Information design conference 2007: a debrief

There is a small group of people, UK-based, who form the first generation of professional information designers, compete professionally, and still meet to compare and contrast every few years. It may be (I tentatively suggest) that this group is now reaching the stage where it feels able to raise an eyebrow here and there at more junior colleagues, and starting to infer that things weren’t done that way in the (good) old days. It looks – to those of us who weren’t there – as if lots of things were done very well in those days (from the late 1970s onwards; much was bomb-proof and/or research-driven and it underpins current practice). But do I detect the hint of a challenge to the younger generation? If not to prove itself, then at least to dig out projects of suitable merit on which to work.

The conference itself was very stimulating; I felt greatly refreshed by sensible and illuminating talks, provocative questions to the speakers, and conversation with other delegates. Delegates from all over the place; I wish I had spoken to far more of them. We were all well looked after, too, in a good venue, with an excellent conference dinner.

The event was largely conceived and executed by ‘old hands’ and I would like to express my gratitude to them and to the speakers and exhibitors. And of course these old hands who I make out to be grizzled relics are not really that old at all: they’ve got many more years of yeoman service yet to give and I hope they will forgive me the epithet. I think I am not alone amongst my peers in feeling that the best way to take up the unstated challenge of those raised eyebrows is to keep turning out good-quality, useful work; particularly in that upstart arena, the Web, which was barely examined in its own right during this conference. There’s plenty to do.

SERIAC 2007

(That is, SERIAC).

A very enjoyable one-day conference held conveniently close at the University of Reading. Highlights: Paul Sowan of Subterranea Britannica on chalk mines in general and the safety or otherwise of the chalk mines just below the streets of West Reading; David Buckley on ERIH, an initiative designed to spice up the appeal of industrial heritage sites in Europe; and Dick Greenaway on the industrial archaeology of woodland. It was also fun to watch Martin Andrews, a former teacher of mine in the Department of Typography, give a bracing (and comprehensive) run through the developments in printing technology during the nineteenth century.

One thing I appreciated was the calibre of the delegates; a good bunch of people they were! It is notable that, save for me and perhaps half a dozen others, there wasn’t anyone under the age of fifty. This, I think, clearly reflects the shift in ‘leisure interests’ across generations, but I am not prepared to believe that interest in IA, and in other similar fields, will wane and die off. What I do want to know is how interest will be held and the appeal of such pursuits as IA broadened. ERIH seems to offer some pointers.