---
title: The SEED conference in chicago
teaser:
tags: news,design
author: Matt Jankowski
published_on: 2008-01-22
---
Last week Chad and I flew out to windy Chicago for the [SEED
conference](http://seedconference.com/) — A One-Day Conference on Design,
Entrepreneurship & Inspiration, by 37signals, Segura Inc. & Coudal Partners.
Both of our flights got in after 1AM, so we didn't get to take in too much of
Chicago Thursday night. We did have time to notice that the McCormick place
convention center is pretty damn big though.
Friday morning we arrived at the [Illinois Institute of
Technology](https://iit.edu/) campus for the conference. The campus features
a prominent [train
tunnel](http://images.thoughtbot.com/ui/2008-1-22-trainIITcampuscenter.jpg) sort
of thing as you walk in, an explanation for which we were to receive later in
the day. Interesting as the tunnel was, it was about 10 degrees out, so we went
right in for breakfast and registration. After some brief networking and
coffee, everyone was invited in to the main auditorium for the day's
festivities.
## Segura
Speaking first was Carlos Segura, founder of Segura, inc, T26, 5 inch, and much
more. I was probably least familiar with Carlos' work out of all the speakers,
but I was quite impressed with what he had to say. It was interesting to be
taken out of my comfort zone of web and web application specific business
discussion and hear about things that I'm not that familiar with (the world of
font licensing, for example) - but to still be able to recognize the underlying
message that those stories were telling.
Throughout his talk, Carlos insisted that a) this is my only hat and b) you have
to remind the client that they're irrelevant ... nicely.
> I did it because I was an idiot. I am no longer an idiot.
>
> Carlos Segura, on doing spec work
## Fried
Next up was Jason Fried, one of the founders of 37Signals. I'd seen Jason speak
years ago at a Building of basecamp workshop in San Francisco — and the
37signals Getting Real philosophy isn't exactly a secret to anyone these days -
but it was still worthwhile to hear Jason talk about the building of the
37signals business and and how they've grown out of client work.
> You don't know what you're doing anyway ... until you're doing it.
>
> Jason Fried, on whether you know what you're doing
## Lifson
[Edward Lifson](http://www.edwardlifson.blogspot.com/) led a working lunch where
he discussed the IIT
campus architecture, [Mies van der Rohe](http://mies.iit.edu/), Rem Koolhaas,
copying vs stealing, etc.
At first I tried hard to find links between what Lifson was talking about and
the rest of the speakers. It wasn't hard to do because architecture contains
just as much opinion and art as graphic design does, but at a certain point I
decided I was stretching it and decided to just enjoy the architecture for what
it was.
## Coudal
The final speaker was Jim Coudal of [Coudal Partners](http://www.coudal.com/).
One thing I didn't know: Coudal Partners is only six people! Of the three
presenters, Jim seemed most confident in the possibility of constantly inventing
and discovering new businesses (and filming
[funny](http://coudal.com/regrets.php)
[videos](http://coudal.com/unsolicited.php) to amuse everyone). Someone asked a
question about how they set that up legally, with new products and services
launching all the time, and I thought that Jim's answer of it can be as hard as
you want to make it really summed up the day quite well.
> Well, I'm actually a creationist
>
> Jim Coudal, on evolution in design
## Panel discussion
There was a common thread of don't worry, just do it between the three speakers,
in regard to starting new projects and new businesses. It's so easy to get
bogged down in why you can't do something or why your competitors have already
beat you, or why you'll run into legal trouble, and so on. Carlos, Jason and
Jim all had true stories about how you can be successful by executing first and
worrying later.
Overall, I think we found the day enjoyable and worthwhile. So much of the
Getting Real philosophy is just plain common sense. It was good to step back
from the day to day of client work (where that common sense is sometimes lost)
and be reminded of that.