Like most, Matt Dawson marvels at time’s passing. He calls it “crazy” that he’s approaching a decade as a design professional. He and his wife, Ariadne, run a graphic design company called Studio Gray that handles anything and everything for print. In the fall, Dawson spoke at a corporate creative retreat for Lamar Advertising, a former employer, and the experience planted a seed.
“Just the camaraderie and everything that those couple of days had just sparked something in me,” Dawson says. “I thought, ‘This is great for this company, but it would be even greater for Baton Rouge as a whole to have a resource like this.’”
At first he wasn’t sure his idea of a graphic design conference in the Capital City wouldn’t fall into the same “crazy” category.
The speaking engagement at Lamar was in October 2014, and I just sat on it and didn’t say anything about it for a little while. I finally brought it up to my wife—who’s usually a good barometer for whether or not an idea is good or worth pursuing—about a year ago last December, and about 30 seconds into my pitch she was like, ‘Yeah we should really do this. This sounds fantastic!’”
This is the first full conference Dawson has organized, so he is relying on his volunteer efforts planning Mardi Gras balls for the past 10 years and his experience as a conference speaker to develop the event.
He immediately started putting everything together, reaching out to secure talented speakers and ensuring that there would be a big lineup. He wanted to have everything done before making any announcement so that he could convey exactly what was happening.
CROP began taking shape. The term was tossed around along with others, but Dawson kept coming back to it. “It’s a design tool. Whenever you crop something, you’re basically filtering out the best aspect of it, whether it’s a photograph or a pull quote from something. You’re cropping it down to the best composition,” he explains. “The fact that we’re bringing a core group of people together fit, and the name just clicked.”
The conference originally was announced in May when Dawson spoke at the American Advertising Federation of Baton Rouge luncheon, and he said the response was overwhelmingly positive. What started out as a single day of speakers grew into a two-day event as interest grew.
INSPIRING AN INDUSTRY
AAF President Becky Sadler of Emprint/Moran Printing says CROP will provide a valuable networking opportunity for the region’s creative community.
“We bring everyone together to share ideas and engage with experts in the field,” Sadler says of AAF, whose members represent all aspects of the business, including public relations, marketing, digital media and graphic design professionals. “Having a conference within any aspect of our industry would only bring more of these opportunities.”
Locally, Dawson says he has witnessed a monumental increase in interest in graphic design; he’s convinced there’s substantial talent in the area to be developed.
“There are 16- and 17-year-old kids who know what they want to do right away, and they’re designing circles around other people,” he says. “It’s really great to see such a passion and interest in the discipline itself. But there’s no other pride like Louisiana pride. My wife and I both graduated from LSU, and we wanted to provide a resource for designers in Louisiana and the surrounding areas as well.”
Richard Doubleday, an assistant professor of graphic design at the LSU School of Art, says CROP will expose graphic design students to a side of the industry to which they previously had limited access.
“In the graphic design department we have a very active internship program, and many of our students are working throughout the campus and regionally, especially in Baton Rouge and New Orleans,” he says.
“For our students who are hopefully attending CROP ’16, they will be immersed in a professional culture that is almost impossible to replicate here at LSU, recruiting them to stay in Baton Rouge and showcasing Louisiana’s creative community as they network with professionals.”
The mission of the event is to provide an opportunity to share a couple days of community with people that are in the same field. “Design is kind of broad as far as how many different paths you can go with it,” Dawson explains. “At the same time, we want everyone to just come together to be inspired and meet people and then come away recharged, refreshed, and looking forward to CROP 2017.”
And how many are expected to come? Ticket sales have been brisk so far, and the committee hasn’t even begun its big push. Right now it anticipates about 175 people will attend, but it’s leaving the early bird pricing in place to try to allow for as many people as possible at an affordable price point. A two-day VIP pass for all events is limited to 100.
The first day’s workshops, slated for April 14 at Creative Bloc, are designed to be interactive. Winston Scully, a presenter who will do a hand-lettering session, sees infinite value in a small conference. “The people who are speaking or doing workshops are 100 percent approachable. So it’s giving people who may see a career in design access to people who can seriously engage with them on whatever topic they want to know about,” he says.
The keynote speaker for April 15 at the Manship Theatre is arguably the biggest designer in America right now. Every time Aaron Draplin goes anywhere, it is a massive event.
Another of that day’s speakers is Jennifer Hood of Hoodzpa Design Co. in California. She sees the greatest value in the personal interactions that can take place at the conference. Says Hood, “Everything is virtual now; we hardly ever meet people in person anymore. So this is a great opportunity to have that community that otherwise wouldn’t be there.”
She sees that Dawson has identified that void and is filling it. “Some of my very favorite conferences have been in smaller towns where it’s a little bit more intimate. It’s almost like you are at summer camp. You are kind of thrown together and you get to have a couple of close days together. It is really fun.”
All of the events will take place downtown, and organizers note that the conference will be good for local restaurants, bars and venues with the solid group of the core demographic centered in the area.
“Anytime I’ve ever gone to one of these types of events, I’ve always come away completely fired up. I just feel recharged,” Dawson says. “So we are very proud to bring the talent to Baton Rouge to hopefully make others feel the same.”
The schedule and a link to buy tickets can be found at crop.la.
The CROP lineup
Aaron Draplin
Portland, Oregon
(Photo by Leah Nash) Aaron Draplin is one of the biggest designers in North America. His Draplin Design Co. has done work for Nike, Wired magazine, Target, Burton Snowboards, John Hughes, Patagonia and even the Sasquatch Festival. He stays consistently booked with worldwide speaking gigs, calling his road show “Tall Tales from a Large Man.”
Brian Steely
Atlanta, Georgia
Designer Brian Steely is known for his unique line logos that use a simple line structure and a minimal color palette. His designs are on the merchandise tables of some notable bands in the music industry: Mumford & Sons, The Decemberists, Deathcab for Cutie and Phish.
Amy & Jennifer Hood
Newport Beach, California
The twins own and run Hoodzpah Design. By way of Kentucky, the duo and its team have worked with Google, Hot Wheels, the Tribeca Film Festival, the History Channel and Stella Artois. Although neither has a design degree, they teach a course at Laguna College of Art & Design and have penned A Hoodrat’s Guide to Starting A Design Business.
Mike Jones
Columbus, Georgia
Mike Jones is a designer, creative director, business owner and conference promoter in a place where he admits “it really does get that hot … folks really do say y’all … and college football is taken seriously.” In addition to running Serve Studios, Jones is also the founder of the popular design conference Creative South.
Ashlee Jones
New Orleans
Ashlee Arceneaux Jones is a Louisiana native, LSU grad and phenomenal hand letterer. She has a unique style that graces print materials, wedding invitations, menus, chalkboards and more all over the U.S. Smallchalk, her lettering, illustration and sign-making business, has taken on clients such as ESPN, M&M’s, Acura, Whole Foods and the motion picture Bone in the Throat.
Jason Craig
Augusta, Georgia
Jason Craig, originally from Chicago, has had quite a career in graphic design. His work has been in Print and HOW magazines and in Times Square. Although he didn’t do well in art class and couldn’t color in the lines, today he’s a multitalented artist specializing in illustration, lettering and design. He’s currently trying to stay in the top five of the Dribbble contest, where designers share screenshots of their work, process and projects.
