With over a decade in the web industry, April has intimate knowledge of what creating for the web feels, smells and tastes like. She has worked with brands like RedBull, Starwood Hotels, and Disney for large and small agencies. April now works for herself as Principal of Made Better Studio.

April also has a passion for helping others learn and expand their interests in web design, front-end development, usability, search engine optimization and the web in general. April’s been a Phoenix web community evangelist since she moved to the Phoenix area in 2005, and she’s not quitting any time soon.

By marrying these two passions she hopes to educate as many designers as possible on the experiences she’s had and her development knowledge, in hopes to empower other designers to make the web a more beautiful, yet usable place.

Brian Singer is the creative director and founder of Altitude Associates, a San Francisco based creative agency that helps consumer brands engage people through inspiration. Altitude has worked on programs with companies such as Apple, Adidas, Stanford Lively Arts, and Chronicle Books, among others.

His work has garnered recognition from Communication Arts, AIGA 365, Print, How, Graphis, Step, AR100, and he has work in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

He is also the creator of The 1000 Journals Project, a global art experiment where journals are passed from hand to hand. The journals have traveled to 40 countries, and through every US state. They’ve come to rest in hostels, cafes and law offices; been the subject of treasure hunts, brought to remote mountaintops, abandoned at airports and stolen at gunpoint.

He is the former President of the San Francisco chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, and has taught in both the CCA Extension and Academy of Art University programs. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

With over a decade of design experience in eco design and visual communications, Dion Zuess is a green advocate who believes designers have a unique opportunity to integrate talent, communication strategies, and social responsibility. Her studio, ecoLingo, is dedicated to green design, blending design ecology, style, and sustainability. The award-winning studio is an approved member of Green America’s Green Business Network, charter member of the Phoenix Green Chamber of Commerce, as well as a member of 1% for the Planet, Design Can Change, the Designers Accord, and the o2 International Network for Sustainable Design.
Zuess is a faculty member of MCAD’s groundbreaking Sustainable Design Online Certificate Program. Her work has been published in a variety of publications, and she is frequently invited to be a guest speaker, guest teacher, mentor, portfolio reviewer, writer, and consultant.
In 2006, Zuess received an American Graphic Design Award for excellence in communication from Graphic Design: USA. In 2007, she was nominated as a candidate for a Communications Design Award as part of the prestigious Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s National Design Awards program. Out of thousands of submissions and only 230 design firms selected, two of ecoLingo’s projects were showcased in Crescent Hill Books new release titled The Big Book of Green Design. The book will be distributed in over 20 countries by Collins Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Zuess was a contributing author for the book Sustainable Graphic Design: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Print Design published by global publisher Wiley. Her chapter titled “Working Smarter” has been developed into a new course within MCAD’s Sustainable Design Online program.

Eric Torres is an accomplished designer and author whose work has been featured locally in Phoenix Magazine and most recently on Wired.com. He is the principal at Specimen – his freelance design services and merchandising firm.

Eric is also the creator of the fictional world of Rynaga (rin-ah-gah), an ongoing design project that explores the use of self-imposed limitations, iconography and story-telling.

Forrest Richardson has always had an interest in design. His father was an inventor, developing the polarized 3D motion picture camera that filled Buana Devil and House of Wax. From an early age Forrest studied architecture and eventually golf course design. A detour in the 1970s took him into a print shop where he laid out brochures and business cards. That led to television where he was art director for KPHO. From there he and his wife operated Richardson or Richardson, a design and marketing consultancy that proved Phoenix-based creatives could do work beyond the state. Among the firm’s clients were Disney, News Corp, Apple Computer and Hilton Hotels. But, the return to golf course design was always in the plan. In 2001 the Richardsons turned their focus full time to golf course architecture, weaning clients to former employees or taking on a purely creative direction role. Today, Forrest manages numerous golf course projects including sites in Sweden, Mexico and throughout the U.S.  He is the author of four books on golf course architecture and a regular presenter at golf development conferences throughout the world.

Halina Steiner has worked on a large spectrum on projects in the fields of landscape architecture and graphic design. Most recently she traveled to India and Abuja, Nigeria for different landscape architecture projects and research. Much of her work at dlandstudio deals with sustainable infrastructure, conveying the behavior of natural systems, climate change and water management.

Prior work includes freelance graphic design for Bay to Breakers, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, NYASLA and University of Texas Austin.

David Hillman Curtis is a filmmaker, designer and author. His film work includes “Ride, Rise, Roar”, a feature length documentary on David Byrne which premiered at SXSW 2009, as well as several national commercials for Ogilvy/IBM, online commercial work for Rolling Stone, Adobe, Sprint, Blackberry and BMW and the popular documentary series “Artist Series”. He has also produced nine short narrative films; “Bridge”, was selected as one of only seven shorts for the GenArts 2009 festival in New York, “Embrace”, and “Spinal Tap” each won “Best Dramatic Short” Webby Awards.

As a web designer David has designed sites for Yahoo, Adobe, Aquent, the American Institute of Graphic Design, Paramount and Fox Searchlight Pictures among others.

His three books on design and film have sold close to 150 thousand copies and have been translated into 14 languages.

David Hillman Curtis’ work has been featured in numerous design publications worldwide. He has also lectured extensively on design and film related subjects throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. He was nominated for the Cooper Hewitt National Design award in 2009.

He generally goes by his middle name, Hillman.

James Bowie is a sociologist at Northern Arizona University whose research examines trends and organizational strategies related to logo design.  His writings on logo design have been published in Voice: AIGA Journal of Design, BusinessWeek Online, and Brand New.  He was appointed by Governor Janet Napolitano to the Arizona State Quarter Commission, which helped design the Arizona state quarter coin.

James Victore as told by himself. Shot, Edited, and Produced by Hillman Curtis as apart of his Artist Series.

3 years of strict production at a national weekly pub

3 years of in-house design as sole designer for international skin care company. I conceptualized, designed and produced all marketing material, packaging, advertising and more. I frequently met with R&D, sales and other departments to let the world know about the products.

2 years as senior designer and art director for international scale model manufacturer. I conceptualized, designed and produced all marketing material, packaging, advertising and more. This included 100+ page catalogs which were produced by myself.

2 years as senior in-house designer for international technology company. I conceptualized, designed and produced all marketing material, packaging, advertising and more.

Joe Ray is a Creative Director, artist, writer, speaker and lead guy at Estudio Ray, a visual branding agency in Phoenix. Joe is a creative thinker on reaching Latino consumers through communication and advocacy. Joe recently helped jury and curate a traveling exhibition titled “SB1070: An Artist’s Point of View”, a multi-discipline exhibition and performance series.

With more than 25 years in the profession, Joe Ray is a Creative Director, artist, writer, speaker and lead guy at Estudio Ray, a visual branding agency in Phoenix.

Rust and Relevance: The Art of Jonathan Arvizu

“I love the ephemeral. I see great value in the past. I try to bring that representation and immediacy to my work.”

Combining digital & traditional techniques, Jon creates work that feels ‘lived-in’- at home in the past, but remaining contemporary.

A Graphic artist and Illustrator by trade, his work runs a parallel between purpose and process. On one hand structured in his approach to process, the subject matter remains playful, public and personal at the same time.

Jon resides in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife Jenn & 2 sons, Grayson & Finley.

Jose Gonzalez is a Phoenix native who received his start in acting & performance under bree williams (lower-case intentional) at Arizona State University, and has been studying improv since 2001. Jose is one of the co-founders of The Torch Theatre, Arizona’s only longformimprov theatre & training center and a producer of the Phoenix Improv Festival (heading into its 10th year). Jose performs regularly with Galapagos, Dangerville, Umlautilde and many other groups & shows and has performed & taught all across the country and North America.

Mike Joosse is the director of chapter development for AIGA, the professional association for design. Working with chapter leaders directly, Mike provides resources, information, design work, strategic planning and support to all 65 chapters, the hundreds of chapter board members nationwide and designers around the world seeking ways to become involved with AIGA.

Prior to joining AIGA, Mike spent a decade working as an award-winning designer, art director and creative manager, and as a lauded volunteer with AIGA, culminating in a one-year appointment to AIGA’s national board of directors. He has lectured on design and AIGA to chapters and universities across the country. Mike divides his time between his home in Apex, NC, AIGA’s national office in New York, and the record stores in between.

- 4 years with a high-profile, non-profit cancer rights advocacy organization in Washington, DC where most of my design collateral was used for funding, grassroots and political efforts.

- 3 years with a multi-billion dollar mortgage company with design experience in the finance industry and experience with nationwide campaigns and annual reports

- 2 years with a multi-billion dollar banking company with experience in designing identity, marketing and tradeshow collateral for 60+ individual banks nationwide.

Nina Miller is an actor, improvisor and designer. Not always in that order. She is currently an MSD candidate in Interaction Design studying improvisation as part of the collaborative design process. Her current day job is for ASU’s Office of the President, making everything from websites to infographics to social media strategies. She has taught foundation level courses in the ASU Visual Communications program and worked as an advocate of higher education and design education in various capacities. She has been an actor and performer in Phoenix since 1995, and stage credits include Stray Cat Theatre’s production of Blackbird. Currently a student of The Torch Theatre’s Longform Improvisation Training Center, you can see her perform as part of a new improv troupe, “Unicorn Warpath” http://www.unicornwarpath.com/. Nina makes a living using design to support the ideas she believes in and feels darn lucky. She is very enthusiastic about almost everything.

Tactix Principal and Creative Director, Paul Howalt, graduated with a degree in graphic design from Arizona State University in 1992.

Paul’s brand development skills and award winning work has been saught after by both national and international clients including: MTV, Disney, HBO, Sony, The National Football League, Sports Illustrated, Lucent, Oracle, Viacom, AT&T, IBM, Target, Hasbro, Mattel, Sears, Nissan, CNN, BBC America, Turner Network Television, Sheraton Hotels, Seagate, Virgin Records, RCA Records, Adidas, Levi’s, Quicksilver, Urban Outfitters, Sega, Pizza Hut, Indian Motorcycles, Pepsi, Hershey’s, Phillip Morris, 3Com, The US Campaign Against Youth Violence, The US Department of National Security, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Nestea, Sonicare, Forbes Magazine, York Times, MacWorld Magazine, Capitol One Visa, Honeywell, Seiko, Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Miller Lite and Earnest & Julio Gallo Winery.

Howalt has spoken at numerous design events including the HOW Magazine Design Conference. He has also been interviewed by numerous design industry publications, blogs and podcasts.

Paul’s work is on permanent display at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York and has been awarded multiple awards in one or more of the following national and international publications and/or shows:  The Clio Awards (Gold), The One Show, Print, Communication Arts, ID, AIGA, The New York Type Directors Club, The American Center for Design Annual, HOW, Design World (Australia) and Graphis.

Graphic designer, illustrator, lecturer, educator and author Paul Sahre established his New York studio in 1997. While consciously maintaining a small office, Sahre has nevertheless built a large presence in American graphic design. The balance he strikes between commercial and personal projects is evident in the physical layout of his workspace: part design studio, part silkscreen lab, part classroom. In one room he designs and prints posters (some of which are in the permanent collection at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum) for various off-off Broadway theaters, while in the other room he is busy designing book covers for authors such as Rick Moody, Chuck Klosterman, Ben Marcus and Ernest Hemingway. Sahre is also a frequent visual contributor to The New York Times. He is the author of Leisurama Now: The Beach House for Everyone, 1964, a loving look at a short-lived product of early ‘60s consumer optimism: affordable middle-class summer homes. Sahre received his BFA and MFA from Kent State and teaches graphic design at the School of Visual Arts. He lectures extensively all over the world. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale.

Robert Hoekman, Jr, is a passionate and outspoken user experience specialist and a prolific writer who has written dozens of articles and has worked with Seth Godin (Squidoo), Adobe, Automattic, United Airlines, DoTheRightThing.com, and countless others.

He also gives in-house training sessions and has spoken at industry events all over the world, including An Event Apart, Web App Summit, SXSW, Future of Web Design, and many others.

Robert is the author of the Amazon bestseller Designing the Obvious (http://www.rhjr.net/s/dto) (New Riders), and its follow-up, Designing the Moment (http://www.rhjr.net/s/dtm) (New Riders). His newest book, Web Anatomy (http://www.rhjr.net/s/wa) (New Riders), was coauthored by Jared Spool.

I am a member of a small team of web designers at U-Haul International. My team is responsible for the look and functionality of the majority of U-Haul web sites. My stand-out work for U-Haul has been on some of the SuperGraphic web sites, which you can see linked from my portfolio site.

I have done web design for several years, though it became my primary medium when I took the job at U-Haul a little over 3 years ago. Until then, I worked as the in-house graphic designer for marketing team at Northern Arizona University.

I received my BFA in Visual Communication from Northern Arizona University in 2006.

Shad Hardy is a lead visual-designer in the Human-Centered Design group at General Dynamics. Shad holds an MBA in technology management and a BFA in Industrial Design that he relies on to work with diverse groups of people; currently the armed forces.  Shad’s 14 years of design and business experience includes working in automotive design for over 10 years, consulting to large companies using design software and traveling North America as a managing director of sales and services for a software reseller.

Bringing more than 25 years of experience leading blue-chip brands through Brand, Creative and Marketing strategies for some of the world’s most recognized and trusted brands, Todd’s expertise and vision have effectively delivered positive results for dynamic in-house teams and their internal business clients.

Todd has demonstrated success building and leading in-house teams for Fortune 500 brands with responsibility in online and offline channels for such companies as Yahoo!, Monster.com, Colgate-Palmolive, Jarden Consumer Solutions (makers of Mr. Coffee, Crock-Pot, Rival, Sunbeam and others) and more. His teams have achieved remarkable success through process and operational management delivering tens of millions of dollars in savings and accelerating speed-to-market time-lines.

Along with his teams, Todd is an award-winning and recognized leader of diverse in-house creative services groups that consistently develop and produce effective, strategic solutions that exceed expectations and garner incredible results.

Accolades came early on for Von Glitschka. At the age of 5, he won a contest and was awarded a Speed Racer coloring book. That’s when he realized a career could be made from drawing. Nothing has really changed…except Von no longer wears footed pajamas.

Von has now worked in the communication arts industry for over 23 years as a Senior Designer and Art Director. His fresh, exuberant graphics—for both in-house art departments and medium to large creative agencies—have won numerous design and illustration awards along the way.

In 2002, Von started Glitschka Studios, a multi-disciplinary creative agency. Their clients are nationwide, and include General Motors, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball, Merck, Microsoft, Pepsi, Virgin Atlantic, Hasbro, Bandai Toys, Target, Wendy’s, Allstate Insurance and Upper Deck.

In addition to wowing their own clients, the studio shines as a “hired gun” for outside firms looking for innovative design concepts and illustration. Larger ad agencies and design firms enjoy injecting a new level of creative buzz and adding to their talent base, without adding staff.

Von is a new breed of designer, one who crosses creative boundaries. He’s coined the phrase “illustrative designer,” because it captures the twin talents that bring life to NBA caricatures, corporate logos, toy design and business icons. And whether it’s Barbie or Babe Ruth, snowboards or a Samurai Guppy, Von’s style, humor and uncompromising excellence are sure to cause a second look.

Along with illustrative design work, Von pursues an insane number of other design interests. Von teaches digital illustration at a local college—by popular demand, he’s created www.illustrationclass.com, a resource site for students and professional alike. Von is married to Rebecca, and they have two creative daughters, Savannah and Alyssa, who have already shown an early talent for art and enjoy drawing with their goofy dad.

Ward Andrews is the founder of Design.org and Drawbackwards, a Phoenix, Arizona-based Strategic Design, Internet Marketing and Business Consulting agency. Ward is also Co-Founder of Families.com, a large social media site focused on families. With 15 years of Internet experience, since the birth of the web browser, Ward has built online communities and led business strategy, design direction, and large-scale projects with key roles including Creative Director at Rhino Internet and Design Director at Campbell Fisher Design.

Ward’s projects have appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, TNT Sports, ESPN, Born Magazine, PRINT Magazine, How Magazine, Design is Kinky, K10k and many other publications and broadcasts.