Design for Community: join us for an online event from It’s Nice That and Wix Playground

Usually held in New York at Wix's Playground space, this month's edition of our talks event series will be held online for anyone around the world to attend. Themed Design for Community, the event will explore this vital topic while we navigate this unprecedented time and yearn for connection while physically distant. And for this important topic we've called upon some of the globe's design powerhouses to share their insights: designer and founder of studio Hort, Eike Konig; founder and editor of Riposte magazine Danielle Pender; designer, art director and founder of &Walsh, Jessica Walsh, and creative director and founder of Superimpose, Ollie Olanipekun.

Despite not being able to get together in-person this time around, we hope to make this online event just as inclusive and personal as it can be, using the perks of digital events to their best advantage.

First off, we will be interviewing each speaker one-to-one, and we’ll be asking you to submit the questions you’d love to ask our line-up to guide that interview. Then, we will be opening a few covetable meet-the-speaker spots for you to have the chance to pick their brains. Rather than having to shout over background music, or show your portfolio via your phone in an IRL setting, we’ll be opening 30-minute slots where audience members can register for their own personal chat with the speakers. These sessions will take place at a later date (6 May) and we’ll be letting you know how to apply for a spot in a few weeks, keep an eye!

We hope that through this difficult time, the work these speakers discuss and the advice they share will help create our very own community for the event, and provide guidance for how the design industry can bring people together while remaining safe at home.

Design for Community takes place Thursday 23 April at 18:15 – 19:30 GMT (13:15 – 14:30 Eastern, 19:15 – 20.30 CET).

Eike Konig

Eike Konig is a graphic designer and founder of much revered Berlin studio Hort, which he started in 1994 in Frankfurt. Alongside its work for brands like Nike, IBM and The New York Times, and institutions such as Bergen Assembly and Bauhaus Dessau, the studio works on everything from art direction to creative consultancy. Meanwhile Eike is also Professor for Illustration and Graphic Design at HfG Offenbach, where he often hosts creative bootcamp/festival After School Club.

Jessica Walsh

Jessica Walsh is one of the world’s best known graphic designers and part of the one per cent of women-owned creative agencies, having parted from her longtime collaborator Stefan Sagmeister to go it alone last summer. Her solo venture &Walsh kept the Sagmeister&Walsh creative team and Broadway headquarters, and continues to work with clients such as Apple, Snapchat and Kenzo, while Jessica also runs many social and non-profit initiatives such as Ladies, Wine & Design.

Ollie Olanipekun

Ollie Olanipekun is founder and creative director of Superimpose, a studio he started with Toby Evans in 2015. In its work for brands such as Adidas (notably its collaboration with Stormzy), Burberry, Childish Gambino and Hèrmes, Superimpose spans every type of output from video to digital, branding and installations, all with a distinctive aesthetic that aims to shake up tropes of that sector – be it fashion, education or events. The studio prides itself in provoking the advertising industry and Ollie particularly looks to reshape the agenda and address representation by challenging brands to do things differently. From its relatively small team, the studio also somehow has time to publish reports on the future of the design industry through its research arm Services Unknown.

Danielle Pender

Danielle Pender is the founder of Riposte magazine, a discerning and empowering magazine for women, and its creative studio, launched two years ago to bring the publication’s strong voice and style to all sorts of other projects. The magazine launched in 2013 and has become go-to platform for stories that break the mould of typical women’s magazines, profiling pioneers and doing so with compelling visuals (led by art director Shaz Madani). While running the mag and studio, Danielle is also known for her to-the-point wordsmithery, epitomised recently in her advice piece for It’s Nice That, A chance to catch a breath.