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Lynda Weinman: After Sean's inspiring tour, I was really excited to attend the AIGA Design
Legends Gala to get a chance to meet and interact with fellow AIGA members.
This event is held every year and brings members from all the local
chapters together for one night, to honor inspiring designers with the
coveted AIGA Medal. This year's honorees included typographic
master Doyle Young, book and record cover designer Carin Goldberg and legendary film
title designer Pablo Ferro. Pablo Ferro: Because I tried to use that letttering
before and always got turned down. After Stanley loved it, then everybody loved
it. Lynda: It was such a treat to be able to meet
with so many interesting people and honor these distinguished medalists.
The sense of community was astounding. The broad spectrum of people I met made me
realize even more that the heart of this organization is based around people
and providing an environment where they can develop and thrive in all aspects of
their creative and professional lives. It makes me very proud to be part of such
a wonderful organization at such an interesting time in design evolution.
Debbie Millman: My hope and vision for the future will be that no one will ever question
what type of design is appropriate for members
of AIGA. Every type of design will be respected, and
every discipline of design will be welcomed.
The other thing about AIGA that I love is that there are so many amazing
designers working today that are part of AIGA, and you kind of get inside
access to a lot of them. You're suddenly in an environment where you're
surrounded by other designers, some of which are less experienced than you,
some of which are more experienced than you.
No matter where you're coming to the organization, you're going to have that.
So it gives you the opportunity to see the world from 360 degrees of all
different types of designers, at all different places in their careers, and you
can learn from everybody, not just people that are older.
You learn a lot from the people that are younger. So the older I get, the more important it
is for me to be able to really listen to people that are just coming into
the organization, because I'm learning from them every day.
Richard Grefe: The new mandate for AIGA is really based on taking a look at the role
that design could play in the future.
We are approaching our centennial. It seems appropriate at this point to make
sure that we have an institution that responds to the younger generation rather
than the older generation. There is so much change going on in society.
What is this world as they see it and how can we empower them, because they're
the ones who will own the institution and the profession going into the future?
So clearly we have to deal with the issues of change in terms of the perception
of authority. Associations in the past who were an authoritative voice, whether
it's on issues of design or issues of professional practice.
Clearly, there has been a dispersion of authority in a sense that every voice
counts in the newer generations. I think that the association has to turn itself
on its head and realize that the voice has to percolate up in the membership.
The association needs to finds a way to simply channel what it hears and channel
where it authority lies. There are no models out there.
What you do is you continue to try to find those people who are looking at how
behavior is changing and how organizations are changing.
And nobody has the answer, but they certainly have a sense of what the dynamics are.
So that's actually the exciting part. I mean, I actually look forward to the change
rather than find it daunting. Sean Adams: I think that the population is
so much more design savvy than they were ten years ago.
Lynda: Ever have been. Sean: Even have been, and ten years from now
it will be even more so, because of course, anyone who has a kid now, someone
under ten, knows that you can ask your child what Helvetica is, and they know.
And that certainly wasn't the case when I was ten.
So I think a whole generation is being raised designing things, using type
and image. So it's ingrained into their sense of communication.
I think to challenge then is how do we maintain a community?
So, how do we keep all these different mediums from splitting apart, and
becoming a million tiny tribes? When we should be focusing and allowing for
differences, but at the same time finding the values that tie us together, and
that bind us. I actually think that's the way we think as
designers. I think we think in a very unique way, and
regardless of whether you're working online, or you're working in print, or you're
working in motion, we all have the same sort of wacky thought process to
solve problems
and get there.