Un Untitled Designer Gathering
In Korea, there is a gathering of IT designers who have known from various spots like open chatting, meetups, studies, etc. This private gathering has its own slack channel and some autonomous rules. It's been two years since I've been in the channel. As I was an early-stage member and the end of the year was coming, it was a good occasion to organize a party, with other new designers.
Choosing time and place
The first thing to do was voting the date with the poll Slackbot Polly. I threw the available dates first, and let others vote. For those who don't have the available dates, they could add the available date too. As a result, December 13th has become the day. With the members available, we made a specific slack channel to set the details. Since the channel is open to anyone in Slack, any member was able to track the communication and take their own decision to come.
Decisions were made through threads on a topic-by-item basis. The parallel structure enabled us to make finial decisions simultaneously on various items. Any ongoing or important conversation was pinned to the channel so it can be found at any time. It wasn't intended, but the role-sharing of we six organizers was divided evenly and it was amazing. Designer A for the reservations, Designer B for the prints, for instance.
Visual Designs (oh yes, we are designers).
It seemed to have a simple poster or sticker, just because all of us were designers. (or... was it kinda mandatory? 🤔)
At first, I worked on key visuals with Adobe Illustrator(just by myself), and another member who uses Figma helped me integrate the whole design onto Figma. The HEX values were all worked with CMYK mode in Illustrator, so there was no big problem in printing at all.
A cute gif was solely created by Figma prototype feature, with the objects that were meant to be stickers. GIF made the graphic much more 'PLAY'-ish, and cooler than having static images only. (It was shame that there was no monitor to play it.) Figma glowed in an emergency situation. The member in charge of printing forgot the pdf file, but thanks to the web-base tool Figma, She was able to print safely with the given link only. Since the feedbacks were reflected immediately, we didn't have to send large files every time we made changes.
Here comes the main poster with the process. The ✌️✊✌️✊️ design was intended to express "Let's have fun with design in 2020 like PLAY", but I was asked "Why there's no paper on poster with rock and scissors?" 😅
Sending Invitations
The invitation was made with Notion link, but knowing that we have potential no-show and refunds, we asked the guests various options (there was even an option for those who are not drinking alcohol). Since we already paid for the space, the refund process was set as followings;
Have another designer attended and get a full refund
Get a refund except KRW 10,000 for the space rental fee
There was actually somebody who couldn't make it and followed the process. We would have been in trouble if we hadn't set the process.
Having fun 🎉
All the preparations were done, we welcomed the guests at the event spot. The main event were planned to start 30 minuets later, as I thought some of them might late because of working.
Since IT designers all like stickers(for real), we prepared removable stickers for the MacBook. The name texts were printed only for fixed organizers, and the guests were guided to write their name on spot, because the members could be changed.
At the year-end party, which was planned two years ago
For icebreaking, we prepared twenty different questions planned for designers specific, including other year-end party questions planned 2 years ago. If someone picked a number, the next person should answer the designated question with the number.
The questions might have been abstract and awkward, but thank you for giving us good answers. (But I don't plan to change the list of questions.)
After the icebreaking, we wrote retrospectives for 2019 and created a Mandal-Art plan for 2020. As designers, as individuals, it was all about writing down and talking about things we have done, and things we are planning. The retrospective was inspired by my personal retrospective at the end of each month, and used existing format for Mandal-Art. There was a lot of variety and frankness than I thought. Because we are in similar roles as designers, the consensus were thick and it was a great moment to learn from each other.
Having more fun 🍺
The event was held for 3 hours, so it ended at 10 pm. However, because we the grown-ups are mostly happier not going home early, there were rumors some of them went home at 4:00 a.m. until the "final final _.jpg."
Outro.
Things we could do better
Not only was the rental difficult, as it was held at the end of the year, but it was also shame only few people had chances for the gathering. We knew more people than we thought. If we held the next event, we might want to invite twice as many people as this time. (would it be like.. pyramid selling..?)
Text confirmation for deposit confirmation or confirmation has been sent manually. It would have been a hassle for the member who was in charge of the budget, I thought this part would have been better.
For the next
While it wasn't the first time to organize a year-end party nor the first-time designer meeting, it was very meaningful that the event was held solely because 'we wanted to' in a small group of untitled gathering. And it was also meaningful for the guests who enjoyed meeting not only their own friends but also new people.
Below is a review from an anonymous guest;
It was a great opportunity to look back 2019 and plan roughly for the next year. Most of all, I really enjoyed having fun and honest conversations with various designers. If I had this opportunity next time, I really want to join again.
We are really thankful to the eight guests who have joined in the extremely personal and organized party, and the six organizers who were as enthusiastic and prepared for the event.
PLAY DESIGN 2020 for the next year! 🥳
Thanks for watching!
