Finding Your Creative Communities

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

National and Local Professional Organizations


AIGA: The Professional Association for Design | National
AIGA Baltimore | @aigabaltimore
AIGA advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest community of design advocates, we bring together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and create the vision for a collective future. We define global standards and ethical practices, guide design education, enhance professional development, and make powerful tools and resources accessible to all.


AAF: American Advertising Federation | National
AAF Baltimore | @aafbaltimore
The American Advertising Federation of Baltimore (AAFB) traces its roots back to 1918, originally established as the women’s auxiliary to the men’s Advertising Club. In 1920, the women formed their own organization, naming it the Women’s Advertising Club of Baltimore. It was affiliated with the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, the predecessor to the modern-day American Advertising Federation.

AGI Alliance Graphique Internationale
AGI: Alliance Graphique Internationale | @agigraphic
Alliance Graphique Internationale [AGI] is, as its name suggests, a member-based association of professionals, united by working in the field of graphic design and drawn from across the globe.

AMA American Marketing Association logo
AMA: American Marketing Association | National
AMA Baltimore | @amabaltimore
The American Marketing Association Baltimore Chapter is Maryland’s leading provider of networking, educational programming, and resources for marketing professionals. AMA Baltimore provides extensive opportunities for marketers to expand their networks, grow professionally, and learn about current industry trends.

Creative Mornings logo
Creative Mornings | National
Creative Mornings Baltimore | @CreativeMorningsBaltimore
CreativeMornings/Baltimore is a FREE monthly breakfast lecture series based on the two core principles that everyone is creative and everyone is invited. CM/Bal is one of over 200 chapters around the world meeting each month. Every month, all chapters organize talks based on the same theme. CreativeMornings is fueled by an engine of generosity and is 100% volunteer-run, partnering with great local businesses and organizations. If you’re interested in volunteering, please complete this form.

Baltimore Creative Community

BOPA: Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts
@promoandarts
As Baltimore City’s arts council, The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts provides resources and opportunities to artists and artist organizations to continue to make Baltimore a city for the arts.

BCAN
@baltimorecreates
The Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network (BCAN) is a 10-year, city-wide initiative providing both strategic and as-needed, just-in-time entrepreneurship support for Baltimore creatives of all disciplines and backgrounds. At BCAN, we define artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs the same way: visionaries who create something new from raw and often limited resources.

bfc: Baltimore Freelancers Collective
IG: @bmore_freelancers
FB: @baltimorefreelancers
Whether you own your own business, freelance on the side, work remotely for a large company, or just want to learn more about entrepreneurship—we would love for you to join us at our next event.

The Bmore Creatives
@thebmorecreatives
Hi, welcome to The Bmore Creatives! We are a community platform and a social media brand that celebrates the creatives, the makers, the get sh*t done-ers, the people that make Charm City charming! We promote and connect local artists, small businesses, and avid IGers throughout the city. We want to prove that everyone can be creative when they are open to being inspired by everyday life in our city.

Ladies, Wine & Design
Ladies, Wine and Design Baltimore holds monthly events which are limited to eight creative ladies. We’ll have drinks and casual conversations on a wide variety of topics relating to creativity, business, and life. If you’re a female student or creative and would like to join, please email us. It’s free and reservations are first-come, first-serve. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and if you’d like to host us in your space, teach a workshop, or lead a discussion, please do get in touch.

Open Works
@open_works_bmore
Our mission is to make tools, technology, and the knowledge to use them accessible to all. We connect you to manufacturing equipment, space, education, and Baltimore’s largest community of maker professionals. With programs for ages eight and up, we can help you make just about anything!

Production Club of Baltimore
@ProductionClub
Join the Production Club of Baltimore, along with hundreds of other local creative and marketing professionals, for an evening of networking and fresh production ideas from the mid-atlantic’s very best printers, paper suppliers, image producers, and technologists. Grow your swatch book collection and samples library. Cultivate new vendor partnerships. Seed your future project timelines with new media. Dig into deeper relationships with fellow creatives by face-to-face networking. This is a time to flourish!

SoDA | Society of Design Arts
@sodabaltimore
The Society of Design Arts (SoDA) presents a monthly program in Baltimore, Maryland to further attendees’ knowledge of the history of the design arts including graphic design, illustration, architecture, book arts, and photography. Programs are free and open to anyone.

SoDA consists of a planning committee that meets quarterly to discuss future programs. Formerly known as Society for History and Graphics (SHAG), the all-volunteer group has been active since 2007 providing more than 100 programs which have explored such diverse subjects as Bauhaus methodology and practice, Patent Medicine labels, The Real Mad Men of Advertising, Science Fiction illustration, and many others.

Baltimore Cake & Whiskey
Fresh, authentic, purposeful networking events for the modern businesswoman.

Baltimore Graphic Designers
This group is for Baltimore area based graphic designers to create community, ask questions, get advice, share jobs, and plan meet-ups.

Monument Women’s Creative Alliance
@monumentwomen
Our mission is to support women creatives by cultivating a community that enables connection, inspiration, and education.

Baltimore Tech Community

Baltimore UX Meetup
@BaltimoreUX
Calling all those who create excellent user experiences for sites, systems, applications, software, and hardware! From the startup to the enterprise. From user research to implementation. If you’re designing and building great experiences in the Baltimore area, please join us.

Code for Baltimore
@CodeForBaltimore
We are a community of volunteers who develop open-source projects as a Code for America Brigade by focusing on open government, open data, great design, and social good in Baltimore.

Code in the Schools
@CodeintheSchool
We empower Baltimore City youth to thrive in the 21st-century economy by expanding access to quality computer science education and building pathways from school to jobs and higher education. By focusing on youth traditionally under-represented in technology fields, we work to eliminate structural barriers and inequities in education and industry.

Technical.ly Baltimore
@TechnicallyBMR
Technical.ly Baltimore is a local technology news organization dedicated to how innovation is impacting the region.

Creative Job Boards

AIGA
designjobs.aiga.org

Creative Hot List
www.creativehotlist.com

The Creative Group (TLC) | A Robert Half Company
www.roberthalf.com/employers/creativegroup

Creative Mornings
creativemornings.com/jobs

Behance
www.behance.net/joblist

If You Could
ifyoucouldjobs.com

Media Bistro
www.mediabistro.com

Authentic
authenticjobs.com

Coroflot
www.coroflot.com

Smash
jobs.smashingmagazine.com/jobs

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.

Ink & Pixels 2020: Going Virtual!

Posted on by Bryan Burke

Ink & Pixels Goes Virtual!

Take The Next Step Towards Your Design Career

Thinking about the job market during these uncertain times can be daunting for designers at all levels of experience.  Whether you want to make a good impression in interviews, need a new perspective on your portfolio, or want fresh eyes on a current project, we’re here to help. Ink & Pixels is one of AIGA Baltimore’s largest events focused on helping designers prepare for a career or career shift. Due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and our current Stay-At-Home mandate, AIGA is transitioning our in-person event, (originally scheduled to be held at Morgan State University on April 18) online! Now more than ever, we believe in the importance of finding alternative ways to come together in the community and share the knowledge and resources we have with each other. All events are free to attend!

Virtual Ink and Pixels (VIP) is now a series of events hosted online:

1. If I Knew Then What I Knew Now – Designer Panel

Saturday, April 18, 12:30–1:30pm

Join us via Zoom for an informative virtual discussion between AIGA Baltimore’s programming chair, Vaibhav Sharma (moderator), The Creative Group (TCG), and two experienced designers representing different aspects of the design field.

Our panelists include: 

Alexander Reynolds, Senior Creative Recruiter at TCG

Perry Sweeper, Design Strategist

Emilee Beeson, Designer and Illustrator

→ Register Today

2. Roundtable Workshops

Saturday, May 2, 10am–12pm

Here’s your chance to get (virtual) face-to-face answers to those questions you’ve been Googling. Join our Zoom roundtable discussions with experts on a variety of topics such as Freelancer Finance, Finding Your Creative Community, How to Get Hired, and Building Your Social Media Following.

→ Register Today

3. Portfolio Reviews

Portfolio reviews are designed to give you advice and insight that will improve the way you present yourself and your work. AIGA Baltimore will match you with three reviewers and provide contact information so you can meet virtually on your own time for portfolio critiques. Practice your interview skills and receive honest feedback about your work and resumé through Google Chat, Zoom, or whatever online platform you choose. More details will be coming soon!

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.

A Message Regarding AIGA Baltimore Events and COVID-19

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

Dear AIGA Baltimore Members and Community,

In an effort to ensure the health and safety of our members and community, our chapter is temporarily suspending all in-person programming until further notice. Our volunteer board has given this significant consideration and, after reviewing recent guidance from the State of Maryland, the CDC, and other local and national health institutions regarding COVID-19, we believe this is the right approach in order to help flatten the curve. We would love to hear from you on how we can support you during this time, so, please fill out this survey and as always, reach out to us if you would like to get involved.

Stay healthy
We encourage all of you to stay informed about COVID-19 and take the necessary precautions to stay healthy. While there is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19, these steps can help stop the spread of this and other respiratory viruses.

Isolated, yet not alone
We’ve had our ears to the ground, and know that many of us will be experiencing a time of isolation while working remotely and avoiding large gatherings. On the bright side, we’re welcoming more time with our families and pets! We encourage you to join us and tap into online groups 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 to your community online. These groups are not affiliated with AIGA, but you will find many of our board members in the groups.

The Annual Ink & Pixels Portfolio Review Day
Our annual Ink & Pixels professional development and portfolio review day is currently scheduled for April 18th at Morgan State University, but we are reviewing our options. Morgan State has announced that all classes will take place online until at least April 2nd, and many Maryland colleges and universities will be encouraging students not to return to campus until early or mid-April. The AIGA Baltimore board of volunteers is dedicated to serving emerging designers each year, so we are in the process of developing a plan to host the portfolio reviews and talking sessions online and/or at a later date.

At this time, all options are on the table. We will be reaching out to educators, student chapters, and our general audience to better understand the needs of our community during this time. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any feedback.

Thanks for your attention and feel free to reach out to AIGA Baltimore leadership at info (at) baltimore.aiga.org and @aigabaltimore on all social media channels.

Sincerely,
Valerie Anderson, President; Frances Miller, Vice President; and our fellow board members

 

Resources:

Reducing Anxiety
How to stop a Coronavirus anxiety spiral, from Wired Magazine

Up-to-date info on COVID-19
Visit the CDC and WHO websites.

Teaching Remotely
The AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) will be hosting a webinar on teaching remotely. Information on this virtual roundtable for design educators can be found here.

COVID-19 Freelance Artists Resources
An aggregated list of FREE resources, opportunities, and financial relief options available to artists of all disciplines can be found on the COVID-19 & Freelance Artists website.

Working from Home with Kids
Keep children occupied and learning at home with this schedule and tips from Di is Organized.

Baltimore-area Babysitting Service
To find a babysitter, check out the Baltimore-based Napp app at nappnetwork.com.

PSA Generator on Hand Washing
A teenage developer from the U.K. named William has created a tool that will make you a hand-washing how-to poster accompanied by any song you like. Check out WashYourLyrics.com.

Free Creative Cloud Tools for Students & Educators
With Colleges and Universities moving to online classes, Adobe will be offering free Creative Cloud access to those schools who who currently make Creative Cloud apps available to students who login through on-campus labs and are impacted by COVID-19. Learn more here.

Adobe Distance Learning Courses, Articles, and Blogs
Find virtual webinars, tutorials, and more here.

Additional Resources for Parents with Small Children:

While Maryland schools will be closed for at least two weeks, not every school district in the country is sending home resources for kids to work on at home. Here is a list one teacher sent her 1st graders’ parents. Most links include resources for all grade levels.

Various Subjects – All Grades/Levels

Art for Kids Hub – Art videos for kids to follow
Mr. Nussbaum – Fun games for practicing skills for K-5 and up – All subjects
Brainchild – Science educational programming on Netflix
Starfall – resources for every subject & grade level
Xavier Riddle – cartoon versions of the Ordinary People Change the World­ book series
Khan Academy – Educational video lessons on all kinds of things for all ages

Math for All Ages

SplashMath – multi-grade math resource
Math For Love – math games for all grade levels
Math Playground – Math games for students through grade 6
Sheppard Software – Math games for all ages
XP Math – Arcade games to practice basic math skills
Mathwire – Math enrichment games (ex. SuDoku for kids)

Feature image by Scott Webb on Unsplash.
Scott Webb

20+ Events for Creatives in Baltimore: March 2020

Posted on by Krystal Carpintieri

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 AMA Baltimore, BCAN, Baltimore Print Studios, AAF of Baltimore, Ladies Wine and Design Baltimore, and more. Do you know of an event that belongs on this list? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at promotions@baltimore.aiga.org with your event information.

Each month we will be featuring a Baltimore Designer, Photographer, or Artist! For March, our inspiration is coming from Courtney Glancy, Art Director at idfive. In her free time, she explores taking photos in Baltimore on her Sony A7III & Pixel Smartphone. In a recent post of the Patterson Park Pagoda, she said, “Way back in college, we had a photography assignment called ‘quality of light.’ I think I’ve been obsessed with light ever since. To me, this photo is the definition of when someone says that light is spilling or pooling.” Check out Courtney’s Instagram, @charm_city_gal, for more amazing Photography.

March Events

 

3/3

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She-Suite Marketing Leadership Panel
Get ready for a few of the area’s female marketing powerhouses to drop some serious knowledge. On Tuesday, March 3rd, during Women’s History Month, AMA Baltimore will host a signature event, the She-Suite Marketing Leadership Panel. Taking place from 6 to 8 pm at Price Modern, the event will kick off with networking followed by a panel featuring marketing leadership from the non-profit, higher education, and technology sectors.
Hosted by: AMA Baltimore

→ Get Tickets!

3/4

Women’s Leadership Forum
Join over 300 women for an exciting day of empowerment, learning workshops, networking, and vending. WLF is a venue for women to come together and experience other positive, influential and uplifting women from all walks of life. Women are able to acquire knowledge, obtain resources, and make connections that will help them elevate to reach their goals through various learning methods. Our vision is to be an event that brings inspiration and transformation to all women in a safe space.
Hosted by: Notre Dame of Maryland University

→ Get your Ticket!

3/5

American Advertising Awards
Gone are the days of the three-martini lunch. Or are they? Get ready for a truly special experience as Baltimore’s advertising community reunites to celebrate 100 years of the AAFB. Don’t miss this year’s extraordinary celebration, hosted at Port Discovery—a veritable Wonderland in its own right. On March 5, we invite you to tumble down the rabbit hole and join us in commemorating 100 years of the American Advertising Federation of Baltimore (AAFB).
Hosted by: AAF Baltimore

→ Get your Ticket FAST!

3/7

MICA Grassroots Design Fest
MICA Grassroots DesignFest, sponsored by the T. Rowe Price Foundation, is an amazing opportunity to contribute to the social change movement in Baltimore while collaborating face-to-face with other designers and nonprofits. Teams of volunteer designers work with grassroots nonprofits to prototype logo designs, website updates, branding strategies, and more – all in one jam-packed daylong event.

Comics & Zines on the Risograph
Learn how to use the Risograph to its greatest strength, high-speed, affordable color publishing of zines and comics. The Risograph is an affordable, eco-friendly high-speed duplicator, made in Japan. In true punk-rock style, we’ll create analog layouts using collage materials, hand-written and hand-drawn elements, creating literary and visual multi-page publications.
Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios

→ Register Here

3/9

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Representing Baltimore–A Spotlight on Local Creatives
On Monday, March 9th, AIGA Baltimore will host the first in a series exploring the need for more diverse representation in the design industry and our city’s creative spaces. Join us at Flatform Studios for a night of inspiring presentations followed by a panel discussion on representation—as it pertains to the unique perspectives of the creative entrepreneur—featuring Jermaine T. Bell, Kaya Gordon-Levi, and Caprece Ann Jackson, and moderated by Charlotte James.

We all know Baltimore has a rich cultural heritage of innovation in the arts, music, and fashion, largely shaped by the immense contributions of the African American community. Unfortunately, this same community has been disproportionately underrepresented in the professional world of design and many other creative professions.
Hosted by: AIGA Baltimore

→ Get Tickets!

BCAN Help Desk – Building Your Cooperative Business
Co-op curious? Join Emily Lerman and Aishah Afadhalah for a drop-in discussion on worker-owned cooperatives and how their team is using a co-op model to build Mera Kitchen Collective. You’ll learn more about what a co-op is, why they are important, and gain resources for building and starting a co-op of your own. They’ll offer pro-tips on using the business model canvas as a startup tool, mitigating risks, starting a small food business, and managing finances.

At Noon, we’ll kick off a more structured lunch & learn discussion on capitalism, cooperatives and why we hope to see more co-ops in Baltimore and beyond. You bring lunch – we’ll bring the desserts!
Hosted by: BCAN & Mera Kitchen Collective

→ Register Today!

Screenprinting on T-shirts
This half-day, hands-on workshop covers all the basics of t-shirt printing. This is a followup class to our Intro to Screenprinting workshop. Attendees will learn what is unique about printing on apparel, appropriate inks, and mesh, how to set up multi-color prints and have a chance to print many different designs. No experience is necessary, but since this class is intended as a followup to our other Screenprinting workshop, attendees must take both classes before renting time in our studio.
Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios

→ Register Today

3/11

BriarLevit lores for blog

Graphic Means, film screening and Q&A with Briar Levit
Graphic Means is a feature-length documentary about the history of graphic design production after the letterpress, focusing on the phototypesetting era and the transition that occurred as a result of the Digital Revolution. A discussion/Q&A with Director and Producer Briar Levit will follow the film.

Briar Levit, the 2020 Graphic Design Juror for YCP’s Annual Juried Student Exhibition, is an assistant professor at Portland State University in Oregon, where she teaches typography, page layout, and studio design classes. She graduated from San Francisco State University, with a BA in Graphic Design, and from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (UAL, London), with an MA in Communication Design. Her passion is designing for content-driven projects—primarily in the publishing and cultural institution sphere. Her clients include Museum of Contemporary Craft, Flooded Fox Den Distillery, Sasquatch Books, Critical Craft Forum, Timber Press, Counterpoint Press, Seal Press, Bitch Media, and Cicada Books.
Hosted by: York College Art Galleries

→ Sign-Up for the Free Event!

3/12


Changing the Face of Voting with UX
Design has the ability to include or exclude people. Join us for an “Intimate Conversation” with Kathryn Summers about making voting inclusive and accessible through design. We will be discussing the implication of bad design and its implication on the voting process in the wake of the 2016 election and the coming 2020 election.
Hosted by: Ladies Wine and Design Baltimore

→ Get Tickets!

3/14

Icon Design Workshop
AIGA DC has teamed up with Scott Fuller of The Studio Temporary for a brand new icon design workshop! In this 4-hour class, 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! It’ll be a hands-on experience, so please bring notebooks, pencils (or pens, if you prefer) and a laptop with Adobe Illustrator.
Hosted by: AIGA DC

→ Sign-Up Today!

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 film work 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.
Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios

→ Register Today

3/19

BCAN Connect – We Own This!
There is no doubt about it, the future of entrepreneurship is certainly female. Join BCAN to celebrate the unique spirit of Baltimore’s female founders. To start off the evening, attendees will enjoy a networking cocktail hour, followed by an intimate moderated discussion with female founders from Baltimore City. The evening will conclude with mingling and treats from local women-owned businesses! For all the female founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners out there, this one’s for you!
Hosted by: BCAN

→ Register for Free!

3/21

BCAN Help Desk – MDVLA Art Law Clinic
Are you a painter, musician or any kind of creative entrepreneur that lives or works close to the Baltimore / DMV area? Do you have legal questions or concerns? Come visit our Art Law Clinic in collaboration with the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts on March 21st, 2020, 1-4pm at BCAN HQ!

For our March clinic, you can snag a FREE 30-minute consult w/ one of our volunteer attorneys to sort out any general issues or questions you might have!
Hosted by: BCAN

→ Book Your Session!

3/25

SoDA Classic: Conversations In Design History | Reception
SoDA Classic is an exhibition celebrating 13 years of programs by the Society for History and Graphics (SHAG) and it’s reemergence as The Society of Design Arts (SoDA). View the past programs from a selection of the best posters and a look forward to the future of presentations and presenters as we explore new horizons in design.

→ Attend the Event at Stevenson University!

Excellence In Print
Get Your Tickets to Excellence in Print. The biggest event of the year. The competition is fierce. Who will bring home the wins?  You have to be there to find out.
Hosted by: Printing and Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA)

→ Get Your Ticket!

Tech Happy Hour Mixer
Baltimore Womxn in Tech is hosting a tech happy hour mixer on Wednesday. March 25th at Spark Baltimore. This event coincides with The Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), which is hosted in Baltimore this year.
Hosted by: Baltimore Womxn in Tech

→ Save the Date!

3/26

Glass Blowing & Networking
Join Monument Women’s Creative Alliance on March 26th at 6pm for networking with a creative twist. You will be led in an activity where you’ll make a unique one of a kind pendent. Keep it for yourself or gift it to a friend and add one of the chains we provide. Enjoy a spread of great bites to eat from the Abbey Burger Bistro, as well as wine provided by Vectors Southand beer from O’Connor Brewing Co. All food and drinks are included in your ticket price.
Hosted by: Monument Women’s Create Alliance

→ Get Tickets!

3/29

Intro to Letterpress
Our one-day letterpress workshop covers all the basics of letterpress printing on a Vandercook and a C&P tabletop press from our collection of antique wood and metal type. Attendees will learn how letterpress printing works, how to hand-set wood and metal type, mix ink, print from type and polymer plates, and how to troubleshoot printing and press issues.
Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios

→ Register Today

3/30

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AIGA Design Conference 2020
The 2020 AIGA Design Conference brings the design community together in a once-in-a-lifetime, cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas about the changing world of design. Recharge your career with thought-provoking presentations, professional training, and meetups with design luminaries while taking in the City of Bridges.

March 30–April 1, 2020, in Pittsburgh, PA.
Hosted by: AIGA | The Professional Association for Design

→ Get Your Ticket!!

April Highlight

4/2

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Flourish: PCB 2020 Production Show
The demands on creatives and marketers continue to branch out into new directions. Your clients want solutions faster, cheaper, greener and more unique. And without a sense of the latest production techniques and technologies, project timelines and budgets can get out of control, leaving even the most seasoned designers and production specialists in the weeds.

Join the Production Club of Baltimore, along with hundreds of other local creative and marketing professionals, for an evening of networking and fresh production ideas from the mid-atlantic’s very best printers, paper suppliers, image producers, and technologists. Grow your swatch book collection and sample library. Cultivate new vendor partnerships. Seed your future project timelines with new media. Dig into deeper relationships with fellow creatives by face-to-face networking. This is a time to flourish!!
Hosted by: Production Club of Baltimore

→ Get Tickets!

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.

Baltimore Creative Community Events: February

Posted on by Krystal Carpintieri

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 of Design Arts (SoDA), LinkedIn Local Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Industry, Baltimore Print Studios, and more. Do you know of an event that belongs on this list? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at promotions@baltimore.aiga.org with your event information.

February Events

2/4

Book Bash: What Designers Read
Join the Society of Design Arts at Greedy Reads Bookshop for a preview of some new books and review a few old favorites selected by our members. We will talk about our own personal design collections and pass them around for all to see. Bring your favorite design book!
Hosted by: SoDA (formerly the Society for History and Graphics)

Check it out

2/8

Image may contain: possible text that says 'BMI Baltimore Museum Industry AFRICAN WITH FABRIC AKOS "SUNDAY" WORKSHOP REGAL 員 வம்ம்ட் ரட் SATURDAY FEBRUARY 08| 11:00PM $5/STUDENT $10/PERSON $15/FAMILY'

African Fabric Workshop
Celebrate Black History Month with an intergenerational workshop on the meaning behind African printed fabrics led by Baltimore-based designer Akos “Sunday” Regal (Regal Clothes). Akos was featured in our Design Week Fashion Show! Registration fee includes museum admission for the day (open 10:00 AM-4:00 PM), a 90-minute workshop, and a fabric swatch to take home!
Hosted by: Baltimore Museum of Industry

Register Today!

Valentines on the Riso
Attendees can make their own, 100% custom and one-of-a-kind, 2-color valentines. All art-making and printing supplies are provided, just bring your creativity. Cards will be printed on our high-speed Risograph machine, and every attendee will leave with 30 cards of their own design.
Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios

Sign Up!

2/12

Valentine’s Printmaking Workshop
As part of this class, you will receive a take-home linoleum block for you to create your own ‘mini printing presses’, use of all materials to create these blocks, and 10 quality cards and ink to print your beautiful Valentine’s! Aprons and gloves will be available. It’s a good idea to wear clothes that you may not mind getting ink on. Join us for this special event to tap into your creative side and release your inner artist.
Hosted by: Night Owl Gallery

RSVP on Eventbrite

2/16

Botanical Art at Rawlings Conservatory
Escape the winter chill and spend the morning in a tropical oasis at the Howard Peter Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. Built-in 1888, the Conservatory offers a wide variety of plantings from throughout the world. Join Emily Carter Mitchell in learning how to develop an artistic eye with flowers and greenery as your subject.
Hosted by: Emily Carter Mitchell Photography

RSVP

Black Arts District Brand Launch Party
The Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District is officially launching its brand! In observance of Black History Month, we are celebrating the accomplishments the arts district has made and what is yet on the horizon. Come meet Tia Newton, the creative director behind the new brand, and the arts district team! There will be Dollar Skating and Bowling, DJs Spinning, Brand Inspired Giveaways, and more.
Hosted by: Black Arts District

No photo description available.

2/19

LinkedIn Local Baltimore
Join us on Wednesday, February 19th at The Alexander Brown Restaurant for our next #LinkedInLocalBmore Event! Learn how to beat the burnout and be your best self with Rachel Druckenmiller, Founder & CEO of Unmuted. Together we will explore ways to start 2020 more intentionally and become fulfilled and energized at work and at home.
Hosted by: LinkedIn Local Baltimore and Strategic Factory

Register Here

2/22

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.
Hosted by: Baltimore Print Studios

Register Today!

2/27

Power Lunch Webinar with AIGA Baltimore and The Creative Group (TCG)
Briana Quetel is an Account Manager at The Creative Group (TCG), a Robert Half company, who has several years of experience recruiting and hiring for creative roles, and this month she is sharing some of her knowledge. She’ll sit down with a fellow recruiter from her office and give some insights into what they are looking for when recruiting for creative roles, portfolio do’s and don’ts, and how to set yourself apart during the hiring process. Registration link coming soon!

MICA Mixed Media Lecture Series: Palesa & Siphiwe Ngwenya
Representing the multi-award winning participatory tourism social enterprise, Maboneng Township Arts Experience, the South African creative place-making duo, Palesa & Siphiwe Ngwenya will be sharing their experiences regarding inclusive social design, emancipation mapping, and developing destinations in an African context. The public panel discussion with Baltimore industry peers and the attending public will strive to fuel a curiosity about the kind of creative place making that induces economic emancipation for neighborhoods while achieving social cohesion through new and innovative models.
Hosted by: Maryland Institute College of Art and MICA Center for Social Design

Get your free ticket!

2/29

Write Notepads & Co. Headquarters – Open House
The Write Notepads & Co Factory is celebrating its 7th year in Baltimore with an open house on February 29th, from 4–10pm. Stop by to see where and how their products are made, packaged, and sent. You will also have the opportunity to get the first crack at the new Limited Edition they will be revealing at the event. There will be tours of the manufacturing facility, as well as food, beer, and fun for all that show.
Hosted by: Write Notepads & Co.

Register Today!

3/5

Wonder Land: 2020 American Advertising Awards
American Advertising Awards
Gone are the days of the three-martini lunch. Or are they? Get ready for a truly special experience as Baltimore’s advertising community reunites to celebrate 100 years of the AAFB. Don’t miss this year’s extraordinary celebration, hosted at Port Discovery—a veritable Wonderland in its own right. On March 5, we invite you to tumble down the rabbit hole and join us in commemorating 100 years of the American Advertising Federation of Baltimore (AAFB).
Hosted by: AAF of Baltimore

Get your Early-Bird Ticket!

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.

Top 3 Skills UX and UI Designers Need to Know in 2020

Posted on by Krystal Carpintieri

Thanks to Kelly Strine, owner of Left-brained Creative, LLC for writing this blog post!

The AIGA Baltimore community had the pleasure of sitting down with Fearless, a full-stack digital services firm, this January to discuss current trends and skills user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designers need to know. And it’s not as scary as you might think.

Meet the Players

Held at Fearless headquarters inside of Spark Coworking Spaces in downtown Baltimore, the event was a panel-style Q&A. Panelists included:

Jordan Watts, Lead UX Designer, UX Coach
Antoine RJ Wright, Lead UX Designer, @ARJWright
Amanda Mancuso, UX Designer
Tyler Bolchoz, Product Designer
Rachel Petrucci, Product Designer
Daedriana Harvey, UX Designer

fearless tech baltimore designers seated for panel discussion
Photography Credits: Krystal Carpintieri

The Landscape

The UX/UI space is constantly changing as technology advances at lightning speed. Designing for non-traditional interfaces (smartwatch, eyewear, ring, etc.), voice user interface (VUI), and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will be the shiny new skills UX and UI designers will be homing in on. However, as technology changes, it’s often challenging for designers to gain experience in the latest and greatest and break into the UX/UI field.

What we learned from speaking with Fearless is that yes, UX and UI designers should have experience in design, code, content, research, and strategy (at varying levels of each, and that’s okay!); but that it’s equally important for UX and UI designers to possess super-sleuth soft skills and a fierce desire to learn. That’s far less daunting.

Photography Credits: Krystal Carpintieri

Skill 1: Collaborate Well with Others

In the past, there’s been clear segregation between designers and programmers. Designers would figure out what the “thing” (website, landing page, app, etc.) would look like, then hand it over to the programmers to code and be done with it. And as you can imagine, there’s bound to be some friction with this process.

“It’s not really a design hand-off, it’s a design implementation.”
—Rachel Petrucci, Product Designer

These days, the concept of a “hand-off” has vanished. At Fearless, as with many other agencies, designers and programmers work together in a very integrative process. Designers and programmers come together for scrum reviews and standup meetings, and developers are invited to design reviews and product testing. As Rachel put it, “it’s not really a design hand-off, it’s a design implementation.”

That means whether you’re a designer or a programmer or a magical unicorn who does both, you must possess strong communication skills and a willingness to collaborate. Designing in a technologically advanced space means you’ll need to rely on others to create a successful product. Designing at this scale does not happen in a vacuum. As Tyler said, “you’re doing the product a disservice if you just hand it over, but if you’re collaborating everyone is engaged.”

audience listening to panel discussion on UX design
Photography Credits: Krystal Carpintieri

Skill 2: Learn How to Build Empathy

We asked our Fearless panel what steps they take when asked to build a website from scratch. Across the board, step one was research. Before design is even a consideration, learn everything you can about the needs of your client. Do they need a website, or would they be better served by an app? The research phase also includes market research, identifying pain points and opportunities, and sitting with the users—it can take weeks.

“Your perspective is not the default”
—Jordan Watts, Lead UX Designer, UX Coach

But the critical part of researching is gaining the ability to build empathy for your users. Putting yourself in the shoes of the user is the most effective way to create successful UX and UI design. As we discussed inclusive design, Antoine suggested starting a design with the least-sited person in mind, then build up. Can this person use the product on a watch, how about on a mobile phone, tablet, non-touch computer, touch computer, etc.

Jordan summed it up best by saying, “your perspective is not the default.” Having empathy for users and being able to tap into how others will use the product (via user testing, research, etc.) will help you reach every user and create a better product.

AIGA baltimore attendees at spark coworking spaces
Photography Credits: Krystal Carpintieri

Skill 3: Be Hungry to Learn

As technology continues to evolve the only way designers and programmers can stay relevant is to stay hungry…to learn. Without a constant desire to learn, the skillsets of those in the tech industry will inevitably turn stale.

When we asked panelists what the top characteristic trait was that they look for in a new hire, Rachel and Amanda said they would hire someone who is curious and actively seeks out opportunities to learn and develop new skills. Antoine and Jordan discussed the merits of cross-functionality—and yes, there is value in knowing how to design and code—but it is equally important to understand your area of expertise.

So, if you’re looking to impress your current managers or are looking to break into the UX and UI space, take the initiative to develop your skillset. Attend hands-on boot camps and workshops (rather than lectures) to develop your skills, portfolio projects, and gain experience. As Amanda put it, in an interview she would rather hear about what you learned from failed experiences, rather than hear a candidate prattle on about what they think she wants to hear.

valerie anderson and alice rambissoon smiling for photo
AIGA Baltimore President, Valerie Anderson with the Interior Designer of the Spark Co-Working Space, Alice Rambissoon. Photography Credits: Krystal Carpintieri

What Did We Learn?

It’s no big surprise that the UX and UI fields are growing, and the demand to create beautiful, interactive products for numerous interfaces will continue to grow as well. Being on the cutting-edge of these technologies means possessing the technical skills, yes, but equally as important is being able to demonstrate how UX and UI can add value. That means learning how to be a strong communicator (and listener!), being empathetic toward clients and teammates, and being a dedicated, lifelong learner.

If you’re interested in learning more about Fearless, head over to fearless.tech; and if you want to join the Fearless team, check out fearless.tech/careers. 

Follow Fearless on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook at @fearlessbmore. And follow AIGA Baltimore—@aigabaltimore—on all your favorite channels so you never miss great events like this one!

 Share your thoughts below on what skills should be on the minds of UX and UI designers as we move into 2020!

Making Ideas Happen: The Book …

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore
Making Ideas Happen

Earlier in the year, I had the chance to speak with Scott Belsky, author of the book: “Making Ideas Happen”. (Interview is here) His book is a calling card in ways to be more effective at honing the process of productivity, whether you’re a individual freelancer or the largest company in the region.

As the book points out, we face more and more distractions to our personal productivity than ever before. Quite simply, we are more interrupted , we are in longer meetings, there’s more on television—just by the fact that there are more channels.

And with all this we are still to be productive? Um… yeah.

From the book: “The ranks of freelance, contract and part-time workers, as well as small business owners are increaasing daily. Many businessese are hiring people for rotational programs that last only to years.

Practices such as ‘daylighting’ are increasingly popularity as companies such as GE and IBM are acknowledging the value of shorter experiential education over a life long career opportunity.”

The book helps point out the sweet spots of creativity and connects people to the process that goes beyond ideation to the implementation of ideas. The book outlines the importance of the three factors of growth in ideas: increased efficiency in organization and execution, calling on the power of community and leadership capability to shepherd those ideas to a workable state.

“You control the platform of your ideas” … Well, with websites and Facebook, who can refute that?  (Ideation is not really discussed). The book principly maintains that the ideas are 1% idea and 99% perspiration, meaning it’s the whole process after the idea is in place that projects an idea into action.

The book’s a solid read that can help anyone designer’s included get on the train to more productivity.

Create Don’t Hate …Updates

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore
"Work Hard" Billboard

Last October, AIGA Baltimore sponsored Create Don’t Hate with Worldstudio. This was a mentoring program for high school students in the Baltimore area. Graphic designers were matched up with students interested in visual arts from Patapsco and Patterson high schools. The groups worked together to create posters that later on could become billboards throughout the city. The billboards, after some delays, went up in July!!

Recently, The Baltimore Sun covered the billboards with a profile on the billboards and included quotes from some of the students involved. View the Baltimore Sun’s story here: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-08-13/news/bs-md-co-students-design-billboards-20100813_1_billboards-tolerance-three-students

The Billboards are in the following locations:
1 006350 Belvedere Ave NS 25ft E/O Linden Hgts F/W – S Baltimore City Y WORK 07/20/2010
2 008300 Calvert St WS 10ft S/O Federal F/S – 1 Baltimore City Y TOLERANCE 07/19/2010
3 011320 Curtis Ave ES 10ft N/O Patapsco F/S – 1 Baltimore City Y TONE 07/19/2010
4 013050 Dundalk Ave WS 380ft S/O Gusryan F/N – 2 Baltimore City Y MAKEUP 07/20/2010
5 014650 Eastern Ave NS 80ft E/O Bethel F/W – 1 Baltimore City Y TRASH 07/19/2010
6 019600 Federal St NS 920ft W/O Erdman F/W – S Baltimore City Y DIVERSITY 07/20/2010
7 023650 Frederick Ave NS 50ft E/O Loudon F/E – 3 Baltimore City Y LUV 07/19/2010
The program lasted four weeks, with students and mentors meeting once a week. The billboard designs were based on a variety of topics such as: stop crime, domestic violence, love your city, stop vandalism in the streets, don’t trash your city, and much more. This was a great experience for students and many saw how a career in the arts can be achieved.

Thanks again to all the mentors:

  • Dani Bradford
  • Cris Cimatu
  • Debbie Feldman Jones
  • Joseph Ford
  • Kimberly Hopkins
  • Alissa Jones
  • Megan Lavelle
  • Mary Leszczynski
  • Ilene Lundy
  • Chad Miller
  • Llara Pazdan
  • Lark Pfleegor
  • Katie Rosenberg
  • Kevin Sprouls
  • Shannon Tedeschi
  • Andrew Walters
  • Grace Wanzer

And another big thank you to the students of Patterson and Patapsco high schools for participating!

This program is showcasing the power of design to ignite change to the general public and business community so please join us in this closing event! To see other programs that are happening in other cities, visit http://www.designigniteschange.org.