Minds were loaded up with tasty information about design at the Triangle American Marketing Association (AMA)’s High Five event. Wednesday was launch day for the two-day marketing and design conference. Burning Oak Studios was not only there to film, but also to feast on the knowledge.

One of the design related presenters was Christina Beard, design consultant and author. Beard, was at the High Five event supporting her book Critiqued: An Iterative Design Experiment, which chronicles her experience developing her master thesis. The idea was simple, create poster to convey the message “Wash your hands,” however it would be her process that illustrates the idea that there are millions of ways to approach the same project.

The designer took her original poster to her professor to get it critiqued, and then created a second poster based on the professor’s recommendations. She next took poster two to a second designer for another rap session A third poster was created to reflect the suggestions. This practice continues for over twenty designers over several states and two countries. The result of the experiment was twenty+ different posters with subtle and dramatic differences all with the same goal, to get folks to wash up.

Christina Beard’s process yielded concepts that you can apply to your own work. Keep your mind open for possibilities; creativity can flourish when your mind is not on one track. The goal of a poster or any marketing tool is to communicate; having a conversation about said tool could lead to a stronger, cleaner message. Take in as many opinions and ideas as you can, but ultimately you as the designer are the filter that will ensure needs of the project are being met in the best way possible.

For more about the Triangle AMA’s High Five Conference hop on over towww.highfiveconference.com

Check out Christina Beard’s Critiqued

This year, Burning Oak Studios has decided to go all out with producing our very own video blog. We’ll be discussing everything from branding in your videos, to pre and post-production, and ultimately, what to do with your completed videos. We hope you enjoy Oak Notes as much as we do, and if you have any suggestions or ideas for what you’d like to see from us – we’re all ears!