Social Design Archives - AIGA Baltimore

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

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.

We need YOU! Volunteer your time and talents to help our community

Posted on March 5, 2016February 7, 2019 by AIGA Baltimore

AIGA Baltimore is calling all designers looking to make in impact in our community! The nation and the world have been focused on Baltimore as we have confronted some of the major issues of our time. Last June we hosted an event focused on examining the issues facing Baltimore — designers came together, discussed the complex problems that affect our city, and used design thinking to concept solutions.

AIGA Baltimore has been working since then to determine the best course of action. After months of discussions, planning, and meetings internally and with city and community leaders; we have concluded that as an organization, our efforts can be most effective by assisting those who are already doing great work within the community. Therefore, in the coming months, we will be working in partnership with the Druid Heights Community Development Corporation and Neighborhood Design Center to develop the community branding for Druid Heights CDC. These branding efforts will include designing a new logo and branding system, templates for print collateral and social media, and a website review and redesign.

AIGA Baltimore will be working with Neighborhood Design Center to help with project management, and will be engaging members and leaders within the Druid Heights community during the process as well.

But we need YOU to do it!
AIGA Baltimore is looking for designers, creative and art directors, interactive and UX designers for this initiative. Apply by March 25th to get involved.

A link to the application is and details are below. Please contact socialdesign@baltimore.aiga.org with any questions.
Apply now!

About the Druid Heights Community Development Corporation

Druid Heights is one of Baltimore’s oldest neighborhoods with a rich historical background. The Druid Heights Community Development Corporation’s mission is to cause, encourage and promote community self-empowerment through the development of economic, educational, employment and affordable housing opportunities. They are one of the most active community centers in the city with a wide range of community resources and programs including peace patrols, environmental stewardship, senior programs, summer camps, youth initiatives, re-entry programs, community school initiatives, housing counseling, and real estate development.

The DHCDC has also been recognized for community revitalization and housing accomplishments such as the Commitment to Excellence Award by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Community Advocate Award by the City of Baltimore and the Economic Empowerment Challenge Award by the NAACP, to name a few. The center was visited by members of the World Bank this past fall in recognition of their work within the community.

About the Neighborhood Design Center
Since 1968, the Neighborhood Design Center has provided pro-bono planning and design services to over 2,400 community initiatives that have helped communities build new playgrounds, reclaim vacant lots and abandoned buildings, revitalize commercial districts, create community master plans, and beautify their neighborhoods.

Expectations
Volunteers can expect to work 1-3 hours per week for the duration of the project and attend scheduled reviews.

Timeline
Dates are tentative and subject to change

Monday, March 14 — Applications open
Friday, March 25 — Applications due
Friday, April 1 — AIGA to contact volunteers
Tuesday, April 5 — Volunteer Introduction meeting with NDC (1 hour)
Tuesday, April 12 — Project Kickoff with Druid Heights (1.5-2 hours)
Tuesday, April 26 — Design check-in
Tuesday, May 3 — Design check-in
Tuesday, May 10 — Internal design review with NDC (1.5 hours)
Tuesday, May 31 — Stakeholder design review (1.5-2 hours). Meet with the same group as at the project kickoff, review designs. Determine next steps.

Apply now!

Human Rights Campaign: Designing for Equality

Posted on November 1, 2014October 5, 2020 by AIGA Baltimore

During Design Week 2014, AIGA Baltimore was joined by Bob Villaflor, the Design Director for the Human Rights Campaign. Bob talked with us about his experiences with the organization and the importance of design in his work.

About the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the largest LGBT civil rights organization that is fighting for LGBT equality. They aim to spread the word about important LGBT issues by featuring and supporting high profile people who are behind their cause. If you know about the HRC, then Design Director Bob Villaflor is doing his job!

Bob joined the HRC eight years ago and is believed to be the first non-LGBT creative in the organization. His fresh perspective reflects on how far we have come and where it will take us.

What we do as Designers

To quote Bob, “Design plays a critical role in what we do.” With over two million supporters and members, the design team pushes to reach as many people as possible. HRC volunteers are knocking on doors, sharing educational materials, and gathering pledges, which are just some of the tasks the creative team has to support. Being responsible for the visual presence of the organization allows them to put a face to the goal of driving movement among the public.

The most easily recognizable visual aspect of the Human Rights Campaign is their logo. Until its current version, the logo didn’t really exist on a social level, so the design team aimed to consolidate the old version in a way that still reflected the company. The logo had to be simple, elegant, and honest—values inherent to the organization.

Formerly known as the Humans Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF), the HRC was founded in 1980 and went through several logo iterations (here’s just a few of them). In the most recent redesign, the HRC design team partnered with SYPartners of San Francisco in a yearlong rebranding effort. SYPartners helped to solidify the brand and eventually settled on the yellow equal sign on a navy blue square. This now iconic logo helped to give an identity to the movement by representing the HRC core values.

Bob explained, “The logo became something for people to rally around.”

A Tipping Point

In 2012, Chad Griffin joined HRC as the organization’s President, which marked the start of a growth point for the organization. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear arguments on California’s Proposition 8, a ballot proposition that had been passed into law by California voters to deny rights for gay couples to marry. This announcement gave HRC the opportunity to brand the event for its supporters in Washington, DC. Realizing that Proposition 8 was a “court case about love,” Bob and his design team chose to make red the signature color of the campaign. In a bold move, the HRC logo was temporarily changed to muted pink on a red background to show its support for turning over Proposition 8 in early 2013.

In an unexpected turn of events, the campaign went viral, with celebrities and supporters like George Takei, Alicia Keys and Budweiser changing their Facebook and Twitter profile pictures in support. Fans took the campaign and ran with it, remixing and personalizing the logo. The reach was global to the point that it crashed the HRC website and to this day remains one of the most successful campaigns in Facebook history as well as one of the most retweeted of all time. HRC could not have planned for this one hesitant change to be so big, but it made people realize who supported who—which was a big thing to see.

To learn more about HRC, their logo and how it went viral, visit:
http://www.hrc.org/the-hrc-story/about-our-logo

Equality Magazine, Annual Report and Other Campaigns

In addition to their social media and campaign presence, the HRC design team is also responsible for the layout and design of Equality Magazine. At 250,000 copies distributed each quarter, Equality Magazine is the largest LGBT rights publication in the United States. The magazine helps bring attention to anti-LGBT organizations such as the National Organization for Marriage; it also endorses its supporters, recognizing their work in the movement.

The annual report serves as another opportunity to focus on both positive and negative world trends. For the 2013 annual report, HRC partnered with design agency Column Five to develop something that went beyond the standard data-heavy reports that can overwhelm readers. Research and data was compiled into a sharable, easily digestible infographic printed on the reverse side of a book jacket for the annual report. Doubling as a poster, the infographic was shared outside of the organization’s list of major donors.

The HRC design team tackles other campaigns, too, like the “Love Conquers Hate” campaign leading up to the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi. Equality Magazine started this campaign to show support for the LGBT community in Russia. It was punishable to show LGBT support in Russia, so HRC encouraged Olympians and celebrities to share pictures of themselves with the Russian-language version of the “Love Conquers Hate” shirt across social media.

The Future

In the future, the Human Rights Campaign will continue to “fight for people’s lives” not only in the U.S., but also across the globe. Campaigns such as Project One America aim to share the stories of real LGBT people and their families in less-than-supportive areas such as Central Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. On the international front, HRC continues to share their materials, design, strategy, and knowledge with fellow supporters who are trying to raise awareness to audiences across the globe.

Q&A With Bob

What is the biggest hurdle to design around at HRC?
Joint projects. Other departments or agencies can be sensitive over their content.

What advice would you give to designers working with nonprofits who might be against riskier design moves?
Don’t be afraid to put something out there. Consolidating branding of HRC was a big move—so was changing the logo in support of Proposition 8—but it allowed the community to think, to interact with it. Design solutions do take a lot of buy in from senior management, but they do have to trust your decisions in this dynamic time for the organization and LGBT community.

How do you feel about living, working and making changes in Washington, DC—the political heart of the country?
Seeing change is incredible. My family and kids live in a city where lives are being validated—which is funny in a city like Washington, DC that at times can’t seem to get anything done. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a recent win that was seventeen years in the making.

As a designer, how do you handle a bad stakeholder review?
Beer! Think less about the rejection and more about moving forward, about the mission. You are not going to win them all. Some days there is just no time to come up with something perfect and sometimes it’s junk. Other times, it’s about the longview. With HRC, there’s the luxury of not having to have tangible results like numbers, sales, revenue, but that’s not always the case.

Shannon Crabill is a New Media Specialist at T. Rowe Price. Outside of the Internet, you can find her dancing, riding her motorcycle and binge-watching home improvement shows on HGTV. Tweet her at @shannon_crabill.

Mitchell Cole is the web sales manager at Service Photo Supply. Most of his free time is spent indulging in some sort of gaming, controller or dice never far from reach. Find him on Twitter at @mc_mittens.

The Value of Design: MICA’s Social Design Fellowship Program

Posted on June 3, 2014October 5, 2020 by AIGA Baltimore

Traditionally the designer’s role was to communicate someone else’s vision, however as the practice has evolved designers are now using their well honed design thinking skills to provide solutions to problems that affect our society on a larger scale. You may know it as Social Design, yet when asking people what the definition of social design is, you tend to receive a varying number of answers.

In April, AIGA Baltimore joined Maryland Institute College of Art’s Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Social Design Fellows to hear from Director for Design Practice and MICA Master of Arts Social Design (MASD) program Mike Weikert and MASD fellows; Mira Azarm, Briony Evans Hynson, Jonathan Erwin and Becky Slogeris. Providing insight into what effective social design is, why designers deserve a seat at the table in social initiatives and, more specifically, how MICA’s Social Design program and Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Social Design Fellowship cultivated and propelled their passion for social intervention.

After a brief introduction by AIGA Baltimore’s Jami Dodson and Jennifer Marin, Mike Weikert opened the presentation by giving us an idea behind the thought process that brought about the MASD program and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Social Design Fellowship. The impetus for this fellowship came as Weikert realized that upon completing the intensive 1-year MASD graduate program, students were ready to translate the knowledge they had gained into real world applications. With this understanding, Mike decided it was time for the students to get out in the community and start utilizing those skills.

The Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellowship

Working with Jane Brown and Neil Didriksen from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Weikert built a fellowship that provides two graduates a stipend, accommodations, and support to stay an additional year continuing the research and implementation of their project.

The program emphasizes four key components: (1) Keep innovative ideas and talent in Baltimore. (2) Demonstrate the value of design in addressing social problems (a core objective of MASD). (3) Focus on significant real world challenges facing our communities. (4) Provide a foundation to generate additional support and a sustainable context for the program’s work and its graduates. The fellows are also encouraged to build their own social design practice and context by creating new work, networks, funding resources as well as advocating for the discipline and practice of design.

And build their practice they did, as we heard from multiple fellows who shared the impact they made and continue to have, in part due to the MASD program and Robert W. Deutsch Fellowship. They also expressed just how important a role design plays in spurring social change, using design thinking to create sustainable solutions to communities of need.

Mira Azarm

The first MASD fellow of the evening was Mira Azarm, AIGA DC President, who revealed that after spending over 10 years as a communications designer her knack for getting involved behind the scenes and constant hunger for professional change led her to the MASD program where she began to “unlearn everything I had learned up until that point”.

With her focus in the fellowship pertaining to food access, Mira worked with Gather Baltimore (a group that collects unused and unsold food to distribute it to those around Baltimore) in an effort to help them expand their outreach efforts. This experience led her to one of the most resonant lessons of the evening: the design shouldn’t be bigger than the problem you’re attempting to solve. Or, as Mira so aptly put it, “Maybe your design is not that important,” a sentiment echoed in the fellows’ presentations.

In her post-fellowship work with Gather Baltimore, she continues to attack food access issues around the area, currently working to reduce food waste in DC schools. She also teaches in the MASD program and advocates the value of design thinking teaching the creative process to students in “non-creative” disciplines through the UMD Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Mira wrapped her presentation with 4 keys learned in the fellowship, “Change whenever you can. Grow wherever you can. View design as a change maker. Facilitate innovation.”

Briony Evans Hynson

Briony shared her social design initiatives and insights from the past ten years, whether at MASD or otherwise. In speaking of her experiences she emphasized the need for collaboration in social design, allowing for personal expertise of the people involved and possession, or lack thereof, of a college degree shouldn’t limit one’s input.

Striving to work across disciplines and focused on directly impacting people, Briony believes that the creative process can provide new avenues for intervention. With her knowledge of sculpture and 3D media, she takes a hands-on approach to many of her projects, including teaching carpentry in Anacostia. This ultimately led to the development of a community arts center that acts as an international artist exchange program and community arts hub. She credits this experience with opening her eyes to the broader needs of underserved communities.

Several social initiatives later and Briony found herself in a similar spot as Mira described, looking for a way to change her perspective, which led her to the MASD program. At MICA she jumped right in and got hands on, working to provide kids in low-income areas of Baltimore with access to the basic human right of play. While her thesis work provided a design strategy and theory to transform a vacant lot into a place for kids of the neighborhood to play, being awarded with the Deutsch Fellowship grant allowed her to successfully implement her plan: turning an eyesore into a point of pride within the community.

Jonathan Erwin

The next speaker, Jonathan Erwin, stressed the need for collaboration and transparency throughout the social design process. Driving the point deeper, Jonathan shared an early initiative to remove a community garden that had degraded into a neighborhood dumpsite, impacting residents’ health and community pride. He showed how poor collaboration from a previous initiative becoming a blot on the community, a social-design-gone-bad scenario, and resulted in him undoing what should have been someone else’s social good. “On the bright side” he said, “I got a nice home-cooked breakfast from appreciative residents.”

With the belief that it’s the people that matter, Jonathan sought to further improve social capital of residents in the McElderry Park neighborhood in Baltimore. He demonstrated the power of design by creating a community newsletter that works to open dialogue amongst residents and restore a sense of ownership to the people living in the area.

Becky Slogeris

Wrapping up the lecture portion of the evening was Becky Slogeris whose roots in education and art run deep, providing a primary focus area for her social design practice, centering on changing apathy in school children and the backlog of teachers. Researching deeper into the issue, she found that students didn’t see a real-world connection to their schoolwork and teachers were concentrating on curriculums with no time to focus on the students themselves.

She worked with Franklin High School in Baltimore to develop a plan where the lessons were relevant and useful to the students. Using a service learning program, students revitalized a vacant lot, taking stock in their community while seeing real-world uses for math and science. During her fellowship she did curriculum design, providing professional development tools to save teachers time in their workday. Since the fellowship Becky remains active in a host of other social design causes, including developing behavioral management tools using movement to calm students in moments of conflict and energize them to learn.

Each fellow demonstrated how design instincts and an understanding of the creative process are invaluable assets in social design. Complex social issues require meaning to have impact and designers are, at the core, developers of meaning.

Following the presentation, attendees went into the main lobby to see thesis presentations from current MASD students.

Joseph Anthony Brown is AIGA Baltimore’s Programming Chair and is a partner/designer at Rogue Squirrel, Inc. Check out his portfolio at www.behance.net/abcreates.

Jennifer Marin is Co-President for AIGA Baltimore. Follow her @hungry4design.

Converse: Social Design

Posted on January 23, 2012 by AIGA Baltimore

Last week, we had our regular Converse event, and the topic was “social design.” A group of 25 charged and passionate people arrived ready to tackle the subject. Here are some of snippets from the evening.

What is Social Design? Does it need to be defined?
It’s with the idea the end result will bring proactive change.
It’s tackling social issues with design methodologies.
There is often a “giving back” aspect to the project.
Having graphic designers involved early in these projects allows the creative thinking skill set to be utilized in the solution, rather than just at the end to “make things pretty.”
Projects seem to be more successful when they are tackled by groups of people from a broad range of disciplines. The collaboration aspect is key. The designer role is just one part of a larger group.
Keep things as simple as possible and have the audience and users in mind to ensure the project can have longevity.
Make sure you are welcome in the community. Partner with them and ask the community what they want and need. Often, they have the best ideas.
Have an exit plan, so that when the group leaves, the solution can keep running successfully without you.

What topics might be good to tackle for Baltimore?

Bike lanes
Education
Increase manufacturing
Transportation
Trash
Pride for the city
Crime
Unemployment
Improve the city’s brand
Increase city population
Food deserts, nutrition education
Diabetes
Communication without violence
Homelessness
Improve education, health and recreate for teens
Instill confidence and values in children

Thanks to those who made it out, and look out for our next Converse event in March!

Converse is our roundtable event regularly occurring on the third Thursday of odd numbered months. Each event focuses on a different topic for discussion. Email converse@baltimore.aiga.org if you have any questions or if you would like to suggest a topic for a future Converse night.

Changes for AIGA Baltimore

Posted on September 22, 2011 by AIGA Baltimore

There is a philosophy that an organization can only be as strong as its leader. Thankfully for the past three years, AIGA Baltimore has been fortunate to have a president who was dedicated to the best interests of our organization. Regrettably though, Chapter President, Christopher Jones, decided to step down at the end of August. During his tenure, he developed a dedicated team of board members, helped grow the membership of our chapter in a challenging economy and push forward multiple initiatives like the e-newsletter, blog and the printed newsletter, as well as coordinate a phenomenal speaker series including Jim Sherraden, House Industries, Design Army, Debbie Millman, and Steven Heller just to name a few.

Additionally, we’d like to thank four other board members whose terms have ended in the recent months: Beth Lacey Gill, Lindsay Story, Heather Joines and Elisa Watson. These individuals have donated countless hours to the chapter that can never be repaid. Please join us in thanking them for everything they have done.

It’s been said, “Change is the only constant in life.” As designers, our contribution has traditionally been the development of identities, collateral and websites. Designers are no longer content to be limited to these roles. To continue AIGA Baltimore’s legacy of service to our design community, the board is committed to furthering discussions about the role of design and the potentially larger impact it can have. With this new initiative, we hope to engage in important social issues in a deeper way than ever before. Please welcome our new Chapter President, Alissa Jones (no relation), and new Vice President, Brian Ghiloni who are excited to facilitate this larger conversation.

Moreover, AIGA Baltimore has several great changes planned for this fall and beyond:

Blends: Our monthly happy hours will now be the first week of every month and include informational sessions on specific topics of interest for designers.
Critique Hash: You loved it when we ran it last spring, so we are bringing it back on a regular basis. The third Saturday of every other month, starting this October, will be your chance to receive feedback on in-progress work and your portfolio from fellow designers.
Converse: We know how important it is to hear from leaders on design, so starting in November, the third Thursday of every other month, you can hear a variety of opinions on current hot topics at our roundtable sessions.
Pulp, Ink, and Hops: AIGA Baltimore has made the difficult decision that it is time to retire this event, and instead, we are going to focus on supporting AIGA’s new initiative for Design for Good. You can learn more about this initiative from the Executive Director of AIGA, Ric Grefé’s interview with Fast Company.
Communications: AIGA Baltimore is going to continue to improve our communications with members and other organizations throughout our region. Through building relationships, we plan to bring a greater variety of events and programs and help increase the value of design within the community.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or an interest in volunteering, please contact us! We always love hearing from our members. Lastly, don’t forget to check out our upcoming events.

Alabama Design Summit

Posted on August 13, 2011 by AIGA Baltimore

At the end of July, Brian Ghiloni had the pleasure to attend the AIGA Alabama Design Summit in Birmingham. The workshop-style conference brought together more than 50 attendees from across the country and across multiple disciplines. Their challenge was to use design thinking to address social issues affecting rural Alabama and other parts of the country.

Over three days, four multi-disciplinary teams tackled a variety of regional issues from overcoming Nature Deficit Disorder to Eco-Tourism as a source of economic regeneration. Working together, each team needed to understand the problem, define an objective and develop solutions. The conference concluded with team presentations of actionable ideas, which could be implemented in 12–24 months.

As designers, our contribution has been traditionally limited to identities, collateral and websites. The AIGA Alabama Design Summit is an early preview of a new AIGA initiative called Design for Good. With this new initiative, designers have an opportunity to engage in these types of important social issues in a deeper way than ever before.

This last March, AIGA Baltimore organized Ideas for Action. The event brought together area creatives, community leaders and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to address social issues affecting Baltimore. AIGA Baltimore is committed to furthering discussions about the role of design and the potentially larger impact it can have on communities.

If you want to become more involved in the community or you have an idea for a Design for Good project, send us an email. We want to hear from you!

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The Alabama Design Summit was produced in partnership with AIGA and Alabama Innovation Engine. Local participants included representatives from Freshwater Land Trust, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, US Fish and Wildlife, Cahaba River Society, Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, International Expeditions, Auburn University Urban Studio, and University of Alabama Center for Economic Development.