Austin Design Week is almost here (it starts Nov. 7), and organizers have put together a compelling program for its inaugural year. The full schedule and keynote speakers were announced this week, and it’s a powerhouse lineup.
Doreen Lorenzo, director of the Center for Integrated Design (CID) at UT Austin, will keynote Monday night’s kickoff party at Austin Beerworks; before heading up the first integrated design program at a major public university in the United States, Lorenzo was president of both Frog Design and Quirky, which developed an invention platform.
The closing party, hosted by Big Medium/E.A.S.T. at Canopy artist studios in East Austin, will be keynoted by artist and designer James Victore. Victore, also a teacher, frequently gives public speeches about career advice for young designers.
In between—because, hello, Election Day—AIA Austin's DesignVoice and SXSWEco will host their own debate and election viewing party Tuesday. Rather than addressing national politics, however, participants will debate about how design can succeed (or fail) in making Austin a better place to live.
Other schedule highlights include talks about unifying and strengthening Austin’s design community, led by frog design; studio tours at Matt Fajkus Architecture and Pentagram; and an urban design tour of Mueller parks.
It's through this kind of open discussion and opportunity to share that we hope to get attendees thinking about the role and power of design in their life and community.
Austin Design Week starts Nov. 7 and is free and open to the public; you can find information about that and lots of other things at its website.