Presentations, Teaching, Judging… They All Matter

HOW Design Live 2012

Come see Rule29's Justin Ahrens talk about "Matters of Wonder" at  HOW 2012 in Boston.

TEDx Naperville 2011

Rule29's Justin Ahrens talked about Seeing Different at this years TEDx Naperville.

AIGA Pivot 2011

Rule29's Justin Ahrens spoke at the AIGA National Pivot Conference in Phoenix, AZ. Justin spoke with Frog Design's Jason Severs on the topic of "Designing Different".

AIGA Nashville Think Tank 2011

Rule29's Creative Director Justin Ahrens spoke at AIGA Nashville's Annual Think Tank Conference with an incredible set of other speakers. This conference included the brilliant Raphael Grignani who is Director of User Experience at Method in San Francisco, the wonderful and talented Kate Bingaman-Burt and the legendary Joe Duffy fom Duffy Design.

AIGA New Mexico 2011 Workshop Series

Rule29 presented about Seeing Different and Life Kerning in Sante Fe to the AIGA New Mexico chapter.

PARSE. Read it. Use it. Now.

Rule29's, Creative Director, Justin Ahrens is a regular contributor to PARSE design blog. Parse aims to make sense of issues and information relevant to design practitioners, regardless of the disciplines they work in. Parse makes big ideas useful, actionable and applicable. To read his posts check it.

Rock Paper Ink Blog

RockPaperInk is a place for designers to come together to share their opinions, creations, and passion for the field. From graphic art to fashion, architecture, and beyond, every topic is fair game, and each contribution builds on the sense of community headed by our experts from around the world. Rule29's, Creative Director, Justin Ahrens writes about What Matters. Check out his and other articles at the blog for inspiration, ideas, & opinions from Design Fanatics.

Design Dimensions at NeoCon

Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University had its annual summer program at NeoCon(r) June 2011 at the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center. This year's program was Design Dimensions: Social Awareness at the Core of Good Design. Rule29's Justin Ahrens presented about thier persepctive on the topic.

"See Different" at #HOWLive

Rule29's Justin Ahrens talk "See Different. Do Different" was presented at the 2011 HOW Conference in Chicago, IL. The Talk Description: We all say we want to change the world—but where do we start? According to Rule29’s Justin Ahrens, it’s by doing, not talking. He’ll discuss his involvement in a variety of organizations (including work in Africa) that has changed his entire team’s experience, outlook and desire to help others. You’ll learn practical ways you and your team can start to make a difference in your community and beyond, and discover how it will change your own personal culture.

Live Inspiration, Ideas, & Opinions from Design Fanatics

Rule29's, Creative Director, Justin Ahrens writes the "What Matters" column on Rocport Publishers design blog Rock Paper Ink. To read about things that matter start here.

Reflex Blue at #HOWLive

Hear Justin Ahrens and other wonderful peeps at the Reflex Blue HOW podcasts.

20 Minutes to be EPIC

Rule29 had the privilege to participate in the inaugural EPIC 20/20: An evening of tug-at-your-heartstrings, rapid-fire presentations, all centered on the intersection of design and social change. Rule29's Justin Ahrens and Kerri Liu joined fellow speakers Professor Anne Marie Mitchell of Columbia College Chicago and Mary Foyder of IDEO. For more on the event please read here.

A little Rule29 on Stated Magazine

Stated Magazine which focuses on conversations between creatives interviewed Creative Director Justin Ahrens and our work focused on making creative matter for those who need it the most. To read the article go here

Design Chat

Rule29 interviewed on Design Chat at our world wide headquarters - check the goodness out watch here - March 2011

Illinois Wesleyan Alumni Interview

Rule29 interviewed by IWU on our work in Africa. To read the "Corporate Giving Turns into Inspired Living" article go here

Appleton Coated U360 Judge

Rule29 for the third year was honored to be a judge for the Appelton Coated design awards. Creative Director Justin Ahrens worked with the rest of the Design Council to judge from 400+ samples for the best design, print and paper usage.

Daily Herald Interview

Rule29 interviewed by the Daily Herald on our work in Africa. To read the "Creativity bridges gap between Geneva and Africa slums" article go here

The Reflex Blue Show, Season 3, Episode 16

Rule29 had the privelege of being a guest on the Reflex Blue Show about Pricing and Estimating. To fully experince the podcats go here.

SEEK Design Conference

Rule29 takes great initiative to design for great causes, and we presented about Rule29's work in Africa, and how as creatives, we can do work that changes people's lives half a world away. The theme was simple: See. Say. Do.

AAF Colorado Springs

Life Kerning: Where Life And Creativity Meet Presentation - You know how to design a beautiful layout. But what about balancing a busy creative life? Is it possible to build an inspired life that honors both your passions: a rewarding creative career and a joyful personal existence? Justin talks about that it’s more easily achieved than you might think.

Adobe MAX Conference 2010

Rule29's creative director, Justin Ahrens, spoke with well known illustrative designer Von Glitschka at the 2010 Adobe MAx Conference. Justin and Von gave a talk called "See. Say. Do.", which focused on the two designers who are from different studios, and from different parts of the U.S, whose lives and work have changed forever after serving the poor in Africa. They presented a visual journey exploring their creative adventure and how Adobe Creative Suite enabled easy and effective collaboration in the production of print and web collateral and a documentary film, and come away a lot better because of it.

The Professional Craft of Design Lecture Series: Meet Sean Adams + Justin Ahrens

Rule29 principal Justin Ahrens and the amazing Sean Adams presented at Colombia College tracing their careers from school to the start of their own firms. Free to the public and sponsored by Rockport Publishers, both speakers presented, held a Q&A and signed their books.

How Design Conference 2010 - R29 Talks LifeKerning

Rule29 has the privilege to speak at it's 4th HOW Conference this year being held in Denver, CO. We will be talking about Life Kerning - Where Life and Creativity Meet, participating in a creative panel discussion, portfolio reviews and a book signing for our new Best of Business Card book for Rockport. Come out and say hi if you are there!

The Reflex Blue Show

Rule29 on Season 3, Episode 3 with pal Von Glitschka - Listen here - May 2010

Talk Story with Jeni Herberger

Rule29 interview - Listen here - May 2010

Rule29 Is Honored To Be a Judge For
The AIGA 365 Design Awards

This year Rule29 was chosen to be a judge for the prestigious AIGA 365 design competition. We loved several days in New York at the AIGA national office talking design and surronded by amazing work from our peers and working alongside Jim Ales and Lindsay Ballant. For more on the jury for the 31st show go here.

Design Chat

Rule29 interviewd on Design Chat - watch here - December 2009

Humble Pied

Be Persistent and Learn Culture - Interview here - December 2009

The Reflex Blue Show

Rule29 appears in a couple conference reviews with the team from 36 Point 2009:
HOW: Day 1
AIGA: Day 0 + Day 1 + Day 3

Mano-a-Mano Austin Edition

Rule29 principal Justin Ahrens was a part of the first Mano-A-Mano design history challenge. Authors Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio took 16 hardy participants to join a bracket-style tournament testing their design-history knowledge. We made it...not far but loved the experience. Purchase the must have design history tome used for the tournament, Graphic Design - Referenced, here.

10 Things You Need To Know About Social Media

Rule29, principal Justin Ahrens, presented the following talk: 10 Things You Need to Know About Social Media. Social Media is allowing companies to create client relationships and conversations like never before. Enjoy a snapshot of companies both large and small that use social media to engage their customers in new ways. Walk away with simple steps on how to get started and how to leverage social networks and media within your brand to grow your business and social footprint.

The Reflex Blue Show

Rule29 on Season 2, Overall Episode #29 with amigos Steve Hartman, and Christine Taylor talking Africa and other stuff - Listen here - March 2009

The Love Chain @ AIGA Jacksonville

Creative Director, Justin Ahrens, presented to the Jacksonville chapter of AIGA a talk entitled: The Love Chain: Sharing Stories of Self Promotion Collaboration. He talked about how Rule29 believes that collaboration is a cornerstone to great design.

Rule29 Speaks For The Peoria Ad Club

Creative Director, Justin Ahrens, presented to the Peoria Ad Club a talk entitled: Help from my Friends - A Heartfelt Story About Collaboration. Rule29 thinks collaboration is key in the creative world, and if you don't look around to see who you can mix and mingle with, you are missing out. Come see some successful collaborative efforts, enjoy a few laughs, get some interesting tips and you just might walk out inspired and ready to make new friends.

Rule29 Helps Create Chaos

R29 creative director, Justin Ahrens, spoke at the 2008 Create Chaos Conference about Rule29's collaborative approach to work and added tips and perspective on how to collaborate. The talk was entitled: A Little Help From My Friends - Stop living inside a box and make some friends! Collaboration is key in the creative community, and if you don't look around to see who you can mix and mingle with, you are missing out. The new Renaissance of the creative industries is making it more necessary than ever to collaborate with others. Remember, the end result is greater than the sum of all its parts, so get out there and collaborate! See some great case studies of collaboration from those who do it best.

Rule29 Speaks At The Entrenuity Business Camp

R29 creative director, Justin Ahrens, had the opportunity to speak at the Entrenuity Summer Business camp hosted at Wheaton College. He talked about the importance of strategy and design when starting and running a business. Entrenuity focuses on helping empower business minded high school students into business leaders with character. Their curriculum is for both youth and leader training and Rule29 was proud to be a part of this year's program.

How Design Conference 2008

Rule29 Principal Justin Ahrens presented at the 2008 HOW Design Conference in Boston, MA. His talk was entitled: Designer Sobriety - how to stay focused when life is flying at you. For more on this topic check out the Designer Sobriety Blog.

Arkansas State University

R29 principal Justin Ahrens had the privilege of judging the Arkansas State University AIGA student design show. Thanks ASU for including us in your design experience.

Addy Judge - Peoria Ad Club

R29 Principal Justin Ahrens served as a judge for the Peoria Ad Club Addy awards. Justin joined Randy Gunter from the Gunter Agency and Charlie Trotter from Trabian as judges for this year's event. The gold awards from this show will go on to the regional Addy's and if they win there, it is off to the red carpet of the National Addy Awards. Highlights included cooking at Alexanders, having beer at Rhodell Brewery, a shiny new hotel, the diversity of work and our new friends from Peoria. Thanks for having us.

Judson University

Rule29 had the recent opportunity to present at Judson University in Elgin, IL. Principal Justin Ahrens (and former adjunct Prof at Judson) and designer and graduate of Judson, Kerri Liu talked about their student experiences and what it's like to work at Rule29. It was fun to return to Judson and see some of the changes to the vis com department, including their posh new art building.

Talking at the Eisner

Rule29 got to make new friends at the Eisner Museum, while presenting to Northwestern Mutual's Creative Team and some other friends. Rule29 presented their perspective on collaboration and showed it's many sample projects. It was a great afternoon that was topped off by taking place in the Eisner which is an interactive educational center focusing on advertising and design, and their impact on our culture located in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For more check out: www.eisnermuseum.org

Stock Picks

Creative Director Justin Ahrens was a judge for the Stockxpert photo contest. Justin was one of five judges who poured over more than 600 images to find a select few. To see some great royalty free images go to: http://www.stockxpert.com/

AIGA Visual Voltage

Rule29 was a recent presenter at AIGA Visual Voltage. Principal Justin Ahrens and Studio Manager and graduate of IA, Dan Hassenplug talked about self promotional collaboration. We were honored to be one of the guest speakers. This years theme of collaboration was dug into by the likes of Design Kitchen and the super cool Good Night TV.

AIGA Cleveland 52 Design Competition

R29 speaks and is one of the judges at the AIGA Cleveland 52 Design Competition. R29 principal Justin Ahrens joined other judges Kelly Holohan, Joani Spadaro, and Maurice Woods for a great time with our new friends from AIGA Cleveland, thanks for having us.

GASC/PIA/GATF Panel Speaker

At the 2006 Graph Expo R29 principal was a guest speaker at the GASC/PIA/GATF Teacher's Conference. The conference is a three-day program that provides an opportunity for graphic arts teachers to learn about current industry trends and see the latest equipment and supplies. It is held in conjunction with Graph Expo in Chicago, IL

HOW International Design Judge

Being a HOW International Design Competition judge was an honor and a blast. Justin Ahrens judged the 3,500 entries with Amy Hawk, the one and only Terry Marks (both of which are big time favorites of Rule29). Also having a chance to hang out with the fine folks at HOW made this experience a memorable one. The HOW staff spread all the projects out on tables, stacked in layers sandwiched between sheets of paper. The judges needed to work their way through the categories over two days, and choose the Best of Show on the third and final day. But be sure the judges had fun the whole time.

GD:USA Design Annual Judge

Justin Ahrens served as one of the judges for the GD:USA American Design Awards. This national design competition has showcased leading work in design, advertising and publishing over its three decade history.

Vance Publishing Judge

Justin Ahrens was a judge for the Vance Publishing 2006 design awards. The competition included covers and spreads from the various magazines Vance publishes.The magazines ranged from salon, fashion, lighting, agriculture, food, woodworking and many more.

Print Magazine's Iron Chef

Being a participant in an event that puts you on the hot-seat in front a few thousand of your peers competing against some greats of design was the setting for Print magazines Iron Chef at the HOW Design Conference. The 2005 installment, done Las Vegas style, of the event featured Stefan Bucher from 344 Design, Zoa Martinez from Zona Design and crowd favorite Jason Robinson. R29 Principal Justin Ahrens won the first round, but lost in the end to the brilliance of Jason Robinson and the PoPo.

How Design Conference Speaker - Las Vegas Edition

Justin Ahrens at the HOW Design Conference in Las Vegas, June 12 -15. This marks the second HOW appearance for Justin and in this installment Justin gets to partner up with Kelly Goto in one event and Terry Marks in another. Justin was also able to sign some of the books Terry and he collaborated on as well as be a participant in Print Magazine's Iron Chef also out on at this conference.

2006 SEEK Conference

Justin Ahrens joined fellow speakers Chuck Anderson, Andrew Blauvett, Rick Valicenti, Dawn Hancock and Lance Rutter at the 2006 installment of SEEK. SEEK is a one-day, student-run design conference sponsored by the Northern Illinois University student chapter of the AIGA. It is held once a year at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. SEEK is one of the only conferences of its kind in the midwest, and provides an excellent opportunity for design students and professionals to interact and learn from each other.

Kent State University

Justin Ahrens was invited to speak to the visual communication AIGA group at Kent State University. The lecture talk focused on the Rule29 way of making creative matter. Thanks for having us!

2006 Judge for the Pele Awards

Along with designers DJ Stout of Pentagram and Terry Marks of TMarks Design, Justin Ahrens  judges the 2006 Pele Awards in Honolulu, HI. The most prestigious awards for creative professionals in our great island state. Please have us back.

Columbia College

Justin Ahrens had the privilege to speak at Columbia College. Columbia College Chicago is the largest and most diverse private arts and media college in the nation. Justin was a guest speaker to their senior vis com students.

STA Chicago Dinner Series

Justin Ahrens was a guest speaker at the STA Dinner Series. The STA's mission is to engage members of the Chicagoland design community in an ongoing professional conversation; to support selected design-related events and projects; to provide opportunities for fellowship; to encourage the involvement of students and young designers in the profession; and, to promote an awareness of the influence of the history and the future of design in Chicago and the Midwest. To learn more go to: http://www.sta-chicago.org

Judge and Panel Speaker for M-Real AR Show

Justin Ahrens was a judge for the M-Real Annual Report show. After the show he served as a panel speaker for reps from around the United States. Fellow judges and panelist were Bill Healey from Alta Graf Design and John Bateson from Corporate Edge, UK.

How Design Confernce Session

Justin Ahrens and Terry Marks partnered for a breakfast breakout on being a dynamic duo during the colloboration process. The talk was entitled: WONDER TWINS - STALWART CREATIVE COLLABORATION. And if you missed it, you sadly missed Terry in tights.

Speaker, AD Club, Appleton, WI

Justin Ahrens gave a talk to the Fox River Ad Club. The talk entitlled "Icon-O-Class - When life becomes a 7-10 Split" was topped off with local beer and cheese curds. The Fox River AdClub is a non-profit professional trade association serving Northeast Wisconsin's advertising and marketing communications community including agencies, advertisers, the media, vendors and students.

Illinois Wesleyan University

It was honor to go back to my alma mater to speak to the design school about teh road from school to Rule29. The highlight, outside of meeting some great folks, was of course going to the teachers lounge...parallel universe in there.

Bradley University

Justin Ahrens had the chance to speak to the design school of Bradley University on how Rule29 gets to make creative matter. The talk took place in the super spiffy Caterpillar Global Communications Center.

AIGA AZ Judge and Speaker

Heading to Arizona in February is a good deal. Especially when you get a chance to judge the premier design show in Arizona sponsored by the fine folks from AIGA Arizona. Justin Ahrens joined fellow judges Jenn and Ken Visocky O’Grady from Enspace, and Will Travis from Attik.

AIGA Nebraska - Judge and Speaker

Justin Ahrens was with fellow judges Kevin McConkey (Grip Design, Chicago), Maria Kennedy (Karacters, Canada)  to present their work, their passion, and their work again. Later that evening they were treated to a night out in downtown Omaha. And when they had time they judged work from the best and the brighest of Nebraska.

AIGA Nebraska - Judge

The world's first ever deck of cards design competition was unveiled in a gallery show in August. It was incredible. R29 princiapl Justin Ahrens was one of the estemmed judges who had the task of judging these creative cards. Other judges included David William Scott and  Leonel Diazz.

2002 SEEK Design Conference

Rule29 was one of several speakers for this annual NIU event that attracts students from around the Midwest. This years speakers included: Joerg Metzner, Kelly Bjork, Paula Sher and Yang Kim and Kevin Budelmann from BBK.

AIGA: Future History Conference

Rule29 principal Justin Ahrens was a part of a panel addressing professors on the expectations owners have of students after graduation. Panelists included Cheryl Towler Weese from StudioBlue and David Williams from MornignStar. This panel was just a part of a weekend event held at UIC which included a keynote by Wolfgang Weingart.