Thursday, 24 April 2008 | Levent OZLER

Final Gravity Free Design Conference Speakers Announced

The Gravity Free: 2008 Multidisciplinary Design Innovation Conference, May 12-14, at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, will feature 22 internationally known design icons and thought leaders.

Gravity Free is an intimate two-and-a-half day design salon that brings designers from multiple design disciplines together with the speakers - design leaders whose work represents significant innovation.

The 2008 conference, "The Year of Dangerous Minds" celebrates creative risk-taking, with an international roster of prominent designers and visionaries including:

- Arturo Vittori, Aerospace designer/architect who focuses on extreme environments;
- Luigi Colani, perhaps the most influential industrial design visionary of the twentieth century;
- Ryan Genz and Francesca Rosella, interaction designers and wearable computing pioneers;
- Jake Barton, media designer and creator of innovative interfaces;
- Charles White III, renowned illustrator and environmental designer;
- Stephen Brown, marketing professor, author and heretical marketing guru;
- Deborah Adler, graphic designer and creator of inventive packaging;
- Phillip R. Tiongson, designer/filmmaker/software engineer;
- Karim Rashid, product and interior designer, "The Poet of Plastic";
- Janne Kyttanen, award-winning product designer and "rapid prototyping" innovator;
- Bryan Berg, architect, designer, educator and cardstacker;
- Karin Fong, movie title and experience designer;
- Tom Hennes, exhibition designer and creator of immersive experiences;
- Bob Gruen, "the world's best rock 'n roll photographer";
- Jamie Drake, ASID, celebrated interior designer;
- Chip Kidd, the book title designer and author who reinvented book packaging;
- Rodney Keenan, hat designer extraordinaire;
- Michelle Kaufmann, AIA, LEED AP, "the Henry Ford of green architecture";
- Theo Jansen, kinetic sculptor, engineer, inventor of breathtaking artificial life forms;
- Stefan Sagmeister, adventurous and unpredictable graphic designer;
- Massimo Vignelli, graphic design legend, who will join the conference via a special video presentation.

The conference is unique in its unfettered access to speakers, who engage with designers rather than limiting their involvement to formal presentations. Speakers host individual roundtable sessions following their sessions and network with attendees throughout the conference.

Lee Knight, CEO and founder of Gravity Free, is committed to creating a truly unique forum for cross-fertilization of ideas across the spectrum of creative disciplines. According to designer of transformative environments, Ron Pompei, "It is soulful."

Gravity Free: 2008 attendees will be the first group to tour two of the Museum of Science and Industry's exciting upcoming exhibitions:

"Fast Forward: We Will Invent the Future", a gallery that will awaken the inner inventor in us all by showcasing cutting-edge scientists, engineers, inventors and entrepreneurs that are transforming the world in which we live.

"Smart Home: Green + Wired", a functioning, three-story modular and sustainable "green" home in its own backyard to highlight unique home technologies for the 21st century. The home was designed by GRAVITY FREE speaker Michelle Kaufmann.