Out & About: Reasons.to Design Conference

Each team member at ClarityDX has a £1,000 personal development budget each year. In our Out and About series, we catch up with the team following their adventures at conferences, events and learning. This week we catch up with Nicola, as she heads to Brighton for reasons.to conference…

1. What is your role at ClarityDX?

I am ClarityDX’s Digital Art Director

2. Where have you been Out and About?

https://reasons.to/ in Brighton

3. What does the event focus on?

It has a multidisciplinary lineup of speakers covering graphic design, coding, illustration, filmmaking, journalism and more.

The topics people spoke about were very diverse but if I had to pick a centralising theme I’d say it’s about big ideas and personal development as opposed to specific practice and technique.

It’s quite small with a very friendly vibe so there were lots of opportunities to chat with speakers and other attendees as well.

4. What did you learn that you can take into your work day-to-day?

I saw talks that ranged from how AI deals with death, logo design for NASA, creating effects for the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies, and applying a design process to religion—none of which have come up in my day-to-day so far—however, there was plenty to apply in terms of developing confidence, taking creative risks, and finding ways to overcome challenges.

5. What did you learn from a more long-term perspective?

A lot of the talks touched on the relationship between the technical and the human. How highly technical solutions can be used to create emotionally resonant experiences and open new avenues of thought, but also how we have a responsibility to manage the use of AI and big data.

6. What made you decide to go to this event?

Lots of the local events I attend are centred around my day to day practice and so it’s great to be able to take the time to see speakers from different areas of the creative industry. I always feel very inspired afterwards and fortunate to be working in such a fun and exciting field.