Design Archives Win SXSW Web Award

March 16, 2006: The AIGA Design Archives, a vast online resource of hundreds of design projects, won Best Art Website at the SXSW Web Awards, presented on March 12, 2006 in Austin, Texas. The awards, sponsored by Adobe, were part of the SXSW (South By Southwest) Interactive Festival.

The AIGA Design Archives, a vast online resource of hundreds of design projects, won Best Art Website at the SXSW Web Awards, presented on March 12, 2006 in Austin, Texas. The awards, sponsored by Adobe, were part of the SXSW (South By Southwest) Interactive Festival.

Hundreds and hundreds of websites created during 2005 were submitted for consideration, which were narrowed to five finalists in 16 categories earlier this year. Other finalists in the art category were Cover Art: The Time Collection at the National Portrait Gallery, Drive Project, MoMA: Contemporary Voices and Off the Map.

The award was accepted by Liz Danzico, AIGA's director of experience strategy, on behalf of the design and development team from Second Story, and systems integration team at Thirdwave.

The AIGA Design Archives are quickly becoming the definitive collection of graphic design work, with almost 1700 pieces currently uploaded. Design projects dating back to 1979 are being added every day, with a potential 12,000 pieces to be included once archiving is complete. In addition, many of the actual design works have been donated to the Denver Art Museum, to be included in their permanent design collection.

The archive's contents can be organized by date, medium, region or client industry, and the user can select certain images to save within a personal lightbox, which can also play as a slideshow. Lightboxes and individual projects can then be emailed to others. For these reasons, the Design Archives are also great tool for designers to show reference materials to their clients or co-workers.

Digital archivist Nurri Kim says AIGA's collection is an invaluable resource for creatives, scholars and the general public:

"For designers, it's a source of inspiration; for researchers, it's a source of historical and social visual material. For people who enjoy pop culture from the 80s and 90s, it's a source of some nostalgia that they might have missed, since we've experienced such dramatic infrastructural changes during those times. It gives people a chance to see design material from before Photoshop and web design online."

Over 200 pieces are added each year through AIGA's "365" and "50 Books/50 Covers" competitions, through special collections like "The Greening of Design" and "A Decade of Sports Graphics," or through AIGA's Medalist program, where several designers are awarded each year for their outstanding contributions. This year's Medalists, Michael Bierut, Rick Valicenti and Lorraine Wild will be donating ten pieces each to the Archives.

Submissions will be accepted until March 24 for the 2006 AIGA competitions. More information for competitions can be found here. Information about AIGA's Medalists can be found here.

Visit the SXSW Awards page for a complete list of winners and nominees, with links to each site.

Please contact Alissa Walker for interviews and additional details.

AIGA, the professional association for design, is committed to furthering excellence in design as a broadly-defined discipline, strategic tool for business and cultural force. AIGA is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research and advance education and ethical practice. www.aiga.org