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In probing interviews, she reminds the world just how much design matters. She wrote the book on how to think like a great graphic designer. And now, it's official: UnBeige favorite Debbie Millman is the president of AIGA. She replaces outgoing president Sean Adams, who will remain involved in an ex officio role. Millman's three-year term begins today, as do those of four other newly elected AIGA board members: Julie Beeler (Second Story Interactive Studios), AIGA treasurer Zia Khan (Lucid Partners), James Koval (VSA Partners), and Angela Shen-Hsieh (Visual i|o). Additionally, three board members will begin positions to finish the incomplete terms of former directors: Shelley Evenson (Carnegie Mellon University), Louise Sandhaus (California Institute of the Arts), and Lynda Weinman (lynda.com). They'll all be working toward AIGA's new mandate—"to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool, and vital cultural force"—as the organization approaches its centennial in 2014. Check out the below video from last month's AIGA Leadership Retreat in Portland, where Adams passed the baton to Millman. Note that the baton was metaphorical, but were it literal, it would be one well-designed baton.

Even an imploring Paul Simon chorus couldn't save it. Kodak is taking Kodachrome away. The company has announced that it will retire the world's first commercially successful color film, which today accounts for "a fraction of one percent of Kodak's total sales of still-picture films," according to a press release. While Kodak remains the global leader in the dwindling film business, the company now derives about 70% of its revenues from commercial and consumer digital businesses.

You—or your parents, or their storage unit—probably have albums full of Kodachrome memories, but Kodak has arranged its own online slide show of "great Kodachrome moments" (best viewed with the aforementioned anthem playing, preferably on a record player). They include Steve McCurry's famed Afghan girl photo that ran on the cover of a 1985 issue of National Geographic. McCurry will shoot one of the last rolls of Kodachrome, and his photos will be donated to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York. Meanwhile, there's still time to stockpile Kodachrome, but you better act fast. Kodak estimates that current supplies will run out by early this fall at the current sales pace.

Previously on UnBeige:

Watch out, Disneyworld. Hang on to your geodesic-domed hat, Epcot Center. Because bridgemaster Santiago Calatrava is bringing his epic swoops and avian ribbing to Florida. Calatrava's firm has been commissioned to design the first building for the new campus of the the University of South Florida Polytechnic (USFP) in Lakeland, Florida, the school announced this week. Occupying 100,000 square feet, USFP's $45 million science and technology building will be the cornerstone of the new campus and will establish the design scheme for all buildings in the initial phase of the campus master plan. It will rise from farmland (currently occupied by the billboard pictured above) at the northernmost corner of the campus. Groundbreaking is expected late this year and the building is slated to open in late summer 2012.

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Sure, UnBeige is published online, but we actually compose all of our posts on a pair of candy apple red Olivetti typewriters before turning them over to Eero, our technology-savvy web monkey, who somehow beams them into cyberspace (he also handles all of our links). Now Eero tells us that UnBeige and the rest of the mediabistro.com blog family have joined the future with mobile-optimized sites that are easily browsable on your iPhone, Blackberry, or Palm. Should you routinely carry one of these devices on your person, you need only type unbeige.com into the browser to be automatically redirected to our mobile-friendly page. The mobile optimizations are in beta, notes Eero, so if you have any problems reading UnBeige on the go, please drop us an e-mail.

There was one big question on the mind of most everyone who swanned into Lincoln Center's newly renovated Alice Tully Hall last night for the annual and ever higher profile Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Fashion Awards, and it had nothing to do with the astounding transformation wrought by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. No, the sartorially astute crowd was too busy wondering whether self-taught designing sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte would best decorated veterans Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez to win the award for womenswear designer of the year—just one year after they won the Swarovski award for the label they founded in 2005. In a word, yes.

The Mulleavys took home the CFDA's top honor for their otherworldly womenswear, which Kate described to us last fall as the product of everything from "a lot of trial and error" to—in the case of the spring 2009 collection—an inspired "mixture between science fiction and site-specific art." Meanwhile, Scott Sternberg for Band of Outsiders and Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein Collection tied for menswear designer of the year honors, while enduring CFDA favorites Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler took home the accessory designer of the year award. The Swarovski awards were presented to Alexander Wang (womenswear), Tim Hamilton (menswear), and Justin Giunta for Subversive Jewelry (accessory design). Taking home the first ever popular vote award for favorite fashion designer, chosen online by the public, was Ralph Lauren.

Previously on UnBeige:

Parsons The New School for Design announced today that urban designer William Morrish has been apponted dean of the School of Constructed Environments, which houses Parsons' programs in architecture, interior design, lighting design, and product design. He will take over decanal duties from interim dean Laura Briggs on July 1.

A licensed architect, Morrish comes to Parsons from the University of Virginia School of Architecture, where as the school's first interdisciplinary professor, he taught and led research in the areas of sustainable urban infrastructure, new housing models, and global urbanization and climate change. His work has recently focused on addressing what he calls the "second generation of sustainability": the design of cultural ecologies. "Bill's experience working across disciplines and his personal commitment to examining the social implications of design make him an ideal choice for this position," said Parsons dean Joel Towers in a statement issued today. Click below to listen to Morrish, a former resident of New Orleans, give a 2006 talk about the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Designing children's clothing seems a natural move for Stella McCartney: fashion mogul, mother, and famed "child of." With a slew of successful collaborations (Adidas, LeSportsac, H&M) under her faux leather belt, McCartney has just inked a deal to create a collection of childrenswear for Gap, which eschews articles both definite and indefinite. Expected to launch in November, the limited edition collection will be carried in select GapKids and babyGap stores in the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, and Japan, as well as online in the U.S., according to a press release issued today by Gap Inc. So can we expect impossibly cool, dusky-hued separates for the littlest fashionistas? All we know is that they'll be affordable. "For years now I've wanted to create a collection for kids, it's something I've often been asked about," said McCartney. "I believe that kids clothing should be more accessibly priced, which is particularly important at the moment given the current climate. It's really exciting for us to do a boys and girls collection for the first time."

What kind of chairs does Elizabeth Edwards favor? The world won't have to wonder much longer. The author, mother, and embattled wife of John Edwards is following up her recent book tour with a little retail therapy: she's opening a furniture store this fall in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, the store—Red Window—will "feature styles and prices patterned after the charity store The Red Door that Edwards' mother managed when she lived in Japan." Having visited only the spa version of The Red Door and never stepped foot in Japan, we have no idea what that means and question whether prices can be patterned at all, but Edwards has said that she placed orders for the store-to-be at the High Point Market, a biannual furniture trade show. Should you find yourself in Chapel Hill this October, pop into Red Window (note: enter through the door) at 400 West Rosemary Street. We learned from the Chamber of Commerce's "Fun Facts About Chapel Hill and UNC" that the street "was named after residents who lived at its opposite ends—Rose and Mary." Relay that bit of local trivia for a free ottoman.

With sales down nearly 30% in the last quarter, Herman Miller is busy restructuring, consolidating its manufacturing operations, and...diversifying beyond furnishings. The company best known for industrial design classics of yesterday (by the likes of George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames) and today (Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf's Aeron chair) is focused on a new product that you won't be able to see, let alone sit on: Convia, a high-tech wiring system that allows offices, restaurants, and stores to integrate power delivery and save big on electric bills. Developed in consultation with Applied Minds as part of Herman Miller's initiative to explore new lines of business in the wake of the 2001 recession, Convia aims to make traditionally rigid electrical infrastructure flexible. Mina Kimes explains how it works in the current issue of Fortune:

Normally, if an office manager wants to split, say, a conference room into two offices, he has to rip out the walls and hire an electrician to put in new wiring so that each office can control its own lighting. With Convia, the wires running through walls or cubicles are "smart," so no electrician is necessary, just install a switch and point a wand at every lighting fixture you want the switch to control. In a flash the room is divided into two separate circuits.

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From Europe comes news of another fashion victim of the economy: Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho is closing the fashion house she founded 11 years ago. The Antwerp-based company—which encompasses womenswear, menswear, sunglasses, and shoes—has entered court-appointed liquidation. According to WWD, Branquinho's house was unable to survive in the face of "a sharp drop in orders for its fall/winter 2009/2010 collections, and a plethora of canceled orders and nonpayments for the past spring/summer season."

While Branquinho, a graduate of Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts, will take a break from designing under her own name, she was recently appointed artistic director of Delvaux, the luxe leathergoods company. "The motivation for this choice was her highly personal style, her approach to accessories—elegance must remain discreet—and the international opportunities that this cooperation creates," noted Delvaux last month in a statement announcing Branquinho's appointment. "In her designs for Delvaux, she wants to create a tension between recognition—the existing codes of the House—and surprise." Branquinho will also continue teaching at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.