SEEK Design Conference is an annual design conference coordinated by NIU students for students and young professionals. As seniors at NIU, Alyssa Laessig and I spearheaded the SEEK 2014 conference with guidance from NIU design teacher Steve Quinn. From the speaker acquisition and scheduling, to the conference identity and merchandise…you name it, we did it.
To promote the SEEK Conference, Alyssa and I (with guidance from Brad Vetter) made custom wood type letters and hand pulled 250 wood type posters. These limited edition prints were awarded as raffle prizes, and sold during the conference.
The concept behind SEEK 2014 was “Design is…”. We asked students, visitors to the website, and design professionals what they thought design was, and the response was amazing. We then integrated those words, ideas, and phrases into the rest of the design material. View the entire archived site at SEEK Conference 2014
Because Alyssa and I wanted SEEK 2014 to be memorable and create a lasting an impact, we designed the conference materials and workshops around this idea. In addition to the letterpress posters, Alyssa led the charge in the creation of a 13-foot pin wall with over 1,000 pins made of 10 unique designs. Each design was inspired by “Design is…” submissions through the SEEK website. We encouraged attendees to take them home as free SEEK swag. People loved the pins! Having the name-tag/conference guide system double as a sketchbook—to jot down notes and flashes of inspiration—also worked remarkably well.
I would like to thank all the Student Volunteers, the NIU Visual Communications Senior Class of 2014, Steve Quinn for his guidance, Adam Kelsey for making a phenomenal intro video, Matt Tores for filming SEEK and the recap video, each and every speaker, and everyone else who helped make SEEK 2014 a day to remember!