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At Circles Conference, we understand the vital role that creative processes, storytelling, teamwork, and client relationships play in the world of design. Our carefully curated sessions dive deep into these essential aspects of the creative journey. Explore innovative approaches to creative processes that will enhance your workflow and boost your productivity. Uncover the secrets of compelling storytelling techniques that captivate audiences and create lasting impact. Learn effective strategies for collaborating with teams, fostering innovation, and leveraging diverse perspectives. Discover valuable insights into building successful brands and mastering the art of illustration. Lastly, gain practical knowledge on working with clients, refining communication skills, and delivering exceptional results. By engaging with these topics, you’ll acquire the tools and inspiration needed to thrive in your creative endeavors.
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.
Behind the Scenes
Andrea Trew
Brand Designer at Trew Creative
Chasing Dreams, Not Dollars: The Power of Letting Conviction Lead Your Career
Allan Peters
Partner at Peters Design Co
People make fear driven decisions based off money all the time. They stay stuck in a dead end job. They hold back a great idea because they’re worried what their boss will think. They don’t chase dreams because they don’t think they’re good enough. A near death experience in Allan’s life taught him to not let fear be his master. Let Allan inspire you with his story and real world examples of letting conviction lead your career.
Creative Perspective Takes Practice
Charlie Howlett
VP, Creative Director at Schaefer Advertising Co.
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.
Finding Yourself Over and Over Again
Jessica Hische
Illustrator, Letterer & Author
Get Out of Your Own Way
Brad Woodard
Illustrator, Designer & Owner at Brave the Woods
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.
Pretty Much Everything: The Whole Story Behind Our Book
Aaron Draplin
Founder at Draplin Design Co
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.