My path forward fora better Philly design community
As a pandemic hit and the murder of George Floyd sparked protests worldwide, people began questioning the validity of many of our institutions, even our own 100-year-old institution of AIGA.
I knew there was much I could do to help steer our chapter to become more inclusive, empathetic to our design community, and do even more.
I rolled up my sleeves and created a focused programming strategy to realign our chapter on two strategic goals regarding programming. The first goal is "creating relevancy." What can we offer to our community to be more relevant and modern in this new design age? The second goal, "creating institutional change." What is it we can do a board to create a perfect organization? Braking down older institutional ways of functioning and building and designing new ones. To add to this, how can we teach these to our community.
An example of something aspiration could be what our national conversations are right now. Bringing change to institutions through human-centered design processes and raising the voices of BIPOC.
Something practical is programming around a specific skill set and training such as UX Design education and understanding modern design practices and other current skills to be relevant to our members.
To not completely neglect or ignore those who enjoy the traditional attributes of graphic design and typesetting, or illustration, we will continue programming to be inspirational and encourage traditional skills.
I was made program director in August of 2020 and set to work immediately. My whole purpose for this new role is to reshape what people think of when they hear AIGA Philadelphia. There is plenty of work to do, and we won't get it right all the time, but if we can change our institution just a little, my time spent in the role will be worth it.
VanKreisel