Fun at the PHXDW 2019 Closing Party

Phoenix Design Week 2019 was an amazing week at Artisan Colour and for the design community in Phoenix–with the PHXDW 2019 Closing Party to finish it all off!

Phoenix Design Week 2019 Quick Recap

Our Scottsdale-based print shop team supported Phoenix Design Week as their Official Print Partner. Artisan Colour provided the badges, banners, flyers, and all kinds of event graphics…starting with the Evolve Design Conference which kicked off Phoenix Design Week 2019.

“It was a pleasure working with the AIGA Arizona team as well as Ideas Collide, Foil Graphics, and Roswell Bookbinding to help accomplish Phoenix Design Week 2019. This was such a great opportunity for us to meet all of the talented local designers who are part of our community. We were very thankful for the opportunity,” said Aaron Kilby, vice president of Sales & Marketing.

The Evolve Design Conference featured keynote speakers Robert Generette III (aka Rob Zilla III)–a genius vector artist–and Jack Morgan, Product Design Lead at Duolingo.

All through the week, the local design community gathered at networking breakfasts, lunches, and happy hours in the Phoenix Valley. In addition to the Evolve Design Conference there were other workshops, tours, and talks that gave our Phoenix design community a chance to learn and share knowledge together.

Phoenix Design Week 2019 Events Included…

• Calligraphy Boot Camp with Alison King
• Best of 2019 Design Exhibition (sponsored by AIGA AZ)
• Business of Design: Working as a Designer in the Gig Economy, a panel discussion at Canary Studio
• RISE: Indigenous People’s Day Poster Show, hosted by Indige Design Collab
• Letterpress workshops at Hazel and Violet
• The Roswell Bookbinding Experience, hosted Roswell Bookbinding

PHXDW 2019 Closing Party: Fun and Food!

On Friday Oct. 18th, Artisan Colour hosted the 2019 Phoenix Design Week Closing Party at our commercial print shop. The Artisan Colour team provided print facility tours–led by Mike Goldner, Director of Ecommerce & Custom Sales.

Mike commented, “I thoroughly enjoy pulling the curtain back and showing potential clients and industry colleagues how the magic happens! But this is not limited to special events. We have an open door policy – anyone who wishes to see / learn more about how a product gets made, is welcome to take a tour.

Usually, half way through a tour, a lot of light bulbs go off and I hear: “You can do that? and How BIG? WOW – that opens up so many opportunities!”

It is quite stunning to see how far the industry has come in just the last 6-7 years and Artisan Colour tries hard to stay at the forefront for the digital frontier. We recently added a whole department for dye-sublimated ChromaLuxe prints in Gloss & Matte. AND, unlike most other print shops, our prints are 100% customizable, from a little 11″ x 14″ all the way up to 4’ x 8’ and any size in between.

We also expanded our finishing / bindery options in our Small Format Department and are expanding our CNC router capabilities too. It’s an exciting time here Artisan Colour and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. We’re more than a printer, we’re Artisan.”

Top 20 Best of 2019 entries were showcased at the closing party too (see below!)

The Best of 2019 entries were shown as the AIGA AZ Design Exhibition during the PHXDW Evolve Design Conference earlier in the week, where conference attendees cast their ballots for their top choices.

Short Leash Hotdogs & Rollover Doughnuts were on-site serving up a magical combination of hotdogs and doughnuts. Their flavor combos were outrageous, but surprisingly delicious. Check out this flavor combo for instance: The Bear – peanut butter, smoked gouda, bacon, BBQ sauce, and Cracker Jacks!

Guests had a blast posing for the photo booth provided by Artisan Captures, Artisan Colour’s professional photo studio.

Comedy Time at the PHXDW 2019 Closing Party

The PHXDW 2019 Closing Party also featured designer comedy, blended with a talk show feel.

PHXDW 2019 Closing Party: Its a Talk Show w/ Kerri Gallagher

It’s A Talk Show w/ Kerri Gallagher (a local monthly brunch comedy show), created a special PHXDW edition with featured guests who decided who’s HOT and NOT in the design world, played audience interaction games, and answered trivia questions.

The first segment was “Design Trends: Hot or Not”, where the audience got to vote with a thumbs up/down signal on what is going out of style and what design trends are cool now.

The second segment: a logo guessing game. Special guests and audience participants received brand clues then had to not only guess the brand, but were also required to quickly draw the logo correctly to score points.

PHXDW 2019 Closing Party: logo guessing game quick draw of CBS logo

The third segment was a color guessing game where special guests and audience participants guessed whether a color was…

• a band name
• a Crayola crayon
• a Dodge Charger color

At the end of the night, attendees playing the PHXDW Poker crawl showed their cards they had collected during the week, with the winner receiving a PHXDW 2020 Conference ticket. The PHXDW Playing Card deck in this challenge was designed by Ideas Collide and features custom typography developed by Scott Biersack for Phoenix Design Week 2019.

We had a wonderful time welcoming the Phoenix design community to some fun and food for the evening.  Artisan Colour looks forward to seeing all of you again next year at Phoenix Design Week 2020!