Back for its 11th edition, the University of Central Lancashire in Preston sees the return of its annual Conference Week. With a whopping 20 incredible speakers over the five days, this years edition is a must-see with a positively whos-who of the Graphics, Illustration and Advertising world.
This year’s theme is all about failure. Close but no Cigar. The speakers will be presenting their work and advice on the role of failure in the design process. There’ll be some fascinating stories in there for sure.
After being fully virtual last year, the conference is taking place in person but seats are limited to only 100. All the talks will be live-streamed so if you’re not lucky enough to get a golden ticket, you can still tune in via the Disciples of Design YouTube page.
See the full week's schedule
Monday 14th February
10:00 – Gary Whitworth, The Chase (Manchester)
Working primarily in branding and communications design at The Chase Creative Consultants in Manchester, Senior Designer, Gary Whitworth has worked on re-brands for a wide range of large global organisations such as Water Aid, AstraZeneca, BBFC & Royal Mail.
11:30 – Paul Copeland, Small Creative / Saatchi & Saatchi (Singapore)
Paul is a passionate, rule-breaking, Creative Director, strong on strategy with 20+ years of global experience in making you want stuff that you don’t know you need. He uses various devious means including. Advertising, digital activation, social content, e-com, PR and brand management
13:30 – Karen Hughes, Edit Studio (Manchester)
Karen is co-founder and creative director of EDIT, Manchester – a specialist creative partner for arts, culture and knowledge-based organisations.
15:00 – Mike Rigby, Proto (New York)
Mike is Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Innovation Company,
Proto. Former Global Design Head for renowned agency, R/GA. He has led major design projects for clients including Nike, Google, Samsung, and a bunch of start-ups.
Tuesday 15th February
10:00 – Jordan Stokes, Goodness (Sydney)
Jordan is a Creative Director with over 12 years of experience working at
award-winning agencies of all shapes and sizes in both the UK and Australia. His practice focuses on branding, art direction and design and he has worked with some of the worlds biggest, most interesting and most challenging brands.
10:00 – Matthew Johnson, Bulletproof (Sydney)
Matty is currently the creative director heading up the Bulletproof Sydney office and is a Creative Director with over 12 years of experience working at award-winning agencies of all shapes and sizes in both the UK and Australia. Matty has been working in Sydney Australia for well over a decade and in that time he has worked for Interbrand, Landor, Saatchi & Saatchi and Design Bridge.
11:30 – David Flanagan, Illustrator (UK)
Dave Flanagan is an illustrator, creating engaging content for global leading. brands. Incorporating multiple style techniques to provide exciting options to clients around the world. Dave has 20+ years of experience in the design industry, offering a strong understanding of client expectations and needs. He worked as a Graphic Designer at Forepoint Preston for a large part of his career before deciding to change tack and branch out into illustration.
13:30 – Alicia Job and Jessica Pacey, Engine Group (London)
Jess Pacey and Alica Job are a young northern creative female team blazing a trail in the world of advertising at The Engine Group - London. In their own words - 'Jess is the brunette one, Liss is the blonde. Some days one draws and the other writes. Other days one scribbles whilst the other types. We’re modern like that'
Wednesday 16th February
10:00 – Andy Walmsley, Wash (Preston)
Andy has been in creative studios since he broke out of school at 16 and has been an active part of Lancashire’s creative community for almost as long. From guest lecturing at the local university to various initiatives with the Design Council, he’s also the Creative Director and Owner of Wash Studio, as well as one of the Artistry House’s very own artists and co-founders.
11:30 – David Palmer, Love (Manchester)
Dave is Executive Creative Director and owner of Love Creative, Manchester. Since it was founded in 2001, the 53 strong agency has won over 250 awards, including design effectiveness awards, recognition by D&AD, Creative Review, Design Week and Clio.
13:30 – Eva M Steiner, Ogilvy UK (London)
Eva Steiner, an award-winning creative art director born and raised in Germany, shaped in SF and NYC, currently living and working in London at one of the top agencies in the UK.
15:00 – Olivier Kugler, Illustrator (UK)
Olivier Kugler is a reportage illustrator based in London and has won many awards, including a V&A Illustration Award in 2011 and a World Illustration Award in 2015. His reportage drawings have appeared in The Guardian, Harper’s, Le Monde diplomatique and other publications.
Thursday 17th February
10:00 – Robert Ball, Illustrator (London)
After studying at UCLAN, Rob joined The Partners (Now Superunion) in 2000 and after 13 years he had worked his way up to Creative Directorship collecting many prestigious awards along the way. He has won several top awards including D&AD, New York Festivals, Campaign Awards, Cannes Lions, Art Directors Club and Graphis award.
10:00 – Steve Royale, True North (Manchester)
After studying at UCLAN and winning D&AD Student of the Year, Steve joined The Chase Manchester in 1997. Steve has recently moved to one of the North West’s other leading agencies, True North, where as Creative Director, he heads up a team working for a roster of national and international clients.
11:30 – Strawberrie Donnelly, Bloomsbury
Strawberrie graduated from the Visual Communications course at Preston in 1992 and moved straight into the arena of children's book publishing. Strawberrie now has over 25+ years experience of working in children's book publishing and she has worked at Puffin Books, Macmillan Children’s Books, Little Tiger Press and is now currently art director at Bloomsbury Publishing
15:00 – David Thompson, Turner Duckworth (London)
David is a Creative Director at Turner Duckworth London. He’s been part of the team for over nine years and prior to this, he worked for six years at The Chase Manchester. Over the past decade David has worked with a variety of clients including M&S, Royal Mail, D&AD, Adidas, Miller Coors and Coca-Cola to name but a few and over the past 12 months, he’s helped to brand everything from coffee, beer, some D&AD pencils – to a state of the art ship.
Friday 18th February
10:00 – Harriet Richardson, Pentagram (London)
Having recently graduated from UCLAN with just the 4 D&AD nominations, Harriet now works in Pentagram London. Aside from working in one of the UK's top agencies, she also sells her own prints on her online store.
11:30 – Jonas Zieher, Spin (London)
With more than 7 years of experience in the creative industries working independently, with the London office of Pentagram and in his current role as design director at SPIN, he has completed projects with a range of clients including Apple Music, the Architectural Association, David Chipperfield Architects, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, MUBI or the Guggenheim Museum NY.
13:30 – Ben Tallon, Illustrator (Manchester)
Ben Tallon is an illustrator, hand-painted lettering specialist, author of Champagne And Wax Crayons and host of Arrest All Mimics, the original thinking and creative innovation podcast. He has developed a unique, organic, energetic brand of image-making with many clients including Channel 4, The Guardian, World Wrestling Entertainment, Penguin Books, The Premier League and Unicef among many others.
15:00 – Simon Higby – Nord DDB (Stockholm)
Simon Higby graduated in 2002 from the Graphic Design course and immediately moved into the world of advertising working at McCann and The Works Sydney. He is currently working for the advertising agency DDB Stockholm where he has won numerous awards including the DDB networks first ever Titanium lion, a Cannes Cyber Grand Prix, two Eurobest Grand Prix’s, 15 Cannes lions, 2 Gold and 5 silver eggs at Guldägget and the Bill Bernbach award for work on Volkswagen and McDonalds.
Close but no Cigar Conference Week runs 14th-18th February live from PR1 Gallery, UCLAN, Preston.
You can keep up to date with conference week and all things UCLAN graphics over on The Disciples Of Design Instagram and watch Conference Week 2022 live via YouTube.
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