The purpose of the yearly retreat is to gather representatives from each chapter together to discuss the future direction of AIGA, review successes from the past year, determine areas of improvement, and to create dialog among the chapters through a variety of workshops and break-out sessions. Chapters share inspirational success stories debate/discuss initiatives, and brainstorm new ideas.

Here is a summary of a few things I learned this year.

“What’s wrong with the world is that we are not finished yet” William Faulkner

While AIGA is still the strongest, most united design organization in the nation, they still face the challenge of overcoming a perception of being snooty, of the old guard, and elitist. They are battling this perception with a new approach to content development at the national level. They are flipping the pyramid upside-down so instead of news/information filtering from the top down, it will be generated from the bottom up. Regional chapters will bear more of the responsibility to develop content, and share at the national level. The AIGA.org website is undergoing a re-design to reflect this new display of content.

Artisan v. Strategist

AIGA Executive Director,  Rick Grefe spoke about the relevancy and importance of design in today’s environment, and how designers need to be re-positioned away from being thought of as developers of artifacts and move toward being defined as developers of strategy. This falls in line with Frank Chimero’s talk at AIGA Portland’s  Designspeaks last month. Frank agreed that a re-brand of the role of designers is necessary and suggests the title, “a planner with an aesthetic sense” is a more accurate description of what a designer does.

Living Principles

Gaby Brink and Phil Hamlett of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design have been diligently working on the next step for the center. The result of which is a website and movement called the Living Principles (still in beta). The Living Principles website will be an online community where designers can share case studies, and feature stories on successes or trials and tribulations as they relate to sustainability in design. It will have an extensive list of resources, including a dictionary of sustainability terminology, videos of influential speakers, and various impact calculators to evaluate design decisions.

5% Campaign

AIGA announced its new initiative for the year, and that is to create programs for chapters to encourage the design community to contribute their talents and their time towards pro-bono work. The idea is based off the similar initiative promoted by the American Bar Association for lawyers. AIGA wants designer’s pro-bono commitment to exceed that of the legal community and set the goal at 5%. That is, asking designers to contribute 5% of their time to pro-bono work. Designers in certain regions can be connected to non-profits through the Taproot Foundation, and AIGA will be listing pro-bono projects in a separate section of the jobs listing section of the new website. Rick Grefe strongly believes as I do, that designers have much to offer the non-profit community, and that we play an integral role in the national push for social change.

Drinks with Debbie is now open to the entire conference

AIGA’s President, Debbie Millman attended and spoke at the conference. She is focusing her presidency on the idea of connectivity, hence the conference’s theme, “Engage.” She walked the walk by inviting the all 400+ people in attendance to “Drinks with Debbie” at the hotel bar, an event previously limited to 9 spots. The purpose of the theme, “Engage” is to further discuss how AIGA can reach out to a broader audience. These audiences include: in-house designers, the business community, and the general public. While many chapters have been implementing some programs to address these audiences, there still is much room for improvement. Many break-out sessions focused around issues of engagement from these sometimes disenfranchised entities.

Southern Hospitality

From the pizza employee at Lupi’s  who gave me an extra-full wine pour because he loved Portland (we bonded over our shared Rogue nation membership), to the taxi driver who drove us out to see the Chattanooga Choo-Choo plus gave us a full history lesson of that and surrounding landmarks for no extra charge,  to all the hotel employees at The Chattanoogan who called me “ma’am,” the residents of Chattanooga definitely reinforced the idea of southern hospitality. I also enjoyed my first foray into authentic Southern foods. It seems as if there is nothing they will not fry. I delighted in the fried stuffed sandwich at Terminal Brewery (to go with the delicious beer sampler and sweet potato fries), and devoured fried green tomatoes with cheesy grits at the riverfront restaurant, Blue Plate. Others in my group sampled fried pickles and okra. At one establishment I saw a huge plate of nachos go by, only the tortilla chips were replaced by potato chips.

Ain’t no party like a designer party

It’s no secret that designers know how to party, and many AIGAers are known for their wild and crazy antics (hotel hallway pyramids) lasting until the morning hours. I had a wonderful time reconnecting with my friends from last year’s conference, Chris from Hawaii; Janie from South Carolina;  Patrick from Jacksonville; and of course my Portland ladies: Shona and Lisa. And, I made new memories with new friends, getting caught in the pouring rain and lightning, dancing up a storm to jazz music, and closing down the bar at Hair of the Dog.

Check out photos from the retreat on flickr.

I am proud to be a part of such a substantial, relevant, and inspiring institution. I look forward to our Portland Chapter Retreat where we share what we learned, and plan the next evolution of AIGA in Portland. I have many ideas for how to shape our local chapter, and if you want to be an active part in helping AIGA meet the new objectives, please reach out to me with your ideas. We always are looking for input and help.

Thanks to the many folks at AIGA for making the retreat possible, and Chattanooga for being a great host! I enjoyed my visit to the relaxed, sleepy town on the riverbend, and hope to be back to the South again soon.

Yeah, I know it has been awhile, but good things take time, patience is a virtue, etc. The Our Portland Story Volume 1 book is actually wrapping up. Final edits to pages are being made by generous designers, my editor is pouring over every last detail, and a new website that I designed is being programmed by the talented, Andrew Barden.

I am hoping this will all come together in time for an end-of-July launch.

Seen here is a sample of the current cover art and design comps for the new website. Let me know what you think! If you want to stay tuned on updates, please make sure you sign up for our e-newsletter.

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Our Portland Story Volume 1 is part coffee-table book, part yearbook, and part insider’s travel guide, but is all about Portland by Portlanders. Our Portland Story sought submissions of text and images from Portlanders of all walks of life that together capture many different aspects of the city at this place in time. Stories submitted for consideration included historical reflections of Portland’s past, accounts of a memorable tattoo, observations from a Portland bus ride, and the story of a scooter riding mom wearing pink.

The final book will be a cross section of community views and values told through personal stories and images.

I could go into a lengthy diatribe about Renny’s proposal that, when tricked, big brands could be a more powerful source for good in the world than governments. Or I could illuminate for you the philosophy behind the future of the link as proposed by Ward. But rather, I thought I would share a couple of humorous Lego animation videos set to one of my favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard, as shown by Luke.

Remarks, Art & Graphics Hits the Street

I just started the distribution of Remarks, Art & Graphics a small newsletter that I developed from a variety of my blog posts, photographs, and design work. The R.A.G. (as I call it) started as a promotional piece, but I see it possibly evolving into a different future of its own. A few lucky design firms might receive their copy in the mail today. If you are interested in receiving one, drop me a line. Or, you can download a low res pdf version here.

Papergirl Portland from abraham ingle on Vimeo.

My partner and I recently helped Abe Ingle and a small group of Portland art supporters, bike enthusiasts and pedicabbies to pass out hundreds of pieces of free art via bike all over the city. The project was called Papergirl, and it has its origins in Berlin. The art that was distributed was collected from artists who donated original drawings, paintings, and prints. After a month showing in Second Nature gallery, it was rolled up paperboy style, and distributed on the streets at random.

It was a great experience to be a part of, to see the wonder, the excitement, the hesitation and confusion of recipients young and old. Thanks to Abe for putting together the event in Portland.

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.

Mandate for 2014 – A sea change

- 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!

Since our target audience was teenagers, we wanted the graphics to be bold. Text is rough and off-kilter, the colors are bright, and the images have a halftone effect. We wanted to show the divide between teen and parent and illustrated such with the torn paper. We used duct tape to illustrate the effect Harry’s Mother has which is to bring the two sides together. (Duct tape fixes everything right?) In the large poster version of this ad, we will be die-cutting the art into two pieces of paper with the diagonal jagged edge separating the teen from parent. To connect the two pieces, we will use actual duct tape (with Harry’s Mother info handwritten on it) so that exposed wall shows in between.

Harry’s Mother has been thrilled with the fruits of our labor so far, hopefully as we move into production it will prove to be a valuable tool for them. As for Ad2, we are putting all campaign elements, research, reports, creative together into one book which we will submit to a National Competition. Wish us luck on this St. Patty’s Day!

Here are some thoughts from a few I attended:

10/18/07 – Art Chantry lecture- PNCA

Seattle-based design icon Art Chantry spoke to a packed house last Thursday at PNCA. He shared his portfolio and spoke casually about design in a pre-computer era and his visual representations of the punk/grunge movement. This garbage man turned designer spoke of his extensive “trash” collection of 1950 Sears catalogs, old encyclopedias and children’s books. He is best known for his unique typography, to which he attributes to his label maker, and his self-described collage style of art. He is very hands on with his work, utilizing scissors, glue and a Xerox machine to achieve the grunge factor. Chantry would stop at nothing to achieve an authentic look including burning pages and shooting a bullet through a stack of posters. At a time of grunge brushes, stock photos, and free fonts, Chantry encourages you to get down and dirty and look to the trash for inspiration.

10/21/007 – Film Screening, Eloquent Nude – Hotel deLuxe

This documentary by a Northwest filmmaker (who was kind enough to attend and introduce this movie at the screening) tells the story of photographer Edward Weston, and his model and wife, Charis Wilson. Weston was one of the first to give photography a new purpose, from the recording of everyday life to expressions of an artform. He was particularly known for his close-ups on human forms as well as natural forms of shells and peppers. To Weston all had beauty in front of the lens, and the curves of a nautilus shell were equal to that of the curve of a woman’s back. Many of his photographs remind me of the work of Georgia O’Keefe, whom I discovered he had met and admired. Other artists on Weston’s speed dial were Diego Rivera and Ansel Adams. Hmmm…could O Keefe, Weston, Adams and Rivera be the modernist North American West’s response to the French’s Monet, Renior, Cezanne, Pisarro?

Three upcoming events ALL on the same day, October 25th – choose wisely!

1. W+K Ignite – An open forum hosted by Wieden + Kennedy. Anybody can enter a topic and have open floor. There are sure to be some awkward moments, some laughs and maybe some boos, good luck Crystal.

2. Sandstrom lecture – 52 Limited sponsors this speaker event. PDX design celebrity Steve Sandstrom speaks on design v advertising.

3. Potluck Slideshow – This unique event combines a potluck with short artist slideshows about 5 minutes each. Slideshows can tie into the theme “lust” or can just be a random collection of artist’s work. All of course, set to music.

Bring on the rain, with events like these who needs the outdoors?

I finally wrapped up Cut & Paste, the international digital design tournament that I brought to Portland this past Friday, September 21st. It has been a project that started over a year ago with my soliciting the Executive Director to produce this iron-chef-like design battle in Portland as had been done in NY, Chicago, LA and San Francisco. With my persuasion we put Portland on the 2007 tour among other cities such as Tokyo, London, & Berlin. I led the Portland team and headed up the design and communications effort. Friday night we had 8 designers competing, 5 judges judging, 2 DJs jamming, 1 MC flowing, OVER 700 audience members cheering, and 1 very excited stage manager (me). The house was packed; Portlanders came out in full force to witness this event for the first time in their hometown. The designers all did a fantastic job, and it overall was a huge success!

Special thanks to the esteemed judging panel featured: Eric Lawrence, Ziba; Jason Bacon, UNKL; Kristan Kennedy, PICA; Josh Berge, PLAZM; Jose Cabaco, W+K.

And of course the 8 contestants: William Elliot; Jake Hollomon; Mike Henderson; Crystal Beasley; Tim May (the winner); Lap Le; Eric Sellers; Kris Kanaly