denver City Commissioner for Public Art and Culture.

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Two of the co-chairs of the conference - Meta Newhouse, MSU graphic design professor in the MSU School of Art and Colin Frazer, MSU assistant professor of graphic design - said the lasting influence of hosting such a successful AIGA DEC in Bozeman is twofold: it brings national attention to the education excellence offered by the Graphic Design Program at Montana State University; and affirms Bozeman as the burgeoning design hub of the Northern Rockies.

"Many stakeholders worked together to support the event including MSU faculty, staff, students and local professionals," they said.

The conference was also co-chaired by William Culpepper, online associate director and a professor of graphic design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

The national event brought graphic design professors at all levels of their career paths to share best practice teaching methods through peer-to-peer workshops. Organizers said the conference format of sharing ideas in workshops was a purposeful departure from the typical, traditional paper presentations and was extremely effective for both presenters and participants.

During the three-day conference, participants selected from more than 50 design pedagogy-related workshops, or panel discussions; along with studio tours of local creative studios, visits to the Museum of the Rockies and a bus tour of Yellowstone National Park.

Feb 2016 | Design as Business Strategy | Universidad Francisco Marroquin | Guatemala City, Guatemala

Rooted in English's book "Designing Identity: Graphic Design as a Business Strategy, these hands-on and invigorating workshops help MBA students better understand the role of design and branding in relation to the bottom line, in an engaging and informal manner. Students will leave with a thorough understanding of the design process and how to engage a design studio or creative team, as well as find ways to apply those insights to their own businesses.

Francisco Marroquin University (UFM) is a private, secular university in Guatemala City, Guatemala

UFM's mission is "to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal, and overall economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons."

UFM's philosophy statement is "universities need to place themselves beyond the conflicts of their time so that science and academic freedom - which humankind will need at all times - may be preserved."

Sept 2015 | AIGA Alaska | Anchorage, Alaska
MARC ENGLISH LECTURE & WORKSHOP

Saving the biggest for last, having traveled all of the Continetal United States and Hawaii, English finally got to Alaska, courtesy of a former grad student of his, who was on the AIGA/Alaska board of directors.

After a week camping in the cold and rain, "Teacher, preacher, shaman and showman Marc English led a lecture and workshop that did not disappoint. The larger-than-life designer known as "the Johnny Cash of AIGA" burns with passion for life and work, and wants to be sure we do too. Marc blew into town, shook things up and shared sources of inspiration and application, theory and practice."

RE:DESIGN

2 – 4 Nov 2014 | Palm Springs, California

Papa Was A Rolling Stone (or, You Can't Always Get What You Want):
The Career I Never Wanted

True story: if you are reading this, I NEVER wanted to open my own design studio. Shit happens.
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This, the fourth gathering of the creative directors, is aimed at engendering creative exchange on the revision and redesign of objects. The elements that the participants will focus on this year range from the development of ideas to finding solutions. The programme incorporates themes that concern both the selection of one medium and its adaptation and transfer to another, as well as the integration of creativity into the working day and even complete career change.

This year's speakers are Josh Higgins, Sean Adams, Christopher Simmons, Lawrence Azerrad, Stefan G. Bucher, Brad Cloepfil, Nick Cronan, Marc English, Nikolai Gregory Galle, Stanley Hainsworth, Jay Jurisich, Everett Katigbak, Pum Lefebure, Jonah Lehrer, Heidi Reinfeld, Bonnie Siegler, George Slavik, Lisa Kay Solomon, Alissa Walker and Cinthia Wen.

In order to promote creative collaboration, registration is limited to 150 participants.

Atlanta 06.10-17.07
HOW Design Conference. Hilton | 500 East 4th Street

Discovery:
Frontiers Are Where You Find Them

Back by popular demand, Marc will be speaking on his home turf:

"There's a huge difference between discovering a new world and taking a wrong turn and finding something unexpected, but both experiences lead to frontiers. And frontiers - and the experiences we encounter when we cross them - have a profound effect on our way of thinking.

In this session, Marc English will show you how curiosity and discovery are at the root of creativity and successful visual communication. You'll learn how to embrace experiences and discoveries you weren't expecting, how to share what you have discovered, and how to define your frontiers, whether they are in your own backyard or across time and space."
More info.

Auburn University
Discovery: Frontiers Are Where You Find Them

Marc will be mapping out his latest presentation, with help from students at Auburn.

Pecha Kucha Night | One Congress Plaza

The Pecha Kucha virus has spread to the Third Coast. Begun in Tokyo in 2003, Pecha Kucha Night (pecha kucha is a Japanese phrase meaning chit-chat) is a controlled creative convergence of designers, architects and other designers and artists.

Presenters are invited to show their work in a very tight format – 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. And then the next presenter is up. It's like speed dating, but more fun. An evening will feature 10 or so presenters in an informal environment, watched by an energetic and imbibing crowd. Austin is joining a host of cities to celebrate, support and enjoy the work of local designers and creatives.

Klein Dytham Architecture started Pecha Kucha Night in Tokyo in 2003. It has since spread to over 120 cities worldwide, including several in the US – LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, New York, and Austin.
Staying true to its Tokyo roots, the Austin edition will be grounded in architecture and design, while featuring other creative disciplines as well. We’ll include graphic art, fine art, electronic media, photography, and, of course, music (this is Austin, after all) – anything that can be represented in a series of slides over the course of 6 minutes and 40 seconds will be in play.

Presenters
Arthur Andersson, architect
Andy Coolquitt, artist
Marc English, designer
Randal Ford, photographer
Erik Grostic, musician
Camille Urban Jobe, architect
Mark Macek, product designer
Wura-Natasha Ogunji, artist
Chris Taylor, architect/educator
Liliana Wilson, artist
David and Nathan Zellner, filmmakers

SEGD Annual Conference | Interplay
Interplay: Collaboration, Synergy, and Delight!
featuring Marc English, Liz Lambert, Terri Ducay, Mark Rolston & Adam Greenfield

There's no better place than Austin to talk about how collaboration, synergy, and design can lead to delight. And no better person than our moderator and host Marc English, a hypercreative graphic designer, filmmaker, writer, teacher, and "renaissance cowpoke-cum-illustrator" whose studio is based in Austin. He is designing unique introductions to:

Austin resident, and innovator, urban boutique hotelier Liz Lambert, creator of the Hotel San Jose and Jo's Hot Coffee, two landmarks in Austin's vibrant South Congress district. How does a former attorney become an influential design muse? By creatively looking at new at run-down funky Austin. Liz has changed the face of South Congress by seeing potential in the down-on-its-luck Spanish Colonial-style tourist court, and turning it into a chic urban hotel and an absolute must see. Her latest projects are a rock n' roll-themed hotel on a Victorian estate outside Austin and a kibbutz in the desert near the hotbed of artistic activity in Marfa, Texas.

Terri Ducay, a leader in the search to find common ground between technology, entertainment, and design. Ducay, former head of design strategy for Cheskin, currently focuses her work on using cultural design to meet the needs of emerging and Bottom of the Pyramid markets.

Mark Rolston, chief creative officer of frog design and a founder of its digital media group. Rolston directs his firm's creative efforts for clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Nextel, Yahoo, Disney, Dell, and others. He's been responsible for groundbreaking new media design work and user interface, including utility applications for the Compaq Presario.

Adam Greenfield, writer, teacher, and consultant on design, technology, and cultural issues. A former military psychological operations specialist, Greenfield is now head of design direction for Nokia and teaches Urban Computing at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program. He is author of the book Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.

AIGA Chattanooga | Last time thru Chattanooga for English was a white-knuckle drive at midnight, in the pouring rain, with his daughter when they moved from Boston to Austin. This time, the white-knuckles will be the audience as they hold on to their collective seats and go for a ride.

UDEM - The Universidad de Monterrey | Dia del Disenador Grafico

AIGA Baltimore | Student Portfolio Review Day
keynote speaker

AIGA /Texas State University Chapter
Seventeen years after first stopping in San Marcos for a bite to eat while making his first in-road to Austin (something about the name of the town intrigued him), ten years after last teaching at Texas State, English is back to explain the Way of the Design Shaman, and what has transpired in those missing years.

Appleton Coated Papers | Advisory Council | Asheville, North Carolina
NIce visit to the Biltmore, George Vanderbilt's gargantuan estate. 45 bathrooms on the premises testify to the ways of the robber barons of the day.For more on Appleton Papers and their Utopia and Curious lines.

Oklahoma State University | 20 Words
AIGA Oklahoma |The Oklahoman Auditorium | The Way of the Design Shaman

The Way of the Design Shaman:
The Ecstatic Experience in the Creative Process

Eight years after his last stop in Oklahoma City, two years after his last drive through the Territories, English is back in the heart of Okle Homa (peopel, red). Last time here he discussed case studies from his book, Designing Identity. This time, it's all about the process he has developed since he opened his studio in 1993.
More info.

HOW Design Conference. Hyatt Regency | Peachtree Street

The Way of the Design Shaman:
The Ecstatic Experience in the Creative Process
(Or, It's Not a Job, It's a Calling)
"Marc, The conference has grown (we had more than 4,000 people this year in Vegas), and I think your message about living a truly creative and fulfilled life and loving the work that you do would really connect with the HOW audience. As far as the topic goes, I just think your philosophy about seeking work you love - and finding love in your work - will really connect with people... will be really inspiring. - Bryn" More info.

Lessons From The Sessions
Posted by Megan.
The main problem with an event as jam-packed as the HOW Conference is that you only have time to see a fraction of the speakers. But I must have picked well. Every session I went to was interesting, enlightening, hilarious or some combination of the three. Here are a few small lessons I picked up along the way.

Karen Salmansohn: If you don't ask for something, you're not likely to get it. It really doesn't hurt to ask.

Chip Kidd: Even the best designers face rejection and creative block. (Plus, he was shoot-milk-out-your-nose funny!)

Sharon Werner: Sometimes it takes a while for a client to come around to your original good idea. Paying attention to the other products your packaging will live near can help you make your work stand out. Go to the store. Take surepptitious photos.

Marc English: Authenticity is the way to make a brand really resonate with people. The only way to be a great designer is to be utterly yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.

William Lidwell: If you can grab people at a subconscious level, you can influence them in powerful ways.

Danny Gregory: To really see the world, you have to draw it. You don't have to be particularly good it at, you just have to make the effort.

Matteo Bologna and Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich: You can use 15 typefaces in one project and still get stunningly gorgeous, elegant results. (Plus, these guys could go on tour with their comedy routine. They riffed off each other with knee-slapping results.)

Sheila Campbell: When you work too much and stay plugged in all the time, you're not only robbing yourself of energy, you're cheating your employer and/or your clients of your most creative thinking.

The Academy of Art University's School of Graphic Design announces its five student scholarship winners from its annual Spring Show and portfolio review.

This year's Spring Show, held on May 24th, drew more than 1,400 attendees.

"Each year we are honored by the number of industry professionals and community members that come to see the work of our students.

That kind of attention is very telling about the level of work that these students are producing - people look forward to seeing it every year," says Mary Scott, Chair, School of Graphic Design.

Each year, the School of Graphic Design recruits design experts from all over the country to judge the scholarship awards.

This year's judges were Marc English (show chair), Marc English Design, Austin, Texas; Jim Mousner, Origin Design, Houston, Texas; Marc Woollard, IDEO, San Francisco, California; Ray Ueno, Ardent Sage, Seattle, Washington; and Michael Hodgson, Ph.D, Santa Monica, California.

The juried competition was Jim Mousner's introduction to Spring Show, "This is my first time here and I'm just blown away.

The level of talent that local design firms have available to them is luxurious."

juror, | Art Directors Club of Tulsa

juror, St. Louis Design Show | AIGA

Jury: Marc English, Marc English Design, Austin; Debbie Millman, The Sterling Group, NYC; Michael Osborne, Michael Osborne Design, San Francisco.

juror, The Show | AIGA

Appleton Coated Papers | Advisory Council | Appleton, Wisconsin
For more on Appleton Papers and their Utopia and Curious lines.

University of Texas | School of Journalism
photography & function

Acadiana Advertising Federation | Joe's Eat Place | Friday the 13th
Good Mojo & Bad Luck: Another Step on the Continuing Path of the Way of the Design Shaman

PUSH Design Conference. Keynote speaker.
Nick Law | R/GA
Matt Fraction | MK12
MIcheal Boychuk | WongDoody

Univertisty of Hawai'i | AIGA | The Way of the Design Shaman.

a brief guide
to the way
of the
design shaman

The basic principles of memory, understanding your tools, intimidation of enemies, spatial understanding, sensory awareness, out of body experiences - as in your vision quest of attending this lecture, -understanding the relationship between spirit and inspiration, understanding experience, the isolation and extreme privation of working alone: these are a few of the ways of the design shaman.

Conferencia ReDiseno | Instituto Guatemalteco Americano | Universidad Rafeal Landivar

1 | The Way of the Design Shaman: the Ecstatic Experience in the Creative Process
2 | A Means to an End: Identity & Graphic Design as a Business Strategy