Schedule Your Sessions for MAX 2018

The MAX 2018 scheduler is now live.

Hands-on at MAX.

The 2018 MAX session scheduler is now live! If you’ve already registered, you can go in and book your sessions, labs, and workshops now. If you haven’t yet registered for MAX, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to be first in line for exceptional creative content.

Here’s just a tiny sample of what we have in store:

Design: Controlled Chaos – Natasha Jen, Pentagram

Throughout history, there has never been a time when people were more fascinated by design. Design is becoming increasingly important in the business world as it extends into different design methods, making design less alien to non-designers, or at least less frightening. However, the result ultimately bypasses one of the most important — and difficult — states of design: chaos.

Natasha Jen, partner at Pentagram, will use vivid examples to explore design across a spectrum of two extreme states: control and chaos. And she’ll ask the questions: Why do the two need to coexist to enable great design? What is in between? And more importantly, how do we enable a culture where controlled chaos can thrive?

Hero Props: Graphic Design on Film – Annie Atkins, Designer

Telegrams, love letters, prison escape maps. Every time a character in a movie picks up a newspaper, somebody, somewhere has to design and make that prop — sometimes to excruciating levels of detail. Join Annie Atkins, graphic designer on “Isle of Dogs”, “Bridge of Spies”, “The Boxtrolls”, and “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, as she takes you through the making of some of cinema’s most beloved artwork.

As Annie shares her work and stories, you’ll discover how design decisions contribute to the creation of a cohesive visual world, including:

• Show, don’t tell: how props take the audience on a journey.
• Designing for imaginary worlds: authenticity versus realism.
• How to avoid ending up on the IMDb Goofs page.
• How to apply lessons from filmmaking to commercial design work.

The One That Got Away – Aaron Draplin, Founder, Draplin Design Co.

Join designer Aaron Draplin, founder of Draplin Design Company, for an investigation into the tragedies, as opposed to the triumphs, of graphic design — from falling flat on your face, to cutting-room-floor logo scraps, to lessons learned — and how his company made lemonade out of lemons. He’ll be pulling back the curtains on the stuff that’s best forgotten but absolutely crucial in forming your life in design and, oddly enough, everywhere else.

Aaron will show examples of how tenacity, creativity, and solid process get them through the tough times, including:

• Ruminations on tenacity and how to guide the client.
• Lighthearted examples detailing how things went south for the DDC.
• Rapid-fire iterations to ignite stalled logos.

Real Talk: How to Revitalize Your Teams and Yourself – Deepa Subramaniam, Co-Founder, Where With All

Positive team health, high-velocity output, and strategic execution – these likely form the foundation of our day-to-day work goals as we aim to create that healthy team, a high-functioning client dynamic, and quality output. Join Deepa Subramaniam, a seasoned product leader for 15 years, as she provides evidence-based tactics for improving the overall health of your teams and your own creative output when time is of the essence.

Deepa will share:

• Tactics to clarify roles and responsibilities across (and within) functional teams.
• The science behind human emotions and how to use it to lead difficult conversations and mindful communication.
• Actionable ways to join forces with your peer leaders.

There are so many more. Start here and dive in. Check out our labs and workshops, and also don’t miss the preconference trainings and bootcamps if you can join us early this year.

We’ll see you at MAX!