Welcome to the design of everything.
You might have read a recent New York Times Magazine article proclaiming this to be ‘A Golden Age of Design’. While the author certainly points out that this may, in fact, be the fourth time such a golden age of design has been proclaimed, we think design is much, much bigger than that.
Design is simply what people do. It’s what they’ve always done.
Design—often referred to as invention or innovation—has moved our species steadily from ignorance to knowledge, from living in caves to living in the International Space Station. And while we celebrate the big names like DeVinci, Gutenberg, Edison, Wright, Marconi, Jobs and Musk as rock stars of design / innovation, it’s important to remember that they’re the beneficiaries of the efforts of millions of unknowns who helped to design the world in which they achieved their successes.
Incredibly exciting creations like the iPhone, Tesla Model S and the fusion reactor are marvels of design, but they were made possible to a huge extent by the anonymous people who, for example, designed and continuously redesigned ways to mine and smelt metals or to make glass, and also by the people who imagined, designed and redesigned the kind of societal, educational and financial constructs that have enabled such developments to emerge.
It’s indisputable that in 2014 design and design thinking are recognized as powerful business tools, but they’re also powerful educational and societal tools. Teaching kids that the world they experience today isn’t necessarily the world they have to live in tomorrow is critical. It’s that huge concept—that we can imagine and devise ways to move from a current state to a desired state—that has always moved us forward.
So is design just having another ‘moment’, or is it finally becoming recognized as the underlying driver of all things new?
Welcome to Cusp Conference 2014.
Dave Mason
Kelly Komp
Kevin Krueger
Andy Eltzroth
Skot Waldron
Pamela Lee
Cusp Conference 2014 Hosts
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Dave Mason
Principal / Strategy Director
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.’
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Kevin Krueger
Principal / Creative Director
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 stillhe was bitter about the whole LeBron James thing. No longer. Welcome back. -
Andy Eltzroth
Principal / Business Development
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.
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Kelly Komp
Principal / Creative Director
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.