As a newly appointed AIGA Portland Board Member, I had the privilege of attending the national AIGA Leadership Retreat which took place in none other than our very own Portland. It was like an AIGA boot camp. Three days full of focus groups, parties, breakout sessions, parties, presentations, parties, all culminating in the constitutional convention, where each chapter’s represented board members voted on the proposed Mandates for 2014 (2014 being AIGA’s centennial). Did I mention there were some kick-ass parties? One such party ended in a true demonstration of AIGA’s team strength, the formation of the almighty human pyramid. This is shortly before we all came tumbling down, and security ousted us for hotel hallway antics. All antics aside, I was lucky to meet many inspiring, talented, and driven designers from around the nation. And, as it turns out, we actually got some work done. Below is a summary of some of the changes in store for AIGA as they prepare for their 100-year mile mark.
- It’s not you, it’s us
AIGA should place a higher priority on contributing to long-term benefits for the profession, such as building stronger demand for design in the future (and less emphasis on individual member benefits).
- It’s about strategy
In advocating design’s value to business, AIGA should focus more on design thinking (developing case studies of business effectiveness and defining the value of design on business objectives), although the role of creativity and inspiration in great design will always be respected.
- It’s about the youth
In tone, the AIGA experience should focus on younger designers’ interests and needs, in order to attract the next generation of designers to membership. In content, programs should reflect business practices, leadership, values, ethics and standards, in order to respect the interests of mid-career and seasoned designers. - It’s social
AIGA should focus more on facilitating opportunities for member engagement, member originated content, member involvement and the expression of personal opinion than on reinforcing its authority on design, professionalism and values.
- It’s for a more perfect world
Reflecting the interests and needs of a younger cohort, AIGA should develop programs and activities that highlight opportunities for social responsibility, social engagement, sustainability, multiculturalism and diversity. These are critical to the long-term strength and relevance of the profession and of AIGA.
What changes this will bring to AIGA Portland, we have yet to discover. I am excited and full of ideas to further AIGA Portland’s commitment to local talent. My role within the Board of AIGA Portland is Volunteer Chair, so if you are interested in becoming more active in AIGA locally, please give me a call. We, on the board, are also open to input and feedback from members and non-members alike on how we can make our chapter stronger. Please feel free to contact me with any suggestions!
My partner and I recently went on a quick trip up to Seattle and Vancouver BC, below are the highlights.
On this Seattle trip, we avoided downtown altogether and instead explored the tucked away neighborhoods of Ballard and Fremont. Above is one of the many “Henry” murals I ran across in Fremont. Aparently this Seattle muralist by the name Ryan Henry Ward is has set out to paint 50 murals in different Seattle neighborhoods. By my count on my short visit there, he is well on his way.
In addition to Henry’s murals, Fremont was teeming with other quirky art destinations including an old cold war era rocket, mounted to the side a building - marking the spot where Fremont was declared Center of the Universe, the largest Lenin statue in the US, and this troll sculpture under the Aurora Bridge. This giant concrete sculpture boasts a huge glass eye, and a crushed Volkswagon Beetle in its claws.
Onto Vancouver BC, where we stayed at an adorable Bed & “Breakfast” (toast) and set to the task of exploring as much of the city by foot in one day as we could.
The city was all a bustle in preparation for the Olympic Games. Giant digital clocks counted down the minutes until opening ceremonies, construction crews were working around every corner. One public art installation in place for the games was a series of eagle sculptures painted by various artists. All the sculptures will be auctioned off in Spring of 2010 after the Paralympic games.
Vancouver was alive with graffiti art, like this poster I found in Chinatown.
My wonderful birthday dinner at Vancouver’s best Indian food restaurant, Vj’s in the South Granville neighborhoods. The appetizer was amazing, a Cauliflower, Spinach, Onion and Potato Pakoras with daal, and dessert was a free birthday rice pudding for me. The perfect ending to a tiring day exploring the streets, galleries, shops and neighborhoods of Vancouver.
With this slide, Saul Griffith, inventor, MacArthur Fellow, Ph.D., launches into his presentation at San Francisco’s recent AIGA event, Compostmodern. I saw a re-broadcast of Saul’s speech at AIGA Portland’s event of the same name, that also featured Brian Dougherty from Celery Design. Shortly after showing this provoking slide, Saul is quick to report that he hopes this is not true, he hopes that there is still a chance for design to change the world, and he devotes the remainder of his presentation to showing us how.First, Saul presents the problem we all face: climate change. He shows how he evaluated his own lifestyle and figured out how much power he required in watts annually. He included not just the typical statistics, the power used in heating/cooling his home, the miles he drove, etc, but also he included all the objects he owned and factored in the power used to bring that product to life. These results were populated in the graph above. The pink area represents all objects that he owns that were designed and this is the area he challenges the audience to rethink. He calculated the average watts used per person in North America at 11400 Watts, compared to the average European at 5400. Obviously this heavy power use has damaging side effects, as most of our current power sources expel carbon into the atmosphere at a rate of 8 billion tons of carbon every year. Which in turn, scientists now agree, is contributing to global warming and climate change at an alarming rate.After presenting this problem, Saul explains that even if we shift all carbon emitting power producers into cleaner sources, for example, wind, or solar, we would essentially have to have a whole continent entirely devoted to alternative energy. Obviously this is not practical, and with increased demand from emerging countries, this pattern is not sustainable.So Saul’s challenge to all designers? He says, “Your job as designers is to make us (Westerners) use less, and allow them (emerging markets) to use more while increasing everybody’s quality of life.” He says we have to redesign everything from products, making them more lightweight, smaller, and last ten times as long, to architecture, making it sustainable, more insulated and smaller. Quite the challenge.What does that mean for us? Well luckily the next speaker, Brian Dougherty from Celery Design had some ideas and examples. Celery Design is a design consultancy specializing in sustainable communications based out of Berkeley, CA and Paris, France. Like Staccato, Celery believes in the expanded importance of the creative role in business strategy (upstream). In addition, Celery plays a major role in manufacturing and distribution (downstream). Celery states “The major goal of engaging upstream from the traditional designer’s role is to shift the focus of “green” design from a battle over cost to a strategic conversation about value.” In addition, Brain states that to be a green designer is not to simply have a project printed on recycled paper, rather it is to think through every product phase downstream and find new ways to innovate.Here are some examples of how Celery achieved targeted, effective and sustainable design for their client, Lemnis Lighting.The challenge was to design a lightbulb package for Lemnis’s newest energy efficient bulb. Celery’s solution was a package that more closely fits the shape of the light bulb, so no added packaging is needed. It was printed on recycled paper, was folded in such a way that used no glue, and when re-folded can be turned into a lampshade. Their pyramid shape lends itself to be packed effectively for shipping, and they were designed to achieve optimal coverage on one printer sheet. This resulted in a product that not only beautiful and unique on the shelf, but that was thought through in every step of its production, to reduce environmental impact.So maybe a little more attention to the three “R’s” learned in 5th grade, reduce, reuse, and recycle, designers can save the world. But it also wouldn’t hurt to spend some time in a soup kitchen just in case.To personally examine your personal energy consumption, visit: http://www.wattzon.com/profile/startFor designer guidelines to sustainable practices check out Celery’s Eco Tools. To watch Saul’s entire presentation visit: http://www.eventcg-live.com/events/aiga/_login/od-07.html
On the corner of SE 3rd and Clay, there is burned out and abandoned building. It is a shell of its former self, littered with broken glass, twisted metal and graffiti, remnants of recent uninvited guests. However, in one square of one window pane, visible through this barbed wire-surrounded industrial shell, sparkles a colorful display of public art. This stained glass display was carefully placed by a renegade artist; it not guided by any committees, funded by taxpayer dollars, and it attributes no credit to its creator. It simply exists as a proud statement of its own beautiful randomness.
February 25, 2009 at 11:37 pm · Filed under Portland
Beneath street level on NW 10th Ave, in the heart of the Pearl District, lies a hidden bakery often overlooked by a casual passerby. To sneak a peek into this mysterious treat factory, and catch a whiff of its fragrant, sugary delights, head North on NW 10th just past Flanders. Walk along the right hand side of the road, and when you are directly across from the swanky Vino Paradiso (but before the upscale doggie daycare), stop and look down. There, through the steel grates in the sidewalk lies Nuvrei.
Below ground, you will see a thin, pink, Plexiglas sign spelling out the name in a casual script. Beneath the steel sidewalk grate, a space that is normally coated with spare change, discarded cigarettes and other such carelessly abandoned litter, instead, is filled with a multitude of bright, metallic silver bulbs in various sizes, resting on a bed of dried leaves and tiny lights. A sparkling discovery beneath the worn, patchworked concrete above.
If you catch the patisserie at the right time, you will witness 2 or 3 diligent chefs carefully putting small iced details on a series of cakes, or topping french pastries with fresh berries. As you stand, spying from your perch above, the heat vents from indoor ovens pump the fresh, warm scent of cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate out onto the unsuspecting sidewalk.
