Speaking

Max Bizley, the graphic designer of the Dymantic Design duo, shares his recent experience of giving a talk at a University in Taiwan.

Max Bizley of Dymantic Design speaking on stage

I had the exhilarating and honorable experience of giving a presentation to senior design majors at YunTech University (National Yunlin University of Science and Technology/國立雲林科技大學) in Douliu City, Yunlin, Taiwan. For me it was a first but something I had had an itch to do for some time, so leading up to it I felt a unique excitement I had not had in a while (something like the first day of school?), as well as a fair bit of nerves.

Despite its remote location in central Taiwan the university is well-known in Taiwan as being one of the top technological universities on the island, which extends to their design faculty, where I would be headed. The students I spoke to were in their 4th and final year at YunTech studying a Creative Design major which involves a comprehensive study of architecture, industrial engineering and graphic design. I would, of course, be speaking to their graphic design interests.

Max Bizley of Dymantic Design presenting a slide for his speech on Design

The presentation went superbly and I am happy to say I had a lot of interested looks and a good amount of head nodding along the way. I was totally impressed with the level of English amongst the students and key points were easily picked up. I did my best to keep the presentation as visual as possible, going all out on fun, graphical slides I spent a fair bit of time putting together to demonstrate my graphic design expertise. This paid off, as students were impressed and interested throughout the talk and had the most wonderful things to say at the end as well as very loud applause. My heart soared.

The speech did not have a very specific topic, like an actual discipline or teaching a skill. It was to give young designers who are about to enter the world of careers and adulthood some insight into how one person (me, strangely) has handled this transition and how I came to have a design studio in Taichung, Taiwan doing graphic and website design along with a business partner. Any wisdom and tricks and tips I could offer along the way would be welcome. The time slot for the talk was 2 hours which I thought was a marathon, but in the end I wished I had another 30 minutes at least.

Max Bizley of Dymantic Design interacting with his audience

Topics I covered in the speech included:

Max Bizley of Dymantic Design presents a speech

Throughout the speech I aimed to make the students aware of the great responsibilities and feats they were going to come up against in the future. Being a designer is no walk in park, as is so often portrayed, and going the self-business route is a massive undertaking and something that should be deeply considered before committing to. I hoped to make them cautious and excited about their decisions at the same time, and hopefully help them to have a better grasp on what their own paths looked like up ahead, something that I wish was presented to me at that age but missed out on. I can truly say I think some of this rubbed off on them, which I’m elated about, and overall they had a unique look into a designer's life. Aside from the many thanks and compliments on the presentation my favourite comment by one student was “I feel like I just watched Ted Talk”, which I felt was testament to a job well done.

If you are interested in having me as a guest speaker at your school or university please get in touch via email: max@dymanticdesign.com or LinkedIn

What they said:

Max came to Yuntech last week and gave a great speech to my 4th year Creative Design students, the speech was fantastic as it related to the issues of creating a design studio in Taichung and the way of equipping self in facing the reality of competition in design practices. Best wishes LiHsun

Lihsun Peng

Associate Professor, Dept. of Creative Design at YunTech