CONFERENCE SESSIONS
Friday, Oct 24
Keynote
Beyond the Blueprint:
Embracing Play as Essential Process
with Betsaida LeBron
This keynote explores the vital balance between playful discovery and structured design in creativity. By integrating play into our methods, we access deeper innovation beyond mere efficiency. Compassion in our creative process liberates us from single-solution thinking, revealing multiple possibilities. Through examples and insights, we'll challenge designers to find harmony between deliberate structure and free-flowing curiosity—creating not only better designs but also more fulfilling creative experiences.
Brand Design Project Showcase
Pop! The Stigma - A mascot for mental wellness
with Priya Kumar & Mary Hunt
Bubbles the Unicorn: Pop! The Stigma Launched one year ago through a grant-funded initiative, Pop! The Stigma is the Sacramento LGBT Community Center’s youth-focused mental health campaign. At its heart is Bubbles the Unicorn, a vibrant mascot designed to spark joy, creativity, and open dialogue around wellness. Since launch, Bubbles has anchored interactive activities—affirmation walls, DIY sensory kits, storytelling, and photovoice projects—that empower youth to name their experiences and build resilience. By blending playful engagement with affirming education, Pop! The Stigma normalizes mental health conversations, reduces stigma, and strengthens pathways to support for youth & caregivers.
Peel Insights
with Chris Thomas
Peel set out to make e-commerce analytics feel human, approachable, and even a little magical for Shopify users. Discover how a deep understanding of their team unlocked the brand’s core archetype, bringing humanity and personality to the forefront. That archetype became a guiding character—turning raw data into relatable stories—and shaped every aspect of the brand: from the dual visual worlds of monochrome “business” realms and vibrant “analytics” landscapes, to the tone, motion, and personality that invite users to engage. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how empathy, strategy, and design transformed a complex platform into a trusted and memorable experience.
California Policy Collaborative
with Chelsea Jimenez, Thea Appling, and Mario Vasquez Zuniga
The California Policy Collaborative hosts e-learning courses and a relationship-building learning community to support legislative staff as they build foundational knowledge, skills, and connections. Creative expertise across project management, strategy, development, and design came together to shape a seamless, accessible platform. Design played a key role in making complex policy content feel clear and engaging, using thoughtful visuals, intuitive user experience, and a cohesive brand identity to build trust. Through intentional creative collaboration, the platform transforms how policy knowledge is shared—making it more modern, welcoming, and impactful for the next generation of changemakers.
Position to Profit
Position to profit: How messaging alignment creates more yeses
with Jennifer Bourn
If you want clients who can't wait to work with you and are happy to pay your full fee, you need to get your positioning right. Most people think positioning means developing a single statement and moving on. Wrong! Positioning happens every time you craft external messaging — and it's what turns strangers into leads and leads into clients. Positioning is what determines whether prospects browse, believe, and buy. This session covers what positioning is; how it impacts marketing, pricing, and sales; and how to position your services so future clients lean in, learn more, and can't help but say yes.
So You Want to Make a Podcast
So you want to make a Podcast?
with Eric Grotenhuis & Michael Hendry
In our first live podcast and in the spirit of PROCESS, we will let the audience into the story behind the creation of our podcast and why it is relevant to marketing Page Design. We will first talk about the intent behind and the development of all the elements that make up the podcast, then go into the last 18 month journey of launching and learning from mistakes. Then we will finish with a short Q&A session to answer any questions about the Marketing Team of One podcast.
UI/UX Design Project Showcase
UX in Healthcare: Automating Provider Processes
with Carmen Zagazeta & Xtine Nguyen
Healthcare is a complex field, often burdened by inconsistent, outdated, and overly intricate processes. At first glance, the mission of our User Experience team may seem straightforward: add a single feature to an online tool. However, what often goes unseen is the depth of work and analysis required for even the simplest UI enhancements. This case study explores our approach to understanding and streamlining the ways Providers interact with our Portal.
California Grants Portal
with Brian Bourn
The California Grants Portal, a project by the California State Library built by Fueled, is a centralized platform for finding all grants and loans offered by California state agencies. The portal helps users discover funding opportunities across various sectors with regularly updated postings to connect individuals, organizations, and communities with available state resources. This session takes you behind the scenes of the site strategy, the initial process of bringing this government website to life, and how new regulation-required features were integrated over time.
Case Study - Intel Graphics Command Center
with John Gladding
Have you ever worked on a project that has been in over a billion computers? Intel Graphics Command Center is a graphics tuning application that was built by Intel for machines with Intel integrated graphics. John Gladding led the UX and design of this project, and will explain the processes involved to bring this application to life.
Co-Creating the Future of Design Week
Co-creating the future of design week
with Bernadeta (Bernie) Baktashian
What Does the Future of Design Week Look Like?
Join this high-energy, hands-on session to help shape the next chapter of Design Week. We’ll mix quick prompts, small-group conversations, and a playful ideation challenge to spark ideas and uncover fresh perspectives all while pulling back the curtain on the creative process. You’ll explore why people attend, imagine what’s next, and co-create possibilities for the future of Design Week that welcome every creative field. Leave with new connections, fresh inspiration, and the knowledge that your ideas will directly help shape the future of Design Week.
Design Application Project Showcase
Pixel-Perfect Storytelling
with Landon Lee
For Behavioral Health System Baltimore, Noble crafted a retro videogame-inspired animation addressing the unique mental health challenges the holidays can bring, like navigating tense family conversations and the financial pressures of gift-giving. The work’s strength lay in the smallest choices: fluid, intentional motion; precisely timed transitions; and carefully balanced pacing that kept viewers engaged without overwhelming them. This meticulous attention to detail elevated the animation beyond visual nostalgia, delivering a polished, professional result that resonated with audiences. By treating such precision as the baseline standard for motion graphics, campaigns like this can achieve both creative impact and measurable success.
Conference Branding: Outlook Forum 2025
with Emilie Johal
Outlook Forum is Visit California’s largest annual event, uniting the state’s tourism industry for three days of networking, education, and inspiration. The 2025 event was held at the JW Marriott L.A. Live in Los Angeles. I developed the event’s theme and, alongside my creative team, crafted a cohesive branding system inspired by Los Angeles, including its energy, diversity, and cultural richness. We executed a comprehensive suite of materials, from name badges to stage design, delivering a seamless and engaging experience for all attendees.
Branding a community-first journalism service. Rooted in Sacramento.
with Maggie Denham
Abridged is Sacramento’s community-first journalism service, powered by PBS KVIE. Honey created the brand strategy, identity, and launch support for this new, essential journalism service. Senior Designer, Maggie Denham, will dive into the brand applications for the platform designed to empower, bridge instead of divide, and help you feel more connected to your community. She’ll also share how the brand comes alive across digital platforms and merchandise, and how it’s already got Sacramento talking.
Closing Keynote
Design, Community, and the Futures We Build
with PJ Carlino
Beyond serving as a catalyst for consumption, design is a change agent that can both sustain—and sometimes undermine—the civic and environmental conditions in which we live. Design’s practices are as influential as its products, shaping our neighborhoods, tools, and infrastructures, and structuring how we relate to one another and the world. This keynote explores how design enables connection, reinforces systems of care, and opens or closes pathways to more just and sustainable futures. As we face global challenges, design also empowers us to act locally—with creativity, responsibility, and purpose.