Make an Impact! How Designers Can Promote Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion

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We know that diversity and inclusiveness is a crucial component of every design. But what does that look like in practice and how do you know if you’re doing it right?

In this session, designer and brand strategist Nicte Cuevas shares best practices and strategies for:

  • Approaching designs with mindfulness to create more effective and authentic connections with your audience
  • Increasing empathy and understanding across lived experiences
  • Expanding representation and inclusion with diverse content

Slidedeck Remix: Before & After

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Watch this immersive, real world, step-by-step slide deck makeover. Get practical tips, techniques, and tools you can use immediately to make professional slides quickly. Mike walks you through how he transformed a cluttered, ineffective client slide deck into a powerful and professional presentation in only 5 hours. Be even more of a superstar. Walk away with amazing slide solutions that make your job easier!

Grids: The Backbone of Design

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We know we should be using grids in our designs, but which ones? How do you choose? Where do you even start? Join Nigel as he shares invaluable insights, practical tips, and real-world examples to demystify the complexities of grid-based design. By the end of the session, you’ll not only understand the importance of grids but also be equipped to use them strategically for visually stunning and harmonious layouts.

You’ll learn:

  • The different kinds of grid: document, layout, baseline, and how to combine them
  • Strategies for working with grids in InDesign, as well as Illustrator, and Photoshop
  • Creative ways to break the grid for added impact

Approachable Animation in After Effects

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Having the ability to animate your designs is becoming a must these days, and After Effects is the app that can truly bring your creative vision to life. Emmy-winning motion designer Kyle Hamrick will guide you through the fundamentals of this often-intimidating program, and demonstrate approachable techniques you can use right away to boost your own work.

In this session, you’ll learn:

  • When, why, and how to incorporate motion into your skill set
  • Fundamentals of the After Effects UI and multimedia workflow
  • How to import and animate layered designs from Photoshop or Illustrator (It’s not as hard as you’d expect!)
  • Beginner-friendly techniques that can make a big impact

Taking the Fear Out of InDesign and Illustrator Scripts

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A carefully curated collection of scripts is guaranteed to up your game in both InDesign and Illustrator. In this session, you’ll discover how easy it is to find, install, and use an enormous variety of helpful scripts for both InDesign and Illustrator.

You’ll learn:

  • The easy way to reliably download and install any script in InDesign or Illustrator
  • The quickest way to run a script in InDesign or Illustrator
  • The best places to look online for high-quality, useful scripts
  • How to get started customizing scripts to adapt them for your needs

Amped Up PowerPoint: Working Smarter and Faster

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In this session, Nolan will reveal his favorite time-saving tricks, secrets, and hacks for working faster and more efficiently in PowerPoint. You’ll see simple (but powerful) keyboard shortcuts, important undocumented features, even how to completely customize the PowerPoint UI. If you’ve ever said to yourself, “There has to be a better way,” this session is for you.

Game-Changing Techniques for Anchored Objects and Object Styles in InDesign

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This session is a must for anyone creating catalogs, manuals, or working with threaded text and related, location-specific graphics. It includes practical and imaginative tips for working with anchored objects in InDesign will save you a ton of time and completely blow your mind.

Laurie will share real-world problems and their anchored-object solutions, such as how to:

  • Hang a photo or icon next to a topic in a manual
  • Anchor an icon or graphic inside a table cell
  • Anchor a photo in a story and control the text wrap
  • Anchor a quote or comment box into a story
  • Create an object style that will allow you to anchor graphics precisely with one click

Getting Started with Video for Designers

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We might all be walking around with a video creation device in our pockets, but when asked to create or use video professionally, you might realize it’s more involved than you thought! Join Emmy-winning video creator Kyle Hamrick to learn the essentials of video editing and post-production, and ways you can incorporate video into your work across a variety of formats and contexts. This session will be focused on Adobe tools, but includes concepts you can apply to apps of your choice.

In this session, you’ll learn:

  • Fundamental technical and creative concepts
  • How to effectively organize your video projects
  • Approachable workflows for quick projects in Adobe Express
  • More advanced (and even automated!) techniques in Premiere Pro

Transformative Tools for CreativePros

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Want to get super-efficient and productive? Come learn about a wide range of utilities, apps, and services that can help make you a rockstar! Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Theresa Jackson showcases a collection of productivity tools for Mac and Windows, curated from the recommendations of over a dozen fellow experts!

Topics include:

  • Keyboard shortcut tools to turbocharge your workflow
  • Helpful utilities that every design pro needs
  • Tools and amazing OS tips you didn’t know you already have
  • Browser, email, and cloud sync services for increased productivity

Paper Party: Exploring PaperSpecs

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Paper is as distinctive as fonts—each type of paper has its own “voice,” its own sense of personality. And yet the only way to truly understand paper and printing is to feel it with your own hands. In the old days there were plenty of opportunities for design professionals to experience a wide variety of paper stocks, so they could make good decisions when it came to print. Of course, that’s very rare today.

So . . .  we’re throwing a paper party! Join internationally renowned paper expert Sabine Lenz from PaperSpecs as she leads a fun and educational experience like no other.

Topics include:

  • Understanding paper terminology
  • Why choosing the right stock for your project matters
  • How a printed piece can make or break your sale
  • Why print means “Quality” (and how not to mess it up)