Last week I attended the innaugral Manchester Design Symposium. Apart from being a great opportunity to take a break from staring at the screen and go soak up some fresh inspiration, it was so energising to be in such a thinking room. Anyone who believes that design is all about making pretty things is missing an amazing opportunity. Speaker Tom Dorresteijn, brand strategist of Dutch agency, Studio Dumbar, said it well: "Good designers are far better strategists than the strategists themselves." 

Below, 4 memorable moments from the event:

1. The dog ate my values
Speaker and designer, Jonathan Barnbrook, asserting that "there is no separation between your private principles and what you do in your job … we are citizens first." I was jumping for joy inside to hear him emphasising what we at Asilia truly believe in (see point 3 in our credo).

2. The tools don't make the designer
Barnbrook discussing that the "how" in design is quite easy, it's the "why" – the intellectual part that requires experience and understanding of the design process. You can have design software but it's design thinking that makes you a professional.

3. 'Free pitching' and other fighting words
A relatively heated panel debate around the fiery subject of free pitching. I'll save going into this for another blog post (yes, that's how serious a subject this is) but, I'll leave you with this excellent article I found on the topic, from UK agency View Creative.

4. Lessons on seduction
Last but certainly not least, Tom Dorresteijn's assertion that to succeed, you must appeal to the heart not the brains. That as designers, we must remember that our job is to turn people on.

The event inspired a lot of thinking of my own including a discussion on "5 reasons why design matters: an argument for African parents, businesses and other skeptics" on my other online home, Afri-love.