About
Circles?
2019 Recap
Shed layers of fear and doubt, and reveal your inner creativity at Circles Conference 2023. We have faced a lot of struggles in the pandemic. Now, it’s time to remove those barriers and allow your creative process to thrive.
Circles is filled with inspirational stories and workshops from the industry’s leading creatives. You’ll walk away with new ideas, practical advice, and a tight-knit community to support you along the way.
About the Topics
At Circles, our speakers will center their discussions around a variety of subjects, including illustration, branding, creative processes, pricing, managing relationships with clients, establishing procedures, collaborating with teams in an agency or in-house department, project management and other related topics.
Convince Your Boss
The
Topics
Always in Tandem
Jeremy Slagle
Designer & Illustrator at Slagle Design
Ever wish you could align your business with clients who share the same values and goals? A few years ago, I took a month-long international trip. Upon return, I saw my business with a clarity I hadn’t seen before. The pivot I made at that point changed the way we do business as a design studio as well as our approach to finding clients who best fit our culture and values. It helped us to define the real meaning of fulfilling creative work and how, when we do what is best for our clients, we can help them achieve their goals and find the same level of joy and fulfillment.
This one-hour presentation covers:
- Discovering, developing and spreading joy through your everyday work and talents
- Curating and connecting with a client base that resonates with your values and goals
- Sharing your gifts to better your community
- Loving people through your work
Becoming A Chameleon
Kevin Daughtry
Founder & Director at Yellowbox
Can we as creatives develop excellent relatable work for clients and situations that we personally can’t relate to?
We can spend so much of the creative process trying to figure out what the hell our client really wants that we blow our entire budget just to get to square one. Creativity, like facts these days it seems, is subjective. It’s our job as creatives to build teams and processes that can easily adapt to creatively inexperienced clientele. If we’re truly building agency-level creative, we have to become chameleons that adapt to our clients’ tastes AND hold up universal creative standards in the process.
Design with Heart
Amber Zaricor
Owner + Creative Director at Copperheart Creative
Five ways to thoughtfully humanize your creative process with Amber Zaricor, Owner & Creative Director of Copperheart Creative from Nashville, Tennessee.
Enabling Your Internal Teams
Hillary Burson
Brand Designer & Illustrator at Tropic
In-house designers spend a ton of time working with their marketing and product teams and could miss the potential of empowering our less design-based teams. We’ll walk through a few ways to encourage internal teams to get creative and build trust with design while bridging your employer brand across the company.
Here's what's keeping you from success
Lyndi Stücky
Art Director & Photographer at Lyndi Ruth Photography
Are you standing in your own way of succeeding? Do you know the blindsides of your business? Understanding what’s holding you back is the key to unlocking your full potential of a successful career.
How to make a logo: Theory, practical & implementation
Kwaku Amprako
Logo Specialist& Brand Designer at Amprako®
After several years of figuring out how to make a logo, I’ve formulated a process that any one can learn and understand. A process that includes teachings and approvals from one of the worlds best logo designers, Ivan Chermayeff. The logo process is broken down into 3 steps theory, practical and implementation.
Iterating Your Way to Success
Geoff Schultz
UX Researcher/Designer at Elevation Church
As creatives, we often want to design in the dark, then dramatically reveal our masterpiece to the world in order to receive validation for all of the time, effort, and skill we poured into our work. But, more often than not, reality strikes with countless rounds of revisions, vague feedback, and soul-sucking demands that result in a Frankensteined version of concepts 1, 2, AND 3 all blended together. But, what if rather than fighting the feedback, we figured out how to use it as our greatest weapon. In this talk, you’ll learn how to consider the needs of your users and properly include the opinions of the stakeholders throughout your creative process.
Oops, we started a design agency!
Natalie Armendariz
Partner & Design Director at Funsize
When my partner (and husband) and I set out to work for ourselves, we didn’t anticipate the journey that lied ahead. After more than 10 years of running Funsize, we’ve amassed a portfolio with some of the world’s biggest names—Volvo, Oura, Dell, Adobe, Intuit, Electronic Arts, Toyota to name a few—and a badass team of designers at the helm. I’ll share the lessons we’ve learned throughout the years and some of the things we think it takes to run a successful agency.
Value of Relationships
Grizzly Wheeler
Owner at Grizzly Wheeler Print Shop
I’ll be talking about my journey of building a successful business and how crucial the relationships we’ve built over time were essential to its architecture.
The
Classes
Workshops are on WEDNESDAY, September 6, 2023
Knowing the basics is not enough for you — you’re serious about making your ideas move like lightning and you want to soak in all the knowledge you can get. Perfect! The workshops were created just for you. At the Circles Workshops you’ll be able to get your hands dirty, go a little deeper, and get answers to your questions floating around in your head. You’ll walk away with practical knowledge and action steps in order to use your words to make some big waves in our world.
Classes start at $97/class & are 1.5 hrs long.
Track II starts at $197
Track 1
Workshop 01
How to improve your photography with any camera
Lyndi Stücky
Art Director & Photographer at Lyndi Ruth Photography
Do you struggle to improve your photography? Do you take a photo and wonder how you could make it better? Let’s walk through everything from food photography, layflats, portraits, coloring in editing and camera settings. You’ll walk away more confident in your shooting abilities!
TIME: 8:30 AM
LENGTH: 1.5 HRS
COST: $97
Workshop 02
Checking Your Frames
Nick Agimudie
Director of Client Relations at Yellowbox
Leading Question: How can you help master the art of perspective and continue to produce excellent creative along the way?
Join us as we unpack how to gain greater perspective physically (in your craft), emotionally (within you) along your journey as a creative.
Synopsis:
Because our focus can be driven by what we produce, it can become difficult to stop and take stock of how and why we are producing. In the midst of all that we produce, we are becoming something. Are we content with who we are becoming?
In this workshop, we will talk about the greatest creative commodity on the planet – humans. And how to approach creativity through in light of our humanity.
TIME: 10:30 AM
LENGTH: 1.5 HRS
COST: $97
Workshop 03
Bring on the Browser: How To Step Up Your Web Design
Jon Chapman
Owner at Brokenstraw Design Co
This workshop serves as an exploration on the process of evolving and planning your work to thrive on the web. The workshop will include tips on organization, modern layout application and development considerations. Let’s get Digital!
TIME: 1:30 PM
LENGTH: 1.5 HRS
COST: $97
Workshop 04
Building a Culture of Creative Collaboration
Geoff Schultz
UX Researcher/Designer at Elevation Church
Egos, opinions, assumptions, biases, and office politics. They all proudly present themselves on our quest to collaborate with other creatives, clients & other various stakeholders. We have one of two choices. Either we join in the bloodbath to fight for what we believe or we cower into our shells, hoping to make it through another project unscathed. Or, might there be a third option? During this workshop, I’ll equip you with some practical tools that will help you begin building a culture of creative collaboration within your team.
TIME: 3:30 PM
LENGTH: 1.5 HRS
COST: $97
Track 2
Workshop 01
Boom! Bam! Brush! Adobe Illustrator Workshop
Jeremy Slagle
Designer & Illustrator at Slagle Design
An interactive workshop for Illustrators, Letterers, and Designers who want to add truly unique style to their work in Adobe Illustrator.
Our Custom Illustrator Brush Workshop is an in-person, hand’s-on class where you learn how to make unique, one-of-a-kind, hand-created textures and turn them into custom brushes. We also explore the many ways to use them in your work.
The content is drawn from what I learned while illustrating the children’s book Chin Up, Chinchilla. While there a million Photoshop brush workshops, I sought to create a unique style within the vector-based Adobe illustrator platform while still achieving a hand-drawn, analog style.
This three-hour presentation covers:
- Getting our hands dirty! We supply paint, brushes and some unexpected drawing tools.
- Ways to import your hand-made brushes. No laptop is required but you’re welcome to bring one and work alongside us.
- How to take those digital assets and create various types of brushes in Adobe Illustrator.
- How to use and integrate brushes in your work to create linework, texture and transparency.
- Downloadable step-by-step reference guide that walks you through the process – so you can spend more time making, and less time taking notes
- Downloadable demonstration files to pick apart and practice on
TIME: 8:30 AM
LENGTH: 3 HRS
COST: $197
Workshop 02
A Designer's Guide to Brand Strategy and Identity
Paul Sirmon
Founder at Buzzbomb Creative
This workshop is a comprehensive guide for designers who want to learn about brand strategy and create a strong brand identity for their clients. It covers the fundamentals of brand strategy, including identifying brand values, mission, and target audience, conducting market research, creating brand personas, and developing a brand positioning statement. Participants will also learn how to create a brand identity system that includes a logo, typography, color palette, and other visual elements. The workshop includes case studies, examples, and exercises to help participants apply what they learn to their own work. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the knowledge and tools they need to create effective brand strategies and identities for their clients.
TIME: 1:30 PM
LENGTH: 3 HRS
COST: $197
The Experience
Secure your pass for two days of inspirational speakers, opportunities for creative connection, and a front-row seat to rediscovering the wonder of design.
WORKSHOPS REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
AND ARE SOLD SEPARATELY.
$497
12
Speakers
6
Workshops
3
Parties
1
Activities
Past
Speakers
Hear from our past speakers to see what makes Circles Conference an inspirational powerhouse.
The
Schedule
8:00 am
Registration & Coffee
8:30 am
Workshop 01
Lyndi Stücky
Topic: How to improve your photography with any camera
Jeremy Slagle
Topic: Boom! Bam! Brush! Adobe Illustrator Workshop
10:30 am
Workshop 02
Nick Agimudie
Topic: Checking Your Frames
12:00 PM
Lunch
1:30 pm
Workshop 03
Jon Chapman
Topic: Bring on the Browser: How To Step Up Your Web Design
Paul Sirmon
Topic: A Designer's Guide to Brand Strategy and Identity
3:30 pm
Workshop 04
Geoff Schultz
Topic: Building a Culture of Creative Collaboration
7:00 PM
Kickoff Party Location Coming Soon
8:00 am
Coffee & Connect
9:00 am
Day 2 Kickoff
9:15 am
Session 1
10:15 am
Session 2
10:55 am
30 Minute Break
11:25 am
Session 3
12:05 pm
Lunch (2 hours)
12:30 pm
Yoga in the Square
2:15 pm
Session 4
3:15 pm
Session 5
3:55 pm
30 Minute Break
4:25 pm
Session 6
7:00 pm
Goodbye Party
2019 Recap
Sponsors
Gain valuable exposure for your brand and help us ensure the success of our 9th Annual Conference by becoming a sponsor or exhibitor!
Want to build valuable connections with creatives from around the world? Become a sponsor for the 9th Annual Conference and join us in September 2022.
About
Circles Conference is a three-day creative design conference by Circles Co., bringing together designers and makers from around the globe. Learning from transformative thinkers and connecting with like-minded innovators, Circles provides a space where you’ll be challenged to push yourself in the creative process while drawing inspiration from those thriving in the industry.
During this conference, you’ll be empowered with resources and action-driven knowledge to help you pursue excellence in your craft. At the end of the experience, you’ll leave with a fresh spark of passion filled to the brim with revolutionary ideas and a community of Circle Makers ready to take on the world with you.
