Design Kompany is a brand design studio. We do: corporate identity, brand identity, branding, logo design, corporate communications, creative marketing.

Dialogue is the way to get clarity.

I want to officially announce a conversation series we’ve been brainstorming about quietly at DK World HQ for 2012.

I call it, “Orangutan Swing.”

It’s about dialogue.

Making space for real, offline conversation.

Why run a conversation roundtable series?

Because after six years doing this job at DK full time with Akira, I realize our sweet spot is conversation-starting.

But also, because my mother is a psychiatrist. One of the things I learned from watching her come home to talk about work is that people are really just lacking opportunities to engage fully in real conversation. But that doesn’t have to be the case. In Ireland, we went to many pubs and had millions of conversations that didn’t necessarily have points to make, but were simply relaxing. And fun. Orangutan Swing is about making that happen. If people gain insight because it’s kinda intellectually stimulating, that’s a bonus.

Some of you may remember Make, Scale, and Expat. Those were in Durham. In Seattle, we hosted Sugar, Pop, Gather, Flourish, Dream Kitchen, and Designers Korner.

Can you tell we like events?

The reason is because we have these questions all the time: Should we grow? What’s the creative process about, really? What does it mean to have community? And the best way to answer them is invite a bunch of people around to think it through with us. Every single time, we get people we have never met before. The variety of their interests and backgrounds always brings new insight to any conversation.

I love that.

And I want to bring it to Durham at least once a month in 2012. OK, I’ve put it out there officially!

Old ideas matter, too. Maybe more.

I liked this quote:

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out.

Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture.

Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.” —Dee Hock

Ready to hear what our first roundtable of 2012 will be?

EXPAT2.

What does it mean to be somewhere else?

I LOVED the first EXPAT conversation, which we hosted last summer at Mad Hatter’s.

Four speakers will be joining us, and it should be an awesome time.

Find out more here:

Expat2 will be Jan 20 at Old Havana, a Cuban sandwich shop in Durham.