Here, we don’t ask Y. We ask Y not. Dare to dream. Embrace the absurd. Delve into the world of IMAGINATION.
The 25th AIGA Y Design Conference brings together innovators, designers and doers to inspire ideas and fuel the imagination. What if your budget had no bounds? What if the wildest ideas were on the table? At the 25th AIGA Y Design Conference, everything is fair game.
Speakers
John Bielenberg
Partner, Solve/Next and Founder, Project M, Co-Author, Think Wrong
Thinkshops
Insights into building a Creative Business in Our New World
Charles Lee and Greg Gibson
Join us for a practical conversation with fellow entrepreneurs about building, growing and scaling creative companies in an ever-changing marketplace. Come and hear insights, trends, and tips for overcoming challenges and embracing emergent opportunities in the creative space. Let’s learn from each other and help each other succeed.
Charles Lee:
Charles is the Founder & CEO at Ideation, an idea execution company that specializes in helping executives and brands scale their business with strategic clarity and smart brand execution. Ideation fills this gap between strategy and implementation with innovative frameworks, strategic process & infrastructure development, leadership & team building, brand (re)development & positioning, and creative services that bridge concepts into the real world. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?: How to Move Ideas to Execution, a practical book designed to help people move ideas to implementation.
Charles is regularly invited to advise and speak on topics including strategic clarity, creative execution, leading innovation, idea-making, brand strategy, and leadership development. Executive leaders from brands including Toyota, Wells Fargo, Google, TOMS, NBCUniversal, WME, Caterpillar, Sequoia Capital, Vanguard Financial, ONE Campaign, (RED), Reform Alliance, and many others have benefited from engaging Charles on various projects and endeavors. In addition to advising and speaking, Charles has served as host and/or facilitator for numerous events with NY Times best-selling authors and executives from brands including Google, Twitter, MLB, Starwood, Disney, CAA, Toyota, TOMS, charity: water, United Way, World Vision, and many others.
Greg Gibson:
Greg Gibson is a creative director and designer living and working in San Diego, CA. He is a Partner & CCO at Grizzly, a hybrid creative company with offices in San Diego and Austin, TX. Over the last eight years, Greg has led the agency’s work for clients including Microsoft, Marriott, Google, Servicenow, and Slalom. Working across strategy, design, and storytelling, he’s led brand and communication efforts for some of the world’s most Adventurous Brands. Greg has spoken at several conferences on branding and creativity and his work has been recognized by the Addys and One Club.
Greg is also a leader in the creative community as a board member of the local One Club chapter, founding team member of CreativeMornings San Diego chapter, and co-founder of the San Diego Creative Foundation. He believes that by making San Diego a better city, with a supportive, diverse creative economy, it can be a better place to live and work. This desire to build community has impacted Grizzly as well, with the agency leading brand efforts for Downtown San Diego and the San Diego Regional EDC, as well as several other civic and nonprofit initiatives.
Most importantly, he loves spending time with his wife and two kids. He has a degree in music from San Diego State University and still enjoys performing (mostly off-stage these days). When not doing work + family, he loves cycling, hiking, travel, and Warriors basketball.
Experiential Graphic Design: Building the Museum of Childhood Memories
Chris McCampbell
Experiential Graphic Design is communication design in the built environment that aims to guide, educate, and connect a user to physical place. This often takes the form of a museum exhibit, a shopping mall directory, airport signage, or branding in your favorite store.
In this thinkshop we will explore what it means to create engaging public experiences, and how collaborative design is used to connect people to place. Then, using our own personal experiences as inspiration, we will create a collective experience through participatory artifact-building and a little imagination.
Chris McCampbell
As a creative leader and collaborative designer, Chris McCampbell has over 15 years experience in Graphic Design. Chris is Senior Designer at CannonDesign, applying a multidisciplinary and holistic approach initiating and implementing creative solutions for signage, environmental graphics, and interiors in the built-environment for educational, civic, and healthcare projects. He has also produced branding materials, books, and web sites for small businesses and non-profits. Chris has contributed as author on topics of design thinking and research, and has won several awards and exhibited work in public exhibitions. His love of architecture, urban design, exhibition design, and public art continues to fuel his passion, merging graphic and environmental design to create engaging public experiences. Chris received his BA in Graphic Design from San Diego State University and his MFA in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
VR Design Workshop
Nick Cottrell
If you are new to it, the process of designing for virtual reality (VR) can be intimidating and complex. However, the core principles of design always hold true. This Thinkshop will help provide the basics for both augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) and give a few key points to consider before diving into some hands-on exercises. By the end, you’ll be ready to create engaging AR/VR experiences of your own.
Nick Cottrell:
Nick Cottrell is a practicing interaction designer with over 15 years of experience. His work involves collaborative internet services and productivity solutions for modern businesses. He has experience with a range of emerging technologies and developed an influential mix of cross-platform AR and VR projects. He helped create and launch a popular social VR application, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2017. He also worked on an R&D team to develop a spatial interface system for an augmented reality headset company. In addition to receiving a BA at San Diego State University, he has received additional certifications in VR development, systems engineering, and agile project management.
Website Accessibility: Tips & Tools to Create a More Inclusive Internet
Angela & Cris Noble
By building accessible websites, we ensure websites are usable by the broadest number of people. More than the ethical benefits, having an accessible website also drives business success—protecting you from lawsuits around ADA compliance, improving user experience, and boosting SEO.
During this interactive workshop, you’ll learn:
- Why website accessibility matters and the impact it has on business bottom lines
- How to design and build inclusive websites to provide a better user experience
- How to implement simple changes to create websites that can be accessed by people of all abilities—ensuring usability for assistive technologies, ADA compliance, and SEO best practices
Bring your own computer for a hands-on audit of your own website and on-the-spot accessibility fixes.
When a website’s content is available to everyone and can be used by anyone—regardless of their ability—website accessibility is achieved.
Join us in helping to create a more inclusive internet one website at a time.
Angela & Cris Noble:
Angela and Cris Noble have been creating websites together since 2011 and co-founded Noble Intent Studio in 2017. They’ve worked with clients such as CUCINA Restaurants, Planned Parenthood, AAA, and Intuit and have partnered with other design firms such as lime&co (Petra Ives), StudioM (Kate McCarthy), Marc Hedges Creative, Design Perspective (Cheryl Dine), Matter Consulting (Steven Morris), and many more. Noble Intent Studio connects client objectives to end-user experience with strategic and inclusive design and innovation.
Angela has served on the AIGA San Diego board in the past as the Website Director and currently serves on the Communications Team. She also hosts a twice-monthly Design Critique Group meetup where local design professionals can give and receive critiques on their in-process work. You may remember Angela from her “Local Leader Lunch” at Y24. Angela is passionate about gardening and animal rescue—you’ll almost always find her with a dog in her lap.
Cris has volunteered with AIGA San Diego for the past 5 years providing web development for special programs, including the Y25 website (designed by lime&co) and the Designer Launch Series website (designed by Intuit). Cris now serves on the AIGA San Diego board as the Website Director. Cris made a career switch from process engineering to web development after falling in love with design (and Angela). He worked at Intuit on the TurboTax team and at downtown startup Classy.org before joining Noble Intent Studio full-time in 2019. Cris is an avid biker on both roads and dirt trails. His goal is to ride on every road in the City of San Diego—wave if you see him riding!
Leading InHouse Creative Teams
John Alexander, Sara Jacobsen, Chase Wood
Join us as we talk to in-house designers from Taco Bell, ServiceNow, and Yogananda Seva/Voluntary League (NGO), about the design process & the operation of their internal design departments. We will learn about their responsibilities, their design scope and how they interact with other in-house teams and outside agencies. Since COVID has changed many office structures, we will also discuss how ‘remote working’ has effected in-house creative teams.
John Alexander
Senior Product Designer, ServiceNow
John is an award winning Senior Product Designer at ServiceNow focused on user experience. He received his BA in Art from SDSU. John is a Certified Microsoft Professional and Scrum Master. He has a passion for accessibility in design and is a life long learner.
Sara Jacobsen
Assistant Manager of Communications, Yogananda Seva/Voluntary League
Sara has worked as a graphic designer for full-service studios and in-house design departments in California and Finland since graduating from California College of the Arts. Cross-cultural communication has been an ongoing professional focus and personal interest. The unique buildings she has worked in have also been great sources of inspiration. These spaces have included a renovated bus repair station, Pier 80 in San Francisco, a historical ceramic factory in Helsinki, and the iconic modernist campus of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Sara is currently Assistant Manager of Communications for Yogananda Seva/Voluntary League, a global humanitarian non-governmental organization.
Chase Wood
Senior Art Director, Taco Bell Creative
Chase was raised in Hollister, CA, and lives and works in Southern California. After attending Long Beach State University, he received a BFA in Illustration and continued his career working as a graphic artist in the fashion industry. Here, he worked with a multitude of clients and brands, requiring him to constantly adapt to new brand aesthetics and trends. During that time, Chase ran a small creative agency with his colleagues, allowing him to expand his brand identity and illustration skill set.
Chase now serves as a Senior Art Director at Taco Bell Creative (TBC), the brand’s in-house agency, where he began to channel his leadership within the cult brand that is Taco Bell. Chase’s ultimate goal in his work is to communicate a clear message, which initially drew him to the illustrative side of art. He enjoys taking one small element of a subject matter and letting his pen do the rest, getting lost in detail.
World Design Capital & Contact/o Panel
Panel Presented by BORDER FUSION
MODERATOR
Máximo Escobedo— Vice President / Cross-Border AIGA San Diego, Principal Maximo Creative Communications, Instructor & Advisor UC San Diego Extended Studies, Contact/o lead
TIJUANA PANELISTS
- Johanna Mora – Founder & Director, Esquina Norte, Contact/o contributor
- Arturo Elenes – AIGA San Diego board member, Partner, Enigma Creative (Tijuana)
- Isabel Salinas Gutierrez, PhD – Graphic Design Director, Researcher, Author, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
SAN DIEGO PANELISTS
- MaeLin Levine – President, AIGA San Diego, World Design Capital Bid Chair, Partner Visual Asylum, Contact/o contributor
- Rafael López – Illustrator, Muralist, Contact/o contributor
- Susan Merritt – Educator, Design Researcher/Writer, Board of Advisors for SD Design Week, AIGA SD Advisory Board, Contact/o contributor
ABOUT CONTACT/O
Contact/o was established in 1997 as a key initiative of AIGA San Diego in partnership with creative professionals from Tijuana and Baja, California. Over nearly three decades, Contact/o has encompassed exhibitions, design showcases, panel discussions and social events, fostering countless rich, collaborative relationships between design professionals on both sides of the Southern California / Mexico border.
Join us for a practical conversation with fellow entrepreneurs about building, growing and scaling creative companies in an ever-changing marketplace. Come and hear insights, trends, and tips for overcoming challenges and embracing emergent opportunities in the creative space. Let’s learn from each other and help each other succeed.
Charles Lee:
Charles is the Founder & CEO at Ideation, an idea execution company that specializes in helping executives and brands scale their business with strategic clarity and smart brand execution. Ideation fills this gap between strategy and implementation with innovative frameworks, strategic process & infrastructure development, leadership & team building, brand (re)development & positioning, and creative services that bridge concepts into the real world. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?: How to Move Ideas to Execution, a practical book designed to help people move ideas to implementation.
Charles is regularly invited to advise and speak on topics including strategic clarity, creative execution, leading innovation, idea-making, brand strategy, and leadership development. Executive leaders from brands including Toyota, Wells Fargo, Google, TOMS, NBCUniversal, WME, Caterpillar, Sequoia Capital, Vanguard Financial, ONE Campaign, (RED), Reform Alliance, and many others have benefited from engaging Charles on various projects and endeavors. In addition to advising and speaking, Charles has served as host and/or facilitator for numerous events with NY Times best-selling authors and executives from brands including Google, Twitter, MLB, Starwood, Disney, CAA, Toyota, TOMS, charity: water, United Way, World Vision, and many others.
Greg Gibson:
Greg Gibson is a creative director and designer living and working in San Diego, CA. He is a Partner & CCO at Grizzly, a hybrid creative company with offices in San Diego and Austin, TX. Over the last eight years, Greg has led the agency’s work for clients including Microsoft, Marriott, Google, Servicenow, and Slalom. Working across strategy, design, and storytelling, he’s led brand and communication efforts for some of the world’s most Adventurous Brands. Greg has spoken at several conferences on branding and creativity and his work has been recognized by the Addys and One Club.
Greg is also a leader in the creative community as a board member of the local One Club chapter, founding team member of CreativeMornings San Diego chapter, and co-founder of the San Diego Creative Foundation. He believes that by making San Diego a better city, with a supportive, diverse creative economy, it can be a better place to live and work. This desire to build community has impacted Grizzly as well, with the agency leading brand efforts for Downtown San Diego and the San Diego Regional EDC, as well as several other civic and nonprofit initiatives.
Most importantly, he loves spending time with his wife and two kids. He has a degree in music from San Diego State University and still enjoys performing (mostly off-stage these days). When not doing work + family, he loves cycling, hiking, travel, and Warriors basketball.
Experiential Graphic Design is communication design in the built environment that aims to guide, educate, and connect a user to physical place. This often takes the form of a museum exhibit, a shopping mall directory, airport signage, or branding in your favorite store.
In this thinkshop we will explore what it means to create engaging public experiences, and how collaborative design is used to connect people to place. Then, using our own personal experiences as inspiration, we will create a collective experience through participatory artifact-building and a little imagination.
Chris McCampbell
As a creative leader and collaborative designer, Chris McCampbell has over 15 years experience in Graphic Design. Chris is Senior Designer at CannonDesign, applying a multidisciplinary and holistic approach initiating and implementing creative solutions for signage, environmental graphics, and interiors in the built-environment for educational, civic, and healthcare projects. He has also produced branding materials, books, and web sites for small businesses and non-profits. Chris has contributed as author on topics of design thinking and research, and has won several awards and exhibited work in public exhibitions. His love of architecture, urban design, exhibition design, and public art continues to fuel his passion, merging graphic and environmental design to create engaging public experiences. Chris received his BA in Graphic Design from San Diego State University and his MFA in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
If you are new to it, the process of designing for virtual reality (VR) can be intimidating and complex. However, the core principles of design always hold true. This Thinkshop will help provide the basics for both augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) and give a few key points to consider before diving into some hands-on exercises. By the end, you’ll be ready to create engaging AR/VR experiences of your own.
Nick Cottrell:
Nick Cottrell is a practicing interaction designer with over 15 years of experience. His work involves collaborative internet services and productivity solutions for modern businesses. He has experience with a range of emerging technologies and developed an influential mix of cross-platform AR and VR projects. He helped create and launch a popular social VR application, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2017. He also worked on an R&D team to develop a spatial interface system for an augmented reality headset company. In addition to receiving a BA at San Diego State University, he has received additional certifications in VR development, systems engineering, and agile project management.
By building accessible websites, we ensure websites are usable by the broadest number of people. More than the ethical benefits, having an accessible website also drives business success—protecting you from lawsuits around ADA compliance, improving user experience, and boosting SEO.
During this interactive workshop, you’ll learn:
- Why website accessibility matters and the impact it has on business bottom lines
- How to design and build inclusive websites to provide a better user experience
- How to implement simple changes to create websites that can be accessed by people of all abilities—ensuring usability for assistive technologies, ADA compliance, and SEO best practices
Bring your own computer for a hands-on audit of your own website and on-the-spot accessibility fixes.
When a website’s content is available to everyone and can be used by anyone—regardless of their ability—website accessibility is achieved.
Join us in helping to create a more inclusive internet one website at a time.
Angela & Cris Noble:
Angela and Cris Noble have been creating websites together since 2011 and co-founded Noble Intent Studio in 2017. They’ve worked with clients such as CUCINA Restaurants, Planned Parenthood, AAA, and Intuit and have partnered with other design firms such as lime&co (Petra Ives), StudioM (Kate McCarthy), Marc Hedges Creative, Design Perspective (Cheryl Dine), Matter Consulting (Steven Morris), and many more. Noble Intent Studio connects client objectives to end-user experience with strategic and inclusive design and innovation.
Angela has served on the AIGA San Diego board in the past as the Website Director and currently serves on the Communications Team. She also hosts a twice-monthly Design Critique Group meetup where local design professionals can give and receive critiques on their in-process work. You may remember Angela from her “Local Leader Lunch” at Y24. Angela is passionate about gardening and animal rescue—you’ll almost always find her with a dog in her lap.
Cris has volunteered with AIGA San Diego for the past 5 years providing web development for special programs, including the Y25 website (designed by lime&co) and the Designer Launch Series website (designed by Intuit). Cris now serves on the AIGA San Diego board as the Website Director. Cris made a career switch from process engineering to web development after falling in love with design (and Angela). He worked at Intuit on the TurboTax team and at downtown startup Classy.org before joining Noble Intent Studio full-time in 2019. Cris is an avid biker on both roads and dirt trails. His goal is to ride on every road in the City of San Diego—wave if you see him riding!
Join us as we talk to in-house designers from Taco Bell, ServiceNow, and Yogananda Seva/Voluntary League (NGO), about the design process & the operation of their internal design departments. We will learn about their responsibilities, their design scope and how they interact with other in-house teams and outside agencies. Since COVID has changed many office structures, we will also discuss how ‘remote working’ has effected in-house creative teams.
John Alexander
Senior Product Designer, ServiceNow
John is an award winning Senior Product Designer at ServiceNow focused on user experience. He received his BA in Art from SDSU. John is a Certified Microsoft Professional and Scrum Master. He has a passion for accessibility in design and is a life long learner.
Sara Jacobsen
Assistant Manager of Communications, Yogananda Seva/Voluntary League
Sara has worked as a graphic designer for full-service studios and in-house design departments in California and Finland since graduating from California College of the Arts. Cross-cultural communication has been an ongoing professional focus and personal interest. The unique buildings she has worked in have also been great sources of inspiration. These spaces have included a renovated bus repair station, Pier 80 in San Francisco, a historical ceramic factory in Helsinki, and the iconic modernist campus of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Sara is currently Assistant Manager of Communications for Yogananda Seva/Voluntary League, a global humanitarian non-governmental organization.
Chase Wood
Senior Art Director, Taco Bell Creative
Chase was raised in Hollister, CA, and lives and works in Southern California. After attending Long Beach State University, he received a BFA in Illustration and continued his career working as a graphic artist in the fashion industry. Here, he worked with a multitude of clients and brands, requiring him to constantly adapt to new brand aesthetics and trends. During that time, Chase ran a small creative agency with his colleagues, allowing him to expand his brand identity and illustration skill set.
Chase now serves as a Senior Art Director at Taco Bell Creative (TBC), the brand’s in-house agency, where he began to channel his leadership within the cult brand that is Taco Bell. Chase’s ultimate goal in his work is to communicate a clear message, which initially drew him to the illustrative side of art. He enjoys taking one small element of a subject matter and letting his pen do the rest, getting lost in detail.
Panel Presented by BORDER FUSION
MODERATOR
Máximo Escobedo— Vice President / Cross-Border AIGA San Diego, Principal Maximo Creative Communications, Instructor & Advisor UC San Diego Extended Studies, Contact/o lead
TIJUANA PANELISTS
- Johanna Mora – Founder & Director, Esquina Norte, Contact/o contributor
- Arturo Elenes – AIGA San Diego board member, Partner, Enigma Creative (Tijuana)
- Isabel Salinas Gutierrez, PhD – Graphic Design Director, Researcher, Author, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
SAN DIEGO PANELISTS
- MaeLin Levine – President, AIGA San Diego, World Design Capital Bid Chair, Partner Visual Asylum, Contact/o contributor
- Rafael López – Illustrator, Muralist, Contact/o contributor
- Susan Merritt – Educator, Design Researcher/Writer, Board of Advisors for SD Design Week, AIGA SD Advisory Board, Contact/o contributor
ABOUT CONTACT/O
Contact/o was established in 1997 as a key initiative of AIGA San Diego in partnership with creative professionals from Tijuana and Baja, California. Over nearly three decades, Contact/o has encompassed exhibitions, design showcases, panel discussions and social events, fostering countless rich, collaborative relationships between design professionals on both sides of the Southern California / Mexico border.
Lunch Options
On Wednesday, sign up for a hosted “Lunch with Speakers,” $25. Choose your Lunch Topic
Lindsey Hammond :: What’s Holding You Back
Yvonne Perez Emerson :: Designing Cannabis Culture with Make & Mary
Charles Lee :: An Open Conversation about Top Innovation Metatrends
Hugh Weber :: Designing For Connection
Rick Griffith :: Ethics
Chris Cloud :: Power Of Collaboration
Schessa Garbutt :: Designer As Culture/Worker
Scott Mallwitz :: Embracing The Challenge of No
John Bielenberg :: When Wrong Is Right
Schedule
Day 1
Tuesday September 20, 2022
Day 2
Wednesday September 21, 2022
Early Bird
through July 15, 2022
Full Rate
through September 20, 2022
Your conference registration includes admission to all Main Stage Speakers, the Resource Room, and one Thinkshop on Wednesday.
Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations and travel arrangements.
Your registration constitutes permission to use photos, audio, and video recordings taken of you during the event for promotional and educational purposes in connection with AIGA events and activities, in corresponding publications, in AIGA’s archives and on AIGA’s website.
Cancellations made on or before August 20, 2022, are eligible for a full refund, minus the processing fee. No refunds are available for online zoom access, as the sessions are recorded and available post-event.
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive related emails periodically from AIGA San Diego and can opt-out at any time. We will never share or sell your email address or information.
While all speakers have confirmed their participation, we cannot guarantee that the speaker list or schedule is fully final. Speakers and schedules are subject to change without notice.
Group Rate $500 (Early Bird) and $600 (Full Rate) is for groups of 5 and more. Please email us to purchase the Group Rate
While all speakers have confirmed their participation, we cannot guarantee that the speaker list or schedule is fully final. Speakers and schedules are subject to change without notice.
Along with people from different industries and backgrounds, we encourage conversations and differing perspectives as part of the Y Design Conference experience. We will ensure a safe environment for everyone, and your cooperation is expected.
To that end, we will provide an environment free of harassment for every person. To be clear “harassment” includes:
- Offensive speech related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, or religion
- Offensive vulgar or sexual imagery in public spaces and presentations
- Intimidation, stalking, following, unauthorized photography or recording of a person or people
- Sustained disruption of talks or other events
- Inappropriate physical contact or unwelcome sexual attention.
These are examples that will have no place at the Y Design Conference. We expect attendees to act in a way that’s a positive representation of the community at large. Anyone asked to stop harassing behavior will be expected to stop immediately. If not, appropriate action will be taken by conference staff, security, and/or law enforcement.
Conference staff and volunteers will provide any of the following should the need arise:
- Expulsion from the conference, including the hotel (where appropriate)
- Escorts to and from venues
- Mediation of conflicts relevant to Y Design Conference event and/or policy
- Contacting security or law enforcement
- Assistance to any Y Design attendees with special needs
Whether you are a volunteer, speaker, sponsor, or attendee, you must agree to behave appropriately or we’ll ask you to leave. You can help by noticing inappropriate behavior and letting us know.
Covid-19 Vaccination Required for attendees.
Attendees must have received a full dose of a COVID–19 vaccine no later than September 2, 2022.
Proof of Vaccination Required
We will ask you to bring proof of vaccination with you to check-in at event registration each morning. At the time of check-in, we will ask you to share your vaccination date(s). Medical and religious exemptions will be honored and reasonable accommodations will be provided.
Accommodations for Medical and Religious Exemptions
If you are requesting a medical or religious exemption, please contact info@sandiego.aigo.org by Friday, September 2, 2022.
Negative Covid-19 test Required
In addition to requiring proof of vaccination, AIGA will require proof of a negative test (PCR or rapid) taken prior to arrival on-site. We ask that the negative test be taken within 72 hours of the start of the conference.
As part of our commitment to safety, attendees must provide proof of a negative test. AIGA is requiring a negative COVID-19 test to prevent transmission rates when there may be difficulty maintaining recommended social distancing at the on-site venue.
At-home PCR testing that you mail in to get results from a lab is accepted if the test can be taken within 72 hours of the start of the conference.
Masks
We will follow the State of California mandates and guidelines at the time of the conference. If necessary, we will ask all attendees to wear masks at check-in, during presentations, and when social distancing isn’t possible in-between presentations.
Your conference registration includes admission to all Main Stage Speakers, the Resource Room, and one Thinkshop on Wednesday.
Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations and travel arrangements.
Your registration constitutes permission to use photos, audio, and video recordings taken of you during the event for promotional and educational purposes in connection with AIGA events and activities, in corresponding publications, in AIGA’s archives and on AIGA’s website.
Cancellations made on or before August 20, 2022, are eligible for a full refund, minus the processing fee. No refunds are available for online zoom access, as the sessions are recorded and available post-event.
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive related emails periodically from AIGA San Diego and can opt-out at any time. We will never share or sell your email address or information.
While all speakers have confirmed their participation, we cannot guarantee that the speaker list or schedule is fully final. Speakers and schedules are subject to change without notice.
Group Rate $500 (Early Bird) and $600 (Full Rate) is for groups of 5 and more. Please email us to purchase the Group Rate
While all speakers have confirmed their participation, we cannot guarantee that the speaker list or schedule is fully final. Speakers and schedules are subject to change without notice.
Along with people from different industries and backgrounds, we encourage conversations and differing perspectives as part of the Y Design Conference experience. We will ensure a safe environment for everyone, and your cooperation is expected.
To that end, we will provide an environment free of harassment for every person. To be clear “harassment” includes:
- Offensive speech related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, or religion
- Offensive vulgar or sexual imagery in public spaces and presentations
- Intimidation, stalking, following, unauthorized photography or recording of a person or people
- Sustained disruption of talks or other events
- Inappropriate physical contact or unwelcome sexual attention.
These are examples that will have no place at the Y Design Conference. We expect attendees to act in a way that’s a positive representation of the community at large. Anyone asked to stop harassing behavior will be expected to stop immediately. If not, appropriate action will be taken by conference staff, security, and/or law enforcement.
Conference staff and volunteers will provide any of the following should the need arise:
- Expulsion from the conference, including the hotel (where appropriate)
- Escorts to and from venues
- Mediation of conflicts relevant to Y Design Conference event and/or policy
- Contacting security or law enforcement
- Assistance to any Y Design attendees with special needs
Whether you are a volunteer, speaker, sponsor, or attendee, you must agree to behave appropriately or we’ll ask you to leave. You can help by noticing inappropriate behavior and letting us know.
Covid-19 Vaccination Required for attendees.
Attendees must have received a full dose of a COVID–19 vaccine no later than September 2, 2022.
Proof of Vaccination Required
We will ask you to bring proof of vaccination with you to check-in at event registration each morning. At the time of check-in, we will ask you to share your vaccination date(s). Medical and religious exemptions will be honored and reasonable accommodations will be provided.
Accommodations for Medical and Religious Exemptions
If you are requesting a medical or religious exemption, please contact info@sandiego.aigo.org by Friday, September 2, 2022.
Negative Covid-19 test Required
In addition to requiring proof of vaccination, AIGA will require proof of a negative test (PCR or rapid) taken prior to arrival on-site. We ask that the negative test be taken within 72 hours of the start of the conference.
As part of our commitment to safety, attendees must provide proof of a negative test. AIGA is requiring a negative COVID-19 test to prevent transmission rates when there may be difficulty maintaining recommended social distancing at the on-site venue.
At-home PCR testing that you mail in to get results from a lab is accepted if the test can be taken within 72 hours of the start of the conference.
Masks
We will follow the State of California mandates and guidelines at the time of the conference. If necessary, we will ask all attendees to wear masks at check-in, during presentations, and when social distancing isn’t possible in-between presentations.
GET TICKETS NOW: The Y-25 Closing Party is Unlike Any Other Event!
Wednesday, September 21, 2022, 6PM
At The Mingei Museum
AIGA invites you to join us in celebrating the conclusion of Y-25 and the kick-off of San Diego 2022 Design Week. A limited number of tickets remain for the event, which is an imaginative gathering place for designers of all disciplines.
The event is hosted at the recently reimagined Mingei International Museum, a cultural anchor of historic Balboa Park. Attendees are invited to explore the Museum environments and exhibits, while enjoying appetizers and a hosted bar. A whimsical procession led by Animal Cracker Conspiracy will guide guests from the Mingei to the Spreckles Organ Pavillion. The brief journey will be led by stilt-dancing performers and puppetry, a memorable hallmark of this unique, San Diego-based multi-disciplinary performance company, which is known for creative visual theater experiences.
Upon arrival at the Spreckles Organ Pavillion, guests will enjoy the premiere of AIGA’s third Annual Projecting Futures exhibit. The immersive motion graphic experience showcases the work of designers of all levels from across the San Diego – Tijuana region. Produced in partnership with the San Diego Youth Symphony, Youth Ballet and Junior Theater, the effort is an inspiring and thought-provoking feast of high-impact design, music and dance.
Y-25 Closing Party tickets are available at $35 per person. All tickets are subject to availability and sold on a first-come, first serve basis.
You, yourself and Y. Because when you feed your soul, it reverberates.
Don Hollis :: AIGA :: Hollis Brand Culture
Design is about inspiring, about moving people to action. You can’t move people if you don’t know how people think. I go to the Y to listen and learn from people who bare it all.
Ron Miriello :: AIGA :: Miriello brand expression
Our “Y” Story
For a quarter century, there has been a place for like-minded designers who notice it all to gather in San Diego, Calif. More than just a sunny-side-up town, San Diego has become a design-centered, highly respected creative forefront in the industry. The people who have made it such are still here and thriving.
So what is this gathering place? It’s called the Y. The two-day event, produced entirely by volunteers, puts design at the center of everything. The Y is a place to reconnect with yourself, your passion, your why. It takes us out of the day-to-day how we design and opens up our imagination to remind us why we design. At the Y, designers find the inspiration they need to reach the next level. It’s a space for creatives to flock to each year, a forum where they can bask in the company of designers who radiate inspiration and embrace big ideas.
SOME OF OUR PAST SPEAKERS
The Y Conference brings to the main stage the most sought-after names in design and some of the most intriguing unknowns. We never cut corners when it comes to curating our speaker list. Just take a look at past Y Conference speakers: Paula Scher, David Carson, Chip Kidd, Karim Rashid, Wayne White, Frank Chimero, Aaron Draplin, Patrick Coyne, Michael Bierut, and Louise Fili. And as Y Design Conference celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020, attendees can expect more top-tier talent.
Erik Spiekermann
Michael Bierut
Louise Fili
Karim Rashid
Gail Anderson
Kristine Arth
Jorge Gutierrez
Paula Sher
Yichi Zhang
Lisa Congdon
Kareem Collie
Aaron Draplin
Ashleigh Axios
David Carson
Natasha Jen
Vanessa Dewey
Ebon Heath
Chip Kidd