Fri, Oct 5th, 8:00am - Sun, Oct 7th 1:00pm
- Trustee $265
- Design Leader $265
- Sustaining $265
- Supporter $265
- Contributor $295
- Educator $265
- Student $195
- Non-Member $485
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We don’t think creativity thrives in a blank convention center; we think it deserves fresh air.
Design Camp is a unique conference where we take the our profession and passion to the great outdoors. We pair premier thinkers, speakers, and design icons with the beauty of northern Minnesota to give you a full weekend to refresh and jumpstart your creativity.
Find your inspiration in the north woods.
Design Camp will gather designers, artists, art directors, copywriters, web developers, students, educators, and other creative-minded folks who are ready to learn from each other. The day-to-day schedule consists of speakers, workshops, and activities to both teach specific skills, and relax your creativity and let your mind wander.
Meet Our Keynote Speakers

Andy J. Pizza is an American illustrator, podcaster and public speaker. His explosive color drenched illustrations have brought hope and smiles to clients like Nickelodeon, Amazon, YouTube and Warby Parker.
He is the founder of the Creative Pep Talk podcast, which does what it says on the tin, gives pep talks to creative people! Creative Pep Talk, has been featured by Apple, BuzzFeed and Threadless. Creative Pep Talk the book was published by Chronicle Books in the Spring of 2017.
While studying in the UK, Miller received a BA in Graphic Design at the University of Huddersfield.
Miller uses exclamation points liberally(!!!!) has been known to TYPE IN ALL CAPS for no reason at all and sometimes uses emojis in business emails. The Pizza family happily live in the great city of Columbus, OH.

David is Creative Director of the Brand Design Lab at Target, where he leads a team of 30 designers who are responsible for creating and supporting the design programs for 15+ brands across home, apparel, grocery and essentials, 10,000+ SKUs and $10B+ in value. He has lead large scale brand launches and redesigns including the development of Made By Design, Universal Thread, Opalhouse, Goodfellow & Co, A New Day, JoyLab, Project 62, and Cat & Jack.
David has spoken about design at regional and national conferences, including the Dieline Conference, HOW Design and the AIGA National Design Conference. Prior to joining Target he was a Design Director at agencies including Desgrippes Gobé, the Brand Integration Group (BIG) at Ogilvy and Arnell Group. His previous clients have represented technology, fashion and consumer products brands including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Gucci, AVON, Kodak, AOL and Pepsi.

Gail Anderson is a New York-based designer, writer and educator.
Anderson serves as creative director at the Visual Arts Press, the in-house design studio for the School of Visual Arts, where she has been teaching design for over 25 years. She is also a partner at Anderson Newton Design (AND). From 2002 through 2010, Anderson served as creative director of design at SpotCo, a New York City advertising agency that creates artwork for Broadway and institutional theater. From 1987 to 2002, she worked at Rolling Stone magazine, serving as designer, deputy art director, and finally as the magazine's senior art director. Earlier in her career, she designed at The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and Vintage Books (Random House).
Anderson’s work has received awards from major design organizations, including the Society of Publication Designers, the Type Directors Club, AIGA, the Art Directors Club, Graphis, Communication Arts, and Print. She is the recipient of the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian, and she received the AIGA Medal in 2009. Anderson is the recipient of the 2009 Richard Gangel Award from the Society of Illustrators and has served on the boards of TDC, SPD, and Adobe Partners by Design.
Anderson's work is included in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress and the Milton Glaser Design Archives at the School of Visual Arts. She has been featured in magazines including Computer Arts (UK), designNET (Korea), kAk (Russia), STEP Inside Design, and Graphic Design USA, as well as many blogs and podcasts.
Anderson has co-authored (with Steven Heller) 14 books on design and popular culture, and serves on the the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee for the United States Postal Service. She has lectured about design at high schools, universities, organizations, and conferences around the world, and she has lived in the same small apartment in Manhattan’s West Village for over thirty years because she has a good deal on a parking space. If you live in NYC, you’ll understand.

Zipeng Zhu is a Chinese-born designer, art director, illustrator and animator in New York City who wants to make everyday a razzle-dazzle musical. His clients include Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Netflix, Viacom, The New Yorker, Fox, CNN, Refinery29, Chobani, and Samsung. After he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has worked at Pentagram and Sagmeister & Walsh. He was one of the Art Directors Club Young Guns 13 winners and has been recognized as Print magazine’s New Visual Artist and The One Show Young Ones. He has recently started his own creative studio Dazzle to make everything dazzling.

Lauren Dickens is an independent creative living and working in Austin, Texas. She chose to pursue a career utilizing that creativity through the lens of Design. With over a decade of experience in the industry, she's developed a broad range of skills, ranging from typography and illustration to branding and copywriting. Through all these practices she focuses on thought-forward design, and strives to create work that is clear & communicative, witty, and at times provocative. She's worked for larger clients like Target, Facebook, and SXSW, but she also loves building brands from the ground up with smaller folks who are passionate and bold. She's driven by her Texas roots, her accountant (who also happens to be her fiance), dad jokes, late 90s emo, that gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach that never goes away, her two dogs named Barbara & Larry, beer(s), the memory of her mother, Townes Van Zandt, building fired, food and eating it, and the open road. Other hobbies include getting buckets, running, collecting hot sauce, and talking about how she's going to learn the drums.
Review our schedule for the weekend, and take a look around past years’ Design Camps.
Details
WHERE:
Madden’s On Gull Lake, Brainerd, MN.
WHEN:
Oct. 5-7, 2018
REGISTRATION COST:
Registration includes event only. Lodging booked separately.
Rates:
Educator: $265
Contributor$295
Supporter: $265
Sustaining: $265
Design Leader: $265
Trustee: $265
Non-Member: $485
Students: $195 (see below)
Follow us on social media to be the first to know when 2019 dates are announced.
Workshop Sessions
Workshop Session 1 – Friday, October 5, 1:10-2:40
Workshop Session 2 – Saturday, October 6, 11-12:30p
Workshop Session 3 – Saturday, October 6, 2:30-4:00
All workshops are offered identically three times.
Students*
AIGA STUDENT MEMBER REGISTRATION
Cancellation
If you register and are unable to attend, firstly, we would be sorry to hear that. Secondly, please email [email protected] by September 10, 2018 for a 50% refund of conference fees. Cancellations after September 10, 2018 will not be refunded. Additional fees may apply where applicable.
Lodging cancellations must be handled by contacting Madden’s directly. Conference is subject to cancellation or change. Liability is limited to funds remitted for conference registration. Speakers and presenters are subject to change without prior notice.
Privacy Policy
Your registration constitutes permission to use photos and audio/video recordings taken of you at the event or program for promotional and educational purposes in connection with AIGA Minnesota programs and activities, in corresponding publications, in AIGA Minnesota’s archives, and on AIGA Minnesota’s websites and social media presences. We will only get your good side.