Designers gather in Alabama to address community challenges
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AIGAJuly 21, 2011
Today, a group of more than 50 dedicated creative professionals is gathering in Birmingham at the AIGA Alabama Design Summit to learn, solve and model how creativity can be harnessed to defeat the limitations facing social and economic development in rural Alabama.
The Summit is an invitational event where attendees use design thinking to develop innovative contributions toward solving social and environmental issues that affect people’s everyday lives. Over three days, teams of participants will share ideas and experiences as they focus on four specific initiatives, then document best practices about how the design profession can influence and lead a social change agenda through active community involvement.
AIGA, as the professional association for design, is deeply committed to the Birmingham gathering, its experiences and its outcomes. The aim is to facilitate the kind of creative interaction among many types of professionals, all with a shared interest in solving a problem, that can be so successful in finding new solutions to stubborn problems that bear directly on the human experience. We want to help by convening the right people from many disciplines; channeling their interaction through a thoughtful process toward purposeful ends; and serving as a catalyst for real action.
Our interest is to serve the needs of real people, while empowering all involved. And in this case, to document a process that we can encourage to be used in communities around the country. We expect this to be an extraordinary several days—enriching for those who have offered to help; enabling for those who have shared problems seeking solutions; and enlightening in how we can learn from these days to inform others in communities where AIGA has chapters that could lead additional local change.
Follow the Summit over the weekend on Twitter and on Flickr.
Participants
The July 21–24 event in Alabama includes design leaders from more than 20 local AIGA chapter boards, businesses, and social institutions:
Renna Al Yassini
Interaction designer, Cooper
Matt Allison
Principal, Matthew Allison Graphic Design
Marshall Anderson, AIA
Design Initiative
Jessi Arrington
Founder and owner, WORKSHOP
Doug Barrett
Assistant Professor, Graphic Design, University of Alabama at Birmingham
David Blumberg
Designer and Associate Creative Director, Slaughter Group
Roy Burns
Design Director, Lewis Communications
Charlie Cannon
Associate Professor, Industrial Design, Rhode Island School of Design
Director, Research and Design, LOCAL Architecture Research Design
Amy Chapman
Project manager, AIGA
Robert Clouse
Director of the Office of Archaeological Research, University of Alabama
Dwight Cooley
Project Leader, Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Complex
Steve Cox
Co-founder and executive director, International Expeditions
Richard Dendy
Faculty member, Samford University
Anthony Dihle
Senior Designer and Associate, MV+A Architects
Robert Dodd
Recent BFA Graduate, Industrial Design, Rhode Island School of Design
Mark Dudlik
Director, Lost Creature
Susie Fagg
Intern, Auburn University Urban Studio
Jared Fulton
Architectural Designer, Slaughter Group
Brian Ghiloni
Senior designer and partner, Locust Grove Studios
Jillfrances Gray
Managing Principal, JFG
Tim Hamilton
Director of Sales and Marketing, American Printing Co.
Philip Hawthorne
COO, Executive Consulting Services
Sally Hermanto
Associate director, reDesign
James Hersick
President and creative director, RocketFuel Design Company
Wendy Jackson
Executive director, Freshwater Land Trust
Paul Johnson
Program supervisor, Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center
Ryan Jones
Principal, Seedbomb Creative
Jeremy Kaye
Co-Founder, Co*Lab
Carol Kerr
Designer and faculty member, UWM and MIAD
Bruce Lanier
Principal Architect, Standard Creative, LLC
Matt Leavell
Project manager, AL Innovation Engine
Min Lee
Assistant professor and director of Graphic Design, University of Montevallo
Lea Ann Macknally
President, Macknally Land Design
Rachel Martin
Principal, Rachel Martin Design
Weston McWhorter
Designer and interactive strategist
Nisa Miranda
Director, University Center for Economic Development
Dan Monroe
Part owner and chief wordsmith, Cayenne Creative Group
Cheryl Morgan
Director, Urban Studio; Professor of Architecture, Auburn University
Gwen O’Brien
Co-principal and creative director, Plenty
Doug Powell
Co-founder, Schwartz Powell Design and HealthSimple
Zev Powell
Sophomore, College of Arts & Sciences, Washington University St. Louis
Stacy Reinhardt
Senior Interaction Designer, frog
Karen Rolen
Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham
Vincent Scatliffe
Founder and Creative Director, Contnuous Lne and SXC
Sheri Schumacher
Associate Professor, Architecture, Auburn University
Sam Shelton
Principal, KINETIK
Sarah Tripp Stephan
Senior Vice President, Pyramid Communications
Beth Stewart
Executive Director, Cahaba River Society
Bill Taylor
President, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama
Tracy West
Creative Director, 50,000feet
Roy Wilhelm
Web designer, National Geographic
Ken Zinser
BFA Student, Graphic Design, Corcoran College of Art + Design