professional associations

Tonight in New York at a black-tie gala to be emceed by Steve Heller, the Art Directors Club celebrates the latest inductees to its Hall of Fame, a prestigious group of “innovators who have made significant contributions to art direction and visual communications” that includes Walt Disney, Charles and Ray Eames, and Andy Warhol. The 2011 laureates are: art director and editorial designer Ruth Ansel; painter, illustrator, and chairman of the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program at the School of Visual Arts Marshall Arisman (who will receive the ADC’s Educator Award); creative wizard John C. Jay, a partner and executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy; and filmmaker and commercial director Joe Pytka. And that’s not all! The one, the only Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art, will receive the ADC Manship Medallion “in special recognition of curatorial excellence.” And the Hall of Fame fun continues after tonight’s bash (which will benefit ADC education programs): on Tuesday, November 15, Heller will reprise his M.C. duties as the moderator of a conversation with Ansel and Arisman at the ADC Gallery, where an exhibition featuring the work of the 2011 ADC Hall of Fame laureates is on view through December 2.

Pictured clockwise from top: Ansel, Pytka, Arisman, Antonelli, and Jay

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AIGA is harnessing the power of its members for good—social good—through a new initiative that aims to connect and amplify the pro bono efforts of the association’s more than 22,000 designers, hundreds of design educators, 66 chapters, and 200 student groups across the country. Design for Good will help designers to become engaged in projects where they can demonstrate the power of design to communities, business leaders, and the public. Connection is the key. The initiative will serve as a kind of clearinghouse for advice, inspiration, training, and opportunities to tackle socially minded projects. (Check out the growing list of inspirational case studies.)

“The idea is that when a designer feels they want to make a difference, they know where to go first, where their talents will be respected and where we can match them with problems that need to be solved,” says AIGA executive director Richard Grefé. “If designers are involved in projects that affect the community, and are seen as a convener of groups that can solve difficult community problems, then they are going to be standing shoulder to shoulder with attorneys, with accountants, with community leaders who observe the way designer addresses a problem and the effectiveness of bringing creativity anytime you’re dealing with a problem that has many dimensions.”
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You know when a comic book publishing company decides to gather up all their best-selling characters and put them all together for a series, a la the Superfriends or The Avengers? That sort of thing happened for real this week, so long as you replace “superheros” with “super successful architects.” Yesterday, Frank Gehry‘s company, the aptly named Gehry Technologies, which consults architecture firms in technology issues and has its own 3D modeling application, formed a “strategic alliance dedicated to transforming the building industry through technology.” This group is described as being formed “to drive technology innovations that support the central role of design in the creation of culture” and includes pretty much everyone whose names or firms regularly appear on shortlists for high-profile project. Zaha Hadid is there, as is Skidmore, Owings & Merrill‘s Chairman Emeritus David Childs, David Rockwell, Moshe Safdie, and Ben van Berkel, co-founder of UNStudio, among other highly-notable luminaries. They were all together yesterday for this inaugural meeting, at the Freedom Tower in New York no less, which must have been something to see. Sadly, we must report that no supervillians (not even the anti-modernist Prince Charles) showed up and thus, no super battles took place. However, they’ve stated that they plan to all get together to meet once per year, so here’s hoping for 2012.

It’s been a red letter year for the relationship between the D&AD and Neville Brody. Just a few months back, he was handed their annual President’s Award, and now he’s just been named the organization’s upcoming Vice President for 2012. The legendary designer-turned-rabble-rousing-dean of the Royal College of Art, will serve in the position under new President and ad industry vet, Rosie Arnold, the second woman ever to hold the position. It appears to be fairly nice timing to have such a high-profile executive branch, given that next year the D&AD will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Here’s a bit about Brody’s ascendancy and a brief bio:

At the Executive Board meeting, Neville Brody was ratified as D&AD Vice President by unanimous vote. Neville is one of the world’s most renowned designers, and is the Dean of the Royal College of Art. Neville rose to promincence in the 80’s as the Art Director of The Face, before moving to Arena in 1986. He is a designer, typographer, art director, brand strategist and consultant, and his agency Research Studios has clients all over the world.

The urban visionaries at New York’s Design Trust for Public Space have elected policymaker and architect Susan Chin as their next executive director. She starts work at the nonprofit in October. During her 23-year tenure as assistant commissioner for capital projects for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Chin has developed and guided a capital program of $1 billion (with $1 billion more leveraged in private sector funding) for over 200 cultural institutions throughout the five boroughs. Her long list of achievements and honors includes serving as president of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter, earning an AIA Public Architects Award, and taking leadership roles in key NYC building projects such as the new home of the Museum of the Moving Image, Diller Scofidio Renfro’s reimagined Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and the SANAA-designed New Museum. “I have been inspired every day, from my vantage point in city government, by how innovative architecture can seed vitality within the creative community,” said Chin in a statement issued today. “I look forward to advancing the catalytic role of the Design Trust, bringing new ways of thinking to the spaces we share.”

Meanwhile, about 20 blocks uptown, the Art Directors Club has named a successor to Doug “Tough Act to Follow” Jaeger. The organization’s fifty-eighth president is Benjamin Palmer, cofounder and CEO of The Barbarian Group. The New York-based “digital-centric creative agency,” which just debuted a Fashion Week-themed mosaic of digital images for the Hudson Hotel, recently made Fast Company‘s list of the worldʼs 50 most innovative companies. Jaeger describes Palmer, who joined the ADC board of directors in 2008, as “a hardcore entrepreneur and artist who has proven himself as a successful creative, leader, and businessperson.” As Palmer begins his three-year term, his focus is keeping the 91-year-old nonprofit going strong. “Doug laid the groundwork for reinvigorating ADC as a cultural hub with strong year-round programming,” he said in a statement issued by the organization. “I want the club to continue in that direction, with programming that appeals on both local and global levels and cool events in our great gallery space that connect people and provide real value to members.”

If you recall back to the tail end of last year, when budget cuts were sweeping through the UK with an unmerciful vengeance, and sympathies were particularly heavy toward the Commission for Architecture and the Build Environment (Cabe) as they announced their government funding had been cut. Prince Charles even got a (now semi-routine) batch of flak for offering to help take over some of their architectural review duties with his Foundation for the Built Environment. However, according to a recent report by the Telegraph, perhaps the former employees, the ones who didn’t stick around when the organization merged with the UK’s more famous Design Council, did okay for themselves with some fairly generous severance packages. “Golden handshakes,” the paper calls the government-wide redundancy packages, which reportedly cost British taxpayers somewhere in the range of “almost £1 billion.” Cabe itself apparently did okay, with £2.7million spread across the 76 employees who were laid off. Building Design highlights that its former director of resources, Charlotte Cane, “received £224,000 when she left her post” and Matt Bell, director of campaigns and education, “was handed a £111,000 payout.” Whether you think it’s a good thing that the people in these creative professions weren’t thrown out on the street when the government decided to cut off their employers, or that they should have to pay back every Pound and live in shame, working in forced labor on a peat bog somewhere in the country for the rest of their lives is completely up to you. We just post about it.

Just when everyone was starting to finally become so used to the U.S. Green Building Council‘s LEED certification that it’s nearly reached the point of ubiquity, up pops a new system that is going to try and provide an alternative. Launched this past fall and starting to make waves is the Society of Environmentally Responsible Facilities, or SERF certification for sure. Crain’s Detroit reports that the program was founded as an alternative to LEED, which founder Joe Maguire says has grown too expensive and time-consuming (you’ll recall that there have been questions about the program’s real world benefits as well). How much quicker and less expensive is SERF? Here’s a bit:

“Our timeline is four to six weeks,” he said. “They take two years. We’re approaching this from the perspective of the property owner and investor. How can the process be more efficient, more accessible?”

Among the differences, he said, is that the application can be filled out by the architect who designed the building rather than LEED’s requirement of hiring another architect to fill out the paperwork. A streamlined application process cuts down on the time it takes consultants — paid by the hour — to complete the work.

So far, the USGBC seems okay with the competition, telling Crain’s that they are okay with other certifications popping up, as anything to promote green building is a positive. Also, it’s fairly easy to say you aren’t too concerned when you have more than a billion square feet under your belt and a certification like SERF has 32 buildings in total to their name.

Update: The USGBC dropped us a line, letting us know about an error: “The quote from Joe Maguire says that LEED Certification takes two years, however, the timeline actually only ranges from 5-15 weeks but depends on the project and their submittals, as well as if the project has make any appeals on LEED credits.”

“For designers, by designers.” That’s the premise and promise of Design Envy, a new blog from AIGA and Adobe that showcases envy-inducing creative work. “We developed Design Envy to expand the range of voices contributing to design discussions, and to heighten the level of visual inspiration provided by unexpected choices,” said AIGA executive director Richard Grefé in a statement issued today. Each week, a new AIGA-appointed guest curator will post five new examples to inspire and inform. Visitors are invited to vote on their favorites and help select the entries that will become a special collection in the prestigious AIGA Design Archives.

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As you prepare to raise a sparkler and savor a grilled slab of protein in celebration of America’s 235th birthday, we offer two last, mildly patriotic morsels of news from AIGA. First up is the slate of five design minds that today joined the organization’s 15-member national board of directors: president Doug Powell (Schwartz Powell), Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center), Drew Davies (Oxide Design), Susana Rodríguez de Tembleque (SYPartners), and Nathan Shedroff (California College of the Arts). Elected by members, the new directors will serve three-year terms leading up to AIGA’s centennial in 2014.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA has launched the 2011 (Re)designAwards, a design competition that “showcases the importance and innovation of sustainable and socially responsible work created by design professionals, students, educators, and businesses and organizations from around the world.” Enter your sustainable design achievement in one of two categories—social responsibility or environmental sustainability—by July 22 to be judged by the likes of Eric Benson, Rachel Martin, Naomi Pearson, Tim McNeil, and Brian Dougherty. Click here for all of the details.

Staying in the UK for a bit longer after that last post, the Royal Institute of British Architects is continuing to clean some egg of its face this week after an incident that happened to drag Zaha Hadid‘s name into it, something we’re sure the architect is not at all pleased about. Building Design reports that the RIBA hosted a lecture last week by a group called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. You may have heard about the group before if you read architecture news at all, or happen to receive press releases about their work as we inexplicably do. Essentially, it’s a “9/11 was an inside job” group, led by American architect Richard Gage, who believes the World Trade Center towers could not have been felled by two mere airliners and therefore clearly the whole thing must have been set up by some vast, smoke filled room government conspiracy. BD reports that Gage and his companions were invited to talk about all of this at the RIBA by Craig Phillip Kiner, “an associate at Zaha Hadid Architects,” who later said his involvement with the group was “a personal matter” and was in no way related to Hadid. But now that the news is out and the RIBA is struggling to distance itself from hosting the event, we’re wondering how long Kiner will continue to be associated with his employer. According to BD’s report, roughly 230 people attended the event, wherein Gage, who makes a point to include that he is a member of the American Institute of Architects, much to their reported chagrin, asked in his speech:

Architects and engineers have willfully ignored the message that we’ve been speaking about for five years. When is the RIBA going to take this seriously?

If you’d like to spend the rest of the day on this subject, we recommend you Google “9/11 RIBA” and enjoy reading the rancor from both sides.