TREND conference overview

On September 15 and 16, a significant event for the Russian design community took place in Moscow: the TREND conference. It is obvious that the organizers once again created a precedent, an event of unprecedented scale. For this they bow to him, praise and all kinds of honors.

This article will be a brief and subjective review of how the event proceeded, the speakers and their lectures. For complete clarity, I repeat - the review is subjective, and therefore does not pretend to be the ultimate truth.

But first things first.



The conference was opened by Rama Allen , creative director of The Mill. The title of his speech, “The hallucination manufactory,” unequivocally describes its content. Appealing to Steve Jobs and Oliver Sax, Rama talked about the prospects of augmented reality technology, artificial intelligence and biometrics. As usual, the lecture was accompanied by countless video sequences and a listing of their own merits. Conclusions: augmented reality is developing, AI is coming, biometrics is a cool technology without a specific application. The only thing that can be singled out is the poetic thesis: “Being an amateur is good. The amateur constantly asks questions and tries new things. ”

Unknown until the last moment, the speaker was Misha Shishkin, from the eponymous agency. By the way, “Cones” made the conference identity. A good, holistic lecture about communication in design. Spurred by the desire to teach people to understand each other better, Misha digs in the direction of linguistics and even explores the question of creating artificial languages ​​(like Esperanto or Dothraki). The result of his research can be formulated as follows: visual language should be natural, not artificial, when concepts = images.

The lecture of Zorik Istomin about cultural epochs and metamodern in particular, started after the break, which made her start a little crumpled due to the movements of people around the hall. Although Zorik himself after the lecture told me that it was because of sound and light.
Theses: metamodern is the oscillation between naivety and cynicism, it is sincerity, it is the synergy of everything. Also, Zorik calls for uniting in the community.

After the fourth speech, I realized that foreign speakers are hampered by a lack of understanding of the level of the audience. In addition to touching the legend, the lecture of Luke Heyman from Pentagram did not carry any value (subjectively!). Slides with feeds to all well-known cases, seasoned with banal comments. Maybe my stingy English is to blame, a bad synchronist (no), or a constantly lagging translation device?

Each lecture Vova Lifanovafor me personally as a holiday. Design approach you know. Vova continues to develop submission techniques and plot twists in his lectures, while not forgetting about the transfer of experience on the example of unfit projects. As always, there was no fine philosophy. 10 out of 10.

In conclusion, there was a lecture by Australian Ken Keito , about how he manages to make multinational brands. The beginning of the lecture was devoted to his professional development, then it was about the difference in perception in different cultures. In conclusion, again cases.

Then I could well have missed something, as I was tired of fighting the grunting translation device.

By the way! Does anyone know if the pointer that the speakers are hailed is really domestic production or not all top designers are smart enough to use it?



The second day cheerfully started with a lecture by Greg Darrell : “Graphic Design of the Nation”. Starting with his children's drawings, the history of the Canadian flag and the thesis that design can unite people, Greg turned to the story of a film about Canadian design. Plus, a plot off about the development of the symbols of the Olympiad in Vancouver, which is the most recognizable in the world. It turned out inspiring. Watch his film “Design Canada”.

Designer, publisher of design books, agency owner, teacher, writer, radio host (and that's not all) Adrian Shaughnessy, encourages designers to master adjacent and not so areas. He tells how this can be done by the example of his transformation into a publisher. By the way, his publishing house has recently released a book about the developments of the Soviet VNIITE, which may not have caused a stir in the west, but definitely caused a certain resonance. Personally, I liked his quoting Umberto Eco.

Opium for the Modern Man in the form of modern art suggests to use Dmitry Gutov. In his lecture “Modern art as an anti-design,” he chews us unintelligibly, which, after all, differs design from art. Admit it honestly designers: are you all supporters of the consumer society, although you hide behind good intentions? So: modern art is an attempt to bring you including to the clear water! As you understand, the author is a fan of contemporary art and personally Dmitry Gutov. Here, subjectively, 100 points out of 10.

Fritz Gottschalk, according to my personal observation, is the only person at the conference who does not pull the stall handles in a public toilet. Instead, he looks at the display closed / open. Be like Fritz.
Very positive, energetic and humble grandfather. For those who are in the subject is one of the legends of Swiss design. And in this case, his charisma compensated for the emptiness of the lecture, based on the fact that you need to “vydrachivat” the smallest details in your layouts. Respect, respect, but the same misfortune as that of all imported lecturers.

No matter how good I feel about Dmitry Karpov , this time his speech turned out to be called “about nothing”. And this is not because the lecture, as stated by Dmitry himself, is “not run-in”. Personally, I do not fit in my head as much as possible, considering the background of previous lectures, countless past PROSMOTR conferences, and understanding who is sitting in the hall, to tell the alphabet? The feeling was that the show, which makes Dmitry, is an attempt to plug these holes.
Although maybe I did not see a fresh look at long-known things? Maybe. Sorry for the criticism! Everything could be forgiven if the lectures were free.

It all ended on a positive note. The latest speakers of the conference were the guys from SNASK : Eric Kokum and Fredrik Yost. That's where trash and waste. So that you understand the context: instead of water, Fredric drank beer during a performance. The creative team, which calls to stoke for self-branding, assures that you can be a cool agency and not wearing a suit under lean soup. The guys showed cases accompanying their carbon stories. A rather convincing example of a truly creative agency that plays by its own rules. Everyone needs to strive to be like SNASK.

That's all. Purposefully did not dwell on the minuses of the organization, because the first event of its kind and significant omissions were noted. Thank you for reading and attention. I will be glad to hear the opinions of the event witnesses in the comments - there is always a chance to see something with different eyes.