ClemsonGC attends Front End Design Conference for the 6th year in a row

May 14, 2019

ClemsonGC students attend Front End Design Conference 2019. Clockwise from top left: Emily Wagner, Maggi Whiston, Maggie Roth, Kaitlyn Cote, Santiago Gomez, Paul Johnson, & James Weaver.

Last week seven of Clemson’s Graphic Communication students had the opportunity to attend the Front End Design Conference (FEDC) in St. Petersburg, FL. The annual conference is an event for web professionals who love their community, the web, and learning.  Along with assistant professor Dr. Erica Walker and lecturer Daryl Stevens, students gained valuable insights into the strategies and design processes from leading industry experts. FEDC was full of passionate speakers that shared many new coding tricks and web design techniques.

Here are some of the students thoughts on their experiences at this year’s Front End Design Conference:

Kaitlyn Cote:

FEDC was an incredible experience. I am so humbled to have gotten the opportunity to learn from such talented people in the web community. This section of Graphic Communications is often overlooked, as our major is typically print heavy; however, it is such an important and interesting career path for those who are interested. The speakers we heard from were so knowledgeable on a variety of different subjects relating to web design and user experience and I was able to take a lot of what I learned and apply it to a final project for my web design class, GC 2400.

My favorite part of the trip was the workshop we participated in on the first day. I am a very visual and hands-on learner, and the activities we completed that day were very helpful in teaching me how to work with other professionals to come up with one cohesive idea for a brand. I also very much enjoyed sitting in the Palladium theater and hearing people from across the country speak on their experiences and what type of techniques work for developing a successful website.

I am incredibly thankful for the group I was with as well. I learned a lot from each of my classmates and was able to meet people in my major that I had not before. I am also very grateful to my professors for organizing the trip and choosing to bring us along. It was an opportunity I will never forget and I am so thankful for all of the new knowledge I gained as a result.

Maggie Roth:

Being given with the opportunity to attend the Front End Design Conference was amazing. This was my first conference experience and it was beyond anything I could have expected. I had the chance to hear from great and knowledgeable speakers on topics about UI and web design, attend a design thinking workshop, and speak personally with professionals in the front end design community. From this conference and workshop I have learned many new skills and tricks to making UI better and designing better products and websites. This trip gave me many great opportunities, including getting to know my professors and fellow students on a better level than before the trip.

This year’s FEDC was a great experience for students interested in the field of Web Design/Development. It was also a great opportunity for our Clemson students to network with industry professionals who are looking to hire people with coding experience. Students were able to witness first hand how the industry is thriving and how there is a growing need for graduates with the skills to work in the field of Front End Design.