Get Out the Vote

The presidential election is less than a month away but, there’s still time to visit AIGA’s Get Out the Vote online gallery to view, download, print and hang your favorite posters around your community. Use design to help encourage voter participation in New Hampshire and Vermont!

While you’re at AIGA National’s website:

• View the video of 50 selected posters on view in Denver and Minneapolis during the national political conventions.
• Visit the Get Out the Vote exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center.
• View AIGA’s Get Out the Vote YouTube page.

And remember to vote on Tuesday November 4, 2008, at your local polling place.

Show Opening!

Join us Friday, October 3, 2008, to celebrate the opening of the first ever AIGA NH/VT member show!
Creating Impressions showcases the work of ten members of AIGA NH/VT in a visual discourse on the value of design.

Creating Impressions: A Visual Discourse on the Value of Graphic Design
September 30–November 8, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 2008 5:30–7:30 pm
Tea Reception: Sunday, October 5, 2008, 2–4 pm
Studio Place Arts in Barre, Vermont
www.studioplacearts.com

Why I Value Design

Design brings order, structure, and balance. It conveys a message, moves people to action, and affects moods. If you are a designer, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Frequently in commute to or from the office I reflect on my day. You know, the usual stuff… what projects have I completed? What do I still have to complete? When are my deadlines? Why did I eat that for lunch? Why in the hell am I still thinking about work? I have been a designer for many years and I even have moments when I question my career path. On occasion I ask myself “Why do I design…is this important and does it have value?”

What I have come to realize is I view my position not just as a designer but also as a communicator…as a true artist conveying my ideas through various mediums. As I look around my office there is a layout. Much like the show “Hidden Potential,” all of the projects that trail from my computer monitor to the floor have value. Though they are works in progress, I know all of them are styled and designed with a purpose. Design is valuable; it is worth something; it is important. Simply put, design is very powerful.

But with great power comes great responsibility (Thanks Uncle Ben). With increased ownership of personal computers and design programs, there are more and more people calling themselves designers. What is important to understand is that owning tools to do a job does not mean you are capable of doing it well. Think about it…does owning a hammer make a good carpenter? Does having vocal cords mean I should be the next American Idol? Every day we see designs we think are sub-par or down right hideous (don’t you judge me…you know you think it too sometimes!). I will be the first to say that you do NOT have to go to a fancy school to design, but I firmly believe designers should at least learn about typography, color and layout. A willingness to learn, and the ability to challenge yourself and grow are some qualities that separate a good designer from a mediocre one.

As members of AIGA we should use our knowledge of design to elevate the level of design around us and educate others on about of our craft. AIGA’s Standards of Professional Practice help outline ways we can all sustain the value of our chosen profession.

-Jermaine Johnson, Vice President AIGA NH/VT

The Countdown to…Winning?

The clock is ticking down…4:45, 5:00, 5:10. We work franticly to create PDFs, search for hard copies, burn DVDs, curse that we hadn’t gotten the disc drive on our computer fixed AGAIN, fill out forms, scratch down signatures…5:20…scramble for a Fex Ex form…what’s our account number….5:30…package it all up, surround it in packing tape….do a sprint down the road to the last possible Fed Ex drop, plead with the Fed Ex guy who was already pulling away…. Few. Made it.

This is us getting a project out for a major important client, right? Actually, this fast-paced action adventure is the comedic happenings that occur each year when we send in our entries in for consideration to design competitions. Every time I say it will be the last we do it this way, and this year I’m on the way to making that a reality. Many of the big competitions have been announced, and deadlines are fast approaching. Our first deadline hits at the end of February. I’ve got the entry forms printed out with the deadlines highlighted for each. Maybe this year we can avoid the mad dash at the end.

My original art director, my Obi-Won if you will, Mrs Osborn, gave me some good things to keep in mind as you enter competition after competition: You never know who’s judging and why they make the choices they do, and you never know if they are choosing their friends, only their members, etc. And who knows who and what you’ll be up against that particular year. Still worth it?

Competitions can be expensive, and often a nuisance if you wait until the last minute to throw your entry together, but they can be a great asset to your studio and your design team. Being publicly announced as competition winners can bring in recognition sometimes needed to get a leg up on the competition, can be encouraging to a team of designers who have spend a year making compromises for the client and having their creativity squashed. It can be a reason to send out a press release, or a friendly reminder to clients that haven’t been in contact. It’s nice to add the title of “award winning” to your studio name. And its nice to have some eye-candy decorating your walls in the form of awards when clients stop by.

We’ll be entering this year again, hopefully under less stress and strain than in years past. And if we win again, great, my boss always like to include such statistics in her year end reports, and we’ll make a little more room on our wall for our awards. If nothing comes of our entries, I still know that we did GREAT, CREATIVE work this year, and that matters more to me than anything else. Also, when the clients are happy, it’s true to say that you’ve already won in a big, big way.

Keep an eye on those deadlines, and good luck. It would be great to have more New Hampshire and Vermont representation in the winners circles!