Pace Yourself with Mike Schnaidt

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Thanks to Mike Schnaidt, Creative Director of Fast Company for joining us for our in-person event: Pace Yourself!

Design is moving fast. We’re in a rush to master more skills, ship more projects, and climb the ladder. But great designers know how to slow the tempo. Pacing is part of our daily practice: we sequence words and images to tell stories that last. What if we apply that same principle to our careers?

In this craft-focused talk, he draws insights from his career to help you beat the rush, focus on what matters, and write a fulfilling, sustainable career story.

Check out Mike’s book Creative Endurance: 56 Rules for Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Your Goals here!

Special thanks to Airtable for sponsoring our event!

 
 
 
 

Sponsored by Airtable

 
 

In partnership with Museum of Arts and Design

 
 

Creative Playbook: Visual Storytelling in Sports

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Thanks to moderator Luke Knox (Creative Director at ESPN) and panelists Sol Neelman (Photographer), Robert Generette III (Rob Zilla) (Illustrator), and Skye Gould (Director of Graphics, The Athletic) for joining us for Creative Playbook: Visual Storytelling in Sports. This virtual event dove into how top creatives bring the emotion, intensity, and spectacle of sports to life through design, illustration, and photography.

Special thanks to Club Ethos for sponsoring our virtual event!

 
 
 
 
 
 

The Making of Legends of Broadway

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Thanks to Jody Quon, Creative Director of New York Magazine, photographer Mark Seliger, and moderator Jodi Peckman for joining us for our in-person event: The Making of Legends of Broadway! In an exclusive evening with two creative legends they take us behind the scenes of the Legends of Broadway issue with a conversation that explores the art of visual storytelling, the dynamics of creative collaboration, and the behind-the-scenes process of producing one of New York Magazine's most visually stunning issues.

From concept to final cover, Quon and Seliger share how they captured the essence of Broadway’s most iconic performers, and how design and photography come together to create lasting cultural impact. This is a rare opportunity to hear from the most influential voices in editorial imagery.

 
 
 
 

In partnership with Museum of Arts and Design

 
 

Southern Poverty Law Center Rebrand with Chris Mihal

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In this episode of Rebrand, Creative Director and Founder, José Reyes of Metaleap Creative, a brand and publication design agency based in Atlanta, talks with Chris Mihal, Director of Creative at the Southern Poverty Law Center, about their rebranding of the 52-year-old organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a civil rights and advocacy organization whose history has largely been known for litigation and combatting hate groups, most significantly known for bankrupting the KKK. 

Whether or not you are drawn to working for a non-profit, seasoned designers can see the need and potential for the impact of bringing their experience, story-telling, craft, leadership, brand stewardship, and more to these organizations.

This conversation, then, will interest anyone curious about what goes into rebranding in general, what rebranding a beloved institution like the Southern Poverty Law Center looks like, and try to answer a few questions about the role non-profits serve in an ideologically shifting world.

Research and Strategy

Formed in 1971, the mission of the SPLC is to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the rights of all people.

The team partnered with Champions Design to reimagine the SPLC brand to be grounded in the South and represent the broader work that the organization was doing. Image and asset research came together through interviews and working with the SPLC’s internal creative team. Champions, over the course of 90 days, worked to develop a new strategy that would focus on developing a new brandmark as well as design system to reflect the organization’s shift in work. Ultimately four directions were proposed to leadership with the team deciding to lean into its acronoym, SPLC.

Brandbook and Guidance

Our monogram says SPLC, period. Adopting our acronym as our primary branding element is a deliberate departure from the scales of justice. It gives space to our work beyond the courts.

The visual research for the SPLC brand drew from several examples of resilient Southern culture, including Southern Gothic architecture, Black churches and the covers of Southern Gothic novels.

Southern resilience birthed the civil rights movement and is the true Southern legacy that the SPLC is proud to uphold. The center was founded in a moment during the Early ’70s when the progress of the movement was in danger of being thwarted, and is proud to be known for taking on the most hateful individuals and factions in the South and meeting hate with vigilance, resilience and joy. The SPLC drew from the craft of Southern Gothic architecture and the resilience of Southern Gothic literature.

The flexibility of the color system allows for a range of tones, from sober to celebratory. Color palettes may also utilize only two or three colors, depending on the application and tone of voice.

The tile is the core brand element in the system. The shape captures the essence of Southern Gothic architecture.

Implementation

The organzation deploys any number of forms to communicate it’s message to the audience. The internal creative team works on many different reports; magazines; direct mail; digital stories and publications; phyiscal items like signage, calendars, billboards, apparel; social media; video and photography production.

Credits

Director of Creative: Chris Mihal

Deputy Director of Creative, Photography & Video: Hernan LaGreca

Deputy Director of Creative, Design: Meagan Lily

Deputy Director of Creative, Operations: Scott Phillips

Senior Creative Lead: AJ Favors

 

Senior Designers: Cierra Brinson, Sunny Paulk, Alex Trott

Senior Video Producers: Hillary Hudson, Jacob Saylor

Designers: Claudia Hong, Trey Vanterpool

Video Producer: Lamont Baldwin

Project Manager: Angela Greer

 

Takin' Care of Business 2

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Thanks to moderator Trevett McCandliss and panelists Roy Torres, Nikolle and José Reyes, and Carla Frank for joining us for the second installment of Takin’ Care of Business. This virtual event was a lively discussion about understanding your client.

 
 
 
 

From Film to Flour and Back Again with Norman Jean Roy

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Thanks to legendary photographer Norman Jean Roy and moderator Holly Hughes for joining us for our in-person event: From Film to Flour and Back Again with Norman Jean Roy. Special thanks to Set Shop for sponsoring this event!

 
 
 
 

Big Shots with Gillian Laub and Kira Pollack

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On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th, photographer Gillian Laub's powerful portraits of Holocaust survivors were projected onto buildings and structures throughout New York City including the landmark Brooklyn Bridge. For her project Live2Tell Gillian has photographed and documented the oral histories of over 200 survivors.

In the return of SPD’s Big Shots speaker series, SPD Advisory Board Member and Senior Visuals Editor of Vanity Fair, Natalie Gialluca, speaks with Gillian and her creative partner on this project, Creative Director Kira Pollack about the inspiration, process and production of this extraordinary, one of a kind art exhibit.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $10

Producers: Natalie Gialluca, Jeanne Graves, Allyson Torrisi Host: Natalie Gialluca; Promotion Design: Kat Kluge

Photo: Omer Kaplan

Photo: Jonah Rosenberg

Photo: Ben Smith

Photo: Kyle Knodell

 

Takin' Care of Business

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Thanks to moderator Trevett McCandliss and panelists Luke Hayman, Nikolle Reyes, José Reyes, and Carla Frank for joining us for Takin’ Care of Business. This virtual event was a lively discussion about entrepreneurialism in the editorial design space.

Article Mentioned During the Panel
The New York Times: How NASA Learned to Love 4 Squirmy Letters

 
 
 
 

On The Record with Ari Michelson

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Celebrity portrait photographer Ari Michelson, speaks with David Cooper (former Photo Director of Health Magazine and executive SPD board member) about process, how personality plays a role in shooting portraits and hugs and high-fives! Known for his celebrity photobooth such as the People and Entertainment Weekly one at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022.

“When I shoot a portrait, I literally fall in love with my subject a little bit.”
— Ari Michaelson

PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly's Toronto International Film Festival 2022 portrait studio (Ari + Louise)

The On the Record series is typically reserved for SPD members only. To see more interviews like this, become an SPD Member. Members get access to past speaker events such as For The Love of Entertainment Weekly and our On the Record series.

The Ethics of AI & Art

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Thanks to Victor Williams, Digital Design Director, TIME; Timothy Bardlavens, Director of Product Equity, Adobe; Lam Thuy Vo, Reporter, The Markup; and Tomer Hanuka, Illustrator for joining us for The Ethics of AI & Art. This virtual event was a lively discussion on artificial intelligence, its pros/cons, and its impact on the editorial landscape.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $10

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
 
 
 

Redesigning Rolling Stone with Joseph Hutchinson

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Joseph Hutchinson is the creative director extraordinaire for Rolling Stone, where he oversees design and visuals for print, digital, and the overall brand portfolio. In 2018, he led a major redesign to refresh the content strategy and modernize the brand’s design, photography, and illustration while retaining its distinctive heritage and feel. More recently, Joseph led a redesign of Rolling Stone’s website that launched last summer while co-chairing SPD’s 57th annual competition. He spoke with Lan Yin Bachelis, Creative Director and Designer, Dotdash Meredith Premium Publishing about the why, how, and wow of this redesign in the video above and selected work samples below.

Logo Refresh

Click to enlarge.

 
 

From Hutchinson: “One thing I didn’t expand upon in the [video] was a challenge we faced by bringing back detail and dimension to the RS logo and moving away from a flat logo. The previous flat logo worked everywhere, but a single dimensional logo looks great on the cover and at the top of the homepage on your laptop, but not great on mobile or in small positions like the compressed navigation bar on desktop website. So Jesse, Roger and I came up with a small version of the Rolling Stone logo, with simpler shapes and less detail, that reads better in small or challenging positions. That simpler version still has dimension to echo the ‘big’ cover logo, so the identity is still there, but the small version reads well at small sizes.”

Social Media Samples

 

Click to enlarge.

Harry Styles Covers the World

Selected Print Pages

Click to enlarge.

To see more Speaker Series videos and other exclusive members-only content, join SPD here.

On The Record with David Cooper

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Thanks so much to David Cooper, Illustrator and former Photo Director of Health Magazine and Victor Williams, Digital Design Director of TIME for filming the latest installment of On the Record, our members-only series. As a continuation of our in-person Off The Record event hosted by Victor, this candid conversation was recorded on February 4, 2022. After a brief introduction from SPD’s Executive Director, Keisha Dean, the current and former SPD board members, discuss the melting pot of ideas, the importance of representation, and the “multi-faceted beauty and glory of Blackness.”

The On the Record series is typically reserved for SPD members only, however, we are sharing this important conversation publicly for the entire SPD community to watch. SPD Members get access to past speaker events such as For The Love of Entertainment Weekly and our On the Record series.

Check out the full video above! This recording is the second-take of this conversation after the first recording had some technical difficulties. However, we were able to gather a couple good clips from that first conversation and have included them below. Scroll further down to see some work examples they mention during their discussion.

CLIPS


Watch David and Victor get inspired to rap in the first-take of On The Record:

“Black life is complicated. Black family life is complicated.
We got to see all the facets of that.”
- David Cooper

WORK

CREDITS

TIME Magazine

Visions of Equity:
By Jordan Casteel

George Floyd:
Cover illustration by Ange Hillz for TIME

Book Covers

Marcus Makes a Movie:
Cover design by Carol Ly / Random House Kids

Black Boy Out Of Time:
Cover design by Lindy Martin / Faceout Studio

Health Magazine

Simone Biles:
Photo: AB + DM at The Only Agency
Hair: Ben Skervin at The Wall Group
Makeup: Rebecca Restrepo at Walter Schupfer
Wardrobe: Jason Rembert

Gabrielle Union:
Photo: AB + DM at The Only Agency
Hair: Larry Sims at Tracey Mattingly
Makeup: Sam Fine
Wardrobe: Thomas Christos Kikis at The Wall Group
Set: Anna Surbatovich at Art-Dept

 

On Set With Joe Pugliese

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Thanks to Joe Pugliese, Portrait Photographer; Byron Nickleberry, Lighting Director and First Assistant; John DuBois, Photographer and Director; Shaughn Crawford, Photographer and Director; and Meredith Munn, Digital Tech and Photographer for joining us for On Set with Joe Pugliese. This panel discussion pulled back the curtain with the industry’s leading current and former on-set assistants.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $10

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
 
 
 

Major Props

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Thanks to Allyson Torrisi, Deputy Director of Photography, People Magazine; Megan Caponetto, Prop Stylist and Model Builder; Victoria Granof, Food Stylist, Director; and Mary Howard, Set Designer Stylist for joining us for Major Props. This panel discussion gave us a behind-the-scenes look as they pulled back the curtain on prop styling and set design.

Special thanks to our sponsors: ACME Brooklyn, Hook Props, Noho Productions, Noho Surface, and Set Shop; to Mary Howard and Hook Studios for providing the space for our event; and to ZOOM ImageWorks for live streaming the event/video work.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $10

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
 

YOUNG FIRE 2

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Check out SPD-U’s YOUNG FIRE 2: A Show & Tell of Emerging Talent! Thanks to Chloe Scheffe (Designer and Art Director), Rose Wong (Illustrator) and Mamadi Doumbouya (Photographer) for sharing their stories and paths to early successes.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $10

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
 

History as Brief: Redesigning The Atlantic

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Thanks to Oliver Munday, Design Director, and Luise Stauss, Director of Photography for joining us for History as Brief: Redesigning The Atlantic. Oliver and Luise took us behind-the-scenes as they discussed the process of redesigning and producing one of America's longest-standing publications.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $10

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
 

On The Record with Paul Moakley, Editor at Large, Special Projects, TIME

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SPD_On The Record Screen.png

Thanks so much to Paul Moakley, Editor at Large, Special Projects, TIME and Victor Williams, Digital Design Director, TIME for filming On The Record, our members-only series that is a continuation of our in-person Off The Record event. In this candid conversation, the colleagues discuss leadership and collaboration in a remote work setting. This was recorded in March 2021. If you notice Victor's job title is different in the video it's because he got promoted since recording. Sweet!

Check out a sneak peek from their conversation now and scroll to the end to see some work examples they mention during their discussion.

 

Dubs to the Future: The Rebranding of the Golden State Warriors

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Thanks to Stef Fontela, former Creative Director of the Golden State Warriors and Neil Jamieson, Principal of The Sporting Press for a night of lively conversation for our virtual event Dubs to the Future: The Rebranding of the Golden State Warriors.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
 

For the Love of Martha Stewart Living

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Thanks to moderator Cybele Grandjean, panelists Matthew Axe, James Dunlinson, Abbey Kuster-Prokell, Jaspal Riyait, and Gael Towey and surprise guest Martha Stewart for joining us at our For the Love of Martha Stewart Living virtual event. The event celebrated the 30th anniversary of Martha Stewart Living as they reminisced and chatted about their experiences creating a mega brand loved by millions.

SPD MEMBERS: View it free online HERE (you’ll be prompted to login first)

NON-MEMBERS: Watch the video online above for $15

Registered for the event but couldn't make it? Login to your account and view it here

 
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