Monthly news and updates for AIGA members
May 2001
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Contents
News and information
AIGA Medal awarded to Samuel
Antupit and Paula Scher
365: AIGA Year in Design ships via Airborne
Express
AIGA Typography launches new activities
Members overwhelmingly positive about the future
www.aiga.org
Loop, issue 2 features theme of "collaboration"
A Client's Guide to Design: help for your
clients
"Looking Closer" post-conference materials
available
Advocacy updates
AIGA pursues guiding principles for federal information
design
New definitions of designer's role adopted by U.S.
Department of Commerce
Coming soon
"Grow! AIGA Professional Development Seminar
Series," June 1-2
"4th Annual Advance for Design Summit,"
July 12-14
"Voice: AIGA National Design Conference,"
Sept. 23-26, 2001
Opportunities to get involved
Observe AIGA Standards of Professional Practice
Use AIGA's Amazon.com affiliation
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News and information
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AIGA Medal awarded to Samuel Antupit and Paula Scher
The medal of the AIGA, the most distinguished in the field,
is awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional
achievements, services or other contributions to the field of
graphic design and visual communication. The contribution may
be in the practice of graphic design, teaching, writing or leadership
of the profession.
This year's honor goes to two outstanding designers: Samuel Antupit, president of CommonPlace Publishing, a producer of fine illustrated books on the arts, sciences and American literature; and Paula Scher, partner at Pentagram Design, whose extensive body work in identity, packaging and environmental design has been distinctive, influential and widely recognized.
Learn more about this year's Medalists
365: AIGA Year in Design ships via
Airborne Express
Because this year's annual, 365: AIGA Year in Design,
weighs in at nearly six pounds, we are shipping via Airborne
Express, to provide better handling, tracking data on deliveries
and guaranteed returns, all at negotiated rates that are competitive
with the U.S. postal service.
Early feedback indicates that 365 is achieving our objective of stimulating thinking about design. This year's annual was intended to be transformational: the brief called for the book to be an example of design as well as a chronicle of design; to satisfy members' interests in artifacts and also to stand out in bookstores to reach new audiences; and to provide context for design, so that the annual would become a vehicle for more than simply documenting competitions. We wanted the annual to demonstrate all of our attributes: open, stimulating, authoritative.
In selecting and working with Jennifer Sterling, whose work has been recognized repeatedly by our jurors in the past, we sought to communicate the essence of the work portrayed. The design focuses on the details of work as a way to highlight what most designers look at closely (and is often lost in a publication). The intent of the design is to be respectful and laudatory of the work presented. This year's annual has far more images per selection than ever before.
365 also has more editorial content than previous annuals, with three essays that analyze contemporary currents in design, in a move to ensure that this publication represents more than simply a catalogue of the competitions.
We have heard mixed feelings about the success of our effort and, perhaps, our objectives. These decisions will undoubtedly be debated by members over the next several months and will most likely also provoke a larger discussion on the presentation (and curating) of design by writers, critics and other designers. While members have reactions to the form of the annual, both positive and critical, all reactions will be most useful if they are shaped in formative terms about what we should do in the future. Should the annual be a catalogue of competitions, without further commentary? If so, how do we raise the resources to tell others about our view on design? Should the annual represent an artifact with design attributes of its own or a neutral vehicle? If the story of contemporary design is to be told through competition results alone, how do we assure that all appropriate examples are entered?
We hope the debate can help define a clear sense of the expectations for AIGA, its publications and the nature and scope of message for publics beyond the membership. Join the debate.
Associate and student members may order a copy of 365: Year in Design online, as may professional members who joined on or after January 1, 2001 (this group of professionals will receive the annual for this year's competitions, published early next year, rather than the one that is currently being mailed).
AIGA Typography launches new activities
AIGA is actively seeking to stimulate thinking about
typography and type design. To get started, we have asked Allan
Haley (allan.haley@agfamonotype.com) and Mara Kurtz (mara@marakurtzstudio.com)
to take the lead in organizing activities, including:
*Publish a brochure on the legal issues related to use of
fonts (to be distributed this summer)
*Develop a book of principles on the use of type from the perspective
of at least 10 prominent type designers
*Arrange type-related speakers for "Voice: AIGA National
Design Conference 2001"
*Strengthen AIGA's competition for typography and type design
*Curate an annual exhibition with case studies on typographic
design
*Develop an active discussion forum on typographic issues
To join the discussion, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aiga-typography
Members overwhelmingly positive about
the future
In a very strong showing, 33 percent of professional
and associate members responded to our online membership survey,
conducted between April 30 and May 14, 2001 by Readex, our survey
research firm.
Among the preliminary findings: 81 percent report they are optimistic about their future as designers, even though about a third think the design economy will weaken in the short term. Three out of four designers feel their own business will be about the same or stronger over the next year. Ninety percent report they are better off than they were three years ago.
Final results will be reported in upcoming issues of Communiqué. Many of the questions on this initial survey related to member evaluations of AIGA activities, which will be used in refining our plans for future services. We may use this survey as a model to provide a regular measure of designers' confidence in the business climate.
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www.aiga.org
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Loop, number 2 features theme of "collaboration"
The second edition of Loop: AIGA Journal of Interaction
Design Education launched in early May with a packed roster
that features an ongoing sub-theme of "collaboration."
Articles include: three information design lessons taken from
the films of Charles and Ray Eames; in-depth looks at design
curricula at the "Mok Institute" at Art Center, Sweden's
Hyper Island and Carnegie Mellon University; interviews with
Terry Swack (TSDesign), Harry Sadler (Metadesign) and Karen Mahony
(Xymbio); and reviews of the book Dotlinepixel and the Doors
of Perception "Lightness" conference.
All articles now provide for the submission of reader responses, comments and criticism. We encourage you to participate in this unique aspect of Loop in order to continue the dialogue.
You can read Loop at loop.aiga.org
A Client's Guide to Design: help
for your clients
One of three new professional issues brochures is
now available on the AIGA website. A
Client's Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process
helps clients understand how to select a designer, how to manage
a designer and what role the client should have in offering creative
direction.
A print version of the Client's Guide will arrive in members' mailboxes later this summer, along with Business and Ethical Expectations for Professional Designers and The Use of Fonts.
"Looking Closer" post-conference
materials available
AIGA held its first conference devoted to design history
and criticism in February 2001. Materials from the conference
are now posted in the past conferences section of www.aiga.org.
You'll find co-chair Steven Heller's opening and closing remarks,
PDFs of presentations by speakers Rick Poynor, Johanna Drucker,
Victor Margolin, Matt Soar and Jeremy Aynsley for you to print
out and read at your leisure.
There are also speakers' recommended reading lists, up-to-date information on design archives and resources as well as suggested design history and criticism curricula submitted by Jack Williamson, Meredith Davis, Michael Worthington, Leslie Becker and Cheryl Beckett-everything you need to engage in high-level discussion about the role and relevance of design history and criticism in our industry and our culture.
The "Looking Closer" conference was developed with design educators in mind, many of whom have come together to form a community of interest, AIGA Design Education. You can join the group's discussion by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aiga-education
Read the edited conference highlights
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Advocacy updates
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Advocacy is a key element in the encouragement of
public awareness of the value of design.
AIGA pursues guiding principles for
federal information design
AIGA continues an active campaign advocating guiding
principles for federal information design. This week, we are
submitting a proposal to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
to create a brochure on ballot design intended for local election
officials nationwide. Ric Grefé is visiting systematically
with key Congressional leaders on election reform and federal
design issues.
We are developing a campaign that will invite every member to take an active role in urging federal, state and local officials to improve public design. A handbook on the campaign will be made available over the summer, including specific requests for assistance leading up to Capitol Hill visits during the "Voice: AIGA National Design Conference" in September.
In an indication of our higher visibility on this issue, the National Association of Secretaries of State have requested that AIGA speak on ballot design issues at its annual conference in July. The National Commission on Election Reform has also requested that AIGA testify.
New definitions of designer's role
adopted by U.S. Department of Commerce
In a major accomplishment for the profession, the
U.S. Department of Commerce has recently adopted many of our
recommendations to define the designer's role as encompassing
many disciplines for use in national economic analysis. The definition
of products and services contributed by designers is being reviewed
now for a final recommendation. This definition will influence
the Department of Labor's definition of designers in its publications
on employment opportunities and will be considered in future
revisions to the economic measurement of design's contribution
to the nation (Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product).
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Coming soon
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Grow! AIGA Professional Development Seminar Series, June
1-2
AIGA--in partnership with the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
Washington, D.C. chapters--will host a series of "Grow"
seminars with David C. Baker from ReCourses, Inc., intended to
help you grow and manage your design business. Each high-octane
half-day session is specifically tailored for design managers,
studio principals, senior designers, art directors and business
development people.
Topics include: Managing clients by screening carefully, formalizing clearly, and serving well; systems to handle projects for sanity, quality, and profit; positioning and marketing your services; and taking your practice to the next level.
Be prepared for an intensive learning experience that will provide you with the professional skills you need to sustain and build your firm.
4th Annual Advance for Design Summit,
July 12-14
AIGA Experience Design, a community of interest for
those interested and/or involved in interaction design, will
hold its fourth summit to address the issue "Documenting
our knowledge for practice and education." This year's discussions
will capture attendees' shared successes and failures in the
past several years in an effort to create real guidelines for
use in practice and education.
Find out more about the summit
Voice: AIGA National Design Conference,
September 23-26, 2001
You've told us you want us to help increase public
understanding of the role and value of design. Our goal is to
make it evident to all that design is an integral and critical
requirement for society to reach its greatest potential.
Design facilitates communication and instigates action; potent communication among diverse political, ethnic and cultural groups is a necessary condition for the trust that holds a society together. "Voice" is one milestone in our long-term strategy to demonstrate the power of design to effect social change in the public realm.
We need you to be there, to make a difference. As designers, we add our collective and individual voices to other forces in society. How do we want to be heard?
Join us in Washington, D.C., on the most visible of the world's stages, for an intellectual protest march, a stirring of the soul to action, a rough-and-tumble engagement of visual arts with practical problems.
Peabody Award-winning journalist John Hockenberry will moderate two fast and furious days of passionate discussion about design and social responsibility and the role of design in civilized society.
Don't come expecting the usual show-and-tell portfolio shows. "Voice" is the congress that will bring together instigators like Ken Garland, author of the original "First Things First" manifesto in 1964, and Kalle Lasn, the media provocateur behind Adbusters; activist illustrator Sue Coe and legendary "antiwar photographer" James Nachtwey; artist Alfredo Jaar and design-by-numbers guru John Maeda; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius author Dave Eggers and "Beatkit" inventor Shawn Wolfe. All this plus Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher, Geoff McFetridge, Dana Arnett, Emily Oberman, Luba Lukova, Experimental Jetset, Stiletto and 2,000 of the world's most engaged and active designers.
Come prepared to listen and to say something worth listening to!
Confirmed presenters as of May 25, 2001:
| Maxey Andress Samuel Antupit Dana Arnett Jonathan Barnbrook Stefanie Barth Burkey Belser Andrew Blauvelt Nicholas Blechman Class Action Sue Coe Siân Cook Chris Dixon Dave Eggers Experimental Jetset Ken Garland Leigh George Carin Goldberg Peter Hall Sylvia Harris Jaime Hayon Steven Heller Julie Hirshfeld John Hockenberry Terry Irwin David Isay Alfredo Jaar Natalie Jeremijenko Judy Kirpich |
Kalle Lasn Golan Levin George Lewis Luba Lukova John Maeda Saki Mafundikwa Geoff McFetridge Roger Mendle Andrea Moed Jennifer Morla James Nachtwey Emily Oberman RTMark Mark Randall Joan Raspo Susan Roth Ben Rubin Stefan Sagmeister Louise Sandhaus Paula Scher Mike Simons Loretta Staples Bill Stumpf Teal Triggs Jop van Bennekom Masamichi Udagawa Shawn Wolfe Margaret Youngblood |
Visit the "Voice" site at www.aiga.org for full conference information and to register.
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Opportunities to get involved
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Observe AIGA Standards of Professional Practice
Do you observe the AIGA
Standards of Professional Practice? Let your clients and
others know by:
*Including "AIGA" after your name on your business
cards
*Printing "ABC Design Firm observes the AIGA Standards of
Professional Practice" on invoices you send out
Use AIGA's Amazon.com affiliation
Did you know AIGA has an affiliation with Amazon.com?
When you link
to Amazon through the AIGA site to purchase books, CDs, etc.,
online, AIGA receives a small rebate that is contributed to our
fund to preserve AIGA's design archives.
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About Communiqué
This newsletter is e-mailed monthly to AIGA members;
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AIGA
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Graphic Arts
164 Fifth Avenue New York NY 10010 | 212 807 1990
communique@aiga.org
AIGA: stimulating thinking
about design
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