By Design’s annual conference on design and business in Bratislava, Slovakia is always a perfect place for anyone in a creative industry to connect—but this year, multidisciplinary overlap is encouraged more than ever as the conference focuses on “unexpected connections.” In a single day packed with well-curated talks, By Design aims to bring professionals from across disciplines to discuss the business of creativity.
The 9th annual conference on June 10 will feature:
- Digital meets the future! Kolja Pitz, head of digital at Meiré und Meiré, will talk about the German visual communication agency’s cutting edge projects, touching on areas of expertise like Artificial Intelligence, AI generated media, Smart Fashion, Web3, Generative Art, Digital Culture, and Immersive Technologies.
- Journalism meets the business of sustainable architecture! MVRDV looks for solutions for global issues via architecture and urbanism. Jan Knikker, a partner at MVRDV and former journalist, leads the Contracts, Business Development, and Public Relations efforts.
- Motion meets modular visual identities and jazz! Partners Mitch Paone and Meg Donohoe make up Studio Dia, a branding and graphic design practice utilizing motion, generative tools, and autonomous design systems. They have worked with clients including Balenciaga, Nike, Saint Laurent, and Apple. To boot, Mitch is a performing jazz pianist and composer.
- Design meets data and societal transformation! frog is a leading global creative consultancy that builds innovative experiences, products, and businesses. VP of Innovation, Strategy & Design Payal Wadhwa will discuss how to future-proof a business and drive holistic and conscious growth.
- Comedy meets sculpture! Once-graphic-designer Wilfrid Wood began prop making at cult classic British TV show, Spitting Image as an “apprentice headbuilder,” starting in the Eyeballs and Blinks department and moving on to Dogs and Sheep. 25 years later he is now a portrait artist, creating amazingly unflattering caricatures.
- Book design meets architecture! Nicknamed the ‘Queen of Books,’ Dutch designer Irma Boom has created over five hundred books, drawing on history to challenge the idea of what a book can be. Her books are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Vatican Library; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.
- Big consulting firm (EY) meets digital design (Doberman) and sustainability (SALLY)! Tove Blomgren is the Creative Director of innovation studio SALLY within EY Doberman. With over 15 years of experience designing impactful digital experiences, Tove’s team brings a radically better near-future to life through speculative design and design fiction.
Tickets for By Design 2023 are available at bydesignconf.com. If you can’t make it out to Slovakia for the conference, the By Design team also creates Backstage Talks, where they publish the conversations with the speakers as well as other inspiring creatives and social scientists.
