What I Learned at Awwwards LA
A writeup on my first Awwwards conference
In June 2017, I attended the Awwwards conference in Los Angeles. It was the second design conference I’ve attended (my first being Google Span 2016, also in LA). I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference but because I left feeling incredibly inspired and motivated, I want to share my conference notes and photos with the world!
Also, please note that I didn’t take notes for every speaker as some presentations were very visual or slightly technical, so it was harder to really take cohesive notes/photos. Here’s the full schedule for the curious: Awwwards schedule
Day One
Aaron Draplin | @draplin
One Human Being’s Harrowing Account From The Front Lines of Cut-throat Contemporary Graphic Design
- Aaron is always drawing. He uses Field Notes (his own brand of portable notebooks and other gear) and carries them with him everywhere.
- Create work for people you care about and your friends. Even if the payment is low — vectors are free.
- Look to the utilitarian designs of the 1940s-1950s. Even though that political and social climate of that time isn’t something relevant to today, the logos and type from them can inspire you today.
- He also highlighted some excerpts from his book: Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything
Sarah Drasner | @sarah_edo
Storytelling in the Age of JavaScript
- Designers need to shine light in a sea of features on what the user needs to focus on for a particular task
- Use emotion: it attaches to a person’s limbic system, making it easier to remember things.
- Relatable stories create empathy.
- Humans naturally overestimate wait times, so things like custom loaders can make a page/app wait more bearable for the user
- Loaders are a great time to use SVG animations | Sarah’s book: SVG Animation
- Use foreshadowing to let users know what’s coming next - Don’t use delayed pop-ups—not only are they bad UX, but they hurt your SEO.
- Two referenced/mentioned JS things: Vue framework and Sugar library
Marc Hemeon | @hemeon
The Business of Design
- Work from love ❤︎
Work from the ego vs working from your heart—if you do something because you want reciprocation, it’s not coming from a good place (outside of work, the same advice applies to your interpersonal life as well!) - Design lessons
- Sketch with big markers
- COVFEFE
- Assume good intentions.
- Try [your design] in German
- You are not Aaron Draplin. Find your own Futura Bold.
- Design is not Art
- Design one for the stakeholder and one for you.
- Cocoapotrace. - Life + business lessons
- Have 15 minute meetings
- Understanding that everyone’s job is difficult leads to empathy
- Saying NO is a strength.
- Comparison kills
- 8 Work - 8 Rest - 8 You (daily schedule)
- Resentment causes burnout
- Stop saying sorry
- Stop saying Um, I think, I feel, and So
- If it’s not a “hell yes,” it’s a no.
- If you don’t know what your market rate is, use the average of 3 of your friends/peers
- Invoice biweekly
- Say “thank you, how else can I help?”
- Drink water - Write your own story
- If someone Googles you, you should influence what comes up in the results
- Even if you hate it, have a basic SM presence (LinkedIn, etc)
- But don’t misrepresent yourself
Peter Smart | @petewsmart
Design for the Future of Human-Computer Interaction
- There are 4 stages of man: hunter-gatherer, agricultural, industrial, and information. Our current stage, information, is about automation and extending our abilities.
- New technologies are forcing us to communicate in really unnatural ways (e.g. yelling at Alexa/Google Home)
- The UI of things like self-driving cars have to prove to the users that the service/item can be trusted
- Apps to AIs
- tools are going from passive to active and proactive
- eventually apps/services will understand exactly what you want to do, learn and retain this knowledge, and tell you exactly how to do it, e.g. buy food to help me lose weight, help me learn what to do to assist my ageing parents
Audrey Cavenecia | @audreycavenecia
Video Storytelling Changes Everything
- Why is storytelling everything?
- It spreads globally and instantly now.
- It shapes and changes how we see ourselves and our values. - 80% of the content in the entire world is created in the United States, but creative directors are only 3% women or POC
- This means there is so much unexplored regarding the stories we are being told.
- We can change the word through storytelling.
Shelly Peleg | @wix
High on Design
Reasons to Blog (as a designer/design team)
- Community outreach (communicating with the local and international design community)
- Self-expression
- Developing curiosity
- Presentation & documentation (i.e. retrospectively documenting a project)
- Contribution & inspiration
Beginner’s Mind
In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.
- Shunryu Suzuki
When you are a beginner, you have a unique opportunity because you can explore, learn, and grow.
David Navarro | @davidnavarro
We Make Our Lives Harder
- Experience is overrated. Incredible passion always beats expertise.
- Be your own client. Don’t let the tools you have at hand define what you can do. Make new tools instead.
- Managing the work is as important as doing the work (and maybe more important).
- Your student days never end. The most valuable skill you have is the ability to learn new ones.
Alex Cornell | @alexcornell
The Inner Monologue of an Insecure and Distracted Designer.
I didn’t take notes for this talk because I was too in awe of the video once he started, and I forgot to write anything down until the end. Alex’s talk illustrated his internal “struggle” between his more logical, realistic, and slightly pessimistic side vs. the the optimistic, creative, and idealistic side that happens before he starts a project, but mostly in video form. I’m not sure if there’s video clips out there, but you should all go look for them and watch it!
The key takeaway was to make sure that you are always working at the boundaries of your abilities, because in doing so you will discover what you’re currently capable of and what you need to do to surpass that limit.
Day Two
Jessica Walsh | @jessicawalsh
Play by Your Own Rules.
“Creative play” is the most optimal state to work in
Requirements to Play
- Creative confidence
Be confident and bold enough in your design to take a risk and push your boundaries. - Time
If you don’t have enough time to explore, you’ll settle on the first thing that works instead taking more time to try different things. - A sense of humour
Being playful means you should have fun
Make your own rules so you can break them.
Amélie Lamont | @amelielamont
Is This About Me?: The Over-Analysis of Social Critique.
- Critique vs. Criticism
Our individualist society conditions us to center ourselves in situations where we don’t inherently belong. - Public displays of your work invite both critique and review. Critique aims improve a thing, while criticism aims to harm.
- Critique exists for us to get better.
Instead of saying…
❌ “Why are attacking me?”
… instead say:
🔵 “Tell more about that.”
🔵 “Give me a better idea of your perspective.” - Critique leads to growth, which allows you to become a better digital citizen who listens.
Khoi Vinh | @khoi
Things We (Don’t) Talk About When We Talk About Design.
- When [influential designers] put out stories of success, they’re setting a model of what success looks like; we need to be aware of whose stories we are telling.
- Self-doubt is a frequent companion.
- At some point, you have to take a leap of faith.
- As a designer, there’s no getting around being a business person.
The state of writing and design today
- In the past there were magazines for design, but most no longer exist. There are sites like Designer News or Medium exist, but they’re not enough.
- Designer News: good for selling a product/idea/job/etc
- Medium: mostly used to write about techniques, low-level analysis, and design rants
There is no definitive source for critical analysis about design.
- Compare design to other disciplines like architecture or film; design doesn’t have paid, non-designers who analyse and critique design.
- Criticism does not always mean taking pleasure in other people’s failures.
Paul Woods | @paulillustrator
Agency Etiquette For Non-Assholes
Don’t work for assholes
How to not be an asshole:
- Learn people’s names
- Reply to job applications
- Work normal hours
- If you can’t get your work done in a reasonable amount of time, you shouldn’t be complimented for that.
- Process influences work/life balance. Following an agile framework instead of a waterfall process helps. Remember, long hours = bad process. - Give credit where it’s due
- Whoever did the work presents the work.
- Let your team shine! Your client will thank you. - Pay your f*cking interns
- Interns are there to work and learn, not to pour your coffee or do menial tasks
What goes around, comes around. You’ll never know when you’ll see the intern, prospective hire, or client again.
Ueno.’s Jenny Johannesson & Robbin Cenijn | @chopse & @robbincenijn
Bring the coffee. Add a piece of chocolate.
- Ueno newsletter: www.ueno.co/newsletter
The Ueno. Process
- Clients need to clear their calendar and make sure they have time communicate with the team
- WYSIWYG
- Ueno shows clients the working file, so they can see the work in process. This allows the client to learn and understand the process. - No surprises
❌ A bad approach is to get the project brief, work on it for weeks without checking in with the client, and then to reveal it.
🔵 Give the client daily progress reports and updates. - Honesty—no shit sandwiches
- Always be open & honest - A prototype is worth 1000 meetings
- Sharing is knowing
- Everyone on the team uses Slack to share their individual updates and progress. - Bring the coffee, add a piece of a chocolate
- Don’t just do what’s expected or asked—go that next step and provide them with something they didn’t realise they wanted or needed.
Hugo & Marie | @hugoandmarie
Harmony
Hugo & Marie’s Process
- Best practices inform the design, but never dictate.
- Communication is about telling a story
- The internet is a busy place, so the best sites act a sanctuary
- They allow the user to do what they set out to do - Add delight, but just a pinch
- Delight should not disturb the overall UX - Collaborate deeply
- Understand the perspectives of stakeholders & the audience - Stay scrappy
- Harmonise
Also, this song was the background music for their project reel. I loved the song so much, so wanted to share it here: 🎵 I’ll Work It Out, Marva Whitney
Dann Petty | @dannpetty
Hey, let’s just see what happens
Dann’s talk was very impromptu because he was replacing a speaker who couldn’t make it, and he was the closing talk. No pressure right? He used this tweet thread (the top 10 things he has learned in his 10 year design career) as a foundation for his talk.
Overall, hearing someone so passionate about his work and design process really made me feel more driven to work hard and finally start some side projects of my own. So check out his top 10 list here!
And that’s the last of my notes! Overall, I learned so much at the conference, and also met a variety of people. I hope I have the chance to attend another Awwwards Conference, as it was definitely worth the cost and time.
