Building bigger brands

Our final event sees four designers working for some of the biggest brands in the world delve deeply into our festival theme ‘Truth’. Expect refreshingly honest talks from Laura Pol (Founder of OLIO), Jennifer Daniel (Google), Andre Jay Meissner (Adobe XD) and Richard Small (Sony Design).

Sony: Design and Technology – Richard Small

Sony has always been at the forefront of design by keeping true to the founding principles that brought together both artists and engineers and encouraged them to ‘think differently’ and ‘always stay one step ahead’.

Since its inception in 1961, Sony Design has forged its reputation as a leading and award-winning global Design Team.
With a background in typography and graphic design, Richard works as Sony Design’s European Art Director, responsible for the corporation’s appearance from typeface to TV advertising – including brand, retail, product and online communications.

Adopt An Unknown Unknown – Andre Jay Meissner

When designing for emerging technologies like AR, VR, Voice and AI, we tap deep into fundamental issues of trust, communication and human relationships.

In times where democracy and decency are under threat all over the world, the current backlash against tech giants strongly suggests that design happily disregarded a few crucial blind spots for too long.

We are supposed to be experts at the intersection of the humanities and technology, but do we actually realize our impact and apply this to our responsibility? Do we ever go beyond the surface of “how does it work”, to ask ourselves “is it good”?

In this thought-provoking talk, Jay Meissner challenges predominant ideologies that are as much a threat to the design industry as to our planet. He explains why transparency, designing for trust and attempting to predict the future could be the way forward to prevent history from repeating itself.

So, you think you like emojis? – Jennifer Daniel

Technology has placed artificial confines around how we relate with each other, forcing us to be creative in how we use digital based communications to relate to others. In this talk, Jennifer will explore how language is fluid, binaries are canceled, and how communication is rooted in primal urges around our presence, priorities, and personalities. This pursuit of understanding others can translate into making healthier work and culture.

Designing for Trust — Laura Pol

How are companies maintaining a relevance in a time when there is so much saturation of information and technology? This talk explores the importance of values and transparency in communication, and how design is a pivotal tool and process in making this happen.