Colorado Mesa University art students had the opportunity to attend the International Design Conference held in Dublin, Ireland called OFFSET. The students stayed in Ireland for four days and the conference was three out of the four days. The students that went were all graphic design majors or minors, and they are all members of Mesa Emerging Designers.

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“Our itinerary was very limited, we arrived mid-day the day before the conference,” Susie Labonde, Mesa Emerging Designer communication officer, said. “The conference started around 10:00 a.m. every day and would end around 6:00 p.m. with a lunch break somewhere in there.”

The conferences hosted events that people could attend, as well as speakers.

“At these events, we were able to talk with the speakers and build personal relationships with them,” Labonde said.

The students left the morning after the last day of the conference so they didn’t have a lot of time to sightsee.

“The best part of the trip was the conference itself. We all found something different that spoke to us and inspired us,” Labonde said.

Labonde says the students were able to gain a great amount of insight into the fields they aspire to get into. They learned the day-to-day life of a designer and how the speakers got where they are today.

The students didn’t get to experience a lot of Irish food, but they did enjoy fish and chips!

“On the last day of the conference we went to breakfast at the cafe right below our Airbnb and enjoyed a traditional Irish breakfast; it was amazing,” Labonde said.

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Labonde can’t wait to send more students to the conference in the future, and the students are so excited to apply all that they learned in their classes at CMU.