How can environmental graphics, public art, and new digital experiences connect people to place and enrich the urban landscape? How can designers improve the world by using their empathy as well as their creative talents? And what does “global design” look like these days?
Designers, thinkers, educators, and makers will tackle those questions and more June 6-8 when they converge Above the Fog for the 2013 SEGD Conference in San Francisco.
Inspired by the famous fog that descends on the San Francisco Bay, the 2013 SEGD Conference will invite participants to look above and beyond the fog and look for blue sky, be inspired, and connect with designers, artists, planners, makers, and global thinkers from around the world.
“SEGD conferences are known for being places where many design disciplines converge and where we all can count on getting fresh new perspectives on our work,” says Lonny Israel, associate director with Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP and Co-Chair of the 2013 SEGD Conference with Julie Vogel, Principal of Kate Keating Associates. “For Above the Fog, we’re putting together a program that will really inspire—from the evolving urban experience, to the role of art and culture in defining place, to how we can use our talents to design with empathy. We’re excited to host the 2013 SEGD Conference in San Francisco.”
The three-day conference will be headquartered in the storied Fairmont Hotel San Francisco atop Nob Hill. But that’s just the starting point: participants will explore design projects and attend social events all over the city, from Golden Gate Bridge Park and the Presidio, to the new jewels on the Embarcadero, to the East Bay and beyond.
Day 1 (Thursday, June 6) will include SEGD’s Practice & Purpose Leadership Summit, project tours, the fifth annual SEGD Academic Summit, tech workshops, and an afternoon Design Improv workshop.
Day 2 (Friday, June 7) includes sessions on Urban Metadata: Culture, Context, and Constructs and Urban Experience: Ephemera, Exploration, and Empathy, as well as an evening cocktail reception and the SEGD Auction for Education.
Day 3 (Saturday, June 8) features sessions on Global Design Vision and Trending the Future, as well as the SEGD Fellow and Excellence Awards and the conference grand finale, the SEGD Global Design Awards Celebration. The SEGD Global Design Awards are the only international awards focused on environmental graphic design.
In 2013, SEGD will also mark its 40th anniversary. “In our 40th year helping to guide the evolution of EGD, we have many milestones to celebrate, but most important, many exciting things to look forward to,” says Clive Roux, SEGD’s new CEO. “As we look ahead to the next 40 years, we’ll embrace the huge changes in the design profession as technologies make content sharing and the delivery of experiences possible within the built environment. San Francisco is an inspiring locale to ponder what the future will hold for SEGD and the people who create compelling experiences in the built environment.”
