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Event Info
Event type: Keynote
Design Discipline:
Art x Design
Where:
Manhattan - Midtown East + West
Organizer:
NYCxDESIGN x Adobe

Supercharging Creativity & Design with AI

Partnered with Adobe

AI has unleashed unprecedented possibilities and challenges for creators, designers, and businesses to navigate.

This fireside conversation brought together industry leading designers to explore:

  • The profound impact of generative AI on the future of creativity and design

  • Best practices and tools industry leaders have adopted to integrate AI into businesses and workflows

  • The importance of AI ethics practices and bringing AI to market responsibly

Image by Kelsey Robinson, Color variation by Gen Recolor in Illustrator

Presented by

Nishat Akhtar
CCO, Instrument
Nishat Akhtar
CCO, Instrument
Nishat Akhtar is an artist and a designer, who actively allows one practice informing the other. Currently CCO at Instrument, she oversees creative vision for the organization, leading 100+ creatives to meet and raise the bar for excellence in design and innovation across brand, product and marketing. Some clients include Nike, Google and Microsoft, amongst others. Concurrently, Nishat sustains an ongoing illustration/art practice, collaborating with The New York Times, LATimes and ACLU, while working on self initiated projects. Nishat’s passion for the creative community extends to giving talks and conducting art workshops worldwide, celebrating the creative instinct in everyone.
Siying Qu
Co-founder, PRIVATE POLICY
Siying Qu
Co-founder, PRIVATE POLICY
Siying Qu, co-founder of PRIVATE POLICY, embodies the ethos of forging her own path in both fashion and advocacy, infusing New York’s rebellious spirit into genderless apparel. Graduating from Parsons School of Design, her journey from acclaimed collections to global recognition reflects her commitment to creativity with a cause. Siying’s design process delves into social topics with each season’s collection, from exploring Asian youth culture to addressing the relationship between nature and urban life, and her recent series on the AI revolution. As an entrepreneur, Siying has spearheaded collaborations with industry giants like Coca-Cola, White Claw, and Diageo, broadening PRIVATE POLICY’s reach nationally. The brand is stocked internationally, including at Urban Outfitters, Revolve, ViaVia, Doors NYC, and Adekuver.
Beyond fashion, Siying champions inclusivity and empowerment, serving as a professor at Parsons School of Design, collaborating with artist Chella Man on the short film “Beauty of Being Deaf” and supporting nonprofits such as Stop Asian Hate, Reef Life Foundation, Liz Christy Garden, and the Ali Forney Center underscore her commitment to social responsibility. Alongside PRIVATE POLICY co-founder Haoran Li, Siying has been featured in Vogue, WWD, New York Times, Hypebeast, listed on Forbes China’s 30 under 30, won the GQ China Present Award, became finalists of the CFDA VOGUE Fashion Fund in 2019 and the 2023 CFDA x Genesis AAPI Design + Innovation Grant, won the Lane Crawford Global Creative Callout in 2020.
Hillary Taymour
Founder, ​​Collina Strada
Hillary Taymour
Founder, ​​Collina Strada
Collina Strada isn’t just a fashion label, it’s also a platform for social issues and awareness. Created by Hillary Taymour, her main concern is staying true to her craft, and staying on course to becoming a fully sustainable and radically transparent brand in the near future.
Based and manufactured in New York, the brand’s cult status core pieces transcend trends. Taymour’s designs are imbued with a fearlessly fluid attitude, re-inventing classics and unexpected details. Collina Strada embodies humor and youth. The brand DNA is now firmly cemented in the ability to look inward, even when we’re loud and expressive on the outside. Season after season, Collina Strada’s goal remains the same: to encourage self-reflection through clothing. How can you be the best version of yourself today?

Showing each season on the official New York Fashion Week schedule, Collina Strada has reimagined their shows to spur others into action. Runway shows have tackled global problems from racism to politics. “We are in a crucial state of change right now and the more we [do, the more we] can impact others to take action.” – Hillary Taymour
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