From Voice ~ Topics: evacuation/disaster, journals

Voices from the Storm

by AIGA correspondentsSeptember 08, 2005

AIGA is beginning to communicate with members in the Gulf Coast region who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. There is still much uncertainty and confusion, and most correspondents simply don’t know what their situation will be in the coming days and weeks. Most, however, have expressed appreciation that AIGA’s members support them.

Here are a few responses sent to the relief effort:

“Thanks so much. We are so grateful that others are willing to help. This week I think we are all trying to just simply make contact with our board and friends and family that we haven't been able to communicate with since the storm hit. I hope next week we will all be in a better place and will maybe start thinking of how to move forward rather than just get through this moment. I am sticking it out in Tennessee awaiting word as to when I can go back and secure my property. Luckily no flooding, just a big tree in my house now that wasn't there before—I am thinking about using it as a focal point for my newly designed house once I rebuild.”
—Lori Reed , president, AIGA New Orleans

“I am an illustrator from New Orleans currently staying at the Atlanta home of my rep. My business was devastated, and I want to set up soon to begin all over. My funds are limited due to the banking failures. Until I have full set up of equipment, incoming jobs will be impossible to accomplish, so that becomes a priority that I build a functioning studio. If anybody wants to swim back to my house to get my jazz collection, I would appreciate it. “
—Mark Andresen

“I need a job and have my laptop, but left my portfolio in New Orleans in my house. I have some digital samples and would appreciate any effort from anyone who can help to assist a young designer in relocating and beginning a new job. I don't have anything to go back to and I don't have much to take with me. I am passionate and was just beginning to get involved in the New Orleans AIGA by organizing a wine tasting event. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.” —Alison S. Rodriguez

“Due to the hurricane my husband and I have relocated to be with family in Orlando. We are healthy and busy trying to get our lives together. Thank you all, you have no idea what it means to be supported so well by your peers!

And please, don't let the media forget about the people of New Orleans... these people have been my friends, neighbors, co-workers and strangers passed on the street. I adore New Orleans, even with all its problems. New Orleans has influenced so much of American life, if anyone has ideas on how we can continue to help them rebuild...I want in on the opportunity to help. I will be tied to the city for a long time as we own a home there (flooded as it is.... satellite imagery is amazing and scary). But we look forward to being reunited with all the people we knew there... what a party that day will be.

Take the time to cherish your friends and family, for someday they may be all you have... ” —Kristi Peters

“It's been some time. Being a homeless designer is a humbling experience. I don't know where we will live, but I can work that out. I saw your mass AIGA email, and appreciate the support. There are many who need help in worse shape than I'm in. What a mess.”
—Tom Varisco

“I do not know how to apply for another job when my computer and portfolio are at home in who-knows-what condition. I do not know when I will be able to reach them. I do know that my home did not flood, but I may not have its contents. I was working contract with the community college as a graphic designer (print) and also doing freelance at home. I have no idea when or if I can go back to work at the college. Their website is down. I would also like to help from where I am on the east coast. I'll be in Washington D.C. next week until I know what to do.”
—Melanie J. Carnsew

  1. link to this comment by S.J. Sat Sep 10, 2005

    Life just gets more and more interesting.

    I live in New Orleans (via Pascagoula, MS for now).

    Within the past six months I have had my purse stolen, had my car stolen, and been mugged at gunpoint.

    Most recently, I was in Mississippi for my father's 75th birthday when they declared that Katrina was aiming for New Orleans. I did not have time to go back and retrieve my belongings, including my portfolio and computer. There is no telling when I can go back.

    Currently, I am car-less, nearly clothe-less (I have a bags worth and one pair of shoes), job-less, and (were it not for family putting me up and for all intent purposes) home-less. (Hey, at least I have a new purse since the mugging.) Ha!

    I will eventually go back to New Orleans. But for now, I shall move to Baton Rouge or perhaps Dallas . . . who knows where the winds of change may take me.

    The real challenge - finding a job with no portfolio.

    I have won international design awards. But who would know? I have nothing to show for it. I suppose I will just have to be very creative while on a very tight budget and with very limited resources when I design my resume.

    Good luck to all in my position.

  2. link to this comment by Mark Andresen Mon Sep 26, 2005

    Before all this glow of support disappears I'd like to make a suggestion that the best way to aid these designers is by legitamate cash grants to set up studios, take care of urgent debts and provide a modest ground to be able to stand on our feet again. Like Tom Varisco said, this is a humbling experience being homeless and jobless. So far a lot of very genuine people have taken personal initiatives to contact and offer donations. This has been a lifeline for those of us who lost most of our belongings. But I also would ask that an organization like AIGA plan an efficient method of distribution of funds. (As much as offers of office space and old equipment are, each designer has specific needs from credit card debt to buying socks.) Well, I hope the conference in Boston will figure something out soon. Thanks.

  3. link to this comment by Colby Watkins Sat Oct 01, 2005

    I have relocated from New Orleans to San Diego, CA. I am a recent graduate with an Associates Degree in Computer Graphic Design (APRIL 05). I had just begun to really get rolling when the storm hit the fan. I had found a few freelance clients and was attempting to teach myself php, cgi, etc to assist a local NOLA sign company in rebuilding their web site. If anyone at all in the San Diego area could help me with work I would be forever in their debt. Even a paid internship of sorts would help. I am not a guru, but I have the talent and desire to bring a fresh view to someones designs! I have already contacted Macromedia about starting a Macromedia Users Group in San Diego. I am also beginning school here to obtain a BA in Interactive Media. I was shocked to realise that there is not a student AIGA chapter at the Art Institute. If I am wrong, someone let me know. I am starting the Macromedia group, must I start my own AIGA group as well?

  4. link to this comment by Rebecca Rapp Mon Nov 07, 2005

    This time last year I was in the West Bank of Palestine standing with the native Palestinians, struggling to pass through checkpoints and enduring an often tragic life of poverty--their land littered with rubble after each invasion. I never imagined seeing those types of images at home. I never thought I'd have to pass through checkpoints in New Orleans or that I'd see military tent cities scattered throughout it's metropolitan landscape. And worse yet, I never would've thought that its culture and people would suffer a mass exodus--a diaspora. My family and I visited the city only briefly three times. The first was to visit the design office where I worked on the corner of Magazine and Jefferson. It was creepy, desolate, and part of a greater ghost town. But it didn't compare to the third time when we returned to the city to visit the my father's tomb on Canal Boulevard--the first time we had been to it since he was "buried" just before the storm (history taught us not to bury our deceased but to encase them). Thankfully, most of the cemeteries stayed in tact. But the site of the communities that surrounded them were horrifying, ransacked by nature and abandoned by our government. I realized then that losing my design job to the storm was nothing compared to losing my father, my friends, my neighbors, my home in one fell swoop.

    Speaking as an individual who has witnessed the unthinkable in lands far away, I don't know how New Orleans--by which I mean it's land and it's people--will recover. The storm cannot be compared to a war, but it's effects and the feelings you get from being there aren't much different.

    I hope my fellow designers are able to make it elsewhere, or better yet bring their talent back home! It's a lonely place without you.

  5. link to this comment by David Rhoden Tue Jan 31, 2006

    It's late January, a few months after the storm.
    I'm in New York with no job, just some small freelance illustration and web coding stuff and some temp work doing print production. Which is fine, I suppose. Still no sense of security. No place to work on big paintings. The feeling that it could all come crashing down is quite real. I'm sure it'll all work out. It always has before. People and the government (federal and Louisiana) have been lifesavers. But I felt like posting here to say--it isn't over.

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