Finally we’re really underway! The massive Wells Fargo Theater makes 2,000 people look like a positively small number, and after failing to find anyone I knew I took a seat about halfway down. Close enough to watch the presenters on stage, but far enough to be able to enjoy the jumbo-tron.

The presentation got off to a start with, or course, Ric Grefe, introducing the conference and covering some recent AIGa initiatives. A random thought occurred to me during his intro: is there an AIGA Alaska? If not, there should be.

After that, Kurt Anderson, the much lauded MC for the conference, made his first appearance. I was … underwhelmed, to be honest. He’s very smart and his jokes weren’t unfunny, but it felt a bit like your history professor was up there, and I found myself counting the seconds until the presentations began again.

First up was Daniel Libeskind, an architect who puts building that look like crumpled-up pieces of paper next to classical structures to make some sort of statement. Some of his work was just gross, some of it, like the Denver museum, was very cool, but either way he was impossible not to listen to. Running late for a plane, this tiny little man spoke faster than most ears can listen, and next to Kurt Anderson, was positively engaging.

Then the mayor of Denver came out, who was a charming fellow who used to own a brewery that had an art gallery on the first floor. He spoke about wanting to turn Denver into a creative mecca and had really awesome slides.

Then, the moment of truth arrived as Command-X, there sure-to-be terrible “reality show” of the conference. Think Project Runway, but with graphic designers, and without Heidi Klum’s breasts, and you’ve got it. I figured AIGA must not have much faith in their show because they made us both blind and deaf before begiining with their light show and stage set-up. Things were not looking up, and neither was I for fear of catching another spotlight in the eye.

Then something happened. Michael Bierut took the stage like bolt of lightning and instantly what could have been a disaster was transformed into the most entertaining thing I have seen since I honeymooned in Disney World. I’m not kidding, the man was on fire. They brought out the student contestants and immediately informed us that two of them would be going home (not really) tonight. Exciting!

Their first challenge was to redesign the Denver Broncos logo, and they had the past week to work on it. The judges, Brian Collins, Noreen Morika, and Emily and Bonnie from Number Seventeen, were joined by Annie Hellerstien, the art director for the Broncos, as tonight’s celeb judge. The students presented their work and some were obviously terrified, others (well, one) presented with such confidence they knocked the room apart. And despite a few technical hiccups and a well-placed F-bomb from Bierut, it was far and away the highlight of the night.

After each logo was presented the students left the stage and we were momentarily blinded again as AIGA cleared the stage. Catherine and Michael McCoy then came out to tell us more about the wonderful city of Denver. At this point I took a moment to check my voicemail, because, well, I get it. Denver is a town. It was founded in a year for a specific reason, and now it is still a town. At that point I really, really just wanted someone to blow my mind with design and this wasn’t doing it.

Command X answered my prayers and came right back out as the judges selected two of the worst logos presented as their favorites (choices which were challenged by Ellen Lupton the following day) and eliminated two contestants whose work I found neither exceptionally good or bad. I guess being middle-of-the-road is the kiss of death on these things.

The final presentation of the night was 20/20. Twenty presentations in roughly 20 minutes. It was hosted by a giant, 30-foot-tall (jumbo-tron, peeps) Debbie Millman, which I’m certain fulfilled some sort of fantasy of mine. All twenty were young designers nominated by design luminaries: the first kid, who hobo’d on a train for over 3,000 miles and documented it for his presentation was nominated by Milton Glaser. Many of these presentations were moving, some funny, and all beautiful. What a great way to bring the first day to a close.

Then, we busted out to the Design Fair for dinner and cocktails, where I ran into a number of old friends like Justin Ahrens from Rule 29 in Chi-town, my old high-school friend and college peer Kelly, and a lot of really cool students (the coolest ones knew me from the BADCast. I’m not going to lie, that makes a brother feel good). This shindig was followed by yet more drinking and a surprise dance-off (the girl in the green-and-tan-striped dress from AIGA National got robbed by the DJ), which in turn was followed by even more drinking with Pash (spelled his name wrong yesterday!), Steve Hartman, Marc English, George from AIGA and Nikky from Chicago. I think I hit the mattress about 3:00 a.m. and felt like death-on-a-stick this morning.

above: Liz, Joy, and Mig, from Chicago. Then only photo I was able to take due to batttery issues. Sorry about the red eyes, Joy!

Next! (no pun intended) Day two!! Breakout sessions! Drama! Command X comes back with designs for Sausages wrapped in Pancakes! And possibly, maybe, the arrival of Donovan Beery!