Welcome to Cusp Conference 2015

There’s water on Mars!

That incredible revelation was brought to us by human imagination. And ingenuity. And by the kind of societal structures that made the effort possible. Essentially it was brought to us by design.

In 2015 there’s no doubt that ‘design’ has entered mainstream consciousness. It’s literally in the hands or pockets of hundreds of millions of people. Flip over an iPhone and read the fine print: “Designed by Apple in California”. The iPhone itself is an incredible idea that’s changed the world radically. But the second part of that fine print — “Assembled in China” — is also an incredible idea that’s changed the world radically.

Cusp is about the the design of everything. Images, words, sound, technology, energy, healthcare, philanthropy, law, identity, culture, food, policies, processes, services, and on and on. It’s about the notion that virtually every decision is, in essence, a design decision, and that because every decision leads to consequences large and small, that we are collectively designers of everything that isn’t naturally occurring. That sounds heavy, and it kind of is. Overwhelming, almost.

  • Should we buy fresh carrots from a local farmer’s market or packaged, processed carrots from a factory thousands of miles away?
  • Should we allow the the income of hedge fund managers to be taxed as capital gains instead of ordinary income?
  • Should we demand that labeling genetically modified ingredients in food be mandatory or not?
  • Should we allow critical lifesaving drugs to be subject to arbitrarily applied price increases that put them out of the reach of most who need them?
  • Should we be able to choose the sex of our unborn children?
  • Should we build walls between countries?
  • Should we wear cutoffs, socks and sandals to Cusp tomorrow?

The myriad decisions we make add up to who we are as individuals and as societies. So as you take in all that Cusp 2015 has to offer and process the new thoughts it provokes, the power of design really is in your hands. It may not feel like it sometimes, but through our personal actions we each have the ability to shape maybe not everything — because everything is a lot — but much more than we think we can.

Imagine that.

Welcome to Cusp Conference 2015.

Dave Mason
Kelly Komp
Kevin Krueger
Andy Eltzroth
Skot Waldron
Pamela Lee

Cusp Conference 2015 Hosts

  • Dave Mason
    Dave Mason

    Principal / Strategy Director

    @visualizechange

    Dave Mason was born in England and raised in Canada.

    The things he learned as a CJFL quarterback, while working in a women’s prison, a forensic psychiatric hospital and a subatomic physics laboratory and while coaching high school football naturally prepared him to start a design firm immediately after graduating from college in the late 20th century. He subsequently co-founded internationally recognized Chicago/Vancouver-based SamataMason in 1995, which was renamed smbolic in 2010.

    Honored for excellence in virtually every significant design publication and competition, Dave’s work has also been exhibited at The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany. He has served as a juror for numerous international design competitions including Communication Arts Design Annual, The Mead Annual Report Show, AR 100 Annual Report Show, Taiwan International Poster Competition and Applied Arts, and as a guest speaker at design and business schools, conferences and events throughout Canada, the United States and Asia. In 2010 he was named a Fellow by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada.

    Dave has also co-founded of a number of additional ventures including OpinionLab Inc., the leader in web and mobile voice of customer feedback software, and Cusp Conference LLC, the annual Chicago-based conference about ‘the design of everything.’

  • Kevin Krueger
    Kevin Krueger

    Principal / Creative Director

    @kevinsm

    Kevin Krueger is an accomplished brand communication designer.

    Formerly a partner in internationally recognized design firm SamataMason / smbolic, his work for a diverse range of clients such as the PGA Tour, Whirlpool, Devon Energy, International Truck, and Motorola has been honored internationally in numerous competitions and publications including AIGA Communication Graphics, The Art Directors Club, The Type Directors Club, Communication Arts, Applied Arts, Graphis and How Magazine.

    A graduate of Ohio University, Kevin is a former Chicago Chapter board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), a frequent lecturer at design schools and organizations, and has served as a juror for numerous design competitions.

    He’s also a co-founder of Cusp Conference LLC, which produces an annual conference about ‘the design of everything.’ And yes, he’s still he was bitter about the whole LeBron James thing. No longer. Welcome back.

  • Andy Eltzroth
    Andy Eltzroth

    Principal / Business Development

    @aeltzroth

    Andy Eltzroth served as a designer, project manager and account executive in San Francisco and the Midwest prior to co-founding Tandemodus in 2006.

    An Indiana University graduate with a BFA in graphic design, Andy has provided strategic direction for a wide range of organizations including Eli Lilly, Dow AgroSciences, the Center for Leadership at Northwestern University, Pearson Education and True Value Hardware. He’s a current board member of Chicago-based Goodcity, an organization dedicated to identifying and supporting high potential community-based entrepreneurs in under-resourced communities, and an adjunct professor in the communication design program at Harrington College of Design.

    Andy now spends the majority of his off-work hours simultaneously doting on his growing family and wishing he’d spent more time perfecting his knuckleball.

  • Kelly Komp
    Kelly Komp

    Principal / Creative Director

    @kkomp

    Kelly Komp graduated from Ball State University with a BFA in Graphic Design. A former co-founder and Creative Director of Chicago-based Tandemodus, his award-winning strategic thinking and communication design capabilities have brought clarity and energy to organizations such as DePaul University, University of Chicago, Great Lakes Protection Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Spertus Institute, and Scott Foresman.

    He’s a former Chicago Chapter board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and instructor of Design for the Web at Chicago Portfolio School.

    And he credits his experiences slinging tacos, shagging golf balls at a driving range, filing records for a law firm, operating a forklift and bagging ice in a 20° factory with providing him with a love of not doing any of those things today.