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This is the second part of the interview with Jennifer Champberlain of WebMD. You ca read the first part of the HOW Design Conference Wrap up here.

TDc: Was there an overall theme that you’ve kind of gotten a vibe from for the overall conference not just his. Was there, any kind, of you walked away thinking, “Well, this was really about x.”

Jennifer Chamberlain: You know what, I didn’t. I didn’t get into any real theme because they did this year. I think they usually do it. There is creativity and inspiration, list of seminars you can take, design disciplines, business and management, in-house issues. I think I like the creativity and inspiration the most.

For me, I went to a lot of the in-house issues because I lead our in-house group at Web MD. They had good speakers. They had this guy from MTV. His name is Scott Wadler. He was really nice. He addressed a lot of things. I think he really spoke to my co-workers who were there, my team was there and they really enjoyed.

I kind of felt like I heard it all before. They had the woman that leads the Xbox in-house design team for Microsoft. I didn’t find them motivating. I felt like I was kind of mislead because her speech was titled. “Was it Staying Creative?” Yeah, it was called Staying Creative. Her name was Shelley Armstrong. Super smart woman.

They’re doing great work over there but, I don’t know, it wasn’t really about staying creative. I think it was more like, how to be the best in-house designer you can be and I feel like we’ve all heard it. Maybe I’ve just been to too many of these things and there’s nothing left to say.

I don’t know but even this woman that works for me turned to me and said, “You know we tried all that stuff or we do all that stuff. I haven’t really heard anything new.” So I don’t know if there’s nothing left to do in in-house. [Laughs].

TDc: Well, you do have different problems than working at it as an outsider with an agency. Let’s talk about, well, one thing people talk about how busy they are. You work at an agency you think, “Wow, we’re really busy.” You work at an in-house well you think, “Wow, we’re really busy.”

Jennifer Chamberlain: Yeah.

TDc: How busy is busy?

Jennifer Chamberlain: That is all I try and figure out because we work in a super busy company where everyday is like things are due and every time you get a time line — no timeline is ever a realistic timeline but somehow you make it happen. Do you know what I mean?

Every speaker was like, “You know, we’re all busy but you got to blah, blah, blah.” Or, “Things have gotten so busy.” And I want to be like, “How busy is your busy?” Because my busy is 10 hours a day and you’re constantly nervous, you sit down — you can’t really think.

Everybody thinks they have ADD because we’re doing so much. You know, that kind of thing? I couldn’t really figure it out. Like some people are like, “Yeah, we’re really busy.” Then they tell you all the cool things they have time to do and I’m like, “There’s not a way they could really be that busy.”

TDc: Yeah, if your busy, you don’t have time for that.

Jennifer Chamberlain: And the only thing I could think of is, I guess we are all busy but if you love what you do at least 50% of the time you’re happy with the work you’re making and the people you work for appreciate you then it’s okay. I like being busy as long I get the pay back.

TDc: Right.

Jennifer Chamberlain: I guess that’s part of design these days. I guess if you’re not busy you can’t afford to go to the conference, I don’t know. [Laughs].

TDc: Or you’re in trouble.

Jennifer Chamberlain: [Laughs] Exactly!

TDc: Well, how would you relate or equate the How conference versus let’s say, an AIGA conference?

Jennifer Chamberlain: You know what? I feel really stupid because I belong to AIGA. I’m very involved in the AIGA in Atlanta. We’ve got a great group and we get great speakers. We even had Chip Kidd come and speak so seeing him at the How conference was a second time that I’ve seen him but I’ve never been to the big AIGA conference.

TDc: Okay.

Jennifer Chamberlain: However, I talked to a lot of people and the word on the streets and the people I talked to at the How conference is they felt that AIGA got better speakers. That’s just what I’d heard and I’m curious to go the AIGA conference now but that’s what they felt. That was the word on the street.

TDc: The How conferences, you know, it’s big. There’s a lot of, I would guess, is bigger than the AIGA conference and I wonder if there is an intimacy issue there. There’s so many people that go to the How versus possibly go to the AIGA. If that plays into it.

Jennifer Chamberlain: I think it probably does. When I was at the big seminars, I couldn’t get over how big the rooms are and they had like 7 giant screens and you can even see where the speaker was which made like question and answer really difficult. Lucky, the Gary Baseman was in a really smaller venue and I was kind of like, “I cannot believe that more people are here.” Like, “This guys is amazing!”

I personally do prefer the intimate conferences. Next year if I’ve the opportunity I think I would try the AIGA conference.

TDc: And then what about the individual seminar titles themselves and descriptions had. You mentioned that you walked out of one but was that because it was mislabeled or were there others were pretty well-labeled? “I quite,” you thought when you got there. You know, this is what it is.

Jennifer Chamberlain: You know what, for the most of them, I thought they were mislabeled. I feel like the most interesting descriptions were the boring ones and the boring descriptions were the most amazing. [Laughs] Like Shelley Armstrong’s Staying Creative, I think she gave two tips on how to be creative out of her whole seminar.

It was really just like how to be the best in-house designer, how to be a successful in-house designer. That would be a more accurate description. I’m trying to think there was also one reinvent yourself strategies to having the career you want. I went to that and it might just be that I see what I want to see when I look at this quickly and decide where I’m going.

But, that one particularly, I stayed. I was a little disappointed because it could be at any conference. It could be at a conference for accountants. The woman was really smart and she’s a great speaker but there was nothing specific about design.

I think there’s a big opportunity for somebody who’s more focused on design to be like, well , if you are in print and you want to go into web or if you’ve always been interested in illustration, how to parlay your skill. That kind of thing is what I thought it was going to be.

TDc: Right.

Jennifer Chamberlain: So I was kind of disappointed in that. I’m just looking around at other things. Like, one was called English For Me is Greek. Like, what does that mean? I don’t know. [Laughter] So, it’s kind of hard sometimes where you want to go but I’ve become a big proponent of — I give them 5 minutes and if I don’t like it I go. I move on to the next on.

TDc: Well, how about accessibility. You mentioned several of the sessions where in the big rooms and then there were the small rooms. How was the accessibility to the speakers, not only while they were speaking, but throughout the conference?

Jennifer Chamberlain: You know after I saw Chip Kidd walk by but it wasn’t like he had mail, he was, like, off. He had somewhere to go kind-of-thing. I didn’t really see accessibility to them. I have to say, the guy from MTV, Scott Walder, was super nice and stayed forever answering people’s questions. But I didn’t see other people sticking around, making themselves available or approachable.

Gary Baseman, he was an exception. He came out before they were really to get going asking questions but, otherwise, I didn’t really see them around. Although, I have to say, a lot of times when I was in a conference there would be like, “Well, if you saw so-and-so speak yesterday, they mentioned blah, blah, blah.” So, I guess they were going to different seminars but I didn’t really see them around.

Maybe they have like an invisibility cloak. I don’t know. [Laughter]

TDc: Well, I’ve been to some conferences where they’ll sit in the back waiting, they’re in the next session. Then, all of a sudden after it’s gone, they’re out of there. Other people have this entourage around and you can never go over and say anything to them. So, interesting.

So, what did you find now that you’re away from the conference? What are you going to take with you? What is going to inspire you from this point on that was a result of the conference?

Jennifer Chamberlain: I think for the most part, it was remembering to look at other people’s work. I have a whole list of new people I didn’t realize that were out there that I want to go and constantly check what they are doing, to get inspired for myself. I think from seeing the Logo Notions speaker, how he was talking about with print identity to always keep it simple and to think about how you can really play with forms and keep them simple so they can evolve with time and be something that’s very trendy.

He showed, was it the Museum of Toledo, I think. A fantastic logo and he showed it’s evolved overtime. Really interesting. So that’s something. Because a lot of times, people, myself included, I’ll design a logo and you’re afraid to touch it or how it can be used. [Laughter] Do you know what I mean?

TDc: Right, yeah.

Jennifer Chamberlain: It’s like, we need to let our children grow, evolve but still be themselves. You know?

TDc: Yeah. Well good! Well, Jennifer, I think this has been incredible and really want to say thank you for telling us about the whole How conference and thank you very much.

Jennifer Chamberlain: Thank you! I love talking so I appreciate the opportunity. [Laughs] Talk to you soon, Dan.

TDc: Alright. Thank you. Bye.