Graphex 2008 launches with a bang.
November 30th, 2007 saw a festive start to Graphex 2008 with catered food, drinks and mingling with some of the BC design community’s best and brightest at the Graphex Judges Evening hosted by GDC/BC at UBC Robson Square. And the festive atmosphere continued through the center-piece of the Judges Evening: The individual presentations from each of the judges and the opportunity for the assembled audience to pose questions from the floor.
Some stirring remarks by GDC/BC President Mark Busse and a special message from National VP of Communications Rod Roodenburg marked the beginning of the presentations and each of the judges in turn gave their insightful, informed sometimes humorous and always heart-felt perspective on the power of design, delivering what will almost certainly be looked-back upon as one of the richest evenings of design discourse to occur in Vancouver this year.
Many themes were explored including the power of design to change preconceptions, the dilemmas of ‘green’ branding, and the validity of the concept of authenticity but all of the judges in their own way made the case for the power of design to stir the emotions and the use of design to create memorable emotional experiences.
Among many memorable moments provided by judges during the event itself, Sam Carter called for the creation of a Canadian national design archive, and GDC/BC’s very own Marian Bantjes made a powerful and compelling case for the designer-as-artist.
In addition, Jamie Koval offered some timely insights on the near impossibility of creating Olympic branding that will be well-received based upon VSA’s experiences with Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games, and Michael Jager’s inspirational presentation (including a live piano accompaniment) ended with a slide of an original poster he designed to commemorate Graphex 2008. The original poster is six feet high and will be on display just as soon as GDC can find a wall big enough for it!
A common problem with events of this kind is that the subjects discussed can often wander into esoteric areas far removed from the everyday experience of designers, however in this case the depth of experience and the credibility of the judges as participants in the real world of design for high-profile clients as well their abilities as leading design thinkers consistently came to the fore and kept any lofty ideas firmly tethered to down-to-earth design practice: an intellectual double-whammy that helped to keep the audience in their seats despite the fact that some of the judges were allowed to over-run their alloted speaking time extravagantly resulting in an evening that was far longer than anticipated. Indeed, it could be said that some judges used all 45 of their alloted 10 minutes!
The GDC/BC executive has acknowledged that time-keeping during these kinds of events ought to be impeccable and that allowing the Judges Evening to run over the scheduled time created difficulties for some audience members. Given the infrequency of international design events in BC, the judges were given latitude in this respect. I for one was only too happy to enjoy the embarrassment of riches that the judges and the organizers of Graphex brought to the event.
Of course the judges evening was only the start of an arduous weekend of judging the hundreds of entries from designers across Canada, a weekend that also included a video-taped interview with the judges, highlights of which will be featured along with the completed catalogue of winning entries at the Gala Awards Dinner and Ceremony at the prestigious Vancouver Club on March 28, 2008. Ze Frank has been confirmed to be the MC for the evening, so it should prove to be yet another very entertaining and thought-provoking night out.
The entire weekend was documented beautifully by Robert Earnest and Phil Chin. The photos of the Friday Night Judges Presentation, Weekend Judging Process, Judges Dinner and the swanky limo rides are available on the GDC Flickr account as well as some of the judges documentation of their time in Vancouver.
For another perspective on the evening, TAXI Design Network covered the event with this review.
For more information about Graphex, the date and location of the various Graphex events and a full list of the judges along with their bio information go to: www.gdc.net/graphex/
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Great review Jason, I’m glad it all worked out so well.
I felt pretty bad for how long things went, but loved the assessment given to me by one of our members in the audience that night:
“If I order one bottle of fine Champagne and the waiter brings me two, I’ll gladly drink the free second bottle—even if it means a hangover the next morning.”
Brilliant.