Made in the Middle

2018 Creative Conference

It has been a dream come true to be a part of the team behind Made in the Middle—a design and creative conference celebrating creatives from the Midwest. We recently wrapped up our 2018 conference in Kansas City, Missouri which included amazing parties, a full day of 10+ workshops followed by a full day of inspiring lectures from 7 creative leaders from around the country.

Conference iconography designed by Carpenter Collective.

Made in the Middle which started as a passion project at our studio has grown into so much more. Our recent 2018 conference is a great example of this. We now have an amazing board of volunteers all sacrificing their time and efforts to make it happen (we love you Lindsay, Spencer, Eric, Mckenzie, Emily, Alex, Larry, Abby and Eddie). We have amazing business partners from all over the country who support and value the arts and the difference it can make (we love you Hallmark Cards, Adobe, NextPage, French Paper, The Kansas City Art Institute, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and so many more). We are beyond proud of our Kansas City design community that just flat out, shows up. Made in the Middle reinforced that Kansas City is an elite creative city. We are so proud to partner with AIGAKC on this dream of ours and hope it’s success can further support their creative initiatives. Our 2018 conference also showed us that the event reaches far beyond just the Midwest, as we had attendees from 24 different states in 2018. Please check out the full Made in the Middle 2018 Conference recap here.  

Handsewn binding for all 400+ books printed and bound by NextPage.
Book design by Emily Mullett. Conference identity by Alex Anderson. Art direction by Carpenter Collective.

Photos by Bethany Hughes.

Everyone attending Made in the Middle received a limited-edition silkscreen print pack including prints from all speakers and several workshop leaders.
All prints and print pack envelopes were screen printed by our friends at Vahalla Studios on French Paper.

One of two of our conference t-shirts supplied to all attendees.

“I had so much fun at the Made in the Middle conference today. It was the first conference I've been to that's hosted inside of a world-class art museum. So much awesome wisdom and sweet swag. Thanks to all the speakers who came out to celebrate midwest design!”
Rachel Dueck, 2018 Made in the Middle attendee via Instagram

The overall brand identity and modification to the Made in the Middle mark was designed by Alex Anderson.

Pattern and iconography by us, Carpenter Collective.
Photo by Travis Young.
Some of our Made in the Middle board members. XOXO
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