Announced Oct. 24, 2024 by Armin No Comments on 2024 Brand New Conference: Summary, Sights, and Videos
Here is this year’s breakdown of the 16 sessions of the 2024 Brand New Conference that took place this past October 10 – 11 in Salt Lake City, and which was awesome. (If you are looking at this in an RSS reader head on over to the real thing, too much heavy formatting). This is a very long post with a photo of each speaker, very brief summaries, and a preview of their video/session, so give it a good time to load. A few other things worth bullet-pointing:
- Videos for purchase are now available.
- Videos for the 2010 to 2017 Brand New Conferences are available for free; for the 2018 conference are now reduced to $4; and for the 2023 conference are now reduced to $8.
- A lot more photos from the event have been posted in this Flickr album.
- Registration is now open for the 2025 Brand New Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, on October 23 – 24.
- This year’s identity case study coming in a couple of weeks.
All event photos by Sofia Negron. (On the grid images below you can click to open a bigger version.)
Day 1: Registration
Day 1: Opening Remarks
Day 1: About the Identity
As has been the case the previous two years we ran out of time to go through everything. (Our fault — we usually simply don’t have time to rehearse and time things but we’ve made a promise to ourselves to nail it next year.)
Day 1: Early Morning Speakers
Max Ottignon / Ragged Edge
An optimistic view on how branding — specifically branding that dares to be different — presents a big opportunity for designers to help combat the onslaught of blanding, the threat of AI, and the oppressiveness of the algorithm as explained through three principles backed up by three Ragged Edge case studies.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Duy Nguyen & Lan Mai / M — N Associates
A proud display of this duo’s roots in Vietnam — which serves as their own design playground to reflect its culture — as they share a handful of “firsts”, from their first time being featured on Brand New all the way to designing their first identity for a Vietnamese, unicorn-status company, all as they celebrate their 10 years in the business.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 1: Morning Break
Day 1: Late Morning Speakers
Dhiya Choudary / Independent
A collection of five lessons learned in their still-young journey that has taken them from India to the United States; from learning as many disciplines as possible to embracing change; and from working at various agencies to working in-house to now being independent and figuring out where to apply their colorful, vibrant approach to next.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Vanessa Eckstein / blok design
A barrage of both inspiring and challenging insights from this seasoned designer who has practiced in multiple countries and has continuously blended art, culture, society, and humanity into her work with beliefs like idealism being a preconception, chaos as a way of thinking, and uncertainty being intrinsic to the process of design.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 1: Lunch Break
Day 1: Early Afternoon Speakers
Eleazar Ruiz / Odd Notion
An engaging tale of finding a purpose in this industry by creating a business that forced him to show up for his community everyday with the values he had forged since his days growing up in the Dominican Republic: embracing your difference, working hard while knowing when to siesta, caring deeply, and eliminating hurry.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 1: 15-minute Flings
Kevin Cantrell / Kevin Cantrell Studio
A stunning display of switching between minimalism and maximalism, systems and illustrations, and replicability and singularity as he shares three principles to finding the happy medium as well as the flexibility among them.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Mike Daines / Afton Klein Group
An entertaining case for embracing experimentation across process and output and how to bridge the gap between clients’ needs and a designer’s or design studio’s personal attitude, illustrated by a series of examples involving fast cars, tight deadlines, and improbable design solutions.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Beau Oyler / Enlisted Design
A glimpse at the growing opportunities of designing for the “Creator Economy” to build brands that people care about and have an emotional connection with by turning functional products into emotional products that create an authentic experience between creators and their fans.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 1: Afternoon Break
Day 1: Late Afternoon Speakers
Marisa Sanchez-Dunning / If Only Creative
A thoughtful reminder that not all careers start with a clear trajectory and that it’s never too late to self-correct as long as you have clear values of what you want to do, who you want to do it for, and why you want to do it in the first place — all, almost literally, to the tune of Miley Cyrus.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Liza Enebeis & Christopher Noort / Studio Dumbar/DEPT®
A masterclass in how motion design and sound can bring a brand to life as this dynamic (and hilarious) duo walk us through the breadth of their work that can span from quiet and subtle elegance to heart-thumping action and how much of it is fueled by unbound and constant experimentation with different tools and techniques.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 1: Summary
Day 2: Early-morning Vibes
Day 2: Brand New (the Blog) Summary
A look back at the most interesting stories from Brand New, the blog, in the last 12 months.
Day 2: Early Morning Speakers
Jordan & Jeremy Coon / Brethren Design Co
An amusing look at how these two brothers grew up together, found themselves apart early in their career, and then came back to each other to find creative freedom (as well as their own unique voice) as a team, working on breweries, restaurants, and board games while never forgetting that — fact — farts will never not be funny.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Andy Pearson / Liquid Death
A riotous take on embracing and nurturing worst practices to build a body of work by “entertaining the parts of us that are really, really stupid” as he shares Liquid Death’s wild marketing approach to take a stand against marketing that sucks, bottled water that pollutes, and the sameness of the retail landscape that numbs the mind.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 2: Morning Break
Day 2: Late Morning Speakers
Violaine Orsoni & Jérémy Schneider / Studio Violaine & Jérémy
An awe-inspiring display of craft as this duo walks us through their obsessive approach to designing that celebrates beauty, that encourages taking the time to finesse work, and that champions attention to detail over “the big idea” as evidenced in their work for the hospitality industry where their vision comes to life in real, physical objects.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Scott Na‘auao / Welcome Stranger
An impassioned tale of NOT following other people’s dreams (or ideas of an ideal career) and instead having the conviction to do what feels right at the time paired with some insightful lessons — seen and told through his lens as a practicing designer in Hawai‘i — on what it means to responsibly shape culture as designers.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 2: Early Afternoon Speaker
Robyn Kanner / Studio Mosaic
A heartfelt reminder that design — and pretty much every discipline out there — is human first, meaning we are always creating for real people with real stakes in this very real world as perfectly summed up in her contributions to high-profile political campaigns, shaped, in part, by an unexpected source: some fateful missed free throws in the 1995 NBA Finals.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 2: 15-minute Flings
Adrian Orozco / Adrian Orozco
A lively collection of seven mantras for design and life that include traits uncommon to creatives — like letting go, being patient, or not comparing yourself to others — culminating in an appeal to, simply, have more fun.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Kesia Nielsen / Braaand
An invitation to trust our intuition — just a little more — in guiding a brand’s story instead of relying solely on data, analytics, and ROI in favor of embracing your gut feelings, trusting your instincts, and tapping into your emotions.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 2: Afternoon Break
Day 2: Late Afternoon Speakers
Cat How / How&How
A trio of exciting case studies that exemplify How&How’s mission to “Liberate ideas the world deserves” as she shares how consistency and bravery by her team and their clients is key to building successful, memorable, and distinct brands all while avoiding the dreaded “Sharkhorse”.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Michael Benjamin / Studio Parkside
An unexpected and enthralling view of branding, of working with clients, and of developing a process through the world of academia by embracing his role as an adjunct professor that forced him to find a way to remove the mystery and ambiguity of what we do in order to figure out how to teach it.
↓ Video Preview
BUY VIDEO ↗
Day 2: Summary
Day 2: Closing Remarks
Day 2: After-party
Attendee Impressions
Hit refresh on your browser if they don’t show up at first. Most of the Instagram activity this year happened through Stories and we tried to capture as many as possible in two separate highlights — Day 1 / Day 2 / The That Blue Truck Experience— (but there is a limit of how many you can include).
BNConf 2025: Pittsburgh, PA
The 2025 Brand New Conference is scheduled for October 23 – 24 at Heinz Hall. Pre-sale tickets available now. See you there?
Comments