Last year on this day I was a bundle of stress and nerves waiting for my time in the red circle. It was quite a challenge, very intense, the day itself a blur, and a rewarding experience. On the power of images, messaging and intention, current events, graphic design, and file types. More on the journey here. Check out the talk on YouTube.
What Is This About?
In the interview process, we were discussing what I was ultimately hoping the audience would take away from my talk. While I wished I was a media theorist but wasn’t, or a great artist doing amazing visual works which I’m not, the talk had elements of both things in common ways. In the back and forth with the TEDx Omaha team, when pressed, I landed on “I want people to question more what they see online, to not just blindly accept what’s put in front of them.” Using my progressively minded images would be the messengers for a message about critical thinking. If you align philosophically with the images, great, if not, that works too. And if you happen to have a problem with the images, fine, then do your own talk.
TEDx Omaha: Videos 2022
Filmed November 19th, now posted on YouTube:
Michael Ackerbauer – What Rock Balancing Has Taught Me About Teamwork
Dr. Pat Friman – Compassion: Release the Better Angel of Our Nature
David Galant – The Silent Baton: A Conductor’s Paintbrush
Ralph Kellogg – ACT Now
Justin Kemerling – The Intentional Impact of Images
Dana Murray – Back In My Day (Inspired Education)
Ruth Murray – Movement and the Mind
Justin Romano – Smartphones: It’s Time to Confront Our Global Addiction
Lee Running – ‘The Verge’
It really is all about timing
Years back, I got really into TED Talks. And I certainly thought I could maybe do one at some point. Especially when the TEDx events started up. I had friends suggest I apply. But when I thought about it for just a little bit, it never seemed quite right. The talk would have to be about my view of graphic design, in some way, and I never felt any kind of certainty about how to go about doing it. I never applied.
The work I did didn’t warrant this kind of talk. I didn’t do anything all that noteworthy for this kind of talk. This kind of talk was well above me. Time went on. I stopped being really into TED Talks.
But this summer I got a text that led to a meeting with the TEDx Omaha executive producer. We had a chat over coffee. I heard all about this year’s theme Currents & Collisions. I also said my piece about how I don’t think graphic design talks mesh well with TED.
I thought more about my view of design. It did sort of seem to go well with the theme. And I do like being sought out. So it was settled. I submitted my application, had some additional interviews, and was selected.
The statement for my talk:
Graphic design to collide with this current American moment.
My Talk for TEDx Omaha
The Intentional Impact of Images
Every day we are bombarded with images and graphics — advertising, marketing, promoting, branding, selling, demanding, informing. Some images we are intensely aware of, most we don’t even notice, as they crowd past us on screens and billboards, moving or static. Every image tells us something, every image wants us to do something. The decision is ours to make. The question is, what will we choose to do?
Michigan St Graphic Design
Visual Communication + Social Justice
Yesterday I spoke to a group of graphic design students from Michigan State University. We talked about how graphic design can be used to shout messages of social justice, environmental action, police accountability, and the crucial importance of voting. Special thanks for the invite to their professor and visual artist Parisa Ghaderi. The first time I’ve done this presentation. You can check out the slides at the link below.
Speaking Themes
As it stands, the themes to have emerged with my work over the last decade have solidified themselves. For any upcoming presentations, one could expect the contents of my design talks to involve:
Offline + Online
Action + Design
Brand + Extra
Simplicity + Consistency
Type + Image
