Two more reviews of Compostmodern. Final two reviews coming on Tuesday.

Compostmodern09 offered numerous insights that any creative person would find inspirational. Each of the topics covered during the event have given me enough creative inspiration to last for months.

This conference inspired me to rethink my design process at the very core, from the perspective of sustainability. The very essence of created work needs to be under the sustainability umbrella, not just the final materials.

It is events like this that always remind me that we don’t design in a bubble of isolation and so much of what designers create is interconnected within various systems. For the designer, understanding how these systems function independently and interdependently is vital. For example, a subway system functions by itself, but it is also part of the larger public transit system.

As a student, I think it is critical to dive into the idea of sustainability because we do not work within the confines of a designer-client relationship. There are no limits to what can be created. As John Bielenberg and Pam Dorr explained, “think wrong to do right.” Students can really be on the front lines of creative ideas and push the boundaries, because for us, there are none.

This conference energized me about design, its processes and its relationship to the world we live in. The future is not all doom and gloom. Perhaps we can help solve the problems that face us by approaching design from a fresh point of view, one that considers sustainability at the heart of its processes.

This conference gave me hope.

Christopher Seeds is a Visual Communication Design student at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

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Kate Earhart is a designer working at Deutsch Design Works. She has co-authored with Christopher Simmons and Tim Belonax on Color Harmony: Logos and has been featured in The WordIt Book by Bryony Gomez and Armin Vit.

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