AIGA Student Membership Sale
AIGA is committed to increasing student involvement in the design community. For the month of September 2011, students may join or renew online for just $50! And to make membership even more accessible, part-time students registered for just six or more credit hours are now eligible for membership in AIGA, the professional association for design. To take advantage of this offer, simply join or renew online between September 1–30, 2011. Spread the word and don’t miss out!
- Gain exposure by posting your portfolio in the AIGA Member Gallery.
- Find jobs and internships in AIGA Design Jobs.
- Network and learn at local and national events.
- Access exclusive member benefits.
JOIN NOW for access and incredible discounts!
Current student members whose memberships are up for renewal August 31 through December 31 are eligible for this discount if they renew before September 30.
Alabama Design Summit
At the end of July, Brian Ghiloni had the pleasure to attend the AIGA Alabama Design Summit in Birmingham. The workshop-style conference brought together more than 50 attendees from across the country and across multiple disciplines. Their challenge was to use design thinking to address social issues affecting rural Alabama and other parts of the country.
Over three days, four multi-disciplinary teams tackled a variety of regional issues from overcoming Nature Deficit Disorder to Eco-Tourism as a source of economic regeneration. Working together, each team needed to understand the problem, define an objective and develop solutions. The conference concluded with team presentations of actionable ideas, which could be implemented in 12–24 months.
As designers, our contribution has been traditionally limited to identities, collateral and websites. The AIGA Alabama Design Summit is an early preview of a new AIGA initiative called Design for Good. With this new initiative, designers have an opportunity to engage in these types of important social issues in a deeper way than ever before.
This last March, AIGA Baltimore organized Ideas for Action. The event brought together area creatives, community leaders and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to address social issues affecting Baltimore. AIGA Baltimore is committed to furthering discussions about the role of design and the potentially larger impact it can have on communities.
If you want to become more involved in the community or you have an idea for a Design for Good project, send us an email. We want to hear from you!
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The Alabama Design Summit was produced in partnership with AIGA and Alabama Innovation Engine. Local participants included representatives from Freshwater Land Trust, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, US Fish and Wildlife, Cahaba River Society, Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, International Expeditions, Auburn University Urban Studio, and University of Alabama Center for Economic Development.
Marshall Anderson and Jessi Arrington explain solutions to combat Nature Deficit Disorder. These ideas could be implemented within 12-24 months. Implementing any one could have a measurable effect to offset healthcare costs related to obesity.Today 1 out of 3 adults in Alabama is considered obese.
Idea prototyping's best friend… the sticky note!
2011 Leadership Conference – Minneapolis – Feeling “Activated” !
Three board members from AIGA Baltimore attended this year’s
leadership retreat – ACTIVATE – an interactive, inspiring, 3-day
gathering of leaders in chapters across the US. Jennifer Dodson, Bob
Gillespie and I (Elizabeth Brady) trekked to Minneapolis for an
incredible few days where we gathered momentum for the upcoming year
in Baltimore and got to see great design, touch the Mississippi, and explore
the Walker Art Center… to name a few things.
The conference began (at the visually inspiring, Graves [601] hotel)
with a display of all of the fantastic design samples and products
from chapters across the country. Each chapter brought a series of
trading cards to share and exchange at events throughout the
conference, offering a great opportunity to hear what makes other
chapters “tick”. The creativity was astounding.
See some examples here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25988873@N02/sets/72157626911717642/
After an inspiring kickoff about the state of the association by AIGA
executive director Ric Grefé, we divided and conquered different “Spark” sessions and shared back. At our various sessions, we learned more about the power of design to create change, rock-star board structures that work for members, the value of membership to our design community, all the while gaining inspiration for design competitions, and new partnerships and opportunities. My eyes were opened to the vast impact our chapter has and the resources we can offer, as well as, design’s capacity to benefit business and society.
One theme that kept resurfacing? Create solid events with community input! We as a team from Baltimore spent a lot of time discussing different ways to find out what our members (you!) and local designers /agencies want from us, and returned to Baltimore with a
renewed desire to hear from you.
Here are a few links to national or local initiatives that inspired me!
AIGA austin design ranch 2011
http://vimeo.com/25680717
http://clockwork.aigablueridge.org/
I, personally, was particularly inspired by our incoming national AIGA president,
Doug Powell and his focus on Design for Good, an initiative to motivate design professionals and AIGA members towards impact, advocacy and cause. I came back with a renewed knowledge of the power and impact of design on society, and a lot of inspiration for social initiatives in Baltimore.
Keep an eye out for other new initiatives and events this year and be
in touch with what activates you, as a student, designer or creative
professional. Or email me at elizabeth@baltimore.aiga.org if you have ideas
to share or want to be more involved in social or green initiatives!
My AIGA has new features.
The AIGA.org interface has new features which allow members access to enhanced information and features, as well as the means to update their contact preferences and more!!!
Recently,upon visiting the site to edit my payment options, I was able to customize the news feeds on the my.aiga.org landing page. I was able to add the In-house newsletter to my profile, adding “Articles” and lengthening “AIGA News” to the page landing.
Also, I accessed my profile to subscribe to more of the newsletters and initiative postings available: including the In-house newsletter.
Also, I have taken a moment to update my custom AIGA portfolio:
Take a moment and connect yourself with your profile page and get hip with the changes and updates to the AIGA Member landing. … And take advantage of its benefits.
You can do it!
The economy will always have its ups and downs, but graphic designers can still find their way. Here are some tips for the new graduates for 2010.
Time to make lemonade.
When you are given lemons, make lemonade. Finding a job right now isn’t easy for anyone right now, but it is a little harder for graphic designers than for some other fields because graphic design is usually one of the first industries to see cutbacks.
In February, I was laid off. I saw the industry I was in changing and design was becoming less and less important, so luckily I was expecting the layoff, and I was already feeling like it was time for a change. So I embraced my layoff and am now successfully freelancing and will most likely take this time to get my MFA. Graphic designers are lucky in that we have the option to freelance, where other professions don’t have that luxury.
Advertise.
No matter how wonderful you are, employers won’t be pounding on your door, so shout to the world online and in-person that you are looking for a design job. They do exist, but a lot of jobs are filled before a job post is even published.
I am a freelance graphic designer, and the majority of the work I have been getting is from me telling people that I was available, not from answering job postings.
Interviewing is a lot like dating.
You set up a meeting (the date). You converse to find out if you like each other, and then you go home and anxiously wait by the phone or check your email waiting for THE call. Chances are you will have to go to many interviews before you find a job that is a good match for you and the employer.
When I have a meeting with a potential client, I prepare. I look up the person and organization I will be meeting with. I select what I think will be the best designs to present, and I think about what questions might be asked of me. After the meeting, I evaluate what I could have done better. View each interview as practice and revise your answers and your portfolio constantly. Even if you feel the interview went great, try to not let it bother you if you don’t get the job. Move forward and look for something else.
You are not a rock star (yet).
You have worked hard for four long years and your professors rave about you, but you need to remember you are just beginning. There is actually still a lot for you to learn. And guess what? Once you learn it, it will change.
When I finished my Bachelor’s degree from SCAD, no one was thinking about being sustainable, designing for good, Web 2.0, iPhone/iPad apps or the design revolution in Asia. Over the years, I have continued to need to learn new things in graphic design, and I expect that will always be necessary.
Develop a thick skin.
Your portfolio review may be tough to hear today. Being a designer, you need to be able to take criticism daily. Your art director, your client, your client’s boss, everyone is going to have their opinion. It is your responsibility to educate these people on the design choices you made, but ultimately, you might sometimes be asked to make changes you don’t like.
When I work with clients, I not only want to provide them a design that I think is fabulous, but even more so, I want them to love it because in the end, they are paying me for my services.
It may not be perfect.
Don’t expect your first job to be the perfect design job. You have many years in the future to find that perfect job and quite frankly, your vision of the perfect job will change and evolve, so even if you find a perfect job now, it won’t be your perfect job in the future.
My first job was for CNN Headline News. I loved it…for the first few months. Then I realized I was doing the same job some people there had been doing for the past eight years. I realized if I wanted to continue to grow and develop in my field, I would need to find ways either in my job or outside of my job to keep myself current. For your first job, look for an employer you think you can learn from. Maybe there is someone that can be a mentor, or maybe you will be exposed new technology.
Value your work.
There are many people out there that want design services for free or for cheap. Make sure you are getting paid what you are worth. There will always be someone out there who will work for less than you. You need to explain to your clients or the employer what else you provide besides good design.
When I meet with clients for the first time, I find out what their needs are, show them my work, explain how I could help them, but I also describe to them the process. This way the client can understand all the work that goes into making a logo and why it will cost a lot more than $50. You need to do the same at interviews. Don’t assume they read your resume. You need to tell them why you will be the best person to hire.
There is still hope.
So, I am sorry to say, it won’t be easy to find a job in design. It is a competitive environment, but take this as a challenge and do all you can to make yourself stand out. Take time to write individual cover letters, tweak the wording of your resume for each job application, and bring the best and most appropriate pieces to your interviews. When you do find a job, you probably won’t love it all the time, but as with all jobs you should be able to learn something. Listen to your boss and your clients and try to find a good solution to the design that can make everyone happy, and lastly, love what you do.
Good luck to the class of 2010!
Runteldat
Greg Bennett of Work to Date Receives Accolades For His Work On The 2009 Pulp Ink & Hops Poster.
The next question is how are we going to top this next year?
Congrats Greg!!!
AIGA Design Leaders Confidence Index Has Industry Looking Up…
In April 2005, AIGA began conducting a quarterly survey of design leaders to assemble an authoritative statement on the current conditions within the design economy.
This Design Leaders Confidence Index is modeled on the confidence indices developed by the Conference Board for private sector corporate leaders.
Each quarter we obtain the answers to a few simple questions from several hundred design leaders—the possible responses to the following questions are: substantially better, moderately better, same, moderately worse or substantially worse.
How do you rate present business conditions for the economy as a whole, as compared with six months ago?
How do you rate present business conditions for design, as compared with six months ago?
In looking ahead six months as compared with today, do you think business conditions for the economy as a whole will be:
In appraising the prospects for design, do you think business over the next six months, as compared with today, will be:
Compared to [three months ago], are the chances of hiring additional staff:
Compared to [three months ago], are the chances of purchasing additional hardware and software:
Over time, the responses enable AIGA to develop a confidence index of conditions in the profession that will be helpful to members and their colleagues in judging current conditions nationwide. The index will also help us in advocating the interests of the design community in Washington and with sponsors.
Most recent results
The AIGA Design Leaders Confidence Index for the fourth quarter of 2009 reflects strong confidence in an economic recovery. The index held at 98, up from 51 in October 2008 and consistent with designers’ attitudes during the period 2005–2007.
AIGA anticipates that the real measure of the state of the design economy is likely to come in the first quarter of 2010, as designers experience the effects of corporate budgets that were determined during a weakened economy. However, only 6 percent of the design leaders surveyed last month expected business over the next six months to be worse than current business levels.
Nearly a third of respondents (29 percent) believe they will be more likely to hire new designers in this quarter than last; only 18 percent felt they were less likely to hire new designers. And 44 percent felt their plans of purchasing new hardware and software had increased compared with three months ago.
January 2010’s index is 98.72 compared to 2009 when it was 54.55
Moving your portfolio to the AIGA Member Gallery
COPIED FROM A EMAIL BULLETIN:
Last month, we wrote to invite you to AIGA’s new portfolio service on Behance, the AIGA Member Gallery. We hope you’ve been able to take the system for a test drive since then. We wanted to let you know that we’ve set a firm transition date for member portfolios:
Design Jobs portfolios will be deactivated on February 28.
Current members with a portfolio on Design Jobs, this means you’ll need to set up your new portfolio on the AIGA Member Gallery before February 28. After that date, you’ll no longer have access to your Design Jobs portfolio.
Get started
a) The AIGA Member Gallery is an advanced, integrated platform for you to showcase your work, get connected with like-minded creatives and be found by employers and recruiters. Here’s how to get started in the new system:
b) Create a Behance account (If you already have a Behance account, skip to the next step.)
c) Edit your profile in Behance
d) Select My Networks tab
e) Select All Networks
f) Click “Join” link next to AIGA Member Gallery
g) Enter your AIGA credentials (Forgot them? Use the Find Me link on My AIGA.)
See http://www.aiga.org/aiga-member-gallery for more information, including answers to FAQs and links for further support.
Thanks for taking the time to set up your new portfolio!
Why Being A PowerPoint God Is Almost Completely Useless, Why We Should Be Entering The AIGA 365 and Why Design Isn’t Free (All The Time).
I recently posted about my experience at a freelance gig where I was the interim head of the design department at a medical technology firm and the work I did there. Most of the work was print, but like many corporate clients, much of the work consisted of consisted of things you’d never put in your portfolio, much less admit you were involved in.
Among them was the development of PowerPoint presentations for sales staff. Many designers may mention that the are proficient at PowerPoint but it’s usage as a business applications overshadows any utility for the high-end designer it seems to me… As it works out, working with these folks, I stumbled into some PowerPoint projects simply by doing other work and being around to help solve interactivity issues with the program. All of a sudden, I’m a “PowerPoint God”. When I heard this I wasn’t sure whether to be proud or take a shower.
Turns out its a little of both …
On the one hand the ability to go in and answer communications problems in a business environment is golden in picking up new business. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll be saving those PowerPoints for my portfolio. But this got me to thinking about the “why are we here?” No not on earth, silly. Why are we designers? And for me and possibly you it’s a mix of things.
Take a listen to a little Seth Godin’s The Dip and you’ll muse on the value of being the best you can possibly be if you’re going to bother to design/illustrate/photograph. Secondly, this may lead to your whittling down your best you and absent that the best you in your projects that you can find. To illustrate this point, I’ll rely on Jim Collin’s book Good To Great: Why some Companies Make The Leap and Some Don’t.
The book has a theory called the HedgeHog Concept which is illustrated here:
HedgeHog Concept proposed by Jim Collins in Good To Great
Well, as this goes, the being a PowerPoint god was worth it in that it was financially valuable, but not exactly the way I’d like to be contributing to the world. Perhaps your job is similar: you’re making charts, designing brochures that meet some business function, but fall short of your passion. What does this mean? Well, pursue that passion in manageable chunks.
Find a project that’s high on passion, even if it’s short in other areas. When Michael Beirut came to UMBC late last year, he reinforced this notion: “What’s stopping you from (re)designing whatever you want?” He also said: “the only overhead to designing is [ultimately] your time.” So, if no plum design project is coming along the road—particularly in a recession, what’s the harm in taking an otherwise limited assignment and doing it the way YOU want it?
Enter a competition for no one else but yourself if, for no other reason, because design is inherently a democratic thing (as in it gains power in the voice of each individual—not a particular side of the aisle) and that voice is only heard when our best voices are actively contributing to it. So make something over and spend your time developing the craft, without worrying about the financial end of things all the time…
But until they start taking time credits at the gas pump, keep work at converting that “time” to expertise, so that you can find the nexus of the hedgehog aspirations you seek. Go from designing widget catalogs to designing—I dunno—the new J. Crew catalog. Go from highly paid PowerPoint presentations that never see the light of day in the design world to possibly re-thinking what the presentation looks like in the first place or go from taking that project that you put your passion into and parlay it into a project that pays you some dough.
AIGA Baltimore Blog 