World Day of Design?
by Bennett Holzworth, (10 comments)
I had planned on writing an enlightening piece about design for the World Day of Design, which is today. Inspiration was hard to come by for this event. Aside from having the honor of my design(above) selected for the poster contest, I don’t have many positive things to say about the poster contest and the national AIGA involvement in this day.
I admire the fact that the AIGA is recognizing the World Day of Design and doing something about it. Unless I am missing something, the effort seems to have stopped at the idea phase. Ever since I signed up to design an entry for the contest, I have been less than impressed. A few days before the submission deadline I sent a question to the provided email and expected a response. I never even received a simple reply. The posted deadline to notify the winners was March 9th. After the day came and went I just assumed that my poster didn’t impress Paula Scher and company. Then on April 6th I received a PDF attachment of a form letter. The PDF letter didn’t have any indication that it was to me other than it was sent to my email address. It said, “Congratulations! The World Day of Design Committee is pleased to inform you that your poster has been selected for the first World Day of Design celebration in the United States…” I was pumped, but confused as to why it took them an extra month to notify me. All of these things are annoying, but not really a big deal.
The biggest problem that I see so far is the lack of follow-through and support. Follow-through from the WDD committee and the lack of support from AIGA National. As far as I can tell there are only a few chapters that are showing the posters that were sent out. One is from where this project originated, Miami, and the other is Kansas City. It looks like the Rhode Island chapter is doing an event in honor of the WDD, but nothing is mentioned about the posters. I am however happy that my own Nebraska Chapter will be displaying the posters a day later in conjunction with the Nebraska Postcards event that Donovan has already posted about here. Is there not even going to be an event at the AIGA headquarters? This doesn’t seem like elevating design. Were local chapters not informed about what to do with these posters?
Am I just being to sensitive here? Do I just think this should be a bigger deal since my poster was one of the selections?
Hopefully our country’s second attempt at the World Day of Design will run a little more smoothly and make a bigger impact.
A few side notes.
For a contest that was meant to exemplify “diversity” does it make much sense that only AIGA members were allowed to enter?
Why did the AIGA change the name from “World Graphics Day”? This is what Icograda calls it.
Here is my short description that I sent in with my submission. The design of this poster is based on the history and cultural variation of ornamentation. The shapes and patterns in the ornamentation are based on different styles that are derived from architecture, manuscripts, tapestries, calligraphy and even tattoos. When placed into the same color palette and setting, it is interesting to see how these diverse shapes work together and relate, despite their differences. The figure in the center of the composition represents the equality that we all share as individuals. The diversity in our extended world makes for beautiful contrast in context to our familiar everyday surroundings.
Here is my original post about the World Day of Design and competitions.
Comments (10)
Donovan Beery said:
As of this morning, it’s not even mentioned on the National AIGA website’s homepage.
Posted on April 27, 2005
Steve Merryman said:
This is not meant as a criticism of your design, which I think is wonderful, but doesn’t this make you think that there were no other entries, or so few that those running the event lost interest?
Maybe they should have made it “World Design and Advertising Day” so that they could get someone who knows how to market an idea on board.
Again, I think your poster is very good. It’s just that if this happened to me, these are the questions I’d be asking myself. And no, I don’t think you are being overly sensitive either - the folks at AIGA should have had the decency and professionalism to at least contact you personally (the form letter is a particularly shabby means of contact - can’t anyone dial a frickin’ phone?).
I’d be pissed. I’d re-evaluate my membership in the organization.
But that’s just me. And did I mention that I think it’s a great poster?
Posted on April 27, 2005
Bennett said:
I think one reason that I was surprised at the way that this event was handled was due to how great most AIGA events are run. With all my interactions with the AIGA, I would say that 99% are positive. I wouldn’t be anywhere as close to where I am today with out the AIGA. I just wish this specific event would have been handled differently.
We at least know that there were 30 professional entries and 20 student entries. That is how many are in the final printing that were sent out to the local AIGA chapters.
Thanks for the compliments.
Posted on April 27, 2005
nate said:
Sore.
Winner.
I hope your poster is in the company of some really great work by a handful of celebrated designers. That way, when you see where and how your design is valued, you might whine less about the way they told you.
TOP TEN THINGS BENNET CAN SAY:
1. “Paula Scher liked my work.” 2-#10. Anything else.C’mon man. I’m sure there’s more than a few people out there that’d be thrilled to be able to say that.
Posted on April 27, 2005
Bennett said:
I am thrilled. Honored. Humbled. Does that mean that the event couldn’t have been run better? The answer. No.
Like I said before, the fact that I was told by a form letter isn’t a big deal. It was just confusing. It was another symptom of bad organization.
I don’t think I deserved a phone call from Rick Grefﾈ or a call at all for that matter. An email with my name in it would have been fine. Of course a parade would have been nice.
Posted on April 27, 2005
Kyle said:
AIGA does mention that “All selected and submitted posters will be posted online on April 28, 2005,” which is tomorrow.
Bennett, nice poster, dude!
Posted on April 27, 2005
Simanek said:
I really liked the poster and then I read that you designed it.
Then I only kinda liked it.
Posted on April 27, 2005
Bennett said:
The poster designs are up on the World Day of Design page.
Nate, I don’t know about the “handful of celebrated designers”, but I think they look great. We shall see if my whining subsides in the next couple of days.
Posted on April 28, 2005
Bennett said:
OK, I have one more complaint. When I went to see the printed posters I noticed something was a little off. While the printing looked good, the placement of my graphic within the poster was about a quarter of an inch off. It actually looks like it was enlarged about 5-10%. I’m sure no one else noticed this, but it is still very annoying. Some things were cropped when they weren’t supposed to be. I don’t know why we sent in InDesign files when it appears that they just re-imported the linking files. Did they not look at the proof that I sent in? I wonder if this happened to any of the other designs?
Nate, I guess even after I saw all of the other “really great work”, I am still whining.
Posted on May 1, 2005
Adrian said:
Bennett, I totally relate to your frustration. There is no excuse for poor printing or any of the other annoyances. All the details that were overlooked in this event do more harm to designers than good. It gives the impression that some of the pillars of the design community don’t really care about design.
Posted on May 2, 2005