AIGA Nashville's Speaker Series co-presented by Emma and AIGA Nashville is gathering up local design heroes to speak at Emma's awesome new space in the Trolley Barns. Come and meet some of Nashville's best designers in print and web, and maybe even make some new friends. It's free for AIGA members, $10 for non-members.

Next for our Speaker Series on September 18th is Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records. 

Born and raised in one of the non-ruins neighborhoods of Detroit, Ben Blackwell has spent over half his 31 years on this earth in the music “bidness”. Starting as an unpaid intern at micro-indie label Italy Records while still in high school, Blackwell would later start his own imprint Cass Records, funded with money he won in a high-stakes game of Connect Four. Since 2009 Blackwell has been in-house fact-checker, punster and exhibitor of eye-level snap-kicks at Third Man Records. His fascination with all things vinyl knows no bounds…he proposed marriage with vinyl, has worked at a pressing plant and is rumored to sleep on a bed made of discarded LPs. Additionally, he has a healthy appreciation for Meredith Vieira, considers himself a connoisseur of microwavable noodles, can easily sleep through airplane take-offs and landings and loves writing his own bios.

Ben worked on the flex-disc balloon launch of Jack White’s Freedom at 21, the liquid-filled Sixteen Saltines record, the Wanda Jackson “greeting card gatefold,” the Dead Weather Triple-Decker record and countless others.