Weston McWhorter, the New Orleans chapter president, has alerted the local board to ways in which the national organization can help. While we are unable to offer relief services or displacement funding, we are able to provide connections between designers whose lives are turned upside down and those able to help.

After Katrina, AIGA’s Leave No Designer Behind initiative sought to make contact with all designers in the area to check on their safety and needs. By mid-week, AIGA and Chopping Block will reactivate the DisplacedDesigners.com site to provide advice and matching of needs and support. This assistance applies to all designers, not just AIGA members.

For those in the path of Hurricane Gustav
Please keep your chapter informed when your plans become clear so that we can account for our members; contact Wes at president@neworleans.aiga.org if you are in Louisiana or your local chapter president elsewhere in the affected area. You can also contact relief@aiga.org.

For those eager to help
Please consider how you might help those leaving the affected area, in terms of housing or studio space during any relocation period. When DisplacedDesigner.com becomes reactivated, you will be able to alert us to ways in which you can help. Following Katrina, designers were able to offer housing, studio space, new jobs and equipment for displaced members.

Immediate contacts
The national coordinator on staff will be Spencer Bruce (212 807 1990 or relief@aiga.org). We will provide an update when the website is available and initial reports are in.

The power of our community of designers is what we can do individually but, even more important, what we can do together.

Richard Grefé
Executive director
AIGA | the professional association for design
164 Fifth Avenue New York NY 10010 | 212 710 3100
grefe@aiga.org
AIGA: stimulating thinking about design
www.aiga.org