AIGA Archives - Page 3 of 5

AIGA Women Lead Initiative: Baltimore Community Meeting Recap

Posted on June 15, 2018June 19, 2018 by AIGA Baltimore

Written By: Jennifer Marin Jericho | Photo Credit: Kate Lawless

Women today outnumber men in AIGA’s membership—as in design schools and various disciplines—yet leadership, representation, and parity remain a challenge.

AIGA Women Lead is committed to empowering women in design and advancing the vital discourse on issues facing professional women today without generalizing or segregating women designers. Instead, we aim to address persistent biases and inequities, inclusively and constructively, through programming around three goals:

Celebrate the achievements of women in design.
Cultivate awareness of gender-related issues, while building knowledge and leadership skills.
Connect by facilitating relationships within and beyond the design industry.

AIGA-Women-Lead-Initiative-Baltimore-Discussion — Baltimore creatives gather to develop ideas for launching a women lead program

How AIGA Baltimore Is Working To Empower Women

On March 22, 2018, the AIGA Baltimore Women Lead Initiative Committee hosted a community meeting to connect with local creatives and facilitated a design thinking workshop to develop ideas for launching a women lead program in Baltimore.

While we were interested in leading a local initiative, we wanted to make sure to validate our assumptions about what women in the design community need from AIGA Baltimore. The process may take longer than tossing an event together, but our goal is to build something that speaks directly to the women in our community, is flexible and adaptable, and most importantly, is scalable.

AIGA-Women-Lead-Initiative-Baltimore-Meeting — Women from various industries and community programs worked together to answer a tough question.

To accomplish all this, we first had to bring together women in various industries and community programs to ask the question: How might we help women leaders 10-15 years into their career, get the resources they need to step into leadership roles?

Why was this question so specific? Because we have to start somewhere, and often when you tackle large issues such as this one, you run the risk of trying to solve all the problems, and end up solving none of the problems.

Our goal is to empower women to grow professionally and use the tactics and resources we provide to tackle issues that they are passionate about in their own communities. I imagine this initiative as a ripple effect, because we are all responsible and capable of influencing change, and it is crucial that these initiatives are diverse and inclusive.

I imagine this initiative as a ripple effect, because we are all responsible and capable of influencing change

AIGA-Women-Lead-Initiative-Baltimore-Workshop — In Design Thinking workshops, an empathy map helps build understanding.

Outcomes of the Design Thinking Workshop

In our two-hour workshop, we led two specific activities. The first was an empathy map, where we broke into groups of 4-5 people and developed personas of various types of women in the industry. The goal of the activity is to put the person at the center and think about what she is feeling, thinking, saying, and doing when it comes to her professional goals. After brainstorming, we then shareback and group common themes. Here are some of the themes that were common among the personas we developed:

Anxiety/Uncertainty
Growth and ambition
Social Interaction/Relationships
Self Worth/Reality Check
Planning for Future
Lifelong Learning/Business Knowledge
Life Balance

what do women designers feel, think, and do? — Participants noted that this persona, Alexis, may feel determined but sometimes depleted. She mentors younger designers, but she knows she needs mentors of her own.

The outcomes were not surprising. Most professionals struggle to strike a balance between focusing on career, learning new skills, balancing a personal life, and developing the confidence to do all of the above while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

How might AIGA’s Women Lead Initiative help to fill the gaps?

To answer this question we did a big ideas exercise to come up with potential solutions to support women in their careers. We had three major themes that came from this workshop: group mentorship, skill development, and self-care.

ideas-for-women-lead-program-baltimore-design — The ideas centered around skill development, group mentorship, and self care. All in favor of a 4-day work week, say aye!

Group Mentorship
While coworkers, family, and friends can be a great support system, a professional network is crucial. While the former can provide great emotional support, the latter can provide you the right tools, help you tackle specific challenges and navigate the complexities of building a successful career. I am a huge proponent of building a brain trust, people that challenge you and push you to be better. It has been instrumental in my own career growth.

I just attended the Women Spanning the Globe Leadership Conference hosted by the World Trade Center Institute here in Baltimore. One comment that resonated with me was a speaker who suggested we be more like spiders. Build a web: a network of people that support us and help us catch opportunity. Love this!

Skill Development
We have heard from our members that inspiration is an excellent resource. Inspiration can fuel our creativity, inspire us on that specific project, and push us out of “unstuck”. Yet inspiration can only take you so far; stretching your skills and capabilities will better prepare us to face the challenging problems we face as creatives in a fast-paced world.

This means more than learning new technical skills, we need leadership, business, and management skills to help us grow professionally. This is a common challenge of many designers in our field and it is one we are starting to tackle as a national organization to help designers better communicate the value of design and collaborate with professionals in other disciplines.

Self-Care
This continues to be a common theme in the lives of busy professionals. We know that rest and regeneration are crucial to creativity, but we continue to struggle with the demands of our personal and professional lives. I’d like to see some intentional programming that helps us carve some space for activities that energize us.

I look forward to seeing how this evolves, and I hope you will join us. Stay tuned as we continue to craft a plan for a women lead program that fits the needs of our community members. We will be looking for volunteers in the coming months, so look out and keep checking in!

Jennifer Marin Jericho
AIGA Women Lead Steering Committee

AIGA-Women-Lead-Initiative-Baltimore-Design-Thinking — Thank you to all who joined us for the last community meeting!

Join us at the next Women Lead Initiative Meeting

An Evening of Design Thinking and Radical Collaboration with AIGA Baltimore

Posted on February 9, 2018March 20, 2018 by AIGA Baltimore

Written By: Joseph Carter-Brown and Valerie Anderson | Photo Credit: Frances Miller and Leo Brady

AIGA Baltimore’s Community Meeting started in late 2016 with the intention to provide a platform for members within our creative community to share ideas, concerns, and hopes for the betterment of Baltimore. In meetings past, we’ve heard from representatives from AIGA National on the work the organization is doing as a whole, as well as how the work that goes on in headquarters aligns to the work each chapter is doing locally. Other meetings focused on presentations from a variety of community-based initiatives spearheaded by our board within AIGA Baltimore or other organizations. While we enjoyed opportunities to share the things we love most about the local design community, we found we weren’t spending enough time talking to you about what you wanted.

So, at our most recent community meeting on January 16th, graciously hosted by our friends at SlimTech, in an effort to talk less and do more, we made your interests the focus of the meeting. We started with a Facebook poll to gauge where the discussion interests lie. To those of you who participated, thank you for helping to guide the conversation. After choosing the top four topics from the poll, we used design thinking tools to begin to brainstorm ways in which we could impact designers’ pain points in each area of focus.

Facebook Poll Results

Following a brief kickoff, we asked attendees to jump into action, connecting with their fellow designer and discussing their personal and design-focused hopes and fears for the new year.

AIGA Baltimore President, Joseph Carter-Brown, addresses and prep attendees for the evening's proceedings — AIGA Baltimore President, Joseph Carter-Brown, addresses and preps attendees for the evening’s proceedings.

In this exercise, we discovered some of the common themes on designers’ minds—from hopes for professional growth and making connections within the community to fears regarding world events and maintaining healthy lifestyles. While these hopes and fears were not the intention of the discussion, this broad range of concerns helps us put a finger on the pulse of of our community. Discussing our hopes and fears is also a great way to find allies in the room; because what starts as individuals writing their personal hopes and fears, turns into a group of collaborators, realizing that they’re not alone in their goals or concerns.

Attendees share their hopes and fears for the new year — Attendees found shared themes among their individual hopes and fears for the new year.

Once the attendees completed the hopes and fears activity, we broke into four distinct groups. Each group focused on a different discussion prompt as dictated by our Facebook poll. This is when we began to get a true collaborative feeling for how designers in our community could benefit from involvement with AIGA. We did this by building a prioritization grid to identify some ideas that would be impactful, while also being mindful of the feasibility of any given idea. After lots of collaboration, silent ideation, and group sharing, we settled on a handful of big ideas in our four key discussion areas, with a goal to create more user-driven outcomes for all of our community members.

Collaborating on Big Ideas — Attendees collaborate on some big, impactful ideas.

Below is a list of the big ideas, along with pictures of the final prioritization grids:

Design for Good Big Ideas

Empathy/Human-Centered Design Workshops
Murals for Community Beautification
Career Day Awareness
Design for Good Video Series:
Videos educating designers on pro-bono/community-focused work
Designathon for Baltimore Businesses in Need (with appropriate vetting)

After brainstorming Design For Good ideas, attendees grouped common themes, and came up with big impactful ideas

Design + Business Big Ideas

“Dear Ellen”(name tbd) Blog/Column (like Dear Abby):
Q&A advice column (topics could include differences between working in-house vs agency vs freelance, branding a new business, other peoples’ design business experiences)
Creative Round Table:
Event for bringing business leaders and creatives together to discuss topics related to running and working in/for a design business (educate businesses on how to work with designers, collaboration opportunities, workshop on getting start-up funding, bring big names to design community, connections with local businesses, comparing notes with similar businesses/getting advice on processes)

Big Ideas for Design & Business Content

Design + Leadership Big Ideas

Workshop with Local Design Leaders:
How to lead a design team, advocating for design, how to navigate career path in different contexts, how to progress in your career and still design
Improv Workshop to Role-Play Design Leadership Situations

Design Leadership Big Ideas

Mentorship Big Ideas:

Daily Internships/Adopt a Designer
Coffee/Lunch Date or “Speed Dating” to Find a Mentor
Designer Exchange Program
Portfolio Reviews Targeted at Designers with More Than 5 Years Experience

Mentorship Big Ideas

Sharing our creative ideas in a community setting is the first step to taking action, but we want to take that a step further. We want to see your ideas come to life, however AIGA Baltimore is a board of only a few people, and all volunteers at that; so we’re asking the community to work with us. While we want to do everything on this list, we simply cannot do it alone. What we can do is support and empower you, our design community! Let’s work together and make it happen. Shall we? If you see an idea that you can’t wait to help bring to life or want to explore more (or if you know someone who may be able to help push the needle forward), we want to hear from you.

Email info@baltimore.aiga.org and let’s talk about how we can all take ownership in our design community.

Behind Design Week 2017’s Branding; A Discussion With Fastspot

Posted on November 2, 2017March 20, 2018 by AIGA Baltimore

AIGA Baltimore was thrilled when Fastspot agreed to be our Branding Sponsor for Design Week 2017. Their commitment to Baltimore was evident from the beginning, and with this Design Week being a resounding success, we couldn’t have of done it without them.

A critical aspect of communicating Design Week to our membership is a strong brand identity. Since 2013, we have reached out to a local design agency to partner with us and bring Design Week alive visually. Past partners have included Orange Element, Gilah Press + Design, Eye Byte Solutions, and Exit10.

Here we go behind the scenes with our Branding Sponsor, Fastspot, to learn more about their inspiration for this year’s branding for Design Week, their work outside of AIGA Baltimore, and what their company is all about!

What was the inspiration for Fastspot’s Design Week Branding?

A branding project like this one is all about using design and aesthetic choices to bring the spirit of an organization to the surface. The Baltimore design community, which we’re honored to be a part of, is full of creative people exploring, innovating, and pushing in new directions. We wanted to reflect that in a way that was exciting and authentic, and would align well with AIGA’s existing materials. Our designers drew inspiration from the city itself, in abstracted shapes of iconic Baltimore buildings and variations on found letterforms. In the end, the Design Week brand captures the quirk and vibrancy that will be very familiar to AIGA’s audiences.

What were the steps involved in creating the branding?

We begin every project with a kick-off meeting that allows us to better understand the mindset and vision for the project. Time is spent together questioning, brainstorming, and setting a vision for the project, both from a creative and a scoping standpoint. From there, it’s a lot of iteration and collaboration. The “big reveal” moment might be dramatic, but it isn’t necessarily productive. We prioritize working closely with clients to discuss, challenge, and refine the work, so that we’re all in consensus around the finished product.

What was the inspiration for being a part of Design Week 2017?

Fastspot is Baltimore through and through—many of our team members are from Baltimore or have proudly adopted the city. So we jumped at the chance to give back to this community. It’s not unusual for us to work with clients to adapt an existing branding or design system for use in a new medium or for a specific initiative. It was a lot of fun doing so for AIGA.

What was the goal of the Design Week branding?

We wanted to create a design system that breaks down barriers (real and perceived).

Could you explain an exciting Fastspot project completely unrelated to AIGA?

The Ford’s Theatre website redesign was an exciting project and a great challenge.

Ford’s Theatre is a place where the past and present collide—they teach Lincoln’s legacy while preserving the historic theatre that shows new, contemporary performances. We loved immersing ourselves in the history and cultural impact of Ford’s Theatre. During the process we learned it was controversial for Lincoln enjoy theater! It was very uncommon at the time, and he was seen as a rebel for his attendance.

One of the interesting logistical goals of the project was to make online ticketing easier. We worked with the software applications TNEW and Tessitura to make them as user-friendly as possible, something we’re continuing to partner with Ford’s Theatre to refine. A website redesign doesn’t end at site launch, and some of our most successful clients are the ones who become partners that we continue to work with for many years.

What are your typical process steps? Do they differ from AIGA work?

Our process always start with research. We ask hard questions and we do a lot of listening as we seek to uncover the real motivations and challenges that each project contains. We want to understand the potential impact on the institution or organization, and the ways in which we can help create meaningful change. From there, we create foundational strategy before we move into design and (where needed) development. Throughout our process, we’re focused on innovation and collaboration. Great ideas can come from anywhere, at any time, and we’re always ready to pursue them. All of this was reflected in our work with AIGA.

How do you typically find your clients?

Fastspot finds most of our new clients through referrals. Great work and happy clients help bring in more happy clients!

What’s an ideal day at the office like?

An ideal day at Fastspot is when our team members feel accomplished, whether it’s because of a design breakthrough, a successful presentation, progress on a hard problem, a well-received deliverable, helping a co-worker, etc.

What is Fastspot’s mission? How did it come about?

“To build a successful company, with great people, who do awesome, creative work, together.”

Fastspot’s mission partly comes out of our co-founder, Tracey Halvorsen’s background as a painter. She recognizes how important your physical space and who you surround yourself with is to doing your best work. She wanted to bring that sentiment into into the business world, where collaboration and creativity should also be encouraged and acknowledged.

If you could describe your team and work philosophy in 5 words, what would they be?

Challenging, supportive, smart, honest, and brave.

What’s your vision for Baltimore? For Maryland?

Our vision is to create more of a draw to this area, whether it’s Baltimore or Maryland as a whole. We want Maryland to be a place where creative, innovative people want to live and work.

We like that Baltimore isn’t New York or Silicon Valley, there’s opportunity to have a really great life in Maryland. The lifestyle here emphasizes a work-life that balance, which makes it a place where people can truly thrive.

We’d like to see more local initiatives to help kids get into creative and technology fields, and support for businesses that want to grow here. We hope the city and state can have the kind of leaders who look forward to new ways of leading and governing. We’re in a new time, and need progressive leadership.

Passing the Torch

Posted on June 16, 2017May 29, 2018 by AIGA Baltimore

It feels like only yesterday that I had moved up to Baltimore and was just another fresh face at one of our chapter’s round-table events. Fast forward four years, and I’m closing out my two-year term as President. Our chapter has intentionally short terms, and mandates that presidents roll off the board after two years, because we believe that the chapter belongs to you, our members. We are a board of 100% volunteers, driven by a passion for design and innovation, and a desire to serve our community.

Two years ago, my goals were for our chapter were to expand on our solid foundation by growing our community involvement: 1) with the national AIGA organization and our other chapters, 2) with the broad Baltimore community, and 3) with the Baltimore creative community. I’m proud that our amazing team went above and beyond, and achieved some significant outcomes:

Expanded programming types and times
After redesigning our recurring events and offering Saturday morning events, we saw a spike in new event attendees. Last year our chapter put on 22 events, drawing more than 700 attendees across the greater Baltimore area. Design Week alone drew more than 400 people to nine events over the course of the week, 23% more than in 2015.

Getting involved in Baltimore neighborhoods
We also got involved in the Druid Heights neighborhood, leading a rebranding project for the Druid Heights Community Development Corporation. Check out their new branding on their website here: druidheights.com

Funding for two grant projects
In 2016, we were awarded two Innovate grants from AIGA to develop national resources for design entrepreneurship and design policy. We were able to develop these platforms due to the generosity and partnership of our amazing friends at Orange Element and Foxtrot Media: PolicyDesigned.com and YouLaunchIt.org.

Collaborating with other creatives
AIGA Baltimore co-founded the Creative Minds Crew, a team of leaders from six other creative organizations in the city: B’more Creatives, AAF Baltimore, AMA Baltimore, the Production Club of Baltimore, Girl Develop It, and the Society for History and Graphics. Together, we planned and co-hosted the inaugural Creative Mixtape networking event, bringing more than 250 professionals together.

Leading at the national level
I’m also delighted to share that AIGA Baltimore will host the national AIGA leadership retreat in 2018 – an honor that will bring leaders from AIGA’s 72 chapters across the country to convene here in Baltimore, to inspire and learn from each other, and chart the course for our field and our organization.

I’m thrilled to leave the board’s leadership in Joseph Carter Brown’s capable hands. Joe has been a rock for our chapter in his roles as programming director and vice president. He is also one of the most dedicated, visionary people I know, and he genuinely and deeply cares about this organization and the people in it. I know that under his leadership, the board will listen to the needs of the design community and the Baltimore community, to drive initiatives with impact.

Thank you to all the board members and volunteers who make this work possible. Thank you to the organizations who have partnered with us, the attendees who have learned with us, and the members who support our advocacy for design as a strategic business initiative and vital cultural force.

I am so exceptionally proud of everything the board has collectively achieved over the past two years, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to serve you as president. I am also so excited to see what AIGA Baltimore does next.

Thank you.

Posted on June 16, 2017March 20, 2018 by AIGA Baltimore

I’m writing this in an airplane, flying back to Baltimore from the AIGA National Leadership Retreat, listening to the new At The Drive-In album; with a heart full of love and eyes full of tears I reflect on the impact that AIGA has had on my life, and career. As I enter this journey as the president of the Baltimore chapter the only thing I can think is, “How can I provide this feeling to every member of our community?”

So here’s what I’ll say to you, I will literally give you the shirt off my back, I will literally lift you on my shoulders to help you project your voice, I will be your pin cushion and support system, because I know the power that we have as a unified community. I know the impact design can have and I want to see you at the forefront of changing the world. The funny thing is, when I joined this organization none of the above was in my head, heart, or hand, but having spent the past 4/5 years around this amazing community, I see the platform that AIGA has provided to every person that chooses to get involved. So as I begin my term as president, I want you to know that we have your back, we care, and we want to see you succeed. I hope you will join with me on this journey. Thank you.

One more thing, I want to give a special thank you to every person that has helped me along this path. I was going to list you all individually, but then I realized that this letter would extend another 14 pages because there are so many of you. So I will just say thank you, I cherish this challenge, and I am excited to bring my passion to the forefront. Let’s continue to FSU.

5 Tips for a Successful Portfolio Review

Posted on April 3, 2017May 11, 2020 by AIGA Baltimore

Ink & Pixels 2018: Creative Review is just around the corner, which means you’ll have the opportunity to have your portfolio reviewed by industry professionals. Here are five tips for you to get prepared so you can make the most of it.

Portfolio Tip #1: Don’t take it personally

As creative people, we tend to get deeply attached to our work, but keep in mind that any criticism you receive is not directed at you but at the work you present. Reviewers don’t know how long it took you to make it, or if your piece has a profound personal meaning to you, they will be there to give you a neutral honest opinion about your designs. They are providing you with their time and knowledge to help you have a stronger portfolio.

Portfolio Tip #2: Presentation is key

Whether you have a website, a PDF or a print portfolio doesn’t matter as long as you’re paying attention to detail. This includes not having typos and how your work is presented. If you are a product or packaging designer and don’t know how to take crisp, clean pictures, ask a friend who knows photography for help. The internet has plenty of free Photoshop mockups to display your card, flyers, and posters. It would be a shame to have your sharp designs lost in blurry or dark pictures.

Portfolio Tip #3: Keep it consistent

By consistency, I don’t mean including only print design, or only website design but rather the quality of the work. Every designer has good and bad pieces, so don’t feel pressured to include everything you’ve made. A few “meh” pieces can bring down the entire quality of your portfolio.

Portfolio Tip #4: Include what makes you special

Nowadays with templates on the internet, pretty much anyone can come up with a business card design, but that doesn’t mean all of them are innovative. Include what makes you special. Examples of this could be your use of color, your minimalist or maximalist aesthetic or the way you mix fonts.

And finally…

Portfolio Tip #5: Don’t be afraid to ask questions

Take a look at your work and write down any questions you have. Are you wondering if you should include a particular project in your portfolio? This is the time to ask your reviewer any questions you have. Take advantage of this, as once you are showing your work to a possible employer there is no turning back.

Now is time to get to work and prepare your portfolio. Join us at the next Ink & Pixels, where you’ll get personal reviews from peers and design professionals in the area!

We’ll see you there!

Pending State-wide Design Policy Needs Your Help

Posted on February 14, 2017February 7, 2019 by AIGA Baltimore

Given the interest in the Baltimore Innovation Village and Open Works, there is no better time than now to contact your delegates and senators to support design-driven initiatives on a state level. This week, we need your help contacting Annapolis legislators (e-mail, in person or by phone) to sign on as a sponsor for the Maryland Design Excellence and Innovation Commission.

Scheduled to be introduced during the 2017 Maryland General Assembly Session, the Commission’s mission is:

To distinguish design in all its manifestations for innovations in both the public and private sectors.
To further the evidence of how design impacts innovation in government and industry.
To measure discrete economic, social and educational benefits of design activity in all its manifestations.
To apply economic, social, and educational outcomes of design activity to important public policy issues for Maryland including but not limited to: best practices for the natural and built environment, accessibility, and the delivery of public sector services.

The Commission has been endorsed by IDSA and AIGA Baltimore, and is currently developing partnerships with Open Works, Baltimore Innovation Village, Morgan State University, MICA, and Stanley Black and Decker.

Do your part to get the Maryland Design Excellence and Innovation Commission Legislation approved by the Maryland General Assembly.

Take action now

Please take 15 minutes to call or send an email to your Maryland state senators and state delegates. This is vital in order to secure sponsors to support and introduce the legislation before February 24, 2017 in the Senate finance committee.

You can quickly find contact information for your district’s representatives by visiting the General Assembly of Maryland website. Simply click “who represents me?” in the upper right-hand corner and enter your address.

Here’s a sample message you can use:

“Greetings, ________________! I’m __________, a constituent calling/writing to ask for you to sponsor the Maryland Design Excellence and Innovation Commission in the 2017 legislative session. The commission aims to distinguish design in all its manifestations for innovations in both the public and private sectors. which can apply to the fields of (specific examples: industrial design, architecture, engineering) Federal funds can be used to secure services and programs such as _____________________________________________ that promote sustainability and accessibility and support careers such as _______________________________. This will impact my field of interest by providing ______________________ Thank you for your time.”

Please CC designpolicymaryland@yahoo.com with all correspondence so we can track verifications!
To learn more, visit www.marylandbydesign.org

Thank you for taking action to advance the value and practice of design in Maryland.

Stephanie Yoffee is currently working to establish the Maryland Design Excellence and Innovation Commission to serve as an intermediary between the sectors of design, state government, non-profit, and business. She is collaborating with policy-makers on MarylandByDesign, a design policy platform.

Kathleen Mazurek serves on AIGA Baltimore’s Innovate Committee, working to create an online national resource for design policy. She has worked with Stephanie Yoffee on the Design Excellence Commission since 2015. Kathleen is a Program Coordinator for the Tech Kids After School Program at Liberty Elementary School.

Designers for Good: A Conversation with Shannon Ryan, Vice President and Co-Director for Creative at Burness

Posted on September 1, 2016September 1, 2016 by AIGA Baltimore

Welcome to AIGA Baltimore’s Designers for Good interview series, featuring conversations with designers who work in the field of social innovation.

Shannon Ryan is Vice President and Co-Director of Creative at Burness, a global communications firm supporting nonprofits and the people they serve. Shannon joined Burness in 2011 as an Art Director and works on a variety of projects—print publications, information graphics, and websites—each with the goal of using visual communication to enhance a message.

Before joining Burness, Shannon was the Senior Designer at the Center for American Progress, where she designed Center’s publications and created graphics on a range of policy issues. She has also worked as an environmental advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and has spent time in Nairobi, Kenya interning at the United Nations Environment Programme.

Shannon graduated from Cornell University with a degree in government and international relations and has also studied at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

What is your background?

I studied government and international relations in college and then moved to Washington, DC to lobby Congress to protect endangered species, an issue that’s close to my heart. I was writing a lot of reports, and I soon realized that I enjoyed designing the reports more than I enjoyed writing them. So I decided to transition to a design career. I’m happy I did!

How and why did you becoming involved in designing for social innovation?

I didn’t want to leave behind work in the nonprofit and social change field after I became a designer, and I knew I would be happiest if I were able to work on issues I care about while doing the job I love. I got my feet wet in design at a health consulting firm, and I really appreciate the design fundamentals I was able to learn there. But I was eager to return to an advocacy environment so I moved on to be a designer at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. After that, I started working at Burness, a communications firm that partners with nonprofits on a broad range of social change issues. I started up the in-house design department, and I’m still here almost five years later.

How do you define design for social innovation and how does your role at Burness accomplish this?

I think of design for social innovation as design that’s focused on improving people’s lives. “Traditional” design principles apply, and we still aim to make things engaging, enticing, and alive. But we’re using design as a tool to promote ideas and tell stories that will make a positive difference in the world (we hope!).

What’s the importance of design and communication in social innovation?

Designers have so much to bring to the table. One of the ways we’re most useful is in making content accessible to people who don’t live and breathe an issue. When I begin a design process, I’m often very unfamiliar with a topic. It’s not a detriment; it actually requires a researcher or advocate to explain their work in the simplest terms. That allows me to approach a design from a place of simplicity, adding detail as needed. As designers, we can help scale back content to its core messages, which will often resonate with a broad audience.

One of the most rewarding parts of design is the before and after. How does a presentation look when a client comes to us, and how does it look after? How much better does it communicate? It’s really a privilege to be able to help people who are doing important work present it to the world more clearly, beautifully, and compellingly.

This is still a new field, where do you see the area of social design moving in the future?

I actually think designing for social change has been around for a while, but it might be finding more of a defined niche with design firms like Hyperakt or Purpose, or even our own in-house design operation, being solely devoted to social change design.

Where it’s going, I’m not entirely sure. I’m writing this on one of the darker days in recent American history, following the deaths of two African American men at the hands of police and the killing of five police officers at a protest against police brutality. Designers have a role to play in making our communities and our country better, as we all do. The Washington Post is doing it by tracking the number of deaths from police through this interactive piece. As we grapple with these enormous and entrenched issues, designers can continue working with journalists and advocates to bring information to light, which is an important part of making change.

What advice would you give a designer interested in entering the social innovation space?

Do it! When I’m hiring designers I look primarily look for three things: 1. Good design fundamentals (obviously). Learn typography, learn color theory, learn hierarchy and spacing. 2. Passion. If you want to do this kind of work, let it show through your work and in your cover letter. 3. Curiosity. You don’t have to have a background in the history of social change movements or be a health care wonk, but you should be excited to learn. Designing for social changes goes far beyond “making things pretty” (as all design should), so it requires digging into content to understanding what you’re trying to communicate.

Overall, it’s very rewarding to pair a love for design with a desire for change. You get to take your conscience to work, as they say.

What are your favorite projects and why?

At Burness, our partners range from large, global foundations to small, local nonprofits in the DC area. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done for Serving Together, an organization providing resources for veterans in Montgomery County. We designed their logo and their website, and we continue to support their work in making resources accessible for the men and women who serve our country.

I’m also excited about the work we’ve done with several nonprofits and foundations in promoting indigenous peoples as stewards of the forests where they live. Forests are key to curbing climate change, and the greatest preservation of these lands happens when their management is in the hands of those most invested in it—the people who live there. For last year’s climate change meetings in Paris, we collaborated on the #standwithforests campaign, encouraging world leaders to make a commitment to indigenous peoples and forests. Our graphics were shared on social media and used as backdrops for high-profile events. It’s always very rewarding to see our designs in action.

What are challenges you have encountered while working for social innovation?

A recurring challenge is in trying to prioritize content. Our clients’ passion and depth of knowledge means they often want to communicate a great deal of nuance and detail. For some of the most common means of communication these days (read: social media), simplicity is king, so we have to work with clients to really focus on the one or two messages that will capture attention as people scroll quickly through their social media feeds.

Closing thoughts?

Thanks for interviewing me! It has been fun to share these thoughts and some of our work. I love that AIGA Baltimore is committed to social change design, and I’m looking forward to hearing from others doing this kind of work in the area.

About Design for Good

Design for Good is a platform to build and sustain the implementation of design thinking for social change. This platform creates opportunities for designers to build their practice, their network, and their visibility. Design for Good recognizes the wide range of designers’ work and leadership in social change which benefits the world, our country and our communities.

Design for Good supports and sustains designers who play a catalytic role in communities through projects that create positive social impact. By connecting and empowering designers through online networking tools, inspirational stories, chapter events, training, national advocacy and promotion, Design for Good serves as a powerful resource for designers who wish to work in this area and a beacon for designers leading the charge.

Designers for Good: A Conversation with Liz Danzico, Creative Director for NPR

Posted on August 13, 2016 by AIGA Baltimore

Welcome to AIGA Baltimore’s first installment of our Designers for Good interview series, featuring conversations with designers who work in the field of social innovation.

Our first interview is with Liz Danzico – part designer, part educator, and full-time dog owner. She is also creative director for NPR, overseeing and guiding both the visual and user experience across NPR-branded digital platforms and content. Liz is chair and co-founder of the MFA in Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts. She has written for design-minded publications, including Eye Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Interactions Magazine, and writes part time at bobulate.com.

What is your background?

I started out thinking I’d be a writer, but absolutely fell for work in the digital space when those positions first started emerging. Today, I’m creative director for NPR, whose mission is to work in partnership with member stations to create a more informed public. I’m the founding chairperson of the MFA Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts, one of the world’s top design schools. On the side, I advise startups, nonprofits, and global companies. Because my background is in writing, I continue that work by writing talks and writing for design-minded publications, and on my own site, bobulate.com. My very first job after college was as an English teacher in Japan, an experience I still think helped me be human-centered in my design practice.

You are founding chairperson of the MFA in Interaction Design Program at SVA in addition to advising various startups, nonprofits and global companies. How have your varied interests and experiences informed your role as the first creative director at NPR.

I used to joke that when people asked what I did, I responded in one long run-on sentence with too many commas. I joked because, quite honestly, I was a bit self-conscious about my many side projects across teams and fields. Someone eventually pointed out that perhaps this wasn’t a deficit, but a feature. Perhaps keeping multiple projects in one’s head and lateral thinking was my talent. So I started taking roles that took advantage of that, which required me to do that. This is all to say that being responsible for design across platforms, products, and divisions draws upon that very skill.

You may not define yourself as a social designer, but your roles as creative director at NPR, a non-profit whose mission is to create a more informed public, an educator, and consultant to mission-based organizations are contributing to the improvement of society, students and non-profits. How do you think design can work to address social problems or further social causes, and do you see any or all of your roles in this light?

Design has the power to make people’s lives better. If we ask how can we give the people we design for a sense of hope, empowerment, strength, and make their lives a bit better than they were before, then we are using design to address social problems no matter what they scale. This is the kind of work I’ve tried to chase down in my career. Work that helps to improve people’s lives, helps them be more informed, more empowered in their careers, get the basic human services they need, helps improve cities, financials, our government services. Design and its uniquely human-centered approach has the potential to affect and improve everyday life.

Where do you see the field of interactive design moving in the future? (And if you are comfortable answering, how could this apply to the field of social design?)

It used to be that interactive referred to only that sliver of business that wanted a simple website. Over the course of years, it’s now hard to find a thing or a place that isn’t touched by some kind of interactive design. Looking ahead, we’ll start to see more and more complex problem spaces being affected by interactive design.

What advice would you give a designer interested entering the interactive design field?

Read the new “LEAP Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation,” which in full disclosure, I was a co-editor on. In it, 84 practitioners and educators weigh in on the role of social impact design in a changing market and world through interviews conversations, essays, and case studies. Next, read Khoi Vinh’s book, “How They Got There,” which talks about the paths of 14 digital designers. This is important as, for a field that’s still relatively young, the field is still inventing itself. It’s useful to see how some of the most important designers got their start. After reading both, consider where you want to do interactive work. Then, and most importantly, look for great people you can learn from. No matter what field you want to enter, it will be the people who surround you who make your career. Find people who inspire you, and head in their direction.

What are your favorite projects and why?

The MFA Interaction Design Program at SVA. Starting this graduate program been one of the more rewarding parts of my career to build a graduate program, which is truly building a community of people, then watching them change the world.

NPR One. Working on this storytelling platform has been one of the more challenging and broadly influential projects in my career, and I’ve learned more deeply what it means to do product design.

Bobulate. This is my personal site and a place where I get to be entirely myself through writing.

What is a surprise you have encountered over the course of your career?

People who are top of their field are generally the ones who are most willing to help and/or the first to respond to your request, no matter who you are.

What are 1-3 challenges you have encountered over the course of your career?

I’ve always had a problem saying no. But over the course of years, I’ve learned to be grateful that I have so many opportunities to say no to! So it’s a challenge, but a welcome one. Perhaps relatedly, I have worked to maintain balance in my life. Balance between work and play; between travel and home; between impactful work and work that pays the bills. But the truth is: there is no “between.” Once I realized that it’s all part of my life, rather than thinking about it as some intricate balancing game, it all started coming together. But it’s a lifetime of learning.

About Design for Good

Unveiling a New Identity

Posted on January 5, 2016October 5, 2020 by AIGA Baltimore

The national AIGA headquarters recently launched an expanded AIGA identity, a direction that will allow each chapter to express their own personality while being able to unify under one distinct voice. Developed by Kiss Me I’m Polish, the new visual system strengthens the current AIGA brand while unifying chapter branding across the country.

In introducing brighter, bolder use of color, a new typographic sensibility, and encouraging the logo to play a more active and dynamic role in all of its applications, the AIGA brand remains consistently strong and recognizable as it moves forward, while reflecting all of the vibrancy and diversity of our chapters, members, programs and initiatives.

To give each chapter a unique identity, a pool of ten colors options and two typefaces were presented to all 70 AIGA chapters throughout the country. Each was tasked with choosing just one color and typeface to best represent their chapter.

FUN FACT: The last brand refresh was in 2008, and chapters had a whopping 24 colors to choose from.

Presented with a design problem, we did what any other group of designers would do: use design thinking to solve it. First, we polled members to uncover initial reactions to the typeface and color choices. Then, we formed a smaller branding committee and worked to identify Charm City’s strongest characteristics: robust, passionate, quirky, gritty.

With a foundation laid, we discussed typography. We had two typefaces to work with: GT Haptik and Serifa. The board had unanimously chosen GT Haptik Bold for it’s bold, bright personality and its quirky letterforms in our initial poll, and the members of the branding committee felt it was the right choice. GT Haptik provides just the right amount of visual balance when both the AIGA logo and chapter logotype would be used in tandem.

Finally, we looked at the given set of colors to represent our chapter: teal, aqua, pink, purple, lime, orange, red, blue, green, and cyan. One by one, we went through each option and discussed how each color connected to Baltimore’s characteristics. The blues and greens resonated with our connection to the harbor, and red has been used historically by our chapter. Orange and purple were in the running, of course, because they, too, reflect a certain quirkiness (but ultimately we felt Baltimore’s design style and spirit couldn’t be fully reflected by a color that was so heavily identified as a sports team color).

After rounds of debate, we eventually narrowed our options down to one final solution: Pink.

The new AIGA Baltimore logo

Pink, the color of the flamingo hanging above Cafe Hon in Hampden. Pink, one of two colors found on the ubiquitous pens that proliferate our town whilst promoting a certain bail bonds company. Pink, a color that speaks to not only the quirky nature of our city, but also to the boldness of its residents.

We chose pink because it stands out. It isn’t apologetic for being different and it owns up to its convictions. And yet, as much as it’s bold, it’s also welcoming, bringing forth a positive brightness to our home.

We chose this brand direction because these characteristics embody both Baltimore and its creatives. We hope you feel the same warmth, passion and energy through all your interactions with AIGA Baltimore.

AIGA Baltimore’s Brand (New) Identity Guide

Rob Schilke is the Outreach Chair at AIGA Baltimore and graphic designer at T. Rowe Price. When he isn’t dreaming about his next snowboarding session, he can be found in his hammock plotting his next adventure. Tweet him @robschilke.

Image Credit: The featured image above, “410 Banner”, is a derivative of “Baltimore City” by Yianni Mathioudakis, used under CC BY-NC 2.0. “410 Banner” is licensed under CC BY by AIGA Baltimore.