Meena Khalili is a professor of design and interaction who makes daily drawings of things. She is a recipient of consecutive International Design Awards and the National Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Graphic Design by the Southeastern College Art Conference. She holds a BFA in Illustration and an MFA in Graphic Design from VCUarts. Meena maintains an international speaking and exhibition schedule with work shown at the Type Directors Club, Chicago Design Museum, and galleries throughout Italy, North America, Asia, and Europe. Meena’s work is in permanent collections around the world and the Library of Congress. She is featured in Issue 05 of The Great Discontent. Her research is driven by her experience as an Iranian-American and daughter of a small business owner. Her work explores cultural identity and generational storytelling.

Designer, educator talk. I walk through the rules I use in my creative practice showing innovative and inspiring work from my studio and classroom with the next generation of designers.

Cymone Wilder is a senior art director and lettering artist based in Nashville. Since 2013 she has collaborated with amazing clients (see Netflix, Nickelodeon, HBO Max, Cosmopolitan, Planned Parenthood and New Belgium) –creating custom lettering artwork for established brands, books, apparel, and much more. She is fiercely passionate about producing meaningful and long-lasting work, drawing inspiration from the black experience. In her spare time she enjoys ~pretending~ she’s super outdoorsy, and laughing with friends around bonfires. She doesn’t enjoy running, but does it a lot anyways.

Coming soon...

Steven Wakabayashi (he/him) is a creative director, changemaker, and founder of mission-driven organizations empowering historically marginalized communities within design, tech, and mindfulness industries. After leading creative teams at many notable brands and agencies, he is now creating pathways for queer BIPOC creatives into the design industry through QTBIPOC Design, creating safe spaces for BIPOC communities within mindfulness through Mindful Sights, and designing equitable products and experiences for clients with his creative agency Stranger Creative.

From a near-fatal burnout to a year of living at Buddhist monasteries around the world, I’ll share lessons from this transformative journey. In this talk, you will learn about navigating complex intersections in life, addressing perfectionism and burnout culture, and cultivating mindfulness within our design practice. I’ll also share insights on how we’ve incorporated these learnings into our design methodologies in working with our communities, colleagues, and clients.

Coming soon...

Ever wonder what it's like drawing rocket ships when you're 7 years old, and then turning that into a career in your mid 30s!? I hope not, lol. It can happen in a much shorter time span, and I'm here to tell you everything I know to make that happen for you. If you want it.I've worked with some of the largest space/aerospace clients out there: NASA, Blue Origin, Ariane Group (James Webb Telescope), Boeing, and more. My talk will show you how to get there straight from design school, how exactly to target these clients, and also how to make the most optimal illustrative content for this industry.I will also talk about my highest highs, lowest lows, the things I believe you should look out for, and ultimately how to put your stamp in this industry and make it your own. Check out @fugstrator on Instagram for reference on all this work!

Coming soon...

Coming soon...

Steffi Lynn Tsai was born in Austin, Texas and is now currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Steffi’s work is filled with quirkiness, color and character. She is driven to take normal scenes and moments and make them playful, exciting and enticing. Her work is inspired by everyday things, reactions and feelings, and simple imagery from her imagination or nature.

Coming soon...

Nakita M. Pope is the Chief Chick and Principal Brand Strategist of Branding Chicks, a boutique branding agency in Atlanta, GA with clients all over the United States. Branding Chicks specializes in brand strategy, development, consulting, and management for femme-owned businesses and femme-focused brands. She helps clients narrow their focus, gives their brands a voice, slingshot their confidence, and clarifies their message to resonate directly with their audiences. She also helps businesses large and small to brand or re-brand to attract and grow customer bases for new products and professional services through custom, creative, relevant brand-promoting strategies. Over the past 25 years, she has worked as a brand strategist, graphic designer, creative director, and brand manager, giving her experiences that inform how she works with her clients. Her passion for brand strategy also extends to her advertising strategy, branding, and design professorship at The Creative Circus for 13 years. In 2019 she also took on an additional role as their Diversity & Inclusion Advisor and, a year later, the Design Department Senior Advisor role. In 2020 she was also named one of Graphic Design USA Magazine’s People to Watch and then 2021 she was honored as an AIGA Atlanta Fellow, which recognizes her contributions to the design community locally and nationally.

You have a brand whether you are being strategic about it or not. Often we are so focused on branding our clients and their businesses that we don’t take the time to be strategic about our own. In this session, you will learn some key elements to building a personal or business brand as a creative. How you set goals, create a lane for yourself, tell your story, and build community makes you who you are. Whether you are an employee, freelancer, or business owner, having a brand that represents you authentically IS the magic, and it will give you the creative career of your dreams!

Learn how to build a brand from Jimmy's years of experience creating and growing his outdoor brand Atomicchild. Jimmy started Atomicchild in one bedroom of an apartment and now is sold nationwide and has sold millions of dollars of products with his designs on them.

You don't have to be successful in your 20's to have a great career. Jimmy Bryant will talk to us about his journey and the importance of constantly working on his craft and building an audience to achieve real-world success.

George F. Baker III, also known as GFB3, is a Nebraska-born, Detroit Grown, and Atlanta-Raised Creator. Using his instruments of design, illustration, and production, he employs a playful childlike spirit to engage the inner-child we all have. Currently, he is the Creative Director of Foster, a brand striving to make people unafraid to play.

How to use curiosity to build a life, career, and co worth living. We will discuss how to remain curious and actively use it in tragedy and triumph!

Layne is an Indiana born and raised illustrator & painter. She takes the songs and lyrics of musicians and turns them into visual media. Being heavily inspired by the rock/folk/western genres gives her work a rough-and-tumble edge.

There is an isolation that comes with being an artist or creative of any kind, but we’re not designed to figure it all out on our own. In this talk, I will share the ways in which the simplest advice and knowledge from creative mentors and friends saved my career from drowning in the face of opportunity. Simply because they were willing to share. There’s a pride in wanting to be “self-made”, but at the end of the day the smallest bit of help can be the missing piece you needed. Don’t be shy to ask. Don’t be stingy to share.

As a kid, he drew everything and anything he could think of, hung out with the designers at the advertising agency where his mom worked, and constantly took things apart to better understand them.Always looking for new ways to solve problems, Jeremy was the kid, and later the adult, whom people turned to when they needed help expressing themselves and their ideas graphically.Today, as the principal of his own firm, Jeremy puts his insatiable curiosity to work every day as he gets into the heads of his clients to really understand what it is they want and—perhaps more importantly—need in order to develop a memorable brand presence. With a firm belief that he is the master of his computer (and not the other way around), he works everything out on paper first to ensure that the logos he designs and the brands he creates are as thoughtful, effective and original as the clients they represent.

5 years after starting my studio, I took a month-long international trip. Upon return, I saw my business with a clarity I hadn’t seen before. The pivot I made at that point changed the way we do business as a design studio as well as our approach to finding clients who best fit our culture and values. It helped us to define the real meaning of fulfilling creative work and how, when we do what is best for our clients, we can help them achieve their goals and find the same level of joy and fulfillment.

My name is Anderson Bluu and I'm a illustrator / artist based out of New York. I created limited edition artwork inspired by my love of pop culture, sneakers and basketball.

As a seasoned artist with over a decade of experience leveraging social media to grow my art career, I am excited to share my tips to help grow your art business at Creative South. Join me for my lecture " The Bluuprint for Building Your Art Business With Social Media," where I will discuss practical tips and strategies for effectively utilizing social media platforms to reach a wider audience and increase your sales. Whether you're a beginner or looking to take your art business to the next level, this lecture is for you. Take this opportunity to gain valuable insights from my own personal experience and success.

Alex has over 15 years in the design industry and has played a pivotal role in some of the largest brands and campaigns. He has worked with the likes of: Adobe, Balenciaga, Epic Games, Fortnite, Unreal Engine, Twitch, Hilton, Pfizer, Louisville Slugger, and Linktree as well as many more. He heads up the brand design studio Lazaris. The studio’s focus is on building unapologetically bold brands that drive results for their clients.

Landing your dream job, project or client can seem like a daunting task. In this talk that’s purposely built for all industries, skill sets and seniority levels, Alex will break down how you can turn your dreams into reality.