ABQ Design Summit | AIGA New Mexico

This year's Design Summit will consist of two days filled with speakers, lectures and workshops led by talented creatives. Our theme is "Multifaceted," and our goal is to highlight and connect members of the broad and diverse creative community we have in New Mexico, from staff designers to freelance illustrators, from commercial photographers to set designers, from advertising copywriters to web developers, and beyond. No matter where you are on the spectrum of commercial creative work, we invite you to join us for this year's Design Summit to learn, connect, and become inspired.

SCHEDULE

Friday, Sept. 14:
8:15 AM - 8:45 AM Check-In (Flying Star Coffee & Continental Breakfast)
9:00 AM - 9:50 AM Opening Keynote, Emily Lewis
10:00 AM - 11:50 AM Designing for Letterpress(W) / Adobe Workshop(W)
12:00 PM - 1:30PM Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:20 PM Copy by Design(L) / Color, Concepts & Process(W)
2:30 PM - 3:20 PM One Albuquerque(L) / Color, Concepts & Process(W)
3:30 PM - 4:20 PM Closing Keynote, Paul Ziomek
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM Closing
6:30 PM - whenever! After Party @ Bow & Arrow

Saturday, Sept. 15:
8:15 AM - 8:45 AM Check-In(Zendo Coffee & Chick-Fil-A)
9:00 AM - 9:50 AM Opening Keynote, Adam Greenhood
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM Skill Collecting(L) / Social Justice & Design(W)
11:00 AM - 11:50AM Fabrication(L) / Social Justice & Design(W)
12:00 PM - 1:30PM Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:20 PM Social Media Presence(L)/UX & UI Workshop(W)
2:30 PM - 3:20 PM Signage & Design(L)/UX& UI Workshop(W)
3:20 PM - 4:20 PM Closing Keynote, David Schwen
4:20 PM - 4:30 PM State of Designers 2025 Presentation

(For each Talk/Workshop block, attendees will be able to chose from either a talk or workshop given by local creatives.)
*W = Workshop | L = Lecture

SPEAKERS
Adam Greenhood - AdWallet
Emily Lewis - Bright Umbrella LLC
David Schwen - DSchwen
Brandi Sea Heft-Kniffin of BrandiSea
Lindsey Maestas - Sparrows + Lily
Brian Wood - Adobe
Tee Iseminger - Freelance Copywriter
Kenneth Kniffin - Sagebrush Church
Kelsi Sharp - Kelsi Sharp
Mark Childs - UNM School of Architecture and Planning
Michaele Pride - UNM School of Architecture and Planning
Brian Byers & Ashley Fate - Sandia National Labs

WORKSHOPS
Building Your Online Brand: How To Stand Out In A Crowd - Adobe
Social Justice & Design - Michaele Pride
UX/UI Workshop - Brian Byers & Ashley Fate
Letter Press - Power & Light Press
Color, Concepts, & Process - Brandi Sea Heft-Kniffin

LECTURES
Fabrication & Design - Kelsi Sharp
Social Media Presence - Lindsey Maestas
Signage - Mark Childs
Skill Collector/Videography- Kennith Kniffin
Copywriting for Design - Tee Iseminger

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Emily is a partner at and lead developer for Bright Umbrella, where she creates premium websites for nonprofits and businesses involved in education and social good.

A standardista at heart, Emily is passionate about front-end development, specializing in accessibility and structured data. She is an expert in content management systems, with a fondness for ExpressionEngine, Craft and Statamic.

She also co-hosts CTRL+CLICK CAST, is the author of Microformats Made Simple and a contributing author for HTML5 Cookbook, and served as Managing Editor for Web Standards Sherpa.

Adam Greenhood is the CEO & Founder of AdWallet. AdWallet is a start-up (now aligned with Google) that is designed to disrupt the current advertising model. The goal of AdWallet is to turn an ad from being perceived as an unwanted interruption, into a welcomed invite.

Before founding AdWallet, Adam worked as a Creative Director & Copywriter for a variety of top advertising agencies including, TBWA/Chiat Day LA, Victor's & Spoils, Rick Johnson & Co. and Esparza Advertising.

Adam is the former President of the American Advertising Federation of New Mexico. Adam's work has been recognized by The One Show, Communication Arts Annual, Graphis Annual, Print Regional Design Annual, Creativity Magazine, USA Young Guns, The OBIE Awards and the National Addy Awards.

Adam currently lives in Albuquerque with his wife, daughter and two (pleasantly fat) dogs.

Paul Ziomek is a graphic artist that has created illustration and graphic design for clients such as the City of Roswell, Creamland Dairies, UNM Hospital, Red Shovel Landscaping and CNM Ingenuity’s Deep Dive Coding . With a passion for cartooning,

Paul is also founding member of the non-profit New Mexico comic book creators group 7000BC. Currently, Paul is a member of the Communication Arts and Services team at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he develops environment graphics, technical illustration and print communication for science, technology and national security groups. He claims that black coffee and Twinkies™ are the secret to success but fact-checkers have yet to substantiate these claims.

David Schwen is a designer and illustrator, based in Minneapolis MN. With over a decade of experience at multiple design and advertising agencies, he now runs his own studio as the Creative Director at Dschwen LLC. (@dschwen). His work is usually lead by a concept that uses everyday objects or pop culture icons to bring the ideas to life.

LECTURES & WORKSHOPS

View additional Speaker and Workshop Information!

WHAT TO BRING

A notebook, a lot of questions, and a smile! The workshop and speaker will be a lecture-style presentation with live demos of all the great things you'll learn. Computers are not necessary to follow along, but you are welcome to bring them along.

PRICE

You asked, we listened. This year we are offering one day or two-day ticket options and as always, it pays to be a member! Registered members of AIGA New Mexico get 25% off their registration to ABQ Design Summit.

We are also offering a student discount. Student Members get 70% off the non-members price. If you are a student, but not a member of AIGA New Mexico, please send a picture of your student ID to education@newmexico.aiga.org and receive a coupon code for 60% off the non-member price.

One Day Tickets:
Member - $40
Non Member - $50
Student Member - $15
Student Non-Member - $20

Two Day Tickets:
Member - $50
Non-Member - $75
Student Member - $25
Student Non-Member - $35