These are New Adventures

New Adventures is a platform for design-minded digital practitioners. We support a community that demands a more innovative, inclusive and ethical digital future.

We began with a trilogy of events between 2011–2013, created to encourage debate and move digital design forward. Many considered NA the best event they'd attended, and voted us Event of the Year, twice. We returned in 2019 because digital experiences are forming in new and often harmful ways and there was much to discuss as a community.

We thought 2019 might be a one-off reunion, but the response was overwhelming. Attendees asked for more, and with much to work through together, we think that’s the right call.

Jessica Hische at NA2013
Jessica Hische closes NA 2013

Our events

2020

22nd–23rd January 2020

Tatiana Mac, Jeff Veen, Laura Kalbag, Cennydd Bowles, Florence Okoye, Akil Benjamin, Natalie Kane, Liz Jackson, Bastian Allgeier, She Wins...

2019

23rd–25th January 2019

Ethan Marcotte, Jeremy Keith, Clare Sutcliffe, Brendan Dawes, Naz Hamid, Josh Brewer, Helen Joy, Harry Roberts, Emma Boulton...

2013

23rd–25th January 2013

Jessica Hische, Jason Santa Maria, Wayne Hemingway, Steph Troeth, Jon Tan, Sarah Parmenter, Seb Lee-Delisle, Tiago Pedras...

2012

18th–19th January 2012

Dan Mall, Frank Chimero, Trent Walton, Denise Jacobs, Cameron Koczon, Naomi Atkinson, Robbie Manson, Travis Schmeisser...

2011

20th January 2011

Mark Boulton, Veerle Pieters, Dan Rubin, Sarah Parmenter, Tim Van Damme, Elliot Jay Stocks, Brendan Dawes, Greg Wood...

Featured videos

Our Banal Binary

Tatiana Mac, 2020

Radical is Close to Home

Akil Benjamin, 2020

Building Better Worlds

Cennydd Bowles, 2020

The World-Wide Work

Ethan Marcotte, 2019

Visit our YouTube channel for more.

Articles

A time for imagination

Simon Collison | January 2020

Last year’s conference could have been a one-off reunion. It was a challenging project, but the event itself was probably our best yet, and the response overwhelming. It’s your positivity that brings us together for the fifth time.

Our climate impact policy

NA team | January 2020

Do I need another coat? Must I make this journey? What if I choose not to eat red meat? The first question an organiser should ask is not “can we make our conference more environmentally compatible?”, but rather, “should this conference happen at all?”.

Q1: book recommendations

NA team | January 2020

We asked our speakers, volunteers and organisers a few questions to help you get to know them. Firstly, we asked them to each recommend two books: one relating to our industry or their work, and another about something else.

Q2: advice for an uncertain industry future

NA team | January 2020

We asked our speakers, volunteers and organisers: can you offer one piece of advice to help others anticipate or navigate an uncertain industry future?

Q3: what common fallacy should we wake up to?

NA team | January 2020

We asked our speakers, volunteers and organisers: what common fallacy — design, tech, or anything else — do you think more of us should wake up to?

Blog posts

NA 2020 videos now on YouTube

19th August, 2020

All seven of our New Adventures 2020 presentations are now free to watch over on our YouTube channel.

NA 2020 videos now available on Sitepoint Premium

9th July, 2020

NA2020 was tough, and we’ve prioritised paid work ever since. Thankfully, our friends at Sitepoint stepped in to edit our videos.

We need your feedback

31st January, 2020

Whether you attended or not, we'd love to know what you thought of New Adventures 2020. We hope to improve, and tackle more topics. To progress, we must listen.

Coverage of NA 2020

28th January, 2020

The first coverage from last week's conference is beginning to surface, and we've a dedicated page to collate it all.

JH Bowling is back!

15th January, 2020

It wouldn't be NA without bowling. Our legendary warmup event returns, again hosted by our friends at JH.

Stream

Regular quicklinks to things we find interesting and valuable.

29th January, 2020 #

Yes, another article about design systems, but you know our angle by now. With Architects, gardeners, and design systems, Jeremy Keith adds his voice to those wondering if this relentless pursuit of efficiency will edge us closer to redundancy.

10th January, 2020 #

Our friend, Frank Chimero, is writing almost daily about his live redesign. Every post is worth your time, but this dive into typeface selection — specifically typographic atmosphere and setting criteria — is exceptional. Few can articulate this stuff like Frank.

3rd January, 2020 #

In Systems, Mistakes, and the Sea, Robin Rendle finds that most design systems are like hyperobjects (one of our favourite ways to think about overwhelming things) within which we must see ourselves and our mistakes.

1st January, 2020 #

If the world is a mess, why isn’t angry music more culturally present? Frank Chimero goes in search of caustic music for the times and finds two EPs from Dry Cleaning, "that feel completely appropriate for the Brexit era."

18th December, 2019 #

Almost a year on from The World-Wide Work, Ethan Marcotte reflects on that brave talk and considers what's happened since — the hope he feels as workers continue to organise, and his frustration at the aggressive response from tech companies.

17th December, 2019 #

Rob Weychert is generating a unique color scheme for every day of the last 30 years. "Colors would change with the seasons and fade over time. In effect, every single day of the past 30 years would have a unique color scheme, each day looking slightly different than the day before."

Newsletter

Kind words

Simon and Geri had curated an intimidating, inspiring lineup — maybe one of the finest I've ever been part of. It was a marvellous day.

Ethan Marcotte, design leader at Vox Product