UP EARLY AND READY FOR ACTION: Gave my talk this morning at precisely 9:10 in the AM. Things went very well and it was a blast to “let it fly” to the conference’s legions. I even injected some tunes into the presentation, you know, to get some “Multimedia” in there. What song? Well, you should have gone. Let’s just say we woke up San Diego with one of the greatest album openers ever. There you go.

And the kids dug it! Thank you to everyone who came up to shoot the shit, share a story or settle a score! Very appreciated.

Lab Partners gave a beautiful presentation showing their collaborative process and a ton of colorful, fun work. Nice, nice people. These are the folks behind, like, one of my favorite things of all last year! So awesome. Can’t take it. The nicest people in the whole conference, actually. My estimation.

Frank Chimero took it to new heights with his talk, and made me think, again. Frank makes you think. Dangerous stuff. This guy’s got some shit to say, and man, it could change the way you work. Thank you, buddy. Always great. Stay tuned for that book. It’s going to be INCREDIBLE.

My workshop went well, too. it was called “Under Pressure: Make A Logo With The DDC In Two Hours” and the room was packed! Just trying to get people to think quick, go with their gut and trust their first instincts. But of course, with proper research, discussion and exploration. I have to do the same, often. Plus, it’s just fun to see what you can come up with in a couple hours. You should have seen some of the awesome shit they made. So, if you can do that in two hours, imagine what you can do in a week? See, exactly. Work quick, keep it fun, move fast, try lots of shit…and plop out something awesome.

And, it turns out there was a rather clandestine Keith Scharwath of GOOD Magazine and Scharwath Graphic Enterprises hid himself in the group, and didn’t reveal himself until later in the evening, in the garden by the sea. Sneaky little bugger! His logo ripped. Like I’d expect anything but. The guy behind this! He looks like Paul Ruud in “a-Seth-Rogen-meets-Bruce-Valanche-mingles-with-Buddy-Hackett” kind of way. Serious chops out of this Los Angelino.

That night we ate in this high rise loft apartment thing, overlooking the Padres’ baseball field. Incredible view and even better mac-n-cheese.