Bron’s notes from POV Budapest

I flew from London to Budapest for a 2 day design conference. This opened my eyes to talks from some of the best in the business, I left inspired and slightly overwhelmed.

Being able to see behind the scenes and strategy of projects I’ve admired opened up the thought process, here are my 5 take aways from the talks:

Bring the in the experts.

This note was taken during a talk byWolf Ollins, specifically from their case study with Lloyd Bank where they updated the iconic black horse logo. The average on looker wouldn’t notice much difference other than the fact the black horse’s head is turning the other way.

However, during the talk they mentioned that they brought in a vet to point out real anatomy of a horse, where the leg would bend, how the head would turn and how much hoof there is. I found these details fascinating and exciting as a designer. These cross industry collaborations allowed for better knowledge and overall understanding of the brand.

Start with the Person. Not the Brief.

One of my favourite talks was by Base Design. Rather than running through the usual case study and strategy, they introduced their clients as characters, giving them a slide each and explaining their background (a father and son duo out to take over the Match world).

The brand they built was 12, a beautiful fusion of New York and Match heritage, but more importantly showed the relationship between a client and a studio. How interconnected they both are in the process and how developing a relationship with the person who is setting the brief is just as important as your design skills.

Standards > Rules.

Being British, I found Mouthwash Studio talk came straight out of a Hollywood film. With the American accent and enthusiasm their projects and studio felt like the cool new generation of creatives.

“But how can cooperate life be cool? Surely their is some restriction to their studio” I thought to myself. The ending slide was one I had to take a photo of. Rather than rules, the studio used standards. I loved this idea, each person, each designer has different standards they create to but the importance of finding a place that aligns to your standards is so important. Because really the standards are your values, things that you can’t explain but you just know when its complete.

Intuition is strategy.

This was said in the talk from Studio Dunbar. I love the talk by Liza, full of passion and personality, she mentioned their approach being curiosity driven, that they follow their intuition rather than just sticking to one set idea.

Sometimes having worked in the concept stage, coming up with idea that just feel like they fit, only later to uncover data and research that backs up the thoughts. Their project for Open AI explores with visuals of tech with the sound of an orchestra each motion graphic making its own noise, giving the feeling that it was alive and real not just a chat bot.

Design is an unlimited landscape. 

Okay admittedly, I cant remember who said this but it clearly got me so distracted thinking about it. The 2 days spent out there in workshops and being surrounded by Designers felt so exciting.

It left me with a feeling that the future of my career could be in anything, the different industries that it fits into, the new technologies being made and the fact every business needs design. It completely contradicted the stories we’ve been told as creatives that it’s just an add on or a ‘fluffy subject’, when really design is at the core of everything.