Exploring the Future of Figma with Mindgrub

Posted on by Frances Miller

On Thursday, October 27th, 2022, AIGA Baltimore held an in-person panel discussion for “Figma: Fad or Future,” which culminated AIGA’s Baltimore Design Month 2022. The discussion featured Mindgrub’s creative team sharing their transition to Figma, cross-departmental collaboration, thoughts on Adobe’s acquisition of Figma, and their predictions for the future of design software.

The panel included Mingrub’s Emilee Beeson, Art Director; Evan Reisberg, Interactive Design Manager; Steph Loughran, Product Design Manager; Sandra Koranteng, UX Designer; Alex DeRito, Developer; and was moderated by: Benjamin Guarino, UX|HCD Specialist.

Watch the full video, and read on for a recap of key takeaways.

Q: How do you see Figma being transformed by this acquisition?

Some of our panelists noted that although the acquisition is shocking, it would likely make Figma a stronger platform and more future-proof. With Figma being so near and dear to people heart’s, the hope is that the interface will not change drastically; rather, it will be improved upon. They are looking forward to seeing how Adobe integrates with Figma, with Adobe’s being able to support Figma with options such as vector capabilities and a more extensive font library.

Q: How has Figma impacted the way your team collaborates?

Adopting Figma has made it easier for the Mindgrub team to collaborate on complex prototypes in one location. It challenged them to become transparent and organized with their process, structure, and handoff. Additionally, using Figma has encouraged more ideas and resource sharing among team members. They can see how others set up their file, which has helped build their process. Figma has been a huge step forward compared to Sketch and has reduced the number of different software designers used for a project.

Q: How has Figma supported Mindgrub’s work from anywhere/anytime policy?

With Mindgrub’s improved workflow on Figma, they can collaborate efficiently across time zones, reducing back and forth and making it easier for people to jump back into their projects anytime. Having a stable structure also helps Mindgrub build trust with clients because it allows clients to see the progress being made and what the team is working on. Figma is also great for making real-time updates to projects sent to clients.

Q: Do you think Figma will stand the test of time in 10 years or more?

Some of our panelists believe that Figma can get the rug pulled from under them if they don’t keep up with a design to code. Competitor programs like Web Flow, with easy-to-use and evolving technology, can creep up on Figma if they don’t keep up. However, the Figma community is fantastic and has tons of plug-ins, resources, and events that will support Figma’s growth over the years to come. Other thoughts shared are that although design to code is interesting, there needs to be a happy balance with evolving technology where we can automate some of our work without losing the human touch to create something unique and personal.

Q: What are some limits of Figma that you want improvement on?

Evan would like to have scroll trigged animation in prototyping. That’s an element he goes out to another application to create. Emilee shared that creating custom artwork in Figma is challenging. She often has to switch to Photoshop but hopes that Adobe will add the library-sharing feature between Photoshop and Figma so she can work between both applications without having to export.

Audience Q&A

Q: While designing in Figma, are you developing content as well? Which stage do you involve a content strategist in?

Some of our panelists noted that they don’t use the real copy in the flat design. The content strategist or copywriter often collaborates with the client on a platform they are more comfortable with, and they later integrate the content into the design. But it ultimately depends on where the content strategists are comfortable working, whether in Figma simultaneously or separately in a Word document. However, the client might be more focused on the content than the design if actual content is used.

Q: How do you display your designs to clients for mobile and desktop views?

Depending on the project and team, they present a few different size artboards to give clients an understanding of the project view ranging from mobile to small laptop to huge monitor sizes.

Our panelists shared their top advice for teams transitioning to Figma:

Establish a culture of sharing – Emilee shared that it can be easy for creatives to be guarded in a competitive environment, so establishing a culture of sharing is really important. Emilee feels comfortable with her team because they are all working together to learn the program and know it’s okay to make mistakes when learning.

Learn the basics – Steph recommends learning auto layout first because it saves time when adding new content. Steph believes this tip will change your life.

Talk to your local Figma Evangelist – Sandra recommends reaching out to those on your team who are really experienced with Figma for tips. Getting support from Figma evangelists like Evan and Emilee has been helpful. She also recommends learning how to use components.

Embrace the change – As a developer, Alex feels the benefit from collaborating in Figma and shares that fellow Developers shouldn’t be a blocker to transitioning.

Be open to showing your style – Get comfortable with having everyone on your team being able to access the project and see how you work. Evan shares that being able to see each other’s work has allowed the team to learn each other’s design preferences.

Some of our Panelist’s Favorite Figma Plug-ins

  • Spellcheck: Check your spelling as you work on Figma.
  • Unsplash: Insert beautiful images from Unsplash straight into your designs.
  • Color Contrast: Check contrast according to WCAG guidelines and apply changes directly to your artwork.
  • Stark: A combination of integrated tools that help you streamline your accessibility workflow.
  • Google Sheets Sync: Sync data in a spreadsheet to elements in your design.
  • Content Reel: Quickly insert text-based content into your design, such as names, phone numbers, US addresses, emails, URLs, and more.

Designers Celebrate 20 Years of AIGA at Morgan State University

Posted on by Frances Miller

On October 7th, Morgan State alumni and faculty and AIGA members gathered to commemorate 20 years of the founding of the first AIGA chapter at an HBCU (Historically Black College and University). We watched alumni reconnect, exchanging stories with their beloved professor Joseph Ford, esteemed designer and educator, and founder of AIGA MSU.

Joseph Ford graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In 1984, Joseph Ford began working at Morgan State University as the Art Director of Public Relations bringing with him years of experience and recognition from the Advertising and Graphic Design Field. He was acknowledged as the first African American Art Director in an Advertising Agency in Baltimore and an active member of the AIGA.

Nowadays, you might run into Joe catching a film at the Senator Theatre.

This exhibition is a testament to the graduates’ accomplishments and the rigor of a liberal arts education at Morgan State University. You can see the designs on display throughout October 2022 in the Murphy Fine Arts Center third floor atrium, see the work below, or journey through the virtual exhibit.

A huge thank you to Perry Sweeper for working to organize the exhibition.


Tricia Dukhie is a senior graphic designer at Inglefield Ogilvy and Mather. She has also worked on many projects as a freelance designer in her native Trinidad & Tobago.


Terry Plater is a senior graphic designer at Impact Marketing and Communications. He previously held design positions at Erickson Living and Nielsen Audio.


Raphael Davison is a assistant art director at Carnegie Hall’s Weil Music Institute. She previously worked at Baltimore Center Stage and the Washington, D.C. Shakespeare Theatre.


Paul Herring is a graphic & web designer for 1199SEIU. He has worked with art collective Artwork Mbilashaka on marketing projects and live mural paintings for Adidas, Heineken, Scion (Toyota) and Red Bull.


Jerry Jones is manager, social and digital content design for the National Basketball Association. He previously worked as a graphic designer for Major League Baseball.


Emmanuel Hightower began his career as a graphic designer at Kahala Brands. He also did design work for Reebok, Phi Beta Sigma and National Football League players.


Eileen Eldridge is a web content specialist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She has a diverse graphic & web background.


Carlee West is a freelance graphic designer currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at Full Sail University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from MSU.


Brandon Young is a freelance graphic designer who has previously worked for Southern Maryland News. For more than a decade he has focused on publication design.


Erika Johnson is a freelance graphic designer, founder and CEO of PrettyGirl Academy, Inc. She received a certi cate in Digital Publishing from New York University after graduating from MSU.

Behind the Branding: How Design Month 2022 Came to Life

Posted on by Frances Miller

Each year for Baltimore Design Month (and previously Design Week), the AIGA Baltimore board selects a local partner to collaborate with in creating a brand that encompasses the theme for the year.

This year, we reached out to longtime community member, portfolio reviewer, designer and illustrator Emilee Beeson and the team at Mindgrub. Their enthusiasm and creativity made the process as smooth as a perfect bezier curve, and we couldn’t be happier with the results! So, to give you a peek behind the scenes, we asked Emilee to share more about the process.

timelapse of sketching design tools as characters

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A: I have been a designer and illustrator in Baltimore for about 10 years. I am currently an Art Director at Mindgrub where I design mobile apps, websites, advertising, and everything in between.

I also have a passion for printmaking, art, and illustration. A lot of the work I do on my own time is themed around video games, tv, movies, and other pop culture. I am always inspired by the weird and wonderful things that come out of those mediums.

Q: What made you excited to be a part of Design Month 2022?
A: When I first got involved with AIGA Baltimore it was circa 2012. I was on the reviewee side of the Ink&Pixels table and I won the branding competition for the event. We now know that design competitions are problematic but at the time I was over the moon about seeing my design on a real poster (and the iTunes giftcard!). I’ve grown as a designer through this chapter so it’s special to design the branding for one of their keystone events 10 years later. This time, with the time and resource support from Mindgrub, Creative Director, Meagan Petri and our SVP of Strategy & Design, Ben Slavin!

Q: What was the inspiration and goal of this year’s Design Month branding?
A: There is a good chance other creatives are feeling a lot like I have these past few years. It’s been hard to find the energy to be creative and get back into the communities we had before the pandemic. I wanted this year’s branding to be bright, playful, and optimistic. One of our favorite buzz word phrases here at Mindgrub is “creating moments of delight.” While we usually use this phrase in relation to micro interactions I think looking a bezier pen in the eyes as he taps his little feet is delightful. Hopefully delightful enough to make people smile and remind them to come out to an event!

Q: How did you approach this event branding project and what was your design process?
A: I often start with the technical requirements as guardrails. In this case I knew that scalability and flexibility were key as this branding would be applied to many different sizes and spaces over the course of a couple months. I also wanted this year’s theme “designing life” to come through. The character illustrations checked all of those boxes and had great potential for motion design and event swag. Once they were finished everything came together really easily.

This sketch is what started it all but I decided touching eyeballs was a little too weird. You have to know when to dial it back.
pencil on paper sketch of a laptop and character with bulging eyeballs

Q: Can you describe your inspiration and any challenges you came across them while designing the branding?
A: I am always inspired by ephemera from the 80s. You can definitely see influence from 80’s puffy stickers in this branding. I am also really inspired by maximalist designs that feel a little ugly and aggressive. There is always that little voice that worries about criticism by committing to something so loud. But to me, being forgettable and underwhelming is a far worse fate.

wide image of the many design elements and deliverables included in the design month branding

Q: What are your typical process steps? Do they differ from the work you did for AIGA Baltimore?
A: Designing for other designers is always different than a typical client project. It’s a chance to be a little more out-of-the-box than what a normal client might allow. Presenting a wild idea and having everyone be on board with it doesn’t happen everyday!

Q: Could you explain an exciting Mindgrub project completely unrelated to AIGA?
A: We launched a mobile application for a major utility company called LG&E, KU and ODP. It’s always a good feeling when you start a project and everyone at the (virtual) table is an expert in their own right. Collaborating with designers, directors, scrum masters, product owners, and developers to create a massive tool that is actually useful to people is incredible. The app looks great and more importantly, works flawlessly.

Designing something flashy for a cool design event is easy. But playing a small role on a big team that is working together to make something beautiful and functional is something to really be proud of! Read the Case Study

Reconnected: January 2021 Community Meeting Recap

Posted on by Frances Miller

In January, AIGA Baltimore held a virtual Community Meeting to bring more voices into our plans for the year. Community Meetings like this were a bi-monthly occurrence pre-2020, and we plan to bring them back quarterly in 2021. Stay tuned for the next meeting in April and in the meantime, here’s a recap of what happened in January’s meeting.

AIGA Baltimore’s mission, goal, and motto

To kick things off, we shared the main vision, goal, and motto that was shaped by past boards and has driven our chapter over the past few years. No matter what 2021 brings, we will provide value to the Baltimore design community by making new connections between individuals, groups, and ideas. Our goal is to act as cheerleaders for our community and to be a platform for members to take advantage of to lift their skill level, visibility, and voice. Our motto, coined by President Emeritus Joseph Carter-Brown, is that we’re not “AIGA Baltimore,” we’re Baltimore’s AIGA.

AIGA Baltimore's Mission, Goal, and Motto

2020 Year in Review

Valerie Anderson, chapter President, gave a rundown of what AIGA Baltimore accomplished in 2020. Like all of you, the year looked nothing like we had envisioned, and it was a challenging year for a fully volunteer-run group. Nevertheless, we still managed to host 15 virtual events—on top of the 5 in-person events from Q1. One week before the shutdown, some of our board participated in a Bias Training workshop with the AIGA DC board. We partnered with wonderful organizations like Society of Design Arts, Ladies, Wine & Design, Baltimore Womxn in Tech, and the Asheville and Saint Louis AIGA Chapters to combine our powers on collaborative events, and we spread the word about other opportunities and events through our email newsletter.

2020 Q1 AIGA Baltimore events

AIGA Baltimore 2021 Preview

We shared the 3 main goals our board set for the year during our January virtual board retreat sessions:

  • Innovation: Break the barrier of our virtual world to create connections with and among our Baltimore design community.
  • Partnership: Streamline an official process to utilize strategic partnerships to reach new and diverse audiences and bring value to our community.
  • Inclusion: Integrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives to better represent and be inclusive of the Baltimore community.

We then split up into breakout rooms and used Google Jamboard to discuss these topics and brainstorm specific ideas for the year. Our attendees shared that they joined the meeting to connect with other creatives in the area. We left feeling confident with our goal to foster connections, and we are already working on several activities for the Spring.

What type of virtual or socially distanced events do people want

Want to help? Get involved!

We need people like you to make these things happen. We’re currently looking to fill several open board positions, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chairs; Treasurer; Programming Chairs; Community Partnerships Chair; Communications Chairs; and General Volunteers and Committee Members. If you’re passionate about bringing people together and using design to improve our world, we want to talk with you!

Futurism(s): An Inclusive History of Graphic Design

Posted on by Frances Miller

It is always an honor and a pleasure to have Ellen Lupton present. A huge thank you to Ellen for her generosity in delivering the recent talk on Futurism(s) as well as writing this article, for those who weren’t able to listen live.

On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Baltimore’s stalwart design history group launched its new identity. Formerly known as SHAG (Society for History and Graphics), the group is now called SoDA, Society of Design Arts. It was my pleasure to deliver a talk called “Futurism(s)” as SoDA’s first event, in collaboration with AIGA Baltimore and Stevenson University. This online event attracted over 200 guests from the Baltimore region and beyond. Thanks to SoDA’s energetic new member Raquel Castedo, many designers from Brazil logged on to hear the talk and participate, as well as people from Utah, Tennessee, and elsewhere.

Below is my short summary of the talk, which was not recorded. —Ellen Lupton

“Futurism(s)” represents an approach to teaching Graphic Design History. At MICA, my colleague Brockett Horne and I are striving to tell a more inclusive history of design than the chronology we learned back when we were students. Most GD History courses include an ode to Italian Futurism. This canonical all-male art movement can be a leaping-off point for discussing other forms of future-leaning art and creativity. “Futurism(s)” is a talk with three chapters: Italian Futurism, Afrofuturism, and the Cyborg Manifesto.

Italian Futurism

Italian Futurism was launched by F. T. Marinetti in 1909. Frankly, it’s hard to find a more patriarchal, exclusionary, white-dominated movement in the history of design-isms. Marinetti expanded our view of the printed page with his innovative typography, but he infused his ideas with hatred and violence. He wrote, “We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom.” He wanted to destroy museums, libraries, and schools in order to make way for a factory-born future.

Futurismo-filippo-tommaso-marinetti

Although Italian Futurism scorned women and embraced fascist ideology, the Futurists explored liberated styles of masculinity. The Futurist painter Giacomo Balla, who published his “Futurist Manifesto of Men’s Clothing” in 1913, dreamed of menswear tailored with interactive fabrics that could be changed at will to represent a man’s shifting moods: “Loving, Arrogant, Persuasive, Diplomatic, Unitonal, Multitonal, Shaded, Polychrome, Perfumed.” Italian Futurism took place in a particular place and time, and many of us reject its politics while admiring its revolutionary aesthetics.

Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism is a movement in music, art, and literature that arose in the 1950s and continues today. (The term was invented by critic Mark Dery in 1994.) Afrofuturism embraces world-building, a creative methodology arising from science-fiction and gaming. World-building emphasizes mythic time rather than historical time. It employs storytelling across many genres, from novels, comic books, and toys to fashion, movies, music, and fan fiction. World-building actively engages an audience in experiencing a world that is both real and imagined.

Afrofuturist artists include the musician Sun Ra (1914–1993), an American jazz composer, bandleader, and poet who claimed to be an alien from Saturn—and always dressed appropriately for his role, building a mythic world around his persona. George Clinton’s funk band Parliament created their own “P-Funk mythology,” generating an elaborate backstory to the music. The Afrofuturist album covers of the 1960s and 70s featured space ships, Egyptian pyramids, and other symbols of cosmic knowledge. Today, a new generation has brought feminist identities to Afrofuturism. Artists including Solange Knowles, Rihanna, and Janelle Monae use sound, performance, fashion, and storytelling to build vivid worlds ruled by warrior queens and rebellious androids.

Billy Graham was the first black art director in the comics industry. In addition to creating a character called Luke Cage, based on Blaxploitation action films, Graham was the main comic artist to work on the Black Panther comic book series, from 1969 through 1976. These comics continue to be published today, with storylines created by renowned Black authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay. In 2018 Ryan Coogler directed the international blockbuster film The Black Panther, featuring production design by Hannah Beachler and costumes by Ruth E. Carter. Together, this creative team designed a high-tech civilization that combines aspects of contemporary African urbanism, architecture, and fashion with futuristic details.

Each of these exercises in Afrocentric world-building questions culturally dominant readings of technology. Mainstream representations of the future—whether utopian or dystopian—have pictured technology as a primarily white, male instrument of power, in contrast with subjugated human bodies that are seen as female and/or non-white. These artists have transformed how technology is represented and understood across cultures.

The Cyborg Manifesto

Donna Haraway’s essay “Cyborg Manifesto” (1985) represents a third vein of futurist design and philosophy. Haraway questions the binaries that privilege white, male, human creatures while “othering” countless alternative modes of life. The cyborg is a being who is both biological and mechanical. The cyborg challenges cultural binaries such as male/female, animal/human, and human/machine. According to Haraway, cyborgs don’t appear only in science fiction. The cyborgs have arrived! They are here among us! Examples of cyborg life include A.I., virtual reality, bioengineering, psychoactive drugs, and countless medical technologies, from fertility treatments to cloning and transgender medicine. Fashion has always altered the body, while people with physical differences use wheelchairs, prosthetics, glasses, and hearing aids to expand their mobility and change their sense perceptions.

Designers working in the field of speculative design use techniques such as illustration, model-making, animation, and photo-illustration to imagine new, often dystopian futures. In their project Life Support: Respiratory Dog (2008), Revital Cohen and Tuur van Balen explored whether a dog could breathe for a human being. Living “service animals” help humans overcome many sensory and emotional challenges; the designers ask, why not have service animals augment our essential biological functions as well? The project is intended to be fictional and provocative, not realistic.

revital-cohen-respiratory-dog-design-futurism

Despite its fictional aims, Respiratory Dog has assumed new relevance today, a time when thousands of patients with severe Covid-19 require artificial life support. Every intubated Covid patient is a cyborg. Devices for respiratory life support are landmarks in the history of design and medicine. The Negative Pressure Ventilator—also known as the “iron lung”—was used to artificially ventilate patients who were paralyzed by polio. An iron lung encloses the user’s body in a negative-pressure chamber. Rhythmic pressure changes inside the chamber cause the person’s lungs to expand and contract. Thousands of these machines were mass-produced for use in homes and care facilities before the discovery of the polio vaccine in 1955. Iron lungs were eventually replaced with positive-pressure ventilators, which force air in and out of the patient’s lungs through the airway rather than exerting pressure against the chest. These modern ventilators require heavy sedation and put tremendous strain on the body. Today, modern versions of the iron lung are being reconsidered as a technology that is less expensive and more humane than a standard ventilator. One such prototype, Exovent, is being developed in the UK (as of April 2020). According to the developers of this old/new medical technology, the Exovent is a simpler, cheaper, and less invasive technology; it allows patients to remain awake, to eat, drink, and take medications on their own, and to talk on their phones.

What is “futurism”? All futurist movements, from Italian Futurism to Afrofuturism and speculative design, are opportunities to challenge the present by picturing what comes next. Designers are imagining the future whenever they question how things look, work, or signify in the current moment. Sometimes, the future arrives on the wings of catastrophe. Sometimes, the future must be created by excavating the past. Design history doesn’t have to be chronological. Like world-building, design history can pursue ideas across simultaneous and overlapping dimensions.

Bibliography

 

  • Reynaldo Anderson, “Afrofuturism 2.0 & the Black Speculative Arts Movement: Notes on a Manifesto,” Obsidian, Vol. 42, No. 1/2, (2016), pp. 228-236
  • Yytasha L. Womack, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Chicago Review Press, 2013).
  • Ruth la Ferla, “Afrofuturism: The Next Generation,” New York Times, December 12, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/fashion/afrofuturism-the-next-generation.html
  • Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014).
  • Donna J. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
  • Dan Hassler-Forest, “The Politics of World Building: Heteroglossia in Janelle Monáe’s Afrofuturist WondaLand,” World Building, ed. Marta Boni (Amsterdam University Press, 2017).

 

About the Author

Ellen Lupton | Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. Her exhibitions include “How Posters Work,” “Beautiful Users,” and “The Senses: Design Beyond Vision.” Lupton is founding director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at MICA in Baltimore, where she has authored numerous books on design processes, including “Thinking with Type,” “Graphic Design Thinking,” and “Graphic Design: The New Basics.” Her recent books “Design Is Storytelling” and “Health Design Thinking” were published by Cooper Hewitt. She is an AIGA Gold Medalist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Virtual Events to Help You Stay Connected & Creative this Spring

Posted on by Frances Miller

If one thing’s certain, it’s that we are all getting really good at video conferencing this year. From workout classes to happy hours, the world is finding creative ways to stay connected while socially distancing. AIGA chapter leaders across the country are connecting and working on ways to continue our programming online. We’ve collected a few interesting digital experiences that have crossed our screens here, and plan to continue updating this list as more events surface.

Do you know of an event or opportunity that belongs on this list? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at promotions@baltimore.aiga.org with your event or campaign information.

Virtual Events

 

Jump to:
MARCHAPRILMAY

3/17–3/24 | Watch Helvetica for Free

Filmmaker Gary Hustwit is streaming his documentaries free worldwide during the global COVID crisis, and you can find them on the website Oh You Pretty Things. Helvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

→ Watch at your leisure

 

3/23 | AIGA Nebraska Shift+Cmd+Join

Hosted by: AIGA Nebraska

Kelsey Janda, VP of Design at Hudl will share what it means to work remotely; designing remote, managing remote, and leading remote teams. After surveying the design team, they (the design team) have compiled their data on remote work and will present their findings to us in this Zoom-based event.

→ Register

 

Multiple dates available) | Online Yoga with Baltimore Yoga Village

Adding movement into our days spent mostly on the computer is another big topic of conversation, now more than ever. Join Shelly Boggs (formerly the owner of Design B&B, Design Manager at Proctor & Gamble, MICA grad, and longtime member of the Baltimore design community) for live streamed classes at a variety of times this week.

→ Sign up

 

3/23–3/27 | Free Online Procreate Event

Hosted by: Design Cuts
Over the next few days, you’ll be able to take advantage of some of the biggest names in the Procreate industry! This series of 7 free sessions will teach you all the best tips and tricks for lettering, illustrating, and animating in Procreate, all from the comfort of your home.

→ Find out more

 

3/26 | Webinar: Teach Your College Class Online

Hosted by: Adobe
As more faculty are shifting their courses online, they are looking for simple, easy to implement best practices that can keep interactions with students engaging, personal, and supportive.

Dr. Shannon Pufahl is a lecturer in creative writing at Stanford University and a celebrated novelist and writer. For the past few years, Shannon has been running creative writing classes using videoconferencing, digital office hours, and leveraging Canvas, her institution’s LMS.

In this talk, Shannon will share her insights, best practices, and how she’s learned to teach creativity effectively using distance learning tools and approaches. At the end of the talk, the host, Brian Johnsrud (Adobe’s Education Curriculum Lead), will share more information about this series, Adobe’s Distance Learning Resources, and Adobe’s integration with Canvas.

→ Register now!

 

3/31 | Adobe Summit

Hosted by: Adobe
Each year, Adobe hosts customers, partners, and employees from around the world at Adobe Summit and Magento Imagine to “talk about the future of customer experience, unveil the latest product and platform innovations, and get inspired together as a community.”

This year, Adobe’s conference will be held online and registration is free. The show starts on March 31st, but more content will be added continuously.

→ Sign up for free

4/4 | Virtual Icon Design Workshop

Hosted by: Scott Fuller

This is the rescheduled workshop with Studio Temporary, which is now happening virtually!

In this 3-hour workshop, we’ll be focusing on a very interesting subject…you! We’ll start with a walk through Scott’s personal work process, exploring the research, inspiration, and execution of a few of his icon design projects. Then comes the fun part: sketching and ideation of your own personal icon set!

This will be a special virtual experience where we are helping you hone your craft at the comfort of wherever you are. Some things you’ll need ready are the Zoom app, a free DropBox account, and Adobe Illustrator.

→ Get your ticket

 

4/4 & 4/5 | Canceled Con

Hosted by: HOCH
Canceled Con is a free online creative event to bring together the community of creatives. They’ll be live-streaming all day with special guests, fun games, and other assorted shenanigans. Come hang out on April 4-5 from 8AMpst until 8PMpst at CanceledCon.com.

→ RSVP!

 

4/6 | AIGA Boston Book Group: The Brand Gap

Hosted by: AIGA Boston
AIGA Boston’s monthly book group is moving online for the time being, which means you can join them in reading Marty Neumeier’s concise brand-building guide, The Brand Gap. In this business classic, Neumeier outlines the five disciplines that comprise his “unified theory of branding”.

→ Get in on the discussion

 

4/8 | Baltimore Women in Tech Virtual Happy Hour

Hosted by: Baltimore Women in Tech
Baltimore Womxn in Tech is doing a bi-weekly casual happy hour for our tech community. Feeling like you need to have an adult conversation or just chat with some humans who get it?

→ Grab a drink and join on Zoom

 

4/14 | Storytelling in User Experience

Hosted by: Baltimore UX Meetup
Basic UX practice knowledge and skills are important, but storytelling is the skill that will make the greatest impact — both in the work you do every day and on the trajectory of your career.

Storytelling gets you and the value of your work noticed; it has tremendous power to get buy-in and agreement when there’s objection to UX work; it can help you secure funding and resources for a project. And maybe most importantly, good storytelling can put your portfolio head and shoulders above the rest and advance your earning potential.

Joe Natoli has been practicing UX for nearly three decades, training and helping UX practitioners and leaders tell meaningful, compelling stories: tales that clearly communicate and demonstrate the importance and impact of UX on product design — and on the success of users, UXers and the companies and clients they work for.

→ Attend for free

 

4/18 | AIGA Baltimore Ink & Pixels Part 1: Designer Panel

Hosted by: Yours truly, AIGA Baltimore
We’ll be changing up the format for our annual Ink & Pixels portfolio reviews & professional development day, which will occur digitally across multiple dates this April and May. First up, an informative discussion with experienced designers representing different aspects of the design field, covering the topic of, “If I Knew Then What I Know Now.”

Our panelists include:
Alexander Reynolds, Senior Creative Recruiter at TCG
Perry Sweeper, Design Strategist
Emilee Beeson, Senior Designer at Mission Media
Moderated by Vaibhav Sharma, Freelance Motion Graphics Designer, AIGA Baltimore Programming Chair

→ Register for free

 

4/22 | Futurism(S) | Online Talk By Ellen Lupton

Hosted by: Society of Design Arts (SoDA)
Join the Society of Design Arts, AIGA Baltimore, and Stevenson University for an online talk on Futurism(s) by the curator, educator, and writer Ellen Lupton.

In 1909 the Futurist Manifesto triggered a series of avant-garde design movements that used design and typography to disrupt tradition. This talk takes a tour from Italian Futurism—with its Fascist bent and anti-feminist ideology—to alternative modes of techno rebellion, from Afrofuturism to the Cyborg Manifesto. It’s 2020, folks! The future is here, and it’s not pretty.

→ Register for free

 

5/5 | Make it Remote: Virtual Meetings Don’t Have to Suck

Hosted by: AIGA
Nobody wants to stare at a screen all day…, so how can we make our virtual meetings more interesting? In this webinar, workshop design specialist Matthew Manos will share best practices for making your next virtual meeting more productive and engaging. We’ll explore the nuances of virtual meetings, and discuss a range of fun activities and helpful strategies to help you get the most out of all that dreaded screen time.

→ Register to receive the Zoom link

 

5/6 | Early Light Media COVID-19 Marketing Webinar

Hosted by: Early Light Media
Early Light Media is hosting a special live event on Zoom Wednesday, May 6 at 12:30pm EST moderated by ELM Co-founder and Creative director David Larson. Join us and top agency thinkers for a virtual panel on how businesses, marketers, and communication experts are planning the transition to reopen from COVID-19.

→ Learn more & register

 

5/9 | Registration Deadline: Ink & Pixels Portfolio Reviews

Hosted by: AIGA Baltimore
Portfolio reviews will begin on May 16 and run through June 13, hopefully allowing everyone adequate time to schedule and hold their review sessions. We will partner reviewees (creatives needing professional guidance) with two or three reviewers (professionals who can provide advice and resources). Communication will be conducted on a virtual basis via the platform that works best for you: email, phone, video, etc.

→ Reviewers and reviewees, sign up here

 

5/27 | Digital Accessibility: The What, Who, Why, When and How

Hosted by: Baltimore Techies for Good
Technology has changed the way people interact with the world around them. In many ways, the technology boom has enabled people to do more than they ever thought possible. People are more in touch, able to connect faster and be more productive than ever before.

This is the case for many people, but what about the people who don’t experience technology as a convenient default? What about those whose experiences are limited due to the inaccessibility of the very technologies that could enable them to experience life in a whole new way?

Digital Accessibility is about the inclusion of our diverse population. Join Tracey Long on the journey to learn more about what Digital Accessibility is, who is impacted, why it is important, when to consider it and how to get started on your Digital Accessibility journey.

→ Learn more & register

 

Ongoing Campaigns

AIGA Wisconsin Positive Quotes
To uplift spirits while we all practice social distancing, AIGA Wisconsin would love to see what quotes are helping you to stay positive. Design a favorite positive quote or message you’d like to share with your extended design community from a few states away!
→ Share the love

AIGA Miami Dare to Design
Dare to Design aims to keep our skills sharp and our creativity expanding. Every month, AIGA Miami selects a design discipline (branding, web, fashion..) and a theme (polar bears, atlantis, outerspace…). Your job is to have fun with design. Break the rules a little and let your imagination roll. Share your design through Instagram DM or tag @aigamiami, and they will feature it on IG stories.
March Dare to Design: Come up with a name and design a logo for an 80’s rock band.
→ Dare to design

Free Movie of the Week
Filmmaker Gary Hustwit is streaming his documentaries free worldwide during the global COVID-19 crisis. Each Tuesday we’ll be posting another film here.
→ Watch

Got an event you think belongs on this list?

We’d love to hear about it! Email us at promotions@baltimore.aiga.org with your event information.

Tips for Staying Sane While Working From Home During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Posted on by Frances Miller

My company, along with many others, will be adding professional distancing to our social distancing regiment by transitioning to a remote workforce next week. As a software company, we consider ourselves fortunate to have numerous tools available to us, including our own product (insert shameless plug), to help us continue running the business without a hitch. But the decision wasn’t made lightly, and our department made sure to communicate expectations and concerns with each other before breaking for the weekend.

I worked remotely for a few years, and while I’m no expert, I got by with no budget (nor the extra room) for a home office renovation. I hope these tips will help you prepare and keep your sanity if you find yourself forced into a temporary work-from-home situation. It might not be the ideal home office of your dreams, but we’ll get through it!

Over Communicate

Let people know when it’s not working.
This tip comes from a coworker of mine who works remotely full time, while the majority of our team is in office. If something isn’t working, he always speaks up. And do it soon, rather than wasting time being polite while you can only hear every fifth word. He also reminded me that, “What you send isn’t always what is received,” which brings me to my next point.

Use emojis and GIFs to clarify tone.
If you tend to send short messages with no punctuation, your teammates might think you’re mad at them. Lighten it up 😊. Life-changing keyboard shortcut: on a Mac, use command-control-spacebar to pull up the emoji library!

Use communication tools. When in doubt, pick up the phone or turn on the camera.
We’re working remotely, but that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to spend the next few weeks emailing. Get comfortable being on the phone or in Google Hangouts with your teammates if you’re collaborating. Align your team with tools, and communicate expectations on how to use the tools.

Be on the lookout for software companies offering discounted access to their product during the Coronavirus outbreak, such as Loom for sending quick videos and screen recording.

Messaging apps: Slack, Flowdock, Whatsapp, and Facebook Workplace

Prepare for Video Conferencing

Test your internet and equipment.
Run a video conference test with coworkers before any important client or partner meetings. If you don’t have anyone to test with, just make sure to clear the air with the other person and ask them if they can see and hear you. Chances are, they’re working from home too, so use that to break the ice. Let them know if your dog might interrupt you, and have your mouse cursor on the mute button if that’s likely to happen.

Get familiar with your video conferencing tool’s settings. For example, if you use Zoom, you choose to automatically start with video off—that way no one’s caught pantsless! Another coworker shared these ground rules, which are a fantastic example of adapting communication for virtual spaces.

Get camera-ready.
My favorite trick is to open up the Photo Booth app before getting on a call, so I can see how the room looks behind me and clean up before starting the call. You aren’t the only one being thrust into a work-from-home situation, so there’s no reason to be embarrassed, but try to avoid a distracting background. You’re also going to be seeing your own face while you talk, which might take getting used to. I’ve noticed that I have a bad habit of messing with my hair when I see it on camera, so I try to get it behaving before the call.

Video conferencing tools: Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, BlueJeans

Be Your Own Snack Captain

If you’re lucky enough to be in an office with a well-stocked kitchen, you might find yourself cranky this week. So when you make your next grocery run, consider adding easy snacks and sandwich stuff to your cart. Prepare salads or sandwiches ahead of time, or go buy lunch if you feel healthy and comfortable doing so. Too many times, I skipped lunch because I didn’t have anything easy to make and felt too stressed to go out.

Food delivery services: Baltimore-based Hungry Harvest delivers recovered produce and pantry staples that would otherwise go to waste.

Set Boundaries

Get dressed.
Okay, wear sweatpants on the first day because you deserve it. But full-time work-from-home-ers agree that it makes a huge difference to act the same as you would if you were actually going to work. Shower, shave, and put on fresh clothes. Doing all of that will also help when you want to run out for lunch in the afternoon and realize you need to face the public.

When work is over, shut down the computer.
You’re saving time in your day by avoiding the commute, but that doesn’t mean you need to keep working all night. It’s Spring! Why not cap off your workday with a walk? Literally shutting down your computer will help prevent you from “just doing one last thing that will only take five seconds,” which we know always ends in you surfacing hours later. After all, sleep is crucial for maintaining good health, and your computer needs to rest and reboot too.

Go Outside

I’m serious. Try starting your day with a coffee on the porch or a stroll around the block. We may be quarantined, but the weather forecast is looking inviting and may be the best thing to quell Coronavirus anxieties. Also, you can’t always wait for a nice, natural break in your workflow. Sometimes you just need to drop it and step outside, even for a minute.

Support Local Businesses (if you can)

Stay sane, maintain your humanity, and support your local businesses and service industry workers. They are taking extra precautions, so if you’re healthy and comfortable, consider taking your laptop and hand sanitizer to the coffee shop for an hour. I visited the new Sizka sushi in O’Donnell Square today and noticed the WiFi password was prominently displayed in the spacious, clean, quiet restaurant. In Fells Point, Cafe Latte’Da even has a printer available.

That being said, the situation with COVID-19 is developing as we speak, so be informed and consider carrying a pack of tissues wherever you go to avoid touching door handles.

Connect Online

Tap into online communities such as the Baltimore Graphic Designers Facebook group, Baltimore Womxn in Tech (BWiT), Elevate and Cultivate Design Collaborative or Monument Women’s Creative Alliance (MWCA) to stay connected, get feedback on your work, and exchange knowledge.

Get a Puzzle

Okay, not entirely relevant, but have you done a puzzle lately? If you need something to distract you from work and COVID-19 tweets and keep you off your phone, this is it. They’re my new favorite winter activity, and it might be worth pulling one out if you’ll be practicing social distancing for an extended time.

Want more? I enjoyed this Instagram post by Post Typography co-founder and full-time work-from-home-er Nolen Strals:

Feature image by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
unsplash-logoGlenn Carstens-Peters

Baltimore Creative Community Events: October 2019

Posted on by Frances Miller

October is here. Temperatures are dropping (only to 85 degrees, apparently), pumpkin spice flavors are prevailing, and most importantly, DESIGN WEEK IS ALMOST HERE!

When you think of October, you likely think of Halloween and sweater weather. Ask an AIGA Baltimore board member what we think of when October arrives? Design Week! The annual celebration occurs during the third week of October, and 2019 marks the 8th Baltimore Design Week.

This year, we’re reaching out to the community to broaden Baltimore Design Week into Baltimore Design Month. There are a plethora of amazing events in our area for creatives and creative professionals, so we’re shining a light on these events by groups like the Society for History and Graphics (SHAG), AMA, PCB, Monument Women’s Creative Alliance (MWCA), AIA, and more.

EVENTS LIST

 

Jump to:
WEEK 1WEEK 2WEEK 3WEEK 4WEEK 5

10/1

Design Cuts Live: Free Online Design Conference (October 1-15)
Design Cuts is celebrating their 6th birthday! Get in the spirit with two solid weeks of festivities: free sessions from top industry speakers, 800+ products at 92%-99% off, competitions, freebies & fun!
Hosted by: Design Cuts
Check it out

10/3

aaf baltimore hulu networking happy hour
Hulu Networking Happy Hour
Join the American Advertising Federation (AAF) at Producers for an evening of Networking and fun brought to you by our friends at Hulu! Complimentary beverages and snacks will be served, and two lucky attendees will go home with a Roku.

Hosted by: AAF Baltimore
RSVP Here

Fells Point Art Tours
Take a guided tour through historic Fells Point, enjoying light fare while meeting artists and gallery owners. We’ll visit a variety of local art venues including photography, paintings, sculpture, pottery, gift items, and more!
Hosted by: Luann Carra Gallery
RSVP on Facebook

10/5

Doors Open Baltimore (October 5-6)
Doors Open Baltimore is a free citywide event that invites the public to explore buildings and sites in Baltimore.
Highlights Include: Tours of the Hoen Lithograph Building, SNF Parkway, AVAM, and Sewlab USA
Learn More

Baltimore Innovation Week (October 5-11)
Baltimore Innovation Week is a unique opportunity to showcase the city’s creative minds and forward thinking organizations who are part of the thriving innovation and entrepreneurship community. The week aims to highlight positive messaging within Baltimore’s growing reputation as a hub for innovation across the United States.
View Baltimore Innovation Week Events

 

Edgar Allen Poe Festival and Awards
Poe Baltimore invites you to darken Poe’s chamber door at the second annual International Edgar Allan Poe Festival and Awards, October 5 & 6, 2019. This free, two-day outdoor event will feature Poe-themed performances, art, vendors and food, celebrating Poe’s life, works and his influence in the arts.
Tickets are required for tours of the Edgar Allen Poe house.
Register Here

 

10/6

Doors Open Baltimore: Hoen Lithograph Building Tour
During the tour, guests will learn about the history of Hoen Lithograph and its importance in the printing industry in Baltimore, as well as the overall vision for the existing buildings, future tenants, and surrounding community.
Right This Way

Baltimore Innovation Week (cont)
Edgar Allen Poe Festival and Awards (cont)

 

10/7

Design Thinking for Schools: Students, Teachers, & Community Collaboration
When people talk about Baltimore City Public Schools, we often hear about the problems. In this workshop, high schoolers, teachers, and community members will come together to view problems in BCPSS as opportunities to make our schools better.
Hosted by: Baltimore Innovation Week
Get Tickets

 

10/8

Have A Nice Day Project - pigtown
Have a Nice Day Project – Pigtown
While enjoying good food, drinks, and conversation, we’ll be tasked with filling those sleeves with positive message, quotes, jokes, fun pictures and more. We’re donating them to locally owned Cafe Jovial (Pigtown). They will use those sleeves until they are gone, distributing them with coffee orders to their patrons throughout the week. How awesome will it be for someone to go to their favorite coffee shop, place their usual order, look down and see a fun message from you?

Hosted by: Have a Nice Day Project
RSVP on Facebook

biofabrication-baltimore innovation week

Biofabrication: Building with Life at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Technology
Join artist Ryan Hoover for an artist talk and backstage tour of the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Bio Fab Lab – where student artists and researchers are building in collaboration with life, blurring the boundaries of art, science and technology to innovate futures that employ biocement sculptures to restore oyster populations and grow hair follicle germ cells to create synthetic animal-free wools.

Hosted by: Baltimore Innovation Week, MICA, and Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network (BCAN)
Get a Ticket

 

10/9

An Introduction to React Native
React Native is a modern open-source framework for native app development developed and maintained by the team at Facebook. React Native is a cross-platform development tool, but unlike previous options, React Native uses native platform-specific interface components, making it both easy to program and highly performant.

Hosted by: Baltimore Innovation Week
Read More

 

10/10

pumpkin succulent workshop maryland
Pumpkin & Succulent Workshop
Get into the fall spirit by coming to decorate one of our Heirloom Pumpkin Succulent arrangements with custom calligraphy.

Hosted by: Eventi Floral & Events
Register on Eventbrite

Baltimore Innovation Week (cont)

 

10/11

design & dine with debbie millman 2019 design week
Design & Dine with Debbie Millman
Join us for a casual discussion led by the wonderful Debbie Millman, in which we’ll explore how we portray our lives on social media. Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, and “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, curator and host of the podcast Design Matters.

Hosted by: AIGA Baltimore
Get Your Ticket Now

Data & Technology in Social Innovation
It is generally accepted that data and technology serve as critical tools for innovation. However, we experience shortcomings in how we make these tools accessible to change agents and residents. In this session, we will explore platforms that are working to make data and technology more accessible and relevant.

Hosted by: Baltimore Innovation Week
Read On

 

10/12

Makers of Maryland Fall Meet Up
One of the best days of the year is almost here! The Makers Fall Meet Up will be filled with music, fun, food, drink, and hanging out with your fellow Makers! You will have your choice of ticket but everyone will be receiving a Swag Bag filled with goodies donated from your fellow Makers, a new Makers tee, & automatic entrance into winning one of the amazing giveaways we will have! Come enjoy a fun day with the Makers!

Hosted by: Makers of Maryland
Read More about the Makers Meet Up

10/16

Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Climbing the Corporate Ladder: Extraordinary Stories of Paving Your Own Way
There has been a strong push to highlight gender inequality within tech, yet the question still remains: Why are there so few women in tech and in executive leadership roles? According to a recent Thomson Reuters study, 30% of 450 technology executives stated that their groups had no women in leadership positions. Only 25% of the IT jobs in the US were filled by women and 56% of women leave IT in the peak of their career. We all know the path to success is not a straight line. Baltimore Women in Tech has put together a stellar panel of noteworthy professionals to discuss this and their own journey of rising in tech. This event is open to all genders.

Hosted by: Baltimore Women in Tech
Get Your Ticket Here

 

10/17

“Legacy of Innovation” The Glasgow School: 1900-1910
Join SHAG at the Walters Art Gallery for a talk on design history, on Thursday October 17th. This event is free and open to the public.
Hosted by: Society for History and Graphics
Registration link to follow

mwca yoga wellness event
Restore Your Core
Monument Women’s Creative Alliance is a women’s group working to inspire, educate, connect, and unite Baltimore’s creative community. This class, Restore Your Core, is a proven + comprehensive core and pelvic floor strengthening method that targets your whole body in order to regain function. It helps you learn to move better, exercise better, uncover movement compensation patterns, and create new patterns of strength, mobility, length and support.

Hosted by: Monument Women’s Creative Alliance
Learn More about MWCA

 

10/19

Intro to Screenprinting
This one-day, hands-on workshop covers all the basics of screenprinting. Attendees will learn first hand how to properly coat, expose, print from, and clean a silkscreen. Differences in inks, printing substrates, screen mesh, and filmwork will all be discussed, and various multi-color registration techniques will be covered. This class will provide you the skills to return and rent time to print your own work during our regular studio hours. If you have any questions, please contact us at print@baltimoreprintstudios.com

Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios
Tickets Available Now!

 

10/20

Beginner’s Lettering Workshop 
Join Ashley Tiburzi of The Artsy Apple (@artsyapple) for her first ever in-person beginner lettering workshop!
Learn More

 

Baltimore Design Week: OCT 21-27

 

Environmental Graphics Painting Workshop

Have you ever wanted to play around with neon glow-in-the-dark paint or graffiti markers? Are you tired of hiding behind a computer screen day in and day out? Yearning to get a little messy? Join AIGA Baltimore and Jubilee Arts for a workshop in which we’ll create props and graphics to display at Saturday’s Fashion Show!
Save Your Seat

10/22

Stress Addiction talk 10/22 with taylor cashdan

“I work best under pressure.” “No worries—I’ll get it to you ASAP.” “It’s fine, I can handle it.” Sound familiar? It did for designer Taylor Cashdan as well, until he woke up one morning with the intent for a normal day. And instead, found himself in the cardiac wing of his local hospital for a short stay that included a lot of “we’re not sure why this is happening.”

Join AIGA Baltimore and Raleigh, NC. native Taylor Cashdan on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at Co-Balt Workspace to discuss the dangers of ignoring stress, the toxicity of the ‘hustle mentality’ and burnout culture, and their overall contributions to living ‘the creative life.’
Get Your Ticket

10/23

SHAG AIGA Baltimore Application House
Come join The Society for History and Graphics (SHAG), AIGA, and Morgan State University’s School of Architecture and Planning for a talk and workshop about how we might make space in the future. Application House is a speculative design project for a future house and neighborhood, after a brief talk about that project, you’ll have the chance to participate in a collaborative workshop in which we’ll draw a whole city.
Save Your Seat

10/24

Creative Communities event
Creativity. Collaboration. Community. Join us on October 24th at Pixilated to learn how to find your community AND make the most of it, with Illiah Manger of C&V and Rachel Davis of Your True Tribes. Register now for this free Design Week event – tickets are going fast!
Learn More

10/25

design week studio tours
Join us for an exciting day of tours through four of Baltimore’s innovative design and advertising agencies: Gilah Press, idfive, Jellyfish, and Mission Media!
RSVP Here

10/26

AIGA Baltimore fashion show design week 2019
This Design Week, we’re taking the conversation out of the screen, off of the paper, and onto the outfit. Join the Baltimore creative community on October 26th at Baltimore Artists Union as we experience a conceal and reveal fashion show, featuring a panel of five local design talents!
Join Us

10/27

Problem Framing - Design Thinking Workshop
There are so many versions of design thinking processes out there, from IDEO to Google Design Sprints. However, many don’t dig deep enough into what Rachel Davis calls step 0: Problem Framing. Problem Framing is about asking ourselves, “What Else?”

Join us at iNovex’s brand new offices in Columbia for this workshop as a part of Baltimore Design Week 2019. Lunch will be provided, courtesy of our hosts at iNovex Information Systems.
Get Your Ticket

10/29

Tobias Frere-Jones
Tobias Frere-Jones is one of the world’s leading typeface designers, creating some of the most widely used typefaces, including Interstate, Whitney, Surveyor, Tungsten, and Retina. His typeface Gotham was used in the election campaigns of Barack Obama.

Hosted by: MICA and AIGA Baltimore
Registration link to follow

10/31

impact hub success coaching
Success Coaching Skill Share
Do you find yourself juggling too many things and feel like you are not making progress? Do you ever feel stuck? Do you feel like work is always on your mind even when you are with family and friends? Would you like to spend more time working “on” rather than “in” your business? Then check out this free Skill Share event at Impact Hub Baltimore!

Hosted by: Impact Hub Baltimore
RSVP on Eventbrite

Got an event you think belongs on this list?

We’d love to hear about it! Email us at promotions@baltimore.aiga.org with your event information.

Meet The Speaker: Taylor Cashdan

Posted on by Frances Miller

Taylor is a North Carolina-based multidisciplinary creative and community builder who’s passionate about people, design, and all the intersections in between.

He brings to the tables a burning desire to collaborate with others to create exceptional work “for people who give a shit.”

This October, we’re welcoming Taylor as a part of Baltimore Design Week 2019. His talk, titled “Stress Addiction: From Morning Coffee to the Cardiac Wing,” aligns with our recent efforts to engage with our community and peers about mental wellness and self-care.

Read on and get to know Taylor – from how he got started in design to what he’s digging right now. Then, join us in person during Baltimore Design Week!

Stress Addiction talk 10/23 with taylor cashdan

Where do you draw inspiration from?

Taylor: The people and things around me, and by extension, the Internet. I’m not one of those people that’s anti-Internet for sourcing inspiration. Never in the history of man have we as individuals had the reach we do now thanks to the Internet–you’d be foolish not to take advantage of it.

What advice would you give to your 20-something self?

Taylor: What you’re doing is working, so relax, continue to lean into authenticity, and remember is okay to take a break sometimes–your brain (and friends) will appreciate it.

When did you first realize you wanted a career in design?

Taylor: I can track all of my major “career” decisions back to people telling me “no, you can’t do this”. My first step in the direction of becoming a designer was during a 9th grade elective-fair (where you could come and learn about all the classes you could choose from for high school). The journalism teacher said “sorry, we don’t allow freshmen on our staff”…3 months later, I was the first freshman.

What’s your favorite quote or philosophy?

Taylor: There’s a book called “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck” that has a lot of quick, punchy lessons. But the one that’s stuck with me the most goes something like this: “you may not be directly responsible for what happened, but you are responsible for how you react to it.” I’ve defaulted back to that statement during times of stress or conflict and it has helped me not over or underreact.

What’s the harshest criticism you’ve ever gotten about your work and how did you handle it?

Taylor: I was told in an interview debrief via a recruiter that “I’d make a better design manager than an actual designer”. And at the time, it hit me hard. I was thinking “wow, they’d rather me be the one talking to the designers than actually making things–I must really suck”. Fast forward a few years, I now realize it was a compliment–the consideration and perspective I was viewing and presenting my work from was both at the 10,000-foot level and in the weeds, and the position I was applying for would have been too mundane. The lesson here is: it’s not always about you, sometimes, it’s about what an organization/client/person/etc needs or doesn’t need.

Is there any designer or piece of design that you’re digging right now?

Taylor: I’ve been leaning into monoline illustration heavily lately. It’s nice because you can pull in SO much detail, but it can also scale well with subtraction. Brian Steely has been a huge source of inspiration for me–and of course the simplicity of Draplin’s “thick lines” mantra.

Stress Addiction talk 10/23 with taylor cashdan

Q&A with Crayligraphy Founder, Colin Tierney

Posted on by Frances Miller

Hand lettering and calligraphy are having a major boom today, as seen from logos to magazine covers, and from mass-produced home goods to painstakingly-handwritten wedding invitations.

When looking at work by the likes of Jessica Hische, Lauren Hom, and Jon Contino (just a few of the letterers helping to spread the craft today), it can feel like there’s no way your own hand could do that. Calligraphy, in particular, is intimidating to get into. Choosing and buying tools, and getting over the hurdle of giving up when your first few tries don’t look totally Instagram-worthy.

Crayligraphy was founded in the Summer of 2015 by Colin Tierney in (guess where?) Baltimore, Maryland. Offering in-person workshops, online guides, and a community of other learners, Crayligraphy delivers helpful content for anyone interested in learning. AIGA Baltimore is excited to cohost a workshop right here in Baltimore, so join us on Saturday, May 11th, 2019! Read on to learn more about Colin’s journey in developing this group and resource.

Sign up for the Crayligraphy workshop!

So, what exactly is Crayligraphy?
Colin: It’s a concept I dubbed several years back—a neologism combining the words “crazy” and “calligraphy”—to help people learn the beautiful art of writing through the magical world of those nostalgic, childhood friendly markers. Because let’s be honest, calligraphy with markers is pretty crazy.

Essentially, Crayligraphy is a space for people to try their hand in the ancient art form in the least intimidating way as possible. No longer do you have to spend an arm and a leg on traditional supplies before determining whether or not you enjoy the process. Broad-line markers are cheap, easily accessible and most of all, fun!

Where did the name Crayligraphy come from?

Colin: Crayligraphy began as a way to experiment with calligraphy through a marker. In this particular post, a Crayola marker. Hence the original name “Crayoligraphy,” which yes, I dubbed as well, but that’s a whole other story 🤫🤐

I changed the name to “Crayligraphy” shortly after realizing I wanted to turn this idea into a learning platform. The name not only rolled off the tongue easier, but it didn’t limit people to thinking they had to use Crayola’s brand. There are so many quality broad-line markers out there–– Target’s Up&Up, Crazart, Roseart to name a few—–that it seemed silly to be exclusive to just one brand.

At the time, did you think this would grow to what it is today?

Colin: At the time, I had no idea how big this idea was going to be. I was simply responding to my audience after several years of emails and DMs, requesting that I teach hand lettering and calligraphy.

One year after coming up with the idea of Crayligraphy, I posted this same image announcing the launch. People who were interested in learning how to stylistically write with a marker, were able to sign up to our newsletter, being the first to know when my series of tutorials would begin.

After the first 24 hours, we had 2 thousand people sign up to our newsletter list 😱. Before the announcement, I didn’t know how to teach. I had to better my knowledge and skillset before proclaiming that I was proficient enough to take on that role. Basically, I had to learn to teach.

Originally, you were traveling across the country to host workshops in different cities. How did you balance this along with your family and other work?

Make no mistake: doing all of these workshops solo was no easy task.

We get hundreds of requests to visit different cities all around the world. Back when I started teaching workshops, I was a one-man show on the road. My wife Lindsey organized the events and made sure everything was scheduled and set up so that I could fly into the city on a Friday, wake up the next morning (like a lost puppy in an unfamiliar territory), teach the workshop and hop back on a plane to return home early Sunday (early as in 3 or 4 in the morning early 😩).

I had to do this at the time. I lost my job, my family didn’t have a home (it was on the market when I lost my job) and we were about to welcome a baby boy to the world. We already had 2 girls under the age of 4! Life was a bit Cray to say the least 😐 And while it wasn’t a sustainable living situation, it was necessary.

So after some time passed, I decided I couldn’t go at this alone anymore.

Hiring can sometimes be as daunting as doing all the work yourself. How have you built a team of educators?

Throughout my visits to these cities, I reached out to local artists who have shown interest in Crayligraphy while also having an understanding of the art. I asked these artists if they had any interest in co-hosting a workshop with me in their respective cities. I did this for a few reasons. One, having two instructors to teach a workshop adds so much more value for the attendees. Two, it adds some local flavor that the students can relate to.

Most importantly though, I was able to train these local artists to teach the Crayligraphy material. We call them “Educraytors.” So, whenever a city’s interest arises, I am able to call upon an Educraytor who represents that region, to host the workshop. This allows me to focus on Crayligraphy’s bigger picture and spend those precious moments I would otherwise be missing during travel, with my family.

Does Crayligraphy define a specific style of lettering, or does each artist put their own spin on it?

Our team of educraytors is a great example of how you can produce wild results with one simple instrument. Check them out on Instagram! Veronica Ruiz of @veronicaletters is based in Denver, CO. She has a wide range of styles, but you know Vero’s work when you see it scrolling through Instagram because it always stops you in your tracks. Terence Tang of @tinlunstudio comes from Houston, TX, where we hosted a workshop last year with AIGA Houston. He has now integrated what began as a serious hobby into his professional design workflow, where magic markers are now among his go-to tools for designing logos and lifestyle goods.

I’ll be co-hosting Baltimore’s workshop with Natalie Downey of @nataliedowneydesign. She’s one of the best out there when it comes to Crayligraphy. Her fragmented style (broken strokes) is something to watch over and over again while scratching your head in awe of how she does it. We like to call Natalie The Ninja-Wizard ⚔️🧙‍♀️of the team because her strokes are so quick and unbelievably accurate.

What sorts of techniques are taught in a Crayligraphy workshop?

We’ll go through the two different methods to create your letters. We begin with the fragmented method; that’s breaking down each character into basic strokes so that we see the makeup of these letters as shapes and pieces to build upon. So, after each stroke, you lift your marker and place it down where the next stroke needs to be marked.

Some of you will be able to learn a little quicker and if that’s the case, you might be ready for the fluid method. That’s not to say we leave those who don’t learn as quickly in the dust. We just have another option to practice for the people who might have an easier time understanding the fragmented method.

The fluid method entails keeping your marker on the paper and transitioning between thick and thins based on pressure and release through the fingertips. This method allows for a more elegant or smooth aesthetic where the fragmented method is based on broken strokes that appear sharper and quicker.

Sign up for the Crayligraphy workshop!