AIGA Houston Number of Members: 290 Year started: Founded as a chapter Oct 23, 1997 Website | Blog 1. Tell us about the most exciting upcoming event AIGA Houston has in the works? We are planning some great events for 2011. At our Future of YOUston event, one of our members developed the idea of "11 months of Creativity". Each month next year our chapter will highlight various aspects of art/design specific to a particular medium {such as print/interactive/illustration/copywriting} through events featuring local and national speakers, social and networking events, blog posts, etc. We are officially launching our 2011 programming campaign at our White Elephant party in December. 2. How does AIGA Houston utilize the Internet and social media to communicate and connect with its members? We have an amazing communication sector of our board. AIGA Houston sends out a monthly enewsletter (the Channel Newsletter), posts monthly professional, student, volunteer and studio spotlights,…
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AIGA Idaho Number of Members: 89 Year Founded: 2007 1. Tell us about AIGA Idaho’s Mentor program. Our mentor program is called “Mix / Mentor” and is currently finishing it’s sixth semester with our AIGA Boise State University student group. These events have always been a great experience! The student group develops a game or system for how our professional members are paired with a student member. We ask that each mentor spend at least one hour per month with their mentee. It might be a coffee meeting, studio tour, press check, or review of current projects. We leave it up to the student to drive the topic and schedule of each session. The program has been a great success and has given students a solid benefit to becoming a member. It has been a rewarding experience, and a way for our professional members to give back. We have heard many success stories from students and are proud to be a part of the program at Boise State University, where we have our strongest…
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AIGA St. Louis Number of Members: 350 Year Founded: 1989 1. What is your chapter's proudest recent accomplishment? This past March, we held our inaugural charity event – Love Crush – that raised $4,500 for the American Heart Association. The evening event featured a silent auction of more than 40 artworks by nationally-known illustrators and designers from St. Louis and around the U.S. and Canada that considered and grappled with the theme of "LOVE." In addition to the original work, metal hearts were provided to twenty artists that used the blank templates to create unique pieces that were also featured in the silent auction. In addition to cocktails and canapés, the event established a "kids' area" for creating their own love-inspired artwork. To document the event and to help promote future cause-related events for our chapter, attendees were encouraged to visit the photo booth. Love Crush was a great way to showcase the value of design, give back…
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AIGA Upstate New York Number of Members: 156 Year Founded: 1998 1. Tell us about the best event AIGA Upstate New York has put on this year. On Thursday, April 1, AIGA Upstate New York presented a lecture by AIGA president Debbie Millman. She shared her research on the history of branding and her theories on its power in a lecture at the Memorial Art Gallery, in Rochester, NY. The event was very well attended by AIGA members and non-members alike with some attendees traveling 100 miles or more. The event was preceded by a mixer and followed by a book signing. "Debbie Millman was awesome last night at AIGA Upstate New York in Rochester! Thanks millions to Bill Klingensmith, Chris Goldan and the crew for making magic happen -- totally enjoyed meeting everyone!" -- A quote from on our Facebook page after the Debbie Millman lecture. 2. In what ways are volunteers most involved with AIGA Upstate New York? Volunteers are the glue that holds our organization together. We utilize volunteers…
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AIGA Cleveland Number of Members: 300+ Year Founded: 1968 1. What advice can AIGA Cleveland offer design students about to enter the workforce? Be Patient. We don’t want to jump on the “it’s a bad economy” bandwagon, but it’s a bad economy. Your first job might not be the one you envisioned while in school, but use this time to gain work experience, increase your knowledge of design theory, and solidify your process. Be patient with your work. Too often recent graduates focus on creating work that will be featured in annuals or blogs, rather than focusing on solving a communication problem for the client. Take initiative. Volunteer for things you are passionate about, even if they are not design-related. The people you meet will help your career. Network through AIGA and other like organizations. It's always helpful to widen your network and make connections. Be smart. Look how much our world has changed in the last five years. The landscape of communication…
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AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) Number of members: newsletter circulation 4,000+, Facebook membership 867+ Year started: 2002 AIGA XCD is an AIGA community of interest established to foster greater communication between designers across cultures, and highlight the interwoven experience of design and culture in our lives. Consequently, we are committed to engaging AIGA membership in the global design community and marketplace. Like AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, we believe we add value to AIGA membership by creating a forum for issues that cannot be limited to geographic boundaries. In the past we have organized a variety of travelling exhibitions, travel tours abroad, presentations and a design competition. We are currently focused on growing our online presence and social network, to facilitate the dialogue about design and culture within AIGA chapters. 1. What is AIGA XCD's proudest recent accomplishment? We are proud of all our accomplishments! In the spring, we…
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AIGA Baltimore Number of Members: 382 Year Founded: 1989 1. What is your Chapter’s most proud recent accomplishment? Our Pulp Ink and Hops event last year was a success, even in this economy, bringing approximately 20 design vendors and hundreds of designers together to review the latest and greatest in designer's tools from printers and paper samples to job resources and design information. Photos available here. 2. Tell us about your Chapter's Mentorship Program. Our chapter recently worked on the Create don't Hate mentorship program which brought together members of the design community and schoolkids to create messages about stopping the ongoing violence. The program involved approximately 20 mentors and two schools here. In the mentorship timeline the mentor groups developed 24 billboards of which seven have been chosen to be displayed around town. We feel promoting this message was a particularly important endeavor in which to undertake given the problems of gun violence in…
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AIGA Connecticut Number of Members: 113 Year Chapter was founded: 2008 1. What is your Chapter’s most proud recent accomplishment? Every conversation about AIGA Connecticut’s purpose circles back to the importance of building a collaborative community rooted in a shared professional ethos and the openness to look at our individual differences with encouragement and appreciation. This attitude of working together to honor camaraderie over competition has become a bit of a mantra for us and we hope—with enough repetition—it will continue to catch on with all of the creative folks throughout the state. With this goal, we took on a project with another local design organization—Connecticut Art Directors Club. We put together a shared event, “Defining Connecticut: LEGENDS of Design”, an evening conversation with 5 visionaries (including AIGA Fellow, Peter Good) who were pivotal in shaping the creative voice of our region. The two organizations worked…
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AIGA Salt Lake City Number of members: 197 Year Chapter was founded: 1988 1. What is your Chapter's proudest recent accomplishment? Last June, our chapter was part of the Utah Arts Festival for the first time. The festival is one of the largest in the country with over 80,000 patrons over the four day event. AIGA Salt Lake City was asked to host an interactive workshop and booth during the festival that people could participate in. We developed the Revinylize Project where we reclaimed thousands of square feet of vinyl and gave it new life in the form of unique vinyl bags. We held daily workshops where participants created their own vinyl bags, as well as, sold pre-made messenger bags and wallets. Throughout the event, we encouraged social awareness through the power of creativity and the value that AIGA has in our community. The Revinylize Booth quickly became the most popular of the entire festival. With enormous lines for each workshop, we had people of all ages learning about AIGA…
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AIGA Austin Number of members: 262 Year Chapter was founded: 1997 1. What is your Chapter’s most proud recent accomplishment? AIGA is a volunteer organization driven by leaders who work to advance our profession. The success of our organization and the impact and resources we can offer are driven by our leadership. Who is our leadership? It is members who volunteer and dedicate their time to help build our community. Since those members choose to become leaders, they are bestowed upon as where it starts to make things happen and to act as role models. A position of leadership is a position of serving. This is why AIGA Austin is most proud our new Board of Directors who selflessly work to improve our community and encourage membership participation and contributions. 2. Tell us about the best event your Chapter has put on this year? Design Ranch is a singular bi-annual event that draws designers from around the country for an extended weekend of hands-on experimental workshops. Only…
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