Monthly news and updates for AIGA members
April 2002
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Contents
News and information
New directors ratified by online
balloting
Protecting your intellectual property rights
Tribute to American Center for Design
"365: AIGA Design Competitions" largest ever
Milton Glaser's "This is what I have learned"
Welcome, AIGA Santa Fe chapter
AIGA Design:Business--Thriving Lean
www.aiga.org
AIGA continues to expand www.aiga.org as central resource
Gain conference site online
Advocacy updates
AIGA election reform language in Senate committee report
New York New Visions is achieving our goals
California sales tax clarification
Coming soon
Register now: "Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference"
"Grow: AIGA Professional Development Seminar Series"
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News and information
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New directors ratified by online balloting
After a one-month online balloting period, the membership
has ratified the slate of nominees for four of the fifteen seats
on the national board, effective July 1, 2002 for three years:
John Bielenberg, Camden, Maine
Nigel Holmes, Westport, CT (extend his term to a full term)
Stefan Sagmeister, Sagmeister, Inc., New York
Ann Willoughby, Willoughby Design Group, Kansas City
Biographical
information on each candidate is available on our website.
This year's nominating committee, chaired by Janet DeDonato (Methodologie,
Inc., Seattle), considered 17 nominations solicited from all
members, chapter leadership and design opinion leaders and then
recommended the slate to fill specific needs based on geographic
representation, area of practice, individual interests, AIGA
strategic priorities, prior service to AIGA and other criteria.
Current members of the national board continuing their service include:
Dana Arnett, VSA Partners, Chicago
Bill Grant, Grant Design Collaborative, Atlanta
John Chuang, Aquent, Boston
Terry Irwin, San Francisco
John Maeda, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge
Clement Mok, San Francisco
Sam Shelton, KINETIK, Inc., Washington, D.C.
Terry Swack, Boston
Gong Szeto, Brooklyn
Petrula Vrontikis, Vrontikis Design Office, Los Angeles
Margaret Youngblood, Landor Associates, San Francisco
Special thanks to the following incumbents, who will complete their three-year terms at the end of June:
Marc English, Marc English: Design, Austin
Peter Girardi, Funny Garbage, New York
Jennifer Morla, Morla Design, San Francisco
A number of respondents offered comments as part of the balloting. Some concerned the diversity of the slate in terms of web and motion design. In fact, the nominating committee sought carefully to balance the board, particularly since interaction design is strongly represented by continuing board members.
Several people recommended that members be given the chance to vote for individual candidates. The challenge with this approach (just as with corporate boards) is the need to find balance among board members with individual strengths to complement existing board members. In order to address this concern, we will try next year to allow voting for the entire slate, against the entire slate or against an individual candidate. If there is strong sentiment against a particular candidate, the nominating committee can seek other candidates who will provide similar attributes to those they were seeking for the open seat.
Several voting members also commented on geographic areas they would have liked to see better represented. The best way to achieve geographic representation is to nominate worthy candidates from your region when the call for nominations goes out late this year. You are the best source of candidates; please participate.
Protecting your intellectual property
rights
Expanding on the level of support for designers' practices,
AIGA has retained special counsel to assist members with initial
advice on copyright or intellectual property issues. Beginning
July 1, Frank J. Martinez will serve as our special counsel on
copyright and fair use issues. Frank has considerable experience
in copyright, trademark and patent law; he was responsible for
typeface design issues at the U.S. Patent Office; has worked
with design firms and typeface designers; and teaches in the
graduate program at SVA in New York.
Frank will be available to you-as a benefit of membership-for an initial assessment of your legal options, although this does not include representing you in your case (unless you retain him independently). He has a reputation for reasonableness, integrity and clear legal business advice. After his initial suggestions, you may decide to retain an attorney to pursue your options.
Closer to July 1, we will provide you with Frank's contact information.
Tribute to American Center for Design
On April 24, the Board of Directors of the American
Center for Design announced the closing of the 75-year-old organization,
as a result of a drop in membership, disappearing sponsorship
and difficulty in attracting attendance for its annual "Living
Surfaces" conference.
AIGA shares the disappointment of ACD's board. We have always admired the smart, innovative programming offered by ACD--the ACD 100 competition, publications, the "Living Surfaces" conferences, its seminar and student conferences--which always provided an apt counterpoint to AIGA's activities. This simply places a greater challenge on AIGA to meet needs of the design community that had previously been met principally by talented and dedicated board and staff of ACD.
"365: AIGA Design Competitions"
largest ever
With sustained confidence in the quality of design
work and role AIGA can play in celebrating examples of excellent
design, the number of entries in AIGA's annual design competitions
for this year exceeded all previous records--4,843 in the 11
categories being judged this week by juries of three judges each;
entries in the 50 Books/50 Covers category will be judged in
mid-May. The selections will be displayed first on the website
and then exhibited in the AIGA gallery and published in 365
AIGA Year in Design.
Thanks to all those who entered work this year. The quality of our statement about design depends upon the quality and range of entries, so be sure to enter your best work next year.
Milton Glaser's "This is what
I have learned"
At "Voice: AIGA National Design Conference"
last month, twelve hundred designers shared what many considered
a moving experience and one of the strongest AIGA design conferences
to date. The range of speakers and presentations was extraordinary,
stimulating discussion on issues critical to designers today.
Yet, for many, the most stirring presentations were main stage
presentations that conveyed personal approaches to using design
as a means of addressing issues of personal passion and human
impact.
In one of many inspiring presentations over the course of three days, Milton Glaser brought the crowd to its feet with his advice on how to succeed as a designer and a human being.
Visit the "Voice" post-conference site for the full transcripts of Milton's presentation and many others--the site will continue to add content as it becomes available. We will also publish a special issue of Trace this fall, containing material presented at or related to the conference.
The next biennial design conference will be held in Vancouver, October 23-25, 2003. Put it on your calendar now! We welcome formative, constructive suggestions on content, form and speakers (contact programs@aiga.org).
We are also interested in your ideas on where the biennial design conference for 2005 should be held (contact conferences@aiga.org).
Welcome, AIGA Santa Fe chapter
Designers in Santa Fe have fulfilled all the basic
requirements to form a new AIGA chapter in that community, bringing
the total number of AIGA chapters to 46, a new high. This demonstrates
the increasing interest among designers in having a local and
national means of developing their voice and addressing their
concerns. AIGA is one of the few design organizations that is
still growing.
AIGA Design:Business--Thriving Lean
The second issue of the AIGA Design:Business
e-newsletter was sent earlier this month in support of members'
pursuit of professional success. "Thriving Lean" examined
the nine good things that come from lean times, as well as the
three bad things and contained guidance on leading employees
through lean times, highlighting the tactical errors that you
might want to avoid. Archives
of AIGA Design:Business are available to members only
on the AIGA website.
Here's what members have said about AIGA Design:Business:
"This information is a great direction for AIGA--exactly what is needed, especially during a tough economy."
"The Design:Business newsletter is great and so is the Design Business and Ethics binder. My membership is now worth the dues. Thanks for making this happen."
"Just a short note to let you know how relevant and valuable I thought the first AIGA Design:Business issue was. This is a very helpful snapshot of benchmarks critical to the health of the business side of the graphic design profession. I was also impressed with how the content was presented in a very clear and applicable style. My compliments."
AIGA is firmly committed to assisting designers in becoming respected and successful business men and women as well as effective communication design professionals.
To attend seminars and workshops by the authors of AIGA Design:Business, register for "Grow:AIGA Seminars on Professional Practice." Visit www.aiga.org/grow
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www.aiga.org
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AIGA continues to expand www.aiga.org as central resource
AIGA continues to transform itself into a central
resource for information about design and designers, a vehicle
for the discussion of ideas about design practice and theory,
and a networking hub through its website. New content and functionality
is being added monthly. We encourage you to explore it regularly,
use its search capacity to find answers to your questions, and
contribute ideas for it to web_editor@aiga.org.
One of the central elements of the website functionality is AIGA Design Forum, a place where AIGA members can come together to find resources and engage in discussions on their favorite topics relating to design. We have seeded this area with a few examples and are actively looking for people who want to share their passion by serving as editors for the Forum. The editorial responsibility is not substantial, yet conscientious efforts will yield huge gains in the collective knowledge and debate available to all members. As an editor, you will be responsible for proposing a topic, generating ideas and encouraging discussions and contributions. If you would be interested in serving as a Design Forum editor, please e-mail web_editor@aiga.org.
Gain conference site online
As the "Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference"
conference draws closer, the recently-launched "Gain"
conference site will become a resource for interviews with
business leaders, projects that explore the value of design and
the design of value, as well as facts, tips and links that provide
insight into the topics addressed by the conference. Picking
up where the Gain publication left off, the "Gain"
site reflects AIGA's continuing commitment to creating high-quality
original content in the area of design ad business. Following
the conference, the site will be expanded, under the guidance
of site editor Gong Szeto, to serve as a primary destination
for designers and business leaders to share resources and develop
relationships.
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Advocacy updates
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AIGA election reform language in Senate committee report
The election reform legislation AIGA has been tracking
(S565) has now passed the Senate, which means it will be sent
to a conference committee to be reconciled with the House version.
AIGA achieved a major initial success in its efforts toward redesigning the electoral process when the Senate committee report included the following language:
"...operating failures of the voting system, or voter confusion about how to operate technology or use various types of ballots, may be the result of unclear instructions or poor ballot design. The Committee received information from the American Institute of Graphic Arts regarding the importance of design in the voting experience. AIGA has been working with the Federal Election Commission to educate the FEC on the importance of communication design. It would be appropriate for the new Election Administration Commission to study the issue of communication design criteria and consider incorporating such ideas into its guidelines."
Report language like this explains what the Senate had in mind when the legislation was drafted. It is not binding, but it is instructive to the administration and the agencies. We hope that this language will help in our effort to develop design criteria for local election processes. We will still want to obtain even stronger endorsement in the conference committee deliberations.
In a related matter, the Federal Election Commission issued an RFP for usability and design criteria for local election processes. AIGA will field a team of member experts, including the VERI team from Chicago, to propose on the project.
The successes on this front are not limited to national activities. On the initiative of the local chapter, the Denver Election Commission has invited a proposal from AIGA, Colorado chapter on "improving the quality of governmental design as a means to improve democracy."
New York New Visions is achieving
our goals
New York New Visions, the coalition of design and
planning organizations in New York in which AIGA plays a leadership
role, has accomplished a number of the goals we set for our involvement.
First, it places AIGA and its members in a leadership position
where it can gain the respect of other design professionals for
the role graphic designers play in changing the human experience
within urban environments. Second, as a result of clarity of
the group's thinking and an effective presentation of its ideas,
policymakers, the press and the public are accepting the principles
New York New Visions has advanced (see The New York Times
coverage on April 17). Third, designers have become a key resource
for public decision makers as they advance their plans for the
World Trade Center site, including the design of the barrier
that will surround the site for most of the next decade.
The steering committee of the coalition and its main task force meet weekly at AIGA's National Design Center, continuing to familiarize professionals from its 21 partner organizations with AIGA and the activities of the profession. Scores of graphic designers have been involved in the deliberations of the group and in supporting the information design requirements for the planning process.
For details and updates, visit www.newyorknewvisions.org
California sales tax clarification
Last month we reported the progress made in the initiative
led by the Graphic Artists Guild to clarify sales tax treatment
of design services in California. AIGA's effort involved a $5,000
contribution to the legal expenses of the initiative, as well
as the participation of joint AIGA/Guild members. This has been
a long-term effort by the Guild and it still continues. Our previous
report may not have been clear on the level of AIGA involvement.
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Coming soon
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Register now: "Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference"
As companies respond to an increasingly turbulent
economic climate, designers are being called upon to play new
collaborative roles in their client relationships. What are these
roles?
"Gain," AIGA's fifth biennial national business and design conference will provide a detailed road map to help you navigate the intersection of design and business. Participants will examine tactical approaches to current design and business challenges, such as the repositioning of brands for the long haul and developing sound customer experiences designed to withstand future economic downturns.
In a unique departure from most design and business conferences, many of the participants will be your clients. At this critical juncture in the evolution of designer/buyer rapport, don't miss an opportunity to truly advocate the integral value of design to business strategy. We all stand to gain new prominence from clarifying our professional direction as we prepare to flourish in challenging commercial environments.
Join us next fall in Minneapolis for three charged days of provocative presentations, practical case studies and invaluable insights from business and design partnerships--all calculated to help you gain and maintain professional momentum.
David Brancaccio, NPR's Marketplace Host and Senior Editor, will moderate the three-day event which will pair designers with their clients and discuss examples of effective uses of design in meeting business objectives. The conference will be held October 25-27, 2002.
For details and to register, visit www.gainconference.aiga.org
"Grow: AIGA Professional Practice
Seminar Series"
AIGA, in partnership with chapters across the U.S.,
will host a series of "Grow" seminars with David C.
Baker from ReCourses, Inc. Each half-day session-specifically
tailored for design managers, studio principals, senior designers,
art directors and business development people-will be four hours
long and will feature topics to help grow your design business
responsibly.
Topics include: Taking Care of Clients; Positioning and Marketing Your Services; Being a Good Manager; and Monitoring and Benchmarking Your Practice. Attendance is limited to just 40 attendees per session.
May 34, 2002 - Minneapolis
August 910, 2002 - Cleveland
September 2728, 2002 - Los Angeles
December 67, 2002 - New York
For more information and to register, visit www.aiga.org/grow
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