Part of the Open AIGA series, which aims to meet members’ expectations for openness and transparency. 

AIGA executive director Richard Grefé will introduced two documents and other resources that represent the basic principles guiding ethical behavior in the profession:

• The AIGA Standards of Professional Practice, which have become a global standard for communication design professionals
• The Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services, the modular contract language that can be used for communication design projects regardless of medium
• The Tools and Resources section of www.aiga.org also provides additional articles on matters of professional practice.

Presenter

Richard Grefé, AIGA executive director 

Richard Grefé is the executive director of AIGA, the professional association for design. He is generally involved in all of AIGA’s activities, although his major contributions are in strategy, formulating new initiatives to enhance the competitive success of designers and advocating the value of design.

References

On November 29 2012, Richard Grefé hosted this webcast about the AIGA Standards of Professional Practice and Standard Form of Agreement. Many important topics were discussed, as well as some great resources and information that we would like to share with everyone.

AIGA resources

The Standards of Professional Practice can be found at http://www.aiga.org/standards-professional-practice/ and The Standard Form of agreement can be found at http://www.aiga.org/standard-agreement/. There is also a relevant article about professional organizations and codes of ethical conduct posted on this site: "Ethics and Social Responsibility."

In addition, AIGA has been working to provide contract-related education over the past few years: 

• Motion Design Business Practices 
• Copyright Basics for Graphic Designers 
• Trademark Basics for Graphic Designers 
• Intellectual Property 
• Proposals 
• AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services podcasts (divided into four mp3 files)
• Additional articles on matters of professional practice can be found at: http://www.aiga.org/Resources/ 

Books

• Citizen Designer: Perspective on Design Responsibility by Steven Heller 
• Design Issues: How Graphic Design Informs Society by DK Holland 

Academic research on Ethics and Design

• http://www.designersaccord.org/ 
• http://www.livingprinciples.org/ 

AIGA chapters often host events based on AIGA practice management content, such as workshops at the 2011 Minnesota Design Camp: "Understanding Copyright and Trademark Essentials" and "Negotiating Fair Contracts." To see upcoming events in your area, visit the Events page or your local chapter’s website.

We hope you find this information helpful and that it answers some questions that came up during the webcast.