Speakers

Jeffrey Becker

President

Clients First, Inc.


 
Jeff Becker is founder and President of Clients First Inc.,  a leading solutions provider incorporating digital solutions into personalized dimensional printing, packaging and promotional product campaigns. Jeff is founder of Promohoot.com a recently launched Deal-a-Day website featuring custom branded promotional products at deep discounts with super fast delivery. 

 
 

Julie Beeler

Co-Founder, Managing Director

Second Story

Julie Beeler is co-founder and managing director of Second Story, a distinguished creator of informative and entertaining interactive experiences, including media-rich storytelling presentations and interpretive installations. With a background in visual design, art history, and the liberal arts, Julie leads the studio in shaping unique, innovative, interactive experiences that peak curiosity, spur discovery, and inspire audiences. Julie has defined and sustained an approach to interactive media design that focuses on reaching diverse audiences while pushing the limits of technological innovation. From concept through completion, Julie interacts with various industry disciplines, guiding the studio to realize holistic approaches to successful projects.


Christopher Butler

Conference Advisory Council Member

Vice President

Newfangled

Christopher Butler is Vice President of Newfangled, a web development firm on the cutting edge of modern digital marketing and technology. He has written articles on the current and future state of the web for Newfangled, Smashing Magazine and Print, and is the author of the forthcoming book, Thinking Before Doing: A Designer's Guide to Web Strategy. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Christopher has remained an active design educator, returning to RISD as a visiting critic and Adjunct Faculty, as well as serving as juror of the 2011 REBRAND 100 Awards and Advisory Board member of the HOW Interactive Design Conference.

Jose Caballer

Chief Visionary and CCO

The Groop

Jose Caballer is Chief Visionary and CCO at The Groop, A Digital Agency that was listed in the Inc. 500: The Top Latino and Hispanic-Run Companies. He is the host of the weekly online show This Week in Web Design, a board member of AIGA LA, visiting lecturer at UCLA, and professor or Web Projects at Art Center College of Design. His clients have included Thomas Keller - The French Laundry, Jamie Oliver, Nokia, Disney, MySpace, CitySearch, Savings, Scripps Networks, Bank of America, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Opportunity Green, UCLA and more.


Ian Clazie

Group Creative Director

MRM San Francisco

Ian has been creating experiences for digital marketing, broadcast entertainment, telecommunications and Internet startups since the mid-1990s. In the late-2000s, he managed the creative department of Razorfish Australia, where he directed digital creative for Xbox, Pepsi, P&O Cruises, Microsoft, Unilever, Tourism New Zealand, Yellow Tail Wine and more.

Now back in his home state of California, Ian is Group Creative Director at MRM San Francisco, part of the McCann Worldgroup.

Ian is also author of the book Creating Your Digital Portfolio, a comprehensive guide to help creative professionals build and present digital portfolios that work. Learn more at clazie.com/digitalportfolios.

Chris Converse

Partner
Codify Design Studio

Chris has more that 15 years experience in graphic design and interactive media, with a unique focus on both design and development. Chris possesses development skills across such languages as PHP, ActionScript, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, making his design execution optimal across various media. In addition to design and development, Chris is a featured speaker at various industry-related conferences, including the How Conferences, AIGA, and the Adobe MAX conference. Chris has also written, designed and hosted two video series entitled, "Bring Your Web Design To Life" and "Creating Interactive Documents," now available on Borders.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com. In addition, Chris has completed an interactive version of his second book for iPad, now available on iTunes.

Steve Fisher

Steve is an internationally renowned interactive designer, speaker and open source evangelist. He has done work for companies all over North America and travels the world talking about design, user experience and open source. Currently Steve is working as the UX Director for Yellow Pencil , serves as the national vice president of web for the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada and can be found hanging out with some of the core teams contributing to open source projects like Drupal.  Steve likes running, fancy shirts and twitter. Find him at www.hellofisher.com or on Twitter: @hellofisher

Bridgid McCarren

Senior Art Director

HOW Magazine

In addition to designing HOW magazine, directing photography and illustration and developing the brand across multiple platforms, such as HOW’s websites, competitions and conferences, Bridgid is thrilled to be the program chair for HOW Interactive Design Conference. When unplugged, Bridgid is always on the move, whether traveling, volunteering, or exercising her title as the staff running-addict. It’s no wonder that the way type can inspire motion and emotion is a driving force behind her passion for design.

Karen McGrane

Managing Partner

Bond Art + Science

For more than 15 years Karen has helped create more usable digital products through the power of user experience design and content strategy. Today, as Managing Partner at Bond Art + Science, she develops web strategies and interaction designs for publishers, financial services firms, and healthcare companies. Prior to starting Bond, Karen built the user-centered design practice at Razorfish in her role as VP and National Lead for User Experience. Karen is also on the faculty of the MFA in Interaction Design program at SVA in New York, where she teaches Design Management, which aims to teach students how to run successful projects, teams, and businesses.

Patrick McNeil

Conference Advisory Council Member

Creator

Design Meltdown LLC

Patrick McNeil is a freelance writer, developer and designer. In particular, he loves to write about web design and train people on web development. Patrick's latest book project is The Designer's Web Handbook; it is focused on helping designers fully engage the web. You can learn more on TheWebDesignersIdeaBook.com, where you can also find his first two books. Patrick has been building sites for over ten years and has worked with a wide range of clients from mom and pop shops to international corporations. His focus is typically on front end development with CSS and JavaScript, but he also has a long history of backend programming. His passion for design has allowed him to speak at the FOWD and HOW conferences, as well as to write for .Net magazine for over 5 years straight.

Cameron Moll

Conference Advisory Council Member

Founder and Principal

Cameron Moll LLC and Authentic Jobs Inc.

Cameron Moll is a designer, speaker, author and the founder of Authentic Jobs, a targeted destination for web and creative professionals, and the companies seeking to hire them. He's also the artist behind a unique series of letterpress type posters that re-imagine buildings as if constructed entirely of type. He's the co-author of CSS Mastery, a best-selling title now in its second edition. His work or advice has been featured by Forrester Research, Communication Arts magazine, HOW magazine, Print magazine, National Public Radio (NPR), and many others.

Mark O'Brien

Conference Advisory Council Member

President

Newfangled

Mark O'Brien is president of Newfangled, a web development company that has been helping marketing firms plan and build websites for their clients since 1995. Mark speaks regularly on marketing, and his first book, A Website That Works: How Marketing Agencies Can Create Business Generating Websites, will be released in June 2011. Check out Mark's Web Development Business Management Blog at http://www.newfangled.com/mark_o_brien_blog

Matthew Richmond

Conference Advisory Council Member

Founding Partner, Executive Creative Director and Developer

Chopping Block, Inc.


Matthew is considered a Founding Partner, Executive Creative Director and Developer at The Chopping Block, Inc., a full-service graphic design studio founded on the principle that good design spans all mediums.  He graduated from The Cooper Union School of Art in 1998, where he additionally studied two years of Architecture. Matthew's professional experience includes several notable design internships within New York, a design internship with Microsoft in Washington state, and a photographic internship with Richard Avedon. His work has won notable recognition from Communication Arts, ID Magazine, HOW Magazine and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum's Triennial Exhibition. Notable projects include work for Adobe, Scholastic, MoMA, NBC, They Might be Giants, Phish, Time Inc., and Turner Entertainment.

For the past fifteen years, Matthew has presented and instructed on all aspects of digital and analog design, photography and illustration. When not in the studio, Matthew can be found teaching digital illustration, branding, identity and advanced techniques to the graduate students at the School of Visual Arts.

David Sherwin

Conference Advisory Council Member

Principal Designer

Frog

David Sherwin is a Principal Designer at frog design, a global innovation firm, where he helps to guide the research, strategy, and design of novel products and services for some of today's leading companies. His clients have included AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Holland America Line, Onyx, Microsoft, Toshiba, and many others. David's first book is Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills, out now from HOW Design Press. His second book, Design Business from A to Z, is forthcoming in 2012. He is an active speaker and teacher, and has taught workshops on brainstorming and creativity around the country. His writing has appeared in A List Apart, Design Mind, PSFK.com, and other periodicals. Check out David's blog ChangeOrder: Business + Process of Design at http://changeorderblog.com.

Ilene Strizver

Founder

The Type Studio

Ilene Strizver, founder of The Type Studio, is a noted typographic educator, consultant, designer and writer. She specializes in all aspects of visual communication, from the aesthetic to the technical. Ilene has written and lectured extensively on type and typographic design to both students and professionals in the field. Ilene formerly was the Director of Typeface Development for International Typeface Corporation (ITC) where she developed more than 300 text and display typefaces. Her clients include International Typeface Corporation (ITC), Monotype Imaging Corporation, Adobe, Linotype, Time Inc., Whole Foods, Harlequin Books, Somerset Entertainment, Integrated Marketing, Parents Magazine, MeadWestvaco, Nationwide Insurance, Life is good, and Johnson & Johnson.