HOW Design Live
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| HOW Design Live | |
|---|---|
| Name | HOW Design Live |
| Type | Conference |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founders | Maureen Carvalho |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Location | United States |
| Industry | Design |
HOW Design Live HOW Design Live is an annual professional conference and trade event for graphic designers, creative directors, brand strategists, typographers, art directors, and studio owners. The event combines keynote presentations, workshops, portfolio reviews, exhibitions, and competitions to address practical workflows, creative direction, business strategy, and technology trends. Attendees typically include professionals from agencies, in-house creative teams, educational institutions, and independent studios seeking applied skills, networking, and exposure to tools and suppliers.
Overview
HOW Design Live convenes practitioners from fields represented by Adobe Systems, Pantone, AIGA, American Institute of Graphic Arts, Society of Typographic Arts, Cooper Union, Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design, and Savannah College of Art and Design. Programming has featured relationships with vendors and organizations such as Apple Inc., Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Etsy, Dropbox, Squarespace, InVision, Sketch (software), Figma, Canva, and Wacom. Sponsors and exhibitors often include printers and production houses like Moo.com, FedEx Office, Vistaprint, Xerox, and HP Inc., alongside type foundries and agencies such as Monotype Imaging, House Industries, Pentagram, IDEO, Frog Design, Landor Associates, Wolff Olins, Sagmeister & Walsh, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, and MetaDesign.
History
Early editions were shaped by industry voices from institutions including New York University, University of the Arts London, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Over time the event intersected with broader cultural and commercial milestones involving SXSW, Adobe MAX, AIGA Design Conference, TypeCon, HOW National Design Conference (historical context), The One Club for Creativity, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, D&AD, and Clio Awards circuits. Speakers and contributors have included figures affiliated with The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired (magazine), Fast Company, Creative Review, and Communication Arts.
Conference Format and Programming
Typical program elements mirror structures seen at TED Conference, South by Southwest, Web Summit, Collision (conference), and MozCon: multi-track sessions, hands-on labs, portfolio clinics, and trade exhibitions. Technical tracks reference software and platforms tied to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Sketch (software), Figma, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, React (JavaScript library), Node.js, and Git. Sessions often explore design systems used by IBM, Shopify, Salesforce, Airbnb, and Spotify, and address workflow integrations with Slack, Atlassian, Trello, Asana, and Jira. Educational partnerships have included LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, and General Assembly.
Notable Speakers and Keynotes
Keynote rosters have included practitioners and thought leaders tied to agencies and publications such as Paula Scher (associated with Pentagram), Michael Bierut (Pentagram), Debbie Millman (Design Matters), Chris Do (The Futur), Aaron Draplin (Draplin Design Company), Jessica Walsh (Sagmeister & Walsh), Stefan Sagmeister (Sagmeister & Walsh), Ellen Lupton (Cooper Union), Christoph Niemann (The New Yorker), David Carson (Ray Gun), Massimo Vignelli (Vignelli Associates), Milton Glaser (New York Magazine), Jonathan Ive (Apple Inc.), Peter Saville (Factory Records), Naoto Fukasawa (Muji), Paula Scher—representing varied intersections with Wolff Olins, IDEO, Frog Design, Pentagram, and editorial outlets like The Atlantic, The New Republic, and Bloomberg Businessweek.
Awards and Competitions
The conference historically hosted juried competitions and showcases similar in profile to AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers, Communication Arts Design Annual, Print Magazine Regional Design Annual, One Show, D&AD Awards, and Cannes Lions. Entrants often include studios that have worked with brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Starbucks, McDonald's, Target Corporation, IKEA, Toyota, BMW, and Samsung. Award categories have highlighted branding, packaging, print, digital, typography, and motion work, with jurors drawn from Pentagram, Landor Associates, MetaDesign, IDEO, Sagmeister & Walsh, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, and editorial panels from Communication Arts and Print (magazine).
Impact and Industry Reception
Coverage and critiques of the event have appeared in outlets such as Adweek, Ad Age, Fast Company, Wired (magazine), Creative Review, Design Observer, Dezeen, and ArchDaily. Industry reception often cites networking value comparable to SXSW, Adobe MAX, and Howest Summit engagements, and practical takeaways cited by attendees working at Ogden Publications, Reduced Media, Huge (agency), R/GA, AKQA, Droga5, McCann Worldgroup, BBDO, and Publicis Groupe. Academic observers from Rhode Island School of Design, Yale School of Art, Royal College of Art, School of Visual Arts, and California Institute of the Arts have evaluated its curricular alignment.
Attendance and Logistics
Venues and logistic partners have included conference centers and hotels in cities such as Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and Atlanta, with audiovisual and staging vendors like Freeman (company), PSAV, and Live Nation. Registration tiers mirror models used by Eventbrite, Cvent, Ticketmaster, and Meetup (website), with sponsorship tables for companies such as Adobe Systems, Google, Apple Inc., Pantone, and Monotype Imaging. Travel and accommodation planning often references nearby transportation hubs including Logan International Airport, O'Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.