PePcon Speaker Dossier: Kat Topaz, the Mobile Genius and the coolest Kat in town.

In the PePcon Speaker Dossier series we’re getting up close and personal with some of the coolest people on the planet: the print, PDF, and digital publishing gurus who’ll be the speakers at the conference! You’ve read their books, seen their videos, and liked their Facebook posts, now you can get to know them a little more personally, and have something to talk about when you meet them in person at PePcon.

“What’s a PePcon?” you ask. PePcon: The Print + ePublishing Conference is a massive 4-day multi-track extravaganza of all things print, PDF, and digital publishing, produced by the same folks that bring you this web site, InDesignSecrets.com. The seventh annual PePcon will be coming to San Diego, June 5–8.

The Kat Topaz Dossier

Geek Cred: Katherine (Kat) Topaz is a nationally recognized and award-winning design veteran whose track record shows that strong design, branding and market positioning are necessary strategic tools for successful companies. Currently she is VP of Mobile/Creative at 6D Global.

Hangouts: Kat currently lives on the river in Portland, Oregon with her family. A few years ago she and her husband Jim bought a tugboat to fix up and live on. While they are fixing it up, they are living on a floating home at the end of a quarter mile long dock. She is surrounded by lots of beavers, osprey, otters, eagles, and hummingbirds. She has a collection of homemade kayaks, which she uses every day.

One of the accomplishments she is most proud of is creating the group she calls: Non-Profit Fridays. She invites a group of 8-10 creatives from different agencies to get together, along with one student, for a couple consecutive Friday afternoons to work on a non-profit project. She calls it a win-win-win. The creatives get to work with a variety of peers they wouldn’t otherwise get to work with, a student gets to be part of a real project, and the non-profit gets intense expertise and focus. Plus it’s fun. Everyone grows and has a great time in the process.

Kat also continues to teach a Typography class and a Design Strategies class each year at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

What tech hardware do you most: InDesign

Favorite Websites: Oh wow, this is a hard question for me to answer. I love sites that help me make my life easier. I love the utility they offer. Like Barre3.com, where I can log in and work out from anywhere at anytime. It’s so straightforward. Sites like this are doing a great job blurring the line between websites and apps.

Favorite movie: Manchurian Candidate

Favorite books: I prefer to read non-fiction, especially books by statisticians. One of my favorites is The Way Things Really Were. More recently I really enjoyed reading How Remarkable Women Lead, which I recommend for anyone in a leadership position, or considering leading a team.

Favorite subjects in school: My favorite class was graphic design and math.

Favorite beverage: I’m known around the office for drinking hot water with lemon and honey.

Coffee is…I don’t drink it. I don’t want to need anything to feel awake.

At 6AM I am usually: I have usually been awake for a while. I’m a morning person.

Favorite Moment from a previous PePcon: One of my favorite moments was at the Philly conference. Scott Landis and I spoke about how we worked together as a dev/designer team. It was special because it was the first time we presented together. I loved how presenting gave folks the opportunity to see how we work together. And in our case, just how valuable a designer/dev combo can be.

Current Projects: One of the projects I’ve been working on is a digital publication for the OKC Thunder, an NBA team. Scott and I will be talking specifically about this project Monday at 10:15: Thunder: Driving Your Audience with Continuous Content. Again, I have one of the best jobs ever, so I am working on a number of really fun projects. We are currently doing a new app for Rick Steves and another publication for First Republic Bank.

Sneak Peek of what you can expect from her PePcon 2016 Session Designing for Mobile: A Guide for Print Designers Making the Transition: When people ask me about my job, I say I have the best job a designer can have. This is because I get to combine all the knowledge I have from many years of working on print publications and use it in an entirely new space, mobile — or as I like to call it: Digital Publication. It’s amazing to get to straddle the thrill of an entirely new medium, while having lots of experience that applies. That said, I didn’t realize I had experience, I felt intimidated that I knew print and didn’t know anything about mobile. I couldn’t tell you the difference between UX, UI, IA, CX . . . And even when I realized many of the same ways I approached print projects were similar to mobile, I had to create brand new processes. This session is a great way for me to pass on what I learned to help others not only have more confidence in working on digital publications but also have a solid blueprint to the processes.

Who should come to your session? Any pre-requisites? Anyone that wants to learn more about mobile, print and web designers, and even folks already in the mobile space that want to hear some of the mistakes and successes I’ve had in figuring out working processes.

Are there any sessions (other than your own) that you are excited for at PePcon 2016? I always look forward to the in-between stuff. Meeting people at the roundtables, at the lunches and cocktail parties. I find some of the best conversations are in small groups.

What attendees have to say about Kat’s conference sessions:

Kat Topaz is refreshingly different to other Pepcon presenters. She is a designer’s designer and also open and honest about process. ~ 2015 PePcon attendee

A must-see for anyone doing digital design. Kat’s gallery of clients was beautifully presented and inspired fresh ideas for our company for future projects. Her passion for both print and digital is palpable. ~ 2015 PePcon attendee

I love Kat, I love her approach – her training style and her work. I am so glad ya’ll talked her into this session, it was really well thought out, and I think the fact she thought it wasn’t her forte (her background isn’t as a UX designer) is what made this session so powerful to all of us designers in the room. Really well done Kat, thank you. ~ 2015 PePcon attendee

Website: https://6dglobal.com/

Social Media: Tw: @kattopaz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kattopaz

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kattopaz

Behance: https://www.behance.net/search?search=kat+topaz

Want more Kat? Register for PePcon: the Print + ePublishing Conference 2016 and join us San Diego. Not only is this the #1 conference for creatives within the publishing industry, it’s also the best place to mingle with the masters and build a community of colleagues from around the world.