Elliot Ulm

0:00 [Applause]

0:06 hello New [Applause]

0:15 York New York I don't know this a chant or something that you guys do hello everyone thank you it's nice that for having me and thank you all for coming out tonight when I say this is a dream come true I absolutely it cuz I'm just a silly Aussie who posts funny pictures online aren't I and I've written here say that part in a funny voice to give you confidence for the rest of the speech you can only get better from here thank you.

0:40 That's good I'm literally flying home to Sydney tomorrow so I feel incredibly blessed to be here tonight and if the IRS asks what I'm doing here tell them I'm on holiday and that.

0:50 This is an open mic night for those who don't know me I prepared an introduction video that should tell you a little bit about myself oh what hi I'm Elliot I'm so I'm Elliot I'm I'm a graphic design content creator known online as Elliott is a cool guy current currently living and working on gatore land in Sydney Australia fun fact in Latin graphic design content creator translates to who likes to brag about how many social media followers he has but I don't think that's true that's not an accurate translation I have over 400,000 followers across Instagram and YouTube and if you're trying to visualize what 400,000 people looks like take a look around there are 400,000 people here tonight trust me for those that watching on YouTube I made a career out of taking the piss out of the graphic design industry through the power of graphic design and I know what you're thinking that's impossible a funny graphic designer who's also cute in a very Australian way am I dreaming but don't pit yourself this is reality and I hated reading that joke out loud I've been Elliot as a cool guy for four years now and thanks to the beautiful Instagram algorithm I've had my work exposed to millions of like-minded people which has led me to work with some absolutely lovely clients and also some clients I'm now going to talk about my work a little bit and show you some posters that I think are funny and explain why they are funny this one says graphic design is very important no it isn't but who will make the signs I don't care that one's funny cuz it got a lot of likes on Instagram this one says taxes oh no I'm a graphic designer I don't have to do those haha that one's funny cuz it got a lot of likes on Instagram and this one's three this one's fun the back one says I don't have a degree I hope that's okay the middle one says YouTube taught me everything I know and the front one says most of my CV is work I did for free and this one is funny because it got a lot of likes on all right the fun fact about this one this post here was my very first attempt at the design comedy thing it was my first post on Instagram it's a series of honest business cards expressing my anxieties about proving yourself as a designer if anyone was on design Instagram in like 2019 to 2020 you might remember the poster on black background era that just like dominated my feed right all you had to do was post a design and a black background and you could join the scene this was everywhere.

3:46 So this post blew up yeah I got a notification for every like and I don't think I've experienced that much dopamine in my life that first day was insane so that little bit of confidence was enough for me to say it I'm a funny guy I can make more jokes let's see what happens if I keep posting and so I kept posting and the page really started to kick off December 2019 comes around and everyone is posting about this remember these remember this yeah. I just had to get in on the trend so I made my magnum opus what fun are you 4 million people use this filter in the first three days and Instagram was like ooh people are engaging with this account let's boost everything he's ever posted and that gave me all the momentum I needed to start taking this thing seriously and if you're wondering what font I am I'd like to think of myself as the font cool vea cuz Elliot is a cool I didn't write the punch line for that one I now exist at the intersection of graphic design and comedy my posters attempt to reflect my honest experience as a graphic designer navigating the industry through the beautiful medium that is graphic design sometimes I'll describe my work as design memes designed well catchy right yes in the past year my YouTube channel has kicked off too which means I now get recognized in public which makes me feel really cool and awesome I'm a big theater kid at heart and an improviser and comedian outside of being Elliot is a cool guy so YouTube works great for me as it very much feels like I'm performing that's right I do improv and YouTube and graphic design which means I'm great at speaking at public great at speaking in front of a camera and I'm terrible at speaking to people at parties funny right that was a joke about how graphic designers are awkward and have trouble making friends it's self-deprecating humor which in my extensive practical research is the most common type of humor among graphic designers we take the piss out of ourselves because it's easy when being a graphic designer sucks so much right isn't it just the worst oh comic sand Shut up let me me be completely honest I don't care too much about graphic design like it's good sure but I I to got like five more years in me guys I'm going to be honest I don't actually like it that much I don't even tell people I'm a graphic designer anymore because I don't really do graphic design I don't do client work because I suck at branding and I'm also very sensitive there was a time a few weeks ago where this presentation.

6:21 Actually looked designed but then. I thought no and now it looks like this in fact when someone asked me what I do for when someone ask me what I do for a living now I've now started saying I'm a YouTuber which means they'll ask what's your channel and I get to watch them open my channel on their phone as they say oh wow you're actually a YouTuber haha and I'll say yeah ha and then I'll leave early because I have so much work to do ah Squarespace wants a video by the end of the month oh I got to get out of you guys see you. So if I don't really see myself as a graphic designer and I don't really give a about graphic design what do I do all this for this is the page designer humor my Nemesis my lover and confidently self-described as the largest design meme account on the internet I truly believe this is some of the worst content on the internet right now yet the page is almost 1 million followers 1 million followers if you're trying to visualize what 1 million followers looks like there's 1 million people here tonight look around this was The Benchmark of design comedy and design designers humor is still growing 1 million followers is huge for an industry specific meme page in general right watch ♪

8:02 he posted that on the page yes I think about this page way too much yes it's definitely similar across other Industries and yes I have been blocked from seeing design as humor stories we don't need to talk about it I don't know how that happened but I think there's something here I truly believe this is a product of an industry that takes itself so seriously that we can only laugh at our own misery right we send and share bad posture 4 hours of sleep third coffee this hour working for exposure client sent the logo in a word doc what's your rate new Final final.

8:35 PSD we're off to a good start minimalism is ruining the world don't judge a book by its cover the graphic designer who designed the cover unnamed layers unpaid invoices client backseat designing hovering over your shoulder while Photoshop crashed for the 20th time today I'll update my portfolio tomorrow graphic designers have no friends did you know the Avatar logo is in Papyrus Your Design doesn't mean anything it has no purpose we are problem solvers pixel pushers we serve the client as we make it pop and make the logo bigger B isn't a real design tool PNG with a fake transparent background design can't be art design can't be fun design is ♪

9:10 exhausting graphic design is my passion yeah but then we look at designers on our feed and we're like wow they loved making that you can just tell people who love designing that much can't hide it they are their work it's experimental it's personal and it's full of choices that make you say that's cool and I have no idea why and I'm so jealous of them I always thought that kind of love for your work was reserved for artists I think we're told far too often that graphic design is strictly a service and that it can't exist without the client and if that works for you no bloody worries but sometimes it's nice to design for yourself which brings me to my favorite thing I've ever done in my career design Chef design Chef was a weekly three-hour live stream I ran on my twitch channel the premise was simple I would give everyone a challenge like design a poster using only text or design a postcard for a fictional destination we' then all individually complete the challenge in 60 minutes in whatever way we'd like once finished everyone would submit their design to a Discord server and I'd pull up each design on stream and talk about them and there was one rule that both me and everyone watching had to follow no criticism allowed gasp says design Reddit design Chef started as a little bit of fun it was funny design Chef started as a little bit of fun during lock down yeah like just a way for some young creatives to do some designing without the pressure of clients or social media judgment we just made stuff experimented and didn't think too much about it but as the weeks went by and the seasons went on yes there were Seasons Broadway design Chef became an event yeah we went from 30 viewers to 200 which might not sound like much.

10:48 But I swear it's a pretty good number for a graphic design stream on Twitch and if you're trying to visualize what 200 people looks like look take a look around I want to quickly show you some work by some design Chef Hall of Famers and let me remind remind you the challenge is revealed in minute one and then you get only 60 Minutes to design on the left we have Gio an an insanely talented designer I have had the pleasure of meeting and one of the best people working in the industry I have never seen someone pour more effort into literally every design they do and on the right we have bur who was here tonight I believe get up here just kidding she is here bur is a designer whose playfulness and willingness to experiment single-handedly spurred a generation of design cheffers and Instagram designers to have more fun break rules and embrace the authentic style within yourself the text in this poster is literally made from Playdoh right unreal and this design here was made by a parent whose daughter cheffed along with them and she wrote try to touch the sky how sweet is that the love and effort people put into those 60 Minutes consistently week after week was incredible but if you can't criticize what on Earth do you say when presented with a design in front of you you compliment it yeah you complement the out of it you complement the idea right the thing that can't be taught as directly as technical skill the skill will develop over time.

12:07 But the no criticism rule gave those designers confidence confidence that their ideas are good and confidence to keep designing no matter what level of experience they were at confidence to look at their work and say that is my design and I have something more to offer than just fulfilling a client's brief graphic design can really suck I've Been Told literally make it pop like three times before right.

12:30 But I think back to 12-year-old Elliott who had spend hours on the Photoshop free trial learning how to make a cool vintage retro wallpaper from a YouTube tutorial and show it off to the whole family so while I may not give a about graphic design I sure do care about graphic designers thank you so much [Applause]

12:54 everyone