Monthly news and updates for AIGA members
October 2001
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Contents
News and information
"Voice" conference
rescheduled for March 21-23, 2002
Implications for AIGA budget, staffing and services
Thanks for your generosity and support
National board meets to approve new budget, plan future
Trace: AIGA Journal of Design, Volume 1, number 3: Voice
AIGA participates in coalition to revitalize New York
www.aiga.org
Design Forum launched as central design resource
Advocacy updates
Designing Democracy campaign is alive and well
Frequently asked questions
Can AIGA provide more information about what it is doing?
Why am I getting telemarketing calls from MBNA?
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News and information
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"Voice" conference rescheduled for March 21-23,
2002
The AIGA National Design Conference, originally scheduled
for September 23-26, will be held March 21-23, 2002 in Washington,
D.C. Many of the previously scheduled speakers will still be
on the program, complemented by additional speakers and sessions
that deal with the particular concerns of designers since September
11 (many of which deal with very personal questions of relevance).
There has been strong support for our rescheduling the conference.
For more information and to register, visit www.voice.aiga.org.
It will be a conference not to be forgotten.
Implications for AIGA budget, staffing
and services
Postponement of "Voice," AIGA's biennial
national design conference, resulted in loss of the income we
depend upon to meet basic operating costs over a two-year period,
as well as an advance investment in conference facilities--a
total of $500,000. At the same time, our sponsor for Trace:
AIGA Journal of Design decided not to fund the journal for
a second year. As a result, we have made some substantial and
difficult changes in staffing and activities.
We have eliminated the editorial director position and will publish only one issue of Trace during the coming year, unless we are able to partner with another sponsor. Over the course of the past year, we have reduced our staff by a third, and increasingly depend upon our internet presence to help us serve members and chapters more effectively. We will reschedule the national design conference and hold a national business and design conference next fall. Otherwise, we are focusing firmly on helping designers with professional practices, communicating the value of design to business, developing AIGA 365 competitions as the bellwether of the profession, publishing the annual to demonstrate design excellence and nurturing our web presence to provide substantial content to an ever-growing audience of designers, businesses and the public.
Our phone service was badly disrupted when the Verizon switching center was destroyed on September 11. Please bear with us; we are still experiencing difficulties but are trying to get the problems resolved.
Thanks for your generosity and support
When postponement of the national design conference
caused AIGA to sustain losses, members rallied to support the
organization, raising $50,000 toward our own financial requirements
and relief projects. We extend our sincere thanks for your generosity
and support, and also for the commitment many of you made to
attend the rescheduled conference.
National board meets to approve new
budget, plan future
On September 24, the national board met by conference
call to approve a budget for the fiscal year that starts October
1. This budget reflects emergency efforts to control costs and
includes only the minimum necessary activities. If membership
levels hold steady (instead of increasing at the 15 percent per
year we have experienced over the past several years), we will
avoid a deficit over the next two years.
The board also approved the nominating committee for the national board, to be chaired by Janet DeDonato of Methodologie in Seattle; and the awards committee, which will select the medalists for the year under the aegis of Jennifer Morla of Morla Design in San Francisco. An invitation for nominations for the board will be issued in December.
The national board will meet next in an all-day planning session in New York on November 15. AIGA president Clement Mok has tasked the board with considering the longer term vision for the organization, asking each board member to think clearly about the objectives for the organization five and ten years out.
Trace: AIGA Journal of Design, Volume
1, number 3: Voice
Mailing to all members in late October, the third
issue of Trace was meant as a companion guide to AIGA's
"Voice" conference. Features include articles about
the origins of the speech bubble; the apparent neutrality of
stock photo images; the crisis of cultural clutter; and the power
of hand gestures as a vehicle of graphic communication. Cartoonist
Ward Sutton has also contributed a six-page visual narrative
about the history of media pranks, and artist Joseph Grigely--deaf
since childhood--has conceived an original project about the
problems of verbal and written communication in his silent world.
AIGA participates in coalition to
revitalize New York
A coalition of professional design and planning organizations
is working on developing a documented vision for policymakers,
as they contemplate directions for revitalizing downtown Manhattan.
AIGA is one of the organizations on the committee, along with
AIA, SEGD, IDSA, APA and local architectural, historic and civic
organizations.
AIGA put out a call to New York members to find volunteers to serve on one of seven committees:
1. Connections (transportation)
2. Uses (programming the land uses for downtown)
3. Growth strategies
4. Quality of life and sustainability
5. Memorial process
6. Cultural and historic resources
7. Liaison and communications
Nearly 100 designers stepped up to the challenge of intensive time demands and substantive work between meetings in order to develop recommendations by December.
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www.aiga.org
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Design Forum launched as central design resource
Design Forum, conceived as the central resource on
design knowledge on the internet, launched in late September,
initially as a way to organize responses to the September 11
tragedy. The purpose of Design Forum is to tap into the passion
and experience of all designers to develop an encyclopedic array
of articles, links and discussions on topics relevant to design.
The next step is to expand Design Forum to include the wide variety of topics for which it was planned. Any designer can become an editor of a topic about which he or she feels passionate, no matter how broad or narrow. You need only post an article of about 500 words on a topic (e.g., anything from contemporary typography to the design of maps on 20th century globes), identify links on the web that relate to the subject and moderate an online discussion that your topic provokes. We hope soon to have thousands of editors reflecting the full range of AIGA members' interests. Visit AIGA Design Forum.
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Advocacy updates
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Designing Democracy campaign is alive and well
National legislative priorities have changed dramatically
since September 11. Nonetheless, we continue low-key efforts
to influence voting design. Senator Dodd used our language in
a speech on the floor of the Senate and indicated he planned
to bring his election reform legislation up for a vote in the
Senate before Congress recesses. We are also working on the House
side, with Bob Zeni of Chicago having made great headway with
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., on introducing our language in a House
bill.
The Federal Election Commission continues to show interest
in working with an AIGA Task Force in writing a best-practices
manual on designing the voting experience.
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Frequently asked questions
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Can AIGA provide more information about what it is doing?
We frequently receive comments from members who feel
that they are not fully informed about what AIGA is doing. Communiqué
was introduced as a way to provide as much timely information
as possible, organized in a way that makes it easy to select
which articles to read, while providing in-depth support through
links to the AIGA website. Past issues are archived at http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?contentalias=communiquearchive
Later this year, we expect to be able to offer the option of
receiving Communiqué as plain text or HTML e-mail. If
you have other ideas about ways we can keep you better informed,
please let us know.
The AIGA website also provides constant updates. The member survey conducted last spring revealed that while 18 percent of AIGA members visit www.aiga.org very regularly, 35 percent visit it just once a month. Be sure to check it out if you want to be even better informed on AIGA and the design profession. Fifty thousand unique visitors explore its content every month, which means we are reaching new audiences with our messages about the value of design.
Why am I getting telemarketing calls
from MBNA?
The second direct mail campaign for the AIGA affinity
credit card program is scheduled to mail to AIGA members in October.
Our partner, MBNA, will follow-up this mailing with a telemarketing
campaign that will begin in November.
MBNA has exclusive, approved access to AIGA's membership list for this program only. Consistent with AIGA policy, the membership list has not been sold or traded to MBNA for its unrestricted use.
Since AIGA often has access to design studio or business phone numbers only, many of the telemarketing calls will be made to these locations. If there is any problem with taking the call at the office, please don't hesitate to ask MBNA to remove your name from the call list.
We want to encourage members to use the card so that the AIGA logo gains visibility as it is handed across the counter in establishments across the country. To get the card, call 800 847 7378 and mention priority code AESS.
Please forward any questions or concerns to Deb Aldrich.
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About Communiqué
This newsletter is e-mailed monthly to AIGA members;
past issues are archived
at www.aiga.org. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to communique@aiga.org
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AIGA
| American Institute of
Graphic Arts
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