Recently we had a chat with one of the organizers of the new design conference "Projections” which will take place on the 5th November 2016 in Poznan, Poland. The event will host a number of top Polish designers with Huncwot agency as one of the speakers. The international headliner of the first edition will be RESN, represented by Kris Hermansson and Marcus Brown.

More information: projections.pl

The following is a Q&A with Piotr Swierkowski, one of Projections' organisers, a CSSDA judge and Art Director at torpedov.com.

What is Projections and how did you come up with the idea to create such an event?

Projections is an event organised by designers for other designers. Myself and the rest of the organisers came to the conclusion that there are too few events focused solely on graphic design which encourage people to be actively engaged in creative activities. That's why we would like to inspire others to work hard on polishing their skills and stimulating their creativity. That's the main reason why Projections was created - to help designers by showing them new ways of finding inspiration and how to use it.

Tell us more about the speakers invited for the first edition of Projections.

We wanted Projections to be a unique and extraordinary event promoting great and non-standard design that goes beyond patterns. The main theme of the first edition is "Inspiration” and we wanted to invite guests who are often mentioned as examples of inspiring people, artists or entrepreneurs. We also aimed at choosing speakers who represent different aspects of design and are also extremely experienced and talented. We're happy we managed to reach our goal by inviting world-class studio Resn represented by Kris Hermansson and Marcus Brown as well as the Polish agency Huncwot, whose great projects speak for themselves. Apart from designers associated with digital web design, we're also glad to have Patryk Hardziej, who's an experienced Polish illustrator and graphic designer well-known for his unique drawing and designing style.

For the lecture about branding we chose the Warsaw-based Hopa Studio whose portfolio is rich in top-quality projects for really awesome clients. The girls from less. studio and the owner of the Polish learning platform with an Adobe certificate, Grzegorz Rog, will also take part in Projections as speakers and will talk about unusual subjects. Last but not least, the list of the special guests invited for the event will also be filled by the representative from allegro.pl, the leader of e-commerce on the Polish market. As you can see, a lot of things will be going on this year, although it's a one-day event.

Projections sounds like a great event. Do you have something more than lectures in the schedule?

Of course! Actually, Projections isn't just a one-day conference, but it also involves "Design Battles” which will last for a month (submissions are open on 15th September and closed on 15th October 2016) and everyone is invited to take part! Each volunteer will create a personal interpretation of the Projections logo in accordance with a layout available to download from the official website of the conference. The jury will select the most interesting submissions, which will be showcased at the exhibition during the Projections.

The winners of the battles will be picked out by everyone who will take part in the Projections event with "vote by" stickers placed next to a particular submission. We will announce and award the winner at the end of the conference. "Design Battles” met with a huge interest among the designer's community and a number of top Polish designers have already confirmed their participation in the contest. Feel free to join us in the "Design Battles” - there's plenty of room for your creativity!

Sounds promising! What about less experienced designers, is there something in the schedule for them?

Sure! They're more than welcome to join us and listen to a group of amazing designers who will be also available to talk with the participants of Projections during the whole event. We've also prepared three types of workshops which they can sign up to! The first one refers to the basics of 3D graphic design, which will be hosted by Wojtek Magierski aka M4gik whose works were published on the covers of such magazines as Advanced Photoshop and Computer Arts.

The second one is about Set Design in Product Photography, hosted by the Poznan-based Muto Studio. The third one will be hosted by Bartek Kotowicz from brandingowy.pl and it refers to a designer's skills and business execution of a project in terms of its branding. The great news for everyone interested is that the ticket for the conference will include the possibility to take part in selected workshops. There will be two quotas for the Projections event but everyone who will be lucky enough to get a ticket will have a chance to sign up to workshops without paying additional money.

We think this is a great opportunity for everyone regardless of his or her level of experience and knowledge. A number of priceless tips and tricks delivered by the professionals and a huge dose of visual and graphic experiences for a really attractive price - that's how I'd like to sum it up!

What about partners and sponsors, how can they help with the promotion and organisation of the event?

Luckily we've managed to enthuse a number of great partners with the idea of Projections. Both private companies and public institutions are supporting us. There are too many too list here but to name just a few... allegro.pl joined us at the beginning of our preparations and helped us in financial issues.

In terms of the media partnership, we are very happy to be working with you guys (CSSDA) to get the word out to a larger audience. Concordia Design turned out to be another great partner and enabled us to organise the event at their place, which is amazing news because it's a really great and creative space full of beautiful pieces of design. We all would like to thank all of our partners and sponsors for helping us to create something amazing - we're more than grateful to have them on our side! However, we're still open for new partnerships in order to build a solid branding and develop Projections - new friends means more motivation and fun!

Do you have any plans for Projections next year?

Of course! We're full of ideas for future editions but first we need to focus on the first one to present Projections in the best light. However, we've already talked with many designers and they've showed a huge interest to take part in the next edition as speakers, workshop teachers or just regular participants. We're very happy about it but we have to put all our efforts to make this year's edition unforgettable so that everyone would say we definitely have to come back here next year.

Earlier you talked about integrating the designer's community together. How do you plan to do it apart from lectures and workshops?

We stand as traditionalists on this matter and invite all of you to join us at the Projections after party. We'll soon reveal more about it, but you can be sure now that it's an awesome chance to talk with the conference speakers openly and casually, exchange your experiences with other fellow designers and relax after a busy day at Projections. :)

How would you sum up Projections in two sentences?

Projections is happening at Concordia Design on the 5th of November 2016 in Poznan, Poland and will feature a rich selection of top designers/speakers that will provide an opportunity to get inspiration first-hand. On behalf of everyone involved I'm happy to invite all of you to Projections to meet Kommunikat Studio, Ewelina Dymek, Fromsquare Studio and more - it's going to be awesome!

Thank you for sharing the info about the conference! We're looking forward to hearing how it goes :)

Thanks and see you!

Check out the Projections website for more at projections.pl