EXTENDED ENTRY DEADLINE | SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2024   ENTER NOW

Jury Selection

Kian Farhang, Creative Director, VR Experience,
The World Bank Group

Kian Farhang is a distinguished creative director specializing in digital product design and branding. His career spans prestigious roles at leading design firms and organizations, including 2×4 Studios, Landor NYC, and The World Bank Group. Kian has a proven track record of spearheading large-scale projects and has played pivotal roles in delivering exceptional results for world-class clients such as JP Morgan, Capital Group, Merrill Lynch, The Jewish Museum New York City, and AbbVie. His extensive experience and leadership in high-profile projects underscore his expertise and dedication to excellence in the design industry.

Kian holds a Master of Fine Arts in graphic design and is currently an ABD Ph.D. candidate at Ohio University, majoring in Interdisciplinary Arts with a focus on cognitive psychology in digital spaces. His research work and scholarly articles have been published and translated into various languages, establishing him as a design theorist. In 2023, he was shortlisted and nominated for the A’ Design Award in Como, Italy—and his design was subsequently patented. He has also held the esteemed position of judge at several renowned international design competitions, including The Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), Telly Awards, and Online Design Awards (ODA), among others.

We asked Kian to share some of his current favorite digital tools, newsletters, video games from the early 2000s and more.

Kian's Picks

Digital Tools

Figma Slides
Figma recently introduced the first presentation tool tailored for designers and their teams: Figma Slides, a new feature within the Figma platform. This innovative tool allows designers to create stunning slide decks, seamlessly integrating interactive prototypes directly into their presentations without leaving presentation mode. Enhanced with an AI copy editor for tone refinement and a misalignment detector to highlight areas needing additional design work, Figma Slides really comes handy for designers to share and showcase their work.

Krea
Krea.ai is a free, AI-powered design tool that helps users generate high-quality images and videos. It’s intended to be an intuitive and powerful solution for designers, marketers, and hobbyists to bring their creative ideas to life. I’ve personally utilized the image-to-video feature and managed to produce truly remarkable outcomes.

Rive
Rive offers a dynamic, real-time design platform that empowers users to craft animated graphics and UI elements for websites, applications, games, and more. It has an easy to use timeline and advanced keyframing capabilities allow designers to animate UI components effortlessly. These elements can then be seamlessly integrated into interactive platforms without the need for coding, streamlining the design process.

Newsletters

It’s Nice That
“It’s Nice That” provides valuable insights and fosters community among creative individuals, enabling them to enhance their creative endeavors. This exceptional platform keeps you informed about the latest in design trends, news, events, and competitions. With daily updates featuring stories of designers and their new projects, it’s the perfect way to kickstart your day as a designer.

The Brand Identity
The Brand Identity is a platform for visual designers, studios, type foundries, and brands that provides inspiration, advice, and recommendations. It also offers a store with products for work and life, including mockups, templates, assets, books, and posters. An excellent resource for daily high-quality inspiration.

Design Everywhere
This outstanding resource serves as a wellspring of inspiration, engagement, and a challenge to creative excellence within contemporary visual culture and beyond. Personally, I have discovered top-tier design projects that surpass anything available on traditional platforms like Pinterest.

Books

Typography: My Way to Typography
This engaging introduction to professional typography by Wolfgang Weingart, a Swiss pioneer in graphic design, is essential reading. The book inspires readers to think like designers and appreciate the importance of quality typography, making it a must-read for anyone in the design field.

Pantone: 35 Inspirational Color Palettes
I am convinced that every designer should keep a Panton book on their worktable, enabling them to explore the vast possibilities of color in their projects.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
This book highlights Alexander McQueen’s innovative thought process, detailing his remarkable career as a fashion designer. It explains how he deconstructed existing designs to create new ones and how he developed exceptional visual motifs.

Tech Innovations from the early 2000s

iPod-Classic
I vividly recall the excitement of purchasing an iPod Classic with the paycheck from my first design job in the early 2000s. The nostalgia is overwhelming; back then, its music quality seemed otherworldly and significantly boosted my creative thinking.

Flash Drives
My life transformed with the introduction of flash disks, enabling me to transfer files swiftly without the need to burn CDs. It revolutionized the way I carried my digital portfolio, allowing me to have it on a compact flash disk in my pocket wherever I went.

Facebook
Facebook was the first online spot where I got to show off my designs and creative projects, getting instant feedback through comments and connecting with other designers right there.

Video Games from the early 2000s

Sims
Sims was the first game I popped onto my PC for my sister, and then I got hooked myself. It became my chill zone where I could do things at my own pace. Truly a legendary game.

MAX PAYNE
I was super impressed with Max Payne’s graphics back in the day, especially those iconic slow-motion jumps – it was the first third-person game I ever played. Totally fell in love with the soundtrack and the character voiceovers.

GTA Vice City
This hits me with a wave of nostalgia, just reminiscing about those summer hours spent glued to my PC, cruising around Vice City in GTA. The open world, that iconic soundtrack – those were some seriously good old days.

 

When you enter your work into the Davey Awards, it’s reviewed by creative professionals like Kian. The deadline to enter has been extended to September 13th. Submit your projects before time runs out.

Follow Kian

Want our Newsletter?

Sign up for our emails to get the latest updates!