Previewing the Awwwards 2016 Web Design Conference

Designers from all over the world are gathering in Amsterdam this winter for three days of talks, workshops, and networking, all culminating in a massive cocktail party in one of the city’s historic church venues.

Awwwards has been a partner of ours for years, and their conference is one of our favorites in web design. Let’s explore what they have in store this year. 

The 2016 Awwward Conference AMS from January 27-29th 2016 features 15 talks and 3 workshops provided by design experts from around the world. Tickets are available now.

Awwwards’s yearly gathering of design professionals keeps attendees informed about the current state of web design. Attendees discover current and future trends, learn advanced new front-end techniques, practice creative work skills, learn about popular case studies directly from the sources, and of course socialize with like-minded professionals.

Speakers

Josh Brewer

The former Principal Designer at Twitter was named one of the “fifty designers shaping the future of design” by Fast Company.

Inayaili de León Persson

This lead designer for Canonical, the company that delivers Ubuntu, takes charge of Ubuntu’s presence across the web.

Christian Heilmann

The Principal Developer Evangelist for Microsoft brings his web know-how and quirky sense of humor to the conference.

Josh Payton

The current UX Vice President of Huge has worked with such well-known brands as Lowe’s, Royal Caribbean, American Express, and JetBlue.

Greg Barth

This Cannes-award-winning director from Switzerland has in the past designed for FIFA, McDonald’s, Sony, Disney, and the United Nations.

Other speakers include:

Jakob Kahlen, Global Creative Director at B&O Play (Denmark)


Kris Hermansson and Simon Jullien, Creative Team at Resn (Netherlands)


Anrick Bregman, IxD Director at Unit9 (England)


Tom Rijpert, Art Director at MediaMonks (Netherlands)


Jeroen van der Meer, Creative Director at MediaMonks (Netherlands)


Jesús Goriti, Group Director at Fjord (Spain)


Trine Falbe, UX Consultant (Denmark)


Bjarne Christensen, Creative Director at Stupid Studios (Denmark)


David Vogel, UX Director at AKQA (Netherlands)

 

Workshops

In addition to the talks, the AMS conference is hosting three hands-on workshop run by notable names in the design industry. All these day-long workshops include lunch, snacks, drinks, and materials.

Mastering SVG

The acclaimed Lebanese front-end developer Sara Soueidan explains the best practices for adopting one of the most significant new appearances to the design industry, scalar vector graphics. With their advantage in the varying screen sizes of responsive design and the security of crisp visuals in HD displays, SVGs are rapidly replacing raster formats like .jpg, .gif, and .png.

This day-long workshop will run through an entire SVG workflow, including CSS manipulation, cross-browser responsivity, and seven different techniques for embedding.

Sketching Interfaces

Stepping away from the computer, UX designer and illustrator Eva-Lotta Lamm shows how to apply the classic art of sketching to web design. Targeting web professionals from designers and developers to product managers, this workshop explains both the theory and technique of sketching across all skill levels. Communicate better through your sketches by learning to draw different screens, flows, transitions, and interactions.

A Guide to Designing for Emotion

Every designer knows the importance of a site’s emotional connections, but few know how to create them. Dogstudio designer Henry Daubrez hosts a workshop teaching how the visual principles of painting aesthetics can be applied to web design for the same emotional impact. Learn about light theory, composition, texture, typography, and other classic art principles to create more immersive and interactive environments for your users.

Venue

Planning to top past Awwward conferences in Paris and Barcelona, the first of next year’s two conferences will be held in Amsterdam’s Royal Tropical Institute. Located next to Oosterpark, this neo-renaissance estate offers an inspirational setting for the presentations, and a central location for exploring the city after hours.

Cocktail Party

At the end of the three-day conference, all attendees are invited to the cocktail party for networking, unwinding, and simply enjoying a night in Amsterdam. The popular event location Church Hall in Hotel Arena is a converted church chapel with original ceiling paintings and marble pillars still intact.

For four hours, conference attendees are treated to a free bar and standing dinner with vegetarian options. A DJ entertains as designers from around the world kick back for this exclusive international party.

Tickets and Reservations

Tickets are available with options for conference/party, workshop, or all-inclusive. Reserve your place now before the event sells out.

NYC Conference

Our own CEO Marcin Treder will be speaking at the 2016 Awwwards Conference in NYC. The conference will be held June 15-17, in New York’s FIAF Auditorium. Keep checking as more information develops on speakers and events, or sign up for the mailing list to receive up-to-date news.

Meanwhile, if you’d like a refresher on web UI best practices, check out our free 100-page e-book Web UI Design for the Human Eye. Once you’re done, feel free to practice what you’ve learned in UXPin with our step-by-step animations editor.