THANK YOU BROOKLYN!
We are deeply grateful to every one of you who joined us for Creative Works EAST. Your energy, creativity, and openness transformed this event into something truly extraordinary. Check out the recap video and photo galleries below to relive the magic. These moments are a celebration of what we’ve built together—and a reminder of the incredible things ahead. Stay inspired, and stay tuned!
LINEUP
SPEAKERS & INSTRUCTORS
Our presenters and workshop instructors are masters of their craft, each with a unique perspective and body of work that’s bound to inspire and empower your creative spirit. Connect with these outstanding individuals in person this fall. And don't forget to explore their work - follow the links below!
SKILL-BUILDING
WORKSHOPS
10 hands-on sessions led by masters of their craft will give you a deep dive into creative skills like branding, illustration, hand lettering, icon design, storytelling and more. Workshops are open only to conference attendees and have limited seating. They will sell out…Register today.
AM BLOCK , SAT 9AM - 12PM
#HANDLETTERING
THE ART OF THE HAND-LETTERED MAGAZINE COVER
Lauren Hom, Designer & Lettering Artist
Learn how to create stunning hand lettering fit for a magazine cover in this 3-hour workshop led by designer and lettering artist, Lauren Hom. With over 20 hand-lettered magazine covers under her belt, Lauren will show you how to design a 100% hand-lettered magazine cover (what she lovingly refers to as the ‘Oops All Lettering!’ style of editorial design). This workshop will teach you how to design illustrative lettering that acts as key art and grabs attention at a glance on newsstands.
#ILLUSTRATION
MASTERING EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION (PART 1)
Clinton Campbell, Miné Day, & Brad Hodgkiss, Partners at MUTI
Unleash your artwork with Clint, Miné, and Brad of MUTI in this 2-part, 6-hour, hands-on editorial illustration workshop! Join them as they dive into a typical client brief, taking you from the initial concept to the final art. You’ll get the inside scoop on how to interpret the text and create eye-catching artwork. Expect to tackle an opening illustration, spots, and icons—key elements in any editorial brief. Plus, you’ll get tips and insights along the way to help elevate your artistic game and perfect your style.
#ICONDESIGN
BUILDING COHESIVE ICONS
Noah Jacobus, Senior Designer at Font Awesome
So you need an icon set for a project, only to find that all the stock sets don’t have quite what you need. You could try adding the missing icons or even (gasp) create your own set, but where would you start? Dive into the wonderful world of tiny pictures in this 3-hour workshop led by Noah Jacobus from Font Awesome, the internet’s favorite icon library andtoolkit. From rudimentary rules to cohesive collections, we’ll uncover, dissect, and build on the secrets of successful icon design.
#BRANDING
A DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO CRAFTING PEOPLE-CENTRIC BRANDS
Miro Laflaga & Ash Phillips, Founders at Six Cinquième
Join Miro and Ash for this 3-hour workshop and learn their proven methodology for helping brands make deeper connections with their customers. They will guide you through the process, focusing on the designer’s role as a facilitator of creative insights while providing opportunities for clients to create authentic interactions that foster advocacy, loyalty, and trust, helping them build meaningful and lasting relationships with their customers.
#CREATIVECAREER
DUNGEONS & DESIGNERS
Nim Ben-Reuven, Artist, Designer & Author
Adventure into the underbelly of graphic design, learning to use different skills, tactics, and teamwork to battle against innocuous and insidious foes in this RPG-style approach to navigating the design industry. Explore the tumultuous situations that inevitably find their way into our work experiences, from awkward contract and rate negotiations, boundary setting, micro-managing bosses, creative blocks, client critique, and the dreaded feeling of ‘selling one’s soul.’ Spend time reviewing the skills needed for these interactions and testing them out with our personalized characters inside a variety of role-playing game DUNGEONS.
PM BLOCK , SAT 2PM - 5PM
#TYPEDESIGN
TYPE DESIGN FOR NON-TYPE-DESIGNERS
Matteo Bologna, Founder & Creative Director at Mucca
Ever wondered how a font is designed? How to customize a font to make a logo? How long will it take? How to turn handwriting into a font? Is there really a difference between ‘spacing’ and ‘kerning’? If you have ever asked yourself these questions, this workshop is for YOU. Join Mucca’s own Matteo Bologna for this 3-hour workshop as he designs a font live with the workshop participants. He’ll discuss how he came to his design decisions and answer any questions that may arise along the way.
#ILLUSTRATION
MASTERING EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION (PART 2)
Clinton Campbell, Miné Day, & Brad Hodgkiss, Partners at MUTI
Unleash your artwork with Clint, Miné, and Brad of MUTI in this 2-part, 6-hour, hands-on editorial illustration workshop! Join them as they dive into a typical client brief, taking you from the initial concept to the final art. You’ll get the inside scoop on how to interpret the text and create eye-catching artwork. Expect to tackle an opening illustration, spots, and icons—key elements in any editorial brief. Plus, you’ll get tips and insights along the way to help elevate your artistic game and perfect your style.
#FIGMA
FIGMA FOR BRAND DESIGNERS
Mallory Dean & Rogie King, Design Advocates at Figma
Join designer advocates Mallory and Rogie for this 3-hour workshop for any creative who wants to gain a deeper understanding of how to design a website and brand system in Figma. Using Figma’s best practices, they will work through brand creation, setting up brand and design systems, designing a website layout, prototyping, and touch on ways to make your website real. And they will share their favorite tips and plugins along the way.
#STORYTELLING
CRAFTING COMPELLING NARRATIVES: THE ART & SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING
Brian McDonald, Filmmaker, Story Consultant & Author
In this 3-hour workshop, Brian will guide you through the craft of storytelling, revealing techniques that have stood the test of time. Learn how to harness the power of narrative to captivate your audience, communicate your ideas more effectively, and create stories that resonate. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to storytelling, this workshop will equip you with the tools to become a master storyteller.
#IDEATION
CREATE OUTSIDE THE BOX
Meg Lewis, Designer
Join Meg in this 3-hour workshop and learn how to unlock your mind to produce your best creative work yet! Through playful exercises, you will learn how to tap into your most authentic voice, leading to ideas and solutions only you could possibly conceive! Along the way, Meg will help you silence your inner critic and approach your creative practice with a fresh perspective, allowing you to create work that shines brighter than ever before.
The Creative Works Pop-Up Market brings designers, makers, and brands from all over the country to one place. And we open the whole thing up to the public. Join us Thursday & Friday (Oct 24 & 25) in FIVE-TWO-A at Industry City from 10 - 6pm. Interested in vending? Send us a link to your shop.
MARKET
CREATIVE WORKS POP-UP
DOWNINGTON, PA
NEW YORK, NY
BROOKLYN, NY
NEW YORK, NY
SEATTLE, WA
NEW YORK, NY
BROOKLYN, NY
NEW YORK, NY
NEW YORK, NY
QUEENS, NY
CHICAGO, IL
NEW YORK, NY
PITTSBURGH, PA
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY
BROOKLYN, NY
NEW YORK, NY
ORLANDO, FL
NEW YORK, NY
NEW YORK, NY
ATLANTA, GA
CREATIVE WORKS CONFERENCE EAST
SPONSORS
A heartfelt thank you to all of our sponsors for supporting our community. Please take a moment to visit their websites and show your support. If you're interested in becoming a Creative Works sponsor, we'd love to hear from you. Don't hesitate to reach out and connect with us.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Interested in supporting Creative Works EAST?
Reach out to us.
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