2011 Cusp Conference Wrap Up
It’s not easy getting a CPS student out of bed before noon during school break. Let alone 11 of us, 2 days in a row.
What’ll turn night owls in to early birds? Volunteering at the 2011 Cusp Conference.
September 28 and 29 found several of us at the Museum of Contemporary Art registering attendees, guarding doorways, arranging and rearranging signage, or asking each other to repeat what someone just said so we could tweet nuggets of inspiration.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of attending or even hearing about Cusp, that may be due in part to the topic of this conference. It’s nearly indefinable. Even after experiencing it, I struggle with calling it a discussion on the “design of everything.” What I do know is that it’s put together each year by local design firm smbolic. They call it: “part design project and part science experiment.” Essentially, smbolic finds twenty-some people who’ve turned a good idea in to a great project to present their work to a room full of about 300 curious minds.
I walked in to the conference with a list of must-see presenters. Among them were Adam Sadowsky, President and CEO of Syyn Labs; Erik Proulx, former adman and current filmmaker; and Baratunde Thurston, a writer and comedian; to put it boringly. In truth, all of the presenters have as complicated a bio as Cusp does, and I was surprised, provoked and energized by each person I heard.
While each presenter had his or her own way of exhibiting, many touched on a common theme; process matters. Whether it was Yves Béhar’s use of design to encourage positive social change or Christopher Simmons’s extraordinary look at his favorite bottle opener, most presenters stated in one way or another that success is no accident.
What I was reminded of by Cusp, and what I hope sticks with me as this quarter begins, is to not just see the end result. It’s true that CPS is a one year program – of which I am now halfway through! – and I’m here to produce the best portfolio possible. But I’m also here to experiment, ask questions, make connections and, whether I like it or not, make mistakes.
So thank you to Cusp for helping me recognize that being willing to fail can be just as respectable as being successful. And the truer I am to the process, the more likely I am to do something great.
written by Courtney McCormack