Speakers
Aaron Draplin
Draplin Design Co. www.draplin.com
A native Midwesterner, Aaron Draplin grew up with a steady stream of Legos, “Star Wars,” family trips, little sisters, summer beach fun, stitches, fall foliage, drawing, skateboarding and snowboarding. His career took off like wildfi re after a move to Bend, Oregon, where he completed a snowboard graphic for Solid snowboards. Everything from lettering café signs to drawing up logos to thinking up local advertising campaigns were manhandled under the ruse of Draplindustries Design Co. After five winters out West, Aaron returned to the Midwest to complete his design degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Then in April 2000, he moved to Southern California as art director of Snowboarder magazine, where he wrangled some 23 issues. He won “Art Director of the Year” for Primedia 2000. In 2002, he accepted a senior designer position at Portland-based Cinco Design Office working on the Gravis, Helly Hansen and Nixon accounts. With Aaron on his own since 2004, the Draplin Design Co. has managed to “keep everything out of the red” by bringing his talents to a number of enthusiast brands, including Coal Headwear, the Union Binding Company, Snowboard magazine, Field Notes memo books, Ride Snowboards, Forum Snowboards, Grenade gloves, Chunklet magazine, Cobra Dogs, Absinthe Films, Nemo Design, Gnu Snowboards, RVL7 Apparel, Burton Snowboards, K2 Snowboarding, Bonfire Snowboarding apparel, South American Snow Sessions, as well as all sorts of one-off logos, T-shirt graphics and whatnot. Aaron owes it all to his parents.
DJ Stout
Pentagram Austin www.pentagram.com
DJ Stout began his graphic design career in 1981 working for Robert A. Wilson Associates in Dallas. In 1987, he moved to Austin, where he was the award-winning art director of the nationally respected and critically acclaimed Texas Monthly magazine. During his tenure there, the publication was awarded the prestigious National Magazine Award prize three times. American Photo magazine selected DJ as one of the “100 most important people in photography” primarily because of the impressive body of original photographic works that he commissioned and art directed during his 13 years at Texas Monthly. In 2000, DJ joined Pentagram as a partner in the Austin offi ce. His wide-ranging expertise encompasses the design and redesign of a variety of publications including magazines, books and catalogs. He and his team also specialize in identity design, branding, packaging, exhibitions and website design.
DJ’s work has been widely published and has won countless design awards. In 2004, I.D. magazine profi led DJ as one of its “Fifty American Designers.” His design work is represented in several permanent collections including Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA), the Southwestern Writers Collection and the Southwestern and Mexican Photography Collection in the Witliff Collections at Texas State University — San Marcos, the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) at the University of Texas — Austin and the Library of Congress.
Ellen Lupton
Design Writing Research www.designwritingresearch.org
Ellen Lupton’s prolific career spans the realms of design practice, education, criticism and curating, and is specifi cally aimed at bringing design awareness to a broader audience. She directs the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, where she also serves as director of the Center for Design Thinking. As curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum since 1992, Ellen has organized numerous exhibitions, including the National Design Triennial (2000, 2003, 2006), Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office (1993), Mixing Messages: Graphic Design and Contemporary Culture (1996), Letters from the Avant-Garde (1996), Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age (1999) and Skin: Surface, Substance + Design (2002). In addition to the robust catalogs that accompany these shows, she has written and co-authored the best-selling books “Thinking with Type” (2004), “D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself” (2006), “D.I.Y. Kids” (2007) and most recently, “Graphic Design: The New Basics” (2008). With J. Abbott Miller, Ellen’s essays on design and culture were published in “Design Writing Research” (1996). Her writing has been featured in magazines such as Print, Eye, I.D. (International Design) and Metropolis. She has a regular column, “The El Word,” in ReadyMade magazine, and her editorial illustrations have been published in the New York Times. Ellen is a 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal, the profession’s highest honor.
Erik Karasyk & David Schwarz
HUSH www.heyhush.com
HUSH is a New York-based content creation studio developing powerful brand-driven stories, award-winning design, animation and interactive content for TV, online, exhibition, mobile and integrated campaigns. With over a decade of ideation and execution experience, HUSH pushes creative and technical bounds to build brand awareness and audience loyalty.
HUSH cofounder David Schwarz is an award-winning creative director working in live-action filmmaking, motion graphics, animation and interactive media. After graduating from Art Center College of Design, he became a sought-after freelance talent working at notable studios such as Brand New School, Transistor, The Ebeling Group, Makine and Honest. He’s developed a variety of cross-media commercial projects for clients such as Nokia, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, National Geographic, Sony and Workbook.com, among others. David has written and directed award-winning short films and has been featured in publications like RES magazine, Monument magazine and IdN.
Cofounder and creative director Erik Karasyk brings over a decade of industry experience to HUSH. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s computer animation and film departments, he has worked at several top studios and agencies including The GT Group, TeamHeavy, Charlex and JWT. Later, Erik decided to broaden his skills and became a freelance designer, animator and director for many prominent clients such as Nike, Acura, Sprint, McDonald’s and Miller. Before HUSH, he played prominent roles in major projects for studios such as Brand New School, Digital Kitchen, The Ebeling Group and Transistor.
