On Thursday, October 26, 2017 Chandelier Creative organized an event called “Designing the Ephermal”which I attended. At first when we were given this assignment I was a little nervous about going to a random event and trying to communicate with the other people there. When I first arrived there weren’t that many people there. They had a very interesting and fun atmosphere with images all over the walls. The people who work there were actually still at their desks working as well as mingling. They led us to a room that looked like a library where the event would take place.

Sight Unseen co-founder Jill Singer, came to talk to us about “the many ways interior design can be used to enrich experiences, create memorable activations, and inspire younger audiences. She is a former editor of ID Magazine, as well as freelance writers, curators, and design consultants. Her work has also appeared in PIN-UP, New York, T Magazine, W and more. She came to speak to us about her experiences running her online magazine Sight Unseen.

Sight Unseen is an online magazine that uncovers whats new and next in design and the visual arts, with a focus on independent makers working outside traditional disciplinary boundaries. Since its founding in 2009, the site has served as a destination for companies and individusals interested in scouting new talent as well as an inspiration for those working in creative pursuits. In 2014, the editors behind Sight Unseen launched Sight Unseen Offsite, which is a fair that runs during NYCxDesign and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and serves as New York design weeks most exciting platform for new ideas and talents.

Sight Unseen also curates exhibitions and pop-up shops, produces events, and provides editorial and consulting services for a varity of forward-thinking clients. Some of the clients that were brought up were Sonos, IKEA and Refinery29. She said that when they worked with Sonos they created spaces for the senses how people can touch see and feel the designs.

She also told us how they mostly stopped the pop-up shops and are now using social media to interact with their clients and followers. I actually followed them on Instagram and their layouts are really nice and clean looking but also different. They have a color palate as well as a feeling to each room setup they create. She talked about how part of her job is to stay up to date with all the trends that are happening, one day the in color would be mustard yellow while the next could be blush pink. Their goal as designers is not to be the same as everyone else they look for designers that do different things as well as timeless looks that they share with their audience for their online magazine.

Even though this event was about interior design I actually found it pretty interesting. Firstly, the speaker seemed pretty honest she admitted that as a company they don’t have a certain way of doing things, they mostly do everything by following the trends and they mend their way with that. She also reads a lot of the messages she gets and she looks through Instagram at her followers to see what people are into. The reason why I found that interesting was because as a graphic designer (to be) I always do that I follow different pages of graphic design work and it really inspires me as well as pushes me to do things I wouldn’t normally do.

After the event, the mingling part began. At first, it was honestly a bit awkward most of the people that came knew each other so it was very clique oriented. The first person I met was Karen Richter, the creative director of White Arrow Interiors. She didn’t have her card with her but she has her husbands who works with her, which is what she gave me. We talked about what she does at her work and how she had personally worked with Jill Singer the speaker in a few projects. The next person I met was Jacinta Chen, who is an Account Director at MirrorBall, an Experience Design Agency. She said that one of their jobs is brand stratery and making the audience feel intense emotions as well as memorable ones. She gave the example of Dos Equis. We also talked about how cool and different I thought her business card was.

Overall I found this event to be inspiring even though it was not about graphic design. Firstly it was actually not so bad getting out of my comfort zone to talk to complete strangers about what they do. People were actually surprisingly kind and easy to talk to. Things that I learned was how people usually work together as a team and collaborate in projects to come up with what they do. Another thing I learned was to always follow the trends and how people view your designs, because at the end of the day everything you create is for a reason.