Background
While heading programs at my university's AIGA student chapter, I realized that we would rarely interact with other graphic design students in Chicago. Students would feel uncomfortable networking, and other attempts at growing a student community had failed.
At the same time, I also observed that the strongest bonds and friendships I had developed started out through working on projects together, sometimes late at night at the studio, one night before a deadline was due.
After connecting the dots, I realized the best solution would be to run a design hackathon for students: meet 2 Night Stand: Student Edition
Organizing:
2 Night Stand is an already existing weekend-long creative bender for designers, photographers, copywriters, illustrators, developers, and strategists. Working alongside Amy and Jason Schwartz gave me the opportunity to expand on the model.
Under their guidance I was responsible for developing the overall structure of the event, organizing, creating marketing materials, finding sponsors, as well as reviewing portfolios and selecting contestants.
The Event
We partnered up with the American Library Association, under the theme: The Future of Privacy.
Over one weekend, 25 students and 5 students worked together, brainstorming and creating solutions that ranged from small educational zines, to Augmented Reality proposals. Their work can be found here
