About this episode

In its origins as part of the early AIGA Diversity & Inclusion task force’s goals, the intent of the Design Census is to cast the widest net possible, capture AIGA’s community and the global design audience, and start gathering hard facts about how diverse the organization really is.

This episode addressed the opportunities to make the design profession more inclusive and AIGA membership more diverse, the challenges of communicating around these sensitive issues, and the fundamental hope of inviting new voices, practices, and perspectives into the design field.

About the panel

Moderator Laetitia Wolff, AIGA director of strategic initiatives, was joined by:

• Antionette Carroll, president of AIGA St. Louis, founder of the AIGA Diversity & Inclusion task force and CEO of Creative Reaction Lab
• Jonathan Lee, creative director at Google Design and president of AIGA New York
• Jacinda Walker, current chair of the AIGA Diversity & Inclusion task force, and designer/design researcher

Highlights

• “Who is defining the standards of excellence, and what’s good design in a context of privileges?” asked Antionette Carroll; she also provided the origins of how the D&I task force generated the need for a survey in the first place.
• “Interpret the data, draw your own conclusions, show what it indicates for you,” encouraged Jonathan Lee. Hinting at phase two of the Design Census, which is now open and in which anyone can upload a visualization to the gallery section of the website, Lee hopes the results becomes a tool to activate creative communities.
• “I can’t wait to see the results—how do we serve our design community when we don’t know who it is composed of?” said Jacinda Walker, who discussed the various outreach strategies that the Diversity & Inclusion task force has put in place to engage chapters. Accessible to all, the census opens up the conversation and presents a strategic opportunity to reach a wider audience.

About the series

Mixing information, inspiration, and practical instruction, the Diversity & Inclusion webcast series will offer opportunities for dialog, leadership development, and training. It will feature select guest speakers—AIGA members, task force members, and beyond—who are active practitioners in the fields of diversity and inclusion, ability, social impact design, racial justice, and more.

Learn more about AIGA Diversity & Inclusion.

This webcast series is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

About this episode

This webcast highlighted the current and collective work achieved by the AIGA Diversity & Inclusion task force, which is split into four operational sub-groups, and that functions as a resource for AIGA chapters. As the basis of successful collaboration—across communities and interest groups—diversity is better for design, for business, and for the community as a whole.

About the panel

• Jessica Arana, AIGA Los Angeles, lead on education and community committee
• Maurice Cherry, AIGA Atlanta, content and awareness committee lead
• Gus Granger, AIGA Dallas Fort Worth, guidance and support committee
• Jacinda Walker, current chair of the AIGA Diversity & Inclusion task force, and designer/design researcher

This conversation was moderated by Laetitia Wolff, AIGA director of strategic initiatives.

Key questions addressed during the webcast

• How can we encourage mindfulness of implicit bias and stereotypes and openly address them within AIGA as an organization?
• What are the tools AIGA and its dedicated Diversity & Inclusion task force offer to engage its members and chapters in this conversation?
• How can diversity and inclusion respond to membership engagement and retention challenges?
• Can inclusion shape the design industry to make it more relevant?

Highlights

• What do you say to a white male who tells you they cannot be a leader in the Diversity & Inclusion conversation?
  “That it’s even more important for them to be involved in the conversation. Tell them not to underestimate the power of their reach, the potential to open space for others, and to leverage their connections to communities.”
  —Jessica Arana
• “The black designers associations and the like are created because they need to exist, but do we need to reinvent the wheel and build yet another national initiative? If the AIGA D&I task force is doing its work well, we can be that one place where change happens at scale. Going back to an Obama quote, “You are the change you want to make, ‘ WE are AIGA, YOU are AIGA.’”
  —Gus Granger
• “When showing diversity and inclusion, proactive outreach is key. Putting an event out there is one thing but making sure you reach to different people is as important.” 
  —Maurice Cherry
• “Inclusion is an act—it can happen through the relations you build, through the speakers you invite to your event, or through the statement you post on your site that can position your organization. It’s a pro-active act.”
  —Jacinda Walker

About the series

Mixing information, inspiration, and practical instruction, the Diversity & Inclusion webcast series will offer opportunities for dialog, leadership development, and training. It will feature select guest speakers—AIGA members, task force members, and beyond—who are active practitioners in the fields of diversity and inclusion, ability, social impact design, racial justice, and more.

Learn more about AIGA Diversity & Inclusion.

This webcast series is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

About this episode

This third webcast in the series highlighted the need to go back to basics and demonstrated AIGA is actively conducting conversations around equity, one of its core values. During this episode, we addressed the very definitions and myths about implicit bias and how we can all gain higher consciousness of our own prejudices and stereotypes–whether directed to race, physical/mental conditions, or sexual orientation. “I believe the most important action is awareness and education. It’s like in the saying, ‘Does the fish know it’s swimming in water, if all it knows it knows.’ So getting out of comfort zones, curiosity, and willingness to be challenged is key, in my opinion,” said guest speaker Dario Fidanza.

About the panel

• Jamaal Bell is the director of communications at The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University.

• Dario Fidanza, AIGA Austin is a designer with experience in UX, print, packaging, fashion, film and digital design, who loves building community engagement and ventures as part of his time as an organizer for several local design groups, creating conversations on the impact of design, inclusion and ethics into the field.
• Kim Hopson, AIGA Austin is a dstudio artist, art educator, and community arts advocate based in Austin, Texas, curator for the Giving Voice poster exhibition through the Texas branch of VSA Arts.

This conversation was moderated by Laetitia Wolff, AIGA director of strategic initiatives.

Highlights

• Debunking myths: Jamaal talked about ways in which one can encourage mindfulness of implicit bias and stereotypes and openly address them in a comprehensive way.
• Fighting discrimination: Dario spoke of leveraging UX/UI skills to enable activist groups that support LGBT youth while the legislature in Texas is currently challenging not only federal law on gay marriage rights, but also Trans laws.
• Teaching the teacher: Kim discussed how an arts program can engage autistic budding teenage artists but also train designers to learn new skills, become empathic, and gain a new sense of humility

Additional resources

• From the Kirwin Institute
• The implicit bias review
• Understanding Implicit Bias
• “Impact design with Nonprofits,” by panelist Dario Fidanza
• OutYouth"
• Project implicit: a Harvard project to take an implicit bias by providing a test to “debias” oneself.

• More resources on Texas LGBTQ issues:
• ACLU of Texas
• Current hearing on the Texas “bathroom bill”
• VSA Texas, The State Organization on Arts and Disability

About the series

Mixing information, inspiration, and practical instruction, the Diversity & Inclusion webcast series will offer opportunities for dialog, leadership development, and training. It will feature select guest speakers—AIGA members, task force members, and beyond—who are active practitioners in the fields of diversity and inclusion, ability, social impact design, racial justice, and more.

Learn more about AIGA Diversity & Inclusion.

This webcast series is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.