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While much of the design community in New York was ramping up for Design Week last Friday, Coroflot.com unveiled the second installment of its Creative Confab series at the Art Directors Club, to a packed house of 140+ mostly mid- and high-level designers of the digital persuasion. The centerpiece of the three hour event, depicted above, was an hour-long panel discussion on the current realities of creative hiring, from some of the sharpest, most experienced professionals in the field.

A few key observations from the panel:

- A sagging economy can paradoxically make it harder to find good hires: "Resumes are as bad now as they were in good economies; same ratio of worthless resumes to good resumes." - Khoi Vinh of NYTimes.com

- Culture fit and workability are crucial: "Don't hire assholes, no matter how talented." - Michael Lebowitz, CEO of Big Spaceship

- Monetary compensation is a factor in attracting top talent, but it's certainly not the most important: "There's probably not a designer in the universe who went into it for the money." - Tom Nicholson, co-founder of IconNicholson

- Finding out what motivates designers can tell you a lot about what kind of employee they'll make, and that's largely a matter of asking insightful questions: "'What was the first thing that you ever designed?' is a question I use a lot." - design recruiter Judy Wert

Pre- and post-panel networking was rich and boisterous, with a strong showing by (largely incognito) recruiters and talent-seekers, and plenty of fodder for good conversation. More pithy quotes and observations on Coroflot's Twitter feed, and more photos after the jump.