What’s it going to be Beirut? Just get on with it and tell us that you’re going to make us fix the economic crisis in the next 24 hours. Come on, I can take it.

“Your final design challenge” he hesitated, “Make a statement about Civil Rights.”

Oh shit, this is way worse. Where do I even start with this vague of a brief? He preceded to inform us that there was a car waiting for us outside, ready to take the three of us on a private, after-hours tour of the National Civil Rights Museum. “Be specific” he suggested “Choose one thing from the experience that moved you or inspired you or angered you or that you never knew. Based on that, create a call to action.” Paul Sahre added the insightful advice of using our limited time as our constraint and work hard on that single source of inspiration.

What happened between that moment and our arrival at the Museum is mostly a blur now. It was dark and misting as we pulled into the parking lot. Walking up to the Lorraine Motel, the place of death of Dr. Martin Lurther King Jr., was an eerie experience. Connie Dyson, Communications Coordinator for the National Civil Rights Museum greeted us at the entrance. We freely explored the Museum, sketching and capturing every possible piece of inspiration. After about the first half hour, we became more mindful of our docents time and increased our pace. When our time came to an end, we left in silence, awestruck and overwhelmed with emotion.

Reviewing my notes on the drive back to the convention hall, I remembered two booklets displayed in the Museum. Meeting Your Needs and What Are You Still Looking For? Sponsored by the NAACP, both titles stood out to me as ways to share your story and voice your concern with the state of discrimination. I walked through the exhibitions again in my head trying to piece my experience together. I recalled numerous retellings of peaceful protests. Boycotts, picketing, sit-ins, silent protests, marches, freedom rides—All means of expressing frustration.

That was then, but what about now? Where is our voice heard today? Is it heard today, or is segregation just ignored and thought of as a fault of our past? I was confident in this direction, but I had a lot of work to do to answer all of these questions and actually make something to present the next day.

After a 10 minute pause to rest our brains (and debate whether or not to make a quick appearance at the Design Observer party) we retired to our hotel rooms to begin our secondary research (sadly missing the rumored mad-dance skills of our beloved emcee).

Found on Flickr with the caption “Shouldn’t they be working?”

I inhaled room service over a few encouraging calls to my former IDEO colleagues. The next few hours involved a pot of hotel coffee and a lot of pensive palm-in-forehead gestures. You know the pose. It’s in that moment of desperation that you think “maybe if I close my eyes tight enough and really focus, then it will come to me.” Right, like every other genius that can instantly summon an Ah Ha! moment. By 2:30 AM, I had given up on this theory and decided to walk down to the lobby to speak with what I expected to be the only other person awake in Memphis, the concierge. I approached the African American women working with uncertainty. “Just be honest,” I thought to myself.

“Alright” I said to the women quite frankly. “I have to create a statement about Civil Rights” I projected.

“That’s great” one of them said.

“You mean, you don’t think that’s weird? Coming from me? A young, white male, not from around here.” We proceeded to have a very honest conversation about our personal histories and the current state of the Civil Rights Movement. I did a lot more head-scratching at the end of the front desk as they patiently waited for me to raise my next concern. By this time, the Design Observer party had ended which meant that a rush of slightly inebriated designer were released and were flooding back to their rooms. Passing, of course, the front desk where I stood, half-awake and completely defeated. To my surprise, their hilariously drunken pep talks gave me enough motivation to push through until 4:30 when I finally retired for the night.

Three strategically programmed alarms went off until I finally responded to the 7:00 am call reminding me that I had a video interview with Sean Adams in an hour, and I was not going to let him upstage me with his perfect hair or intimidate me with his perky morning interrogation. I used secrecy as my tactic in the interview, but the truth was that with just 7 hours to go, I still had no idea what I was going to do. Shortly after, I remembered having a crazy idea the night before to make a movie. With every ounce of courage in me, I ran with it and began writing a script. There was no time to fear the risk of not finishing, I just had to do it.

A few AIGA volunteers helped me find a quiet room to record my audio and away I went. In the middle of recording, I received a wonderful surprise visit from our mentor, Sean Adams of AdamsMorioka accompanied by Michael Vanderbyl of Vanderbyl Design, and Dana Arnett and James Koval of VSA Partners. So there I was, in a quiet room, suddenly getting advice from four of the country’s greatest designers. It was nice to know that they had my back, but as they were leaving, Michael turned to me and said something to the effect of, “If you screw this up, I’m going to find you and personally kick your ass.”

Got it. I worked faster and more intensely in the following hours than I’ve ever worked on anything. At 2:30 pm, just one hour before the deadline, my best friend and greatest support brought me a change of clothes and wished me luck. This was it. I had no idea if I was going to get this thing done, let alone leave time to export this enormous Final Cut file.

At 3:00 pm sharp, the Memphis Cook Convention Center crew began tearing down the space around me. My two competitors were off getting ready for their final debut, so it was just me, my computer, and a room full of furiously moving fork lifts. I sent out an emotionally panicked tweet. I didn’t know what else to do. Ten minutes later, the unimaginable happened. I looked up from my screen and standing beside me was none other than the lovely, Debbie Millman, partner and president of design at Sterling Brands and current president of AIGA’s national board of directors. My idol came to my rescue. Remarkably, she managed to dispel the chaos around me as she offered her assistance. “Anything,” she said “Just tell me how to help.”

She listened to me talk through my concept, gave me advice, and offered to kick start the conversation of my viral video by tweeting the title of my work, #startasking. I gave her a hug and told her how honored I was to have her support before she disappeared to find a seat for the closing ceremony.

I took a deep breathe, put my earbuds back in and somehow finished my film just in time to hand it off to the Command X coordinator who would deliver it to the production crew backstage. By now, the Apple support team had already begun reclaiming their equipment before I was able to save and transfer my three days of hard work onto my personal hard drive. This caused a minor dramatic incident that would have been great footage had this really been a reality show. Allow me to paint the scene for you; I was surrounded by 8 yellow-vested volunteers, vultures really, each one tugging at different cords. The final straw was when one of them pulled the power cord before the files had completed their transfer.

“I need these files!” I screamed.
“For what?” someone sneered “These computers need to go.”
I was dumbfounded. “BECAUSE I MIGHT NEED THEM LATER!”
I snapped.
“Okay, okay, step away from the designer,” their tech master ordered.
(The time was 3:50, I had ten minutes to get backstage and I hadn’t prepared my speech.)
“Just get them to me, alright?” I said as I scooped up my pile of belongings and ran to the performance hall passing the audience on their way to find seats.

I overheard a group of students say “there he is!” Their voices faded as I raced past, just like the movies. “You wanted a show, right?” I thought to myself. Luckily, a surprise guest appearance from an Elvis impersonator bought me a few more minutes to scratch down my final pitch.

Back on stage, in front of 1,500 designers, I began…

This was an extremely difficult challenge. I felt uncomfortable approaching this subject as a young white male. What role do I play in the Civil Rights Movement? How do I communicate a statement about Civil Rights to an audience of socially conscious makers and thinkers? I had a lot of questions. But who doesn’t? My solution, ask more questions. Start a conversation. And leverage the viral nature of video to continue asking questions.

In the end, I was awarded first runner up. The judges questioned whether or not my execution was the appropriate solution and were concerned that it lacked an emotional charge that would incite action. I disagree. I think the script is powerful and forces conversation and its viral nature speaks to the current state of the Civil Rights Movement, which is the feeling that your voice is no longer welcome in the public domain. Regardless, every single one of the final solutions were remarkable achievements for the time we were given. I am proud of all of us. This experience was by far the most challenging to date, but equally as rewarding. Thank you to everyone that helped encourage and support me to the end.

So, how on earth was I going to make Cap’n Crunch appealing to adults? When our 8 AM interview with Sean Adams rolled around, I still had no idea what I was going to do. I think I did a pretty good job faking it for the camera though!

By 10 AM, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to pull off a super polished redesign, so I decided to illustrate the box. I quickly wrote up a few lines of copy to sell the cereal and went to town with my Sharpie.

I went through about a dozen versions before I was ready to scan it in and manipulate the hand-lettered font along with photographs of brown sugar and milk. I was inspired to bring Cap’n Crunch back to its basics and position it as a delicious treat that adults could feel good about eating. The “crunchy” Whole Foods feel, as Bonnie Siegler put it, made the product more approachable and easier to connect to for today’s health conscious adults.

Well, Chip Kidd hated it. “Oh, how far you’ve fallen” he said. “I just don’t get it.” To which I promptly and politely responded,

“Constructive criticism, perhaps?”

The auditorium exploded with applause. This one witty remark back at Kidd garnered a huge response from the conference attendees. Even Neenah paper featured my comment on their blog. But I wasn’t so sure that my words were going to save me from being “deleted.”

Backstage, I couldn’t have been more nervous. Unable to focus on the presentations happening 10 feet away, I jumped on Twitter to see what people were saying. That’s when I saw this.

Debbie Millman loved my redesign! She was extremely supportive throughout this whole process, but I’ll leave that for another post (my admiration for this design icon deserves its own blog). And she wasn’t the only one who loved it. There were a handful of people commenting on my hand illustrated package. Wow. Maybe, if the judges had a live Twitter feed in the deliberation room, they would be influenced by my fans!

They were influenced by something, and for some crazy reason, decided to allow me to advance to the next challenge. If I looked surprised and unhappy on camera, its likely because I was. I was kinda looking forward to going to the Design Observer party and then getting a decent nights sleep. But with the announcement of the final challenge, I was wide awake and ready to get to work…

Below are some additional photos of the second presentation.

I really immersed myself into all things Elvis, doing tons of research before even jumping onto my computer. These are the sketches of my initial direction.

Once I felt like I was in a good place (the day before taking off) I sent my logo around for feedback. All critiques were valued, regardless of whether or not I actually had time to make changes. Big thanks to my mentors at People Design and IDEO, as well as Michael Vanderbyl and Mark Fox for their advice.

This was my final solution. Chip Kidd, who created a reputation for being a harsh critic, picked up his microphone and announced that he had two words for me. I was shaking in my boots, but prepared, at this point, for anything.

“Love-it” he said. Phew! My logo ended up winning judges choice for that round, which made me very happy and boosted my ego as Michael Beirut promised it would. It also advanced me onto the second round; redesign Captain Crunch cereal and target it toward adults.

The five remaining contestants were off to our design workstation where computers, boxes of Cap’n Crunch, and an audience of interested spectators were waiting for us.

Below are some additional photos from the first day on stage.

Just one week to go until these new connections are made and old connections are reunited. Just one week and I’ll be in Memphis. In no time, the past 58 days of nerves culminate in the opening ceremony, where I will be found pacing back stage, preparing for the biggest pitch of my life.

Seven days, AIGA! Where is my first challenge? I’ve given up guessing what it’s going to be at this point, I just want to know.

Yesterday, Neenah Paper posted an interview with Michael Bierut, Pentagram partner and host of Command X. Like every other bit of press around the event, it excited and frightened me simultaneously.

“One of the reasons we have an age requirement for the players is because we know that young people need no sleep and can thus attend all the parties, all the events, and still get the assignments done.”

We’ll see about that, Michael. I’m going to need to see that assignment first. So, any day now.

Finding moments of fun is never easy under the pressure of a tight deadline. In these conditions, laughing occurs only out of hysteria. But after re-watching Command X: Season 1, I realized that it could be a lot of fun. In fact, the people that went the furthest in the competition were the ones that had the most fun.

In the initial challenges, humor got the best response from the judges. It’s no wonder, I mean the three-day conference is packed, back-to-back with inspiring lectures and workshops. It’s overwhelming. So what did AIGA decide to do? Provide a little entertainment by putting seven helpless designers in the spotlight and seeing what we can create in less than a day. This year, they increased the entertainment with another competition, Mano-A-Mano a live tournament testing the design IQ of 16 conference attendees. There will also be screenings of the films Objectified by Gary Hustwit and Typeface by Justine Nagan and an appearance from comedian Demetri Martin.

Alright, so this might be fun. But keep reminding me though, even if I roll my eyes. If I hear it enough times, I just might start to believe you.

This is it, I thought. Breathing suddenly became difficult–each inhale, a tiny accomplishment. Within then next hour, I was connected to three other other Command X-ers, Katherine Walker, Alison Yard Medland, and Elaine Chernov (a contest from season 1).

Don’t doubt for a minute that I hadn’t already resourced Google to size up my competition. I did my homework. But this Tweeting “at symbol” storm made it all that much more real.

One of my opponents shared her knowledge that we would be receiving our first challenge in just a few days. I hope they wait until Monday, I’ve got a lot of homework to do this weekend and I need at least another day or two to get my act together before the next big blow.

A big shout-out is also due to People Design, and the AIGA Grand Valley Student Group for inspiring and continuously challenging me to push myself to do my best. And to my family and friends for every drop of encouragement. Only two weeks to go–How many more panicked phone calls can you endure? I’ve got plenty left in me.

The last conference was hosted by the AIGA Denver Chapter. The original challenge given to the Command X: Season 1 participants was to redesign the Denver Broncos logo.

To play it safe, I’ve decided to prepare myself for anything and everything Memphis. And knowing only that it’s the home of Graceland isn’t going to give me an advantage over my competition.

So, what do you know about Memphis, Tennessee? What kind of music do they play on the radio? What are the local eats? If you’ve visited or lived there, what did you notice about the people? If you’ve never been but you recall watching a travel channel feature because nothing better was on, I want to hear from you too.

Websites, images, articles and of course music are all welcome! Tell me what you know.

Of course, Thursday turned out to be a nightmare so I only spent a few hours on the challenge. Most of that time was spent researching the Discovery Channel, animal patterns, textures in nature, and then I stumbled across this.

I was instantly intrigued. I knew I had seen it before, but I wasn’t quite sure where. A little digging revealed that this illustration was the work of the late Charley Harper, best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters and book illustrations (most notably The Golden Book of Biology).

This style also reminded me of a beloved little creature we all know and love from our early days learning to read.

By the time I discovered the main sources of inspiration to focus on, it was 2:00 AM and I had a lot of homework to do on Friday. Time for bed. Friday flew past me, as anticipated, but by some chance I was able to come up with something. This screen shot (note the time) shows the “early stages” of the playful direction that I felt like Animal Planet should go It is followed by the final logo.

Between you and me, I’m not completely sold on the final result. There are elements that could work well if there were more time to explore, but I’ve learned through this exercise that I need to speed up my research process and significantly increase the number of explorations so that I can produce more unique directions. In the end, however, I have to be confident in my result because Michael Beirut is not going to care whether I had enough time or not. He, much like Tim Gunn, just wants me to “make it work” so we can put on a good show.