HOW Design and Inquirer Super Features

A few years ago, my cousin Noelle and I attended HOW Design's Freelancers' Conference in Denver, Colorado. I had been dreaming of attending the HOW Conference ever since I was in college, when I first learned about the magazine in graphic design class. Conference registration is pretty steep (over a thousand $$$$!), so when I learned that they had a shorter (and cheaper) two-day design conference for freelancers, we immediately signed up for it.

We stayed at the Hyatt in Denver, which is also the same venue as the conference. All sessions were held inside a ballroom packed with creatives! I think we were the only Pinoys from the Philippines there... Can you say design fangirls? haha.

The best part of the conference, though, is the opening night of the actual HOW Conference, where a hall full of paper and print suppliers give away product samples and freebies!And as soon as the doors opened, the crazy crowd flooded into the event hall. Companies were giving away posters, t-shirts, baggus, and so much other cool design stuff! We had to ship all the conference goodies we took home in a whole balikbayan box!

Off-topic: if ever you DO find yourself in Denver, WholeCourse Foods serves the best veg meals! I still remember this huge plate of seitan steak and potatoes.

Anyway, this brings me to... Waking up on the first day of this Month of Love and seeing an e-mail from How Design online. They told me that I had been chosen as one of HOW's Top 10 websites for Designers for Feb! It was 5 in the morning and I was squealing like a kid on Christmas day. I have been a fan of the magazine, attended their conferences, subscribed to their newsletter, so having them select this blog as one of their Top10 is like a nod of approval from your favorite design teacher.