I have never been to an AIGA conference before, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t know what I would take away from it aside from some notebooks, t-shirts and hopefully a speck of Sagmeister DNA. I never in my wildest imaginings thought that a conference could change my world view or even—!!—build a bridge back into the profession of design, which I have recently semi-abandoned. Over the weekend I found myself in a euphoria of optimism. The conference successfully destroyed the notion that in order to act and design responsibly you have to work for non-profits and sacrifice your income in the process. On the contrary I learned that we can change the way we and our clients work, that we can positively impact the physical and mental environment around us, and that we can do so while creating opportunities (and profit) for ourselves and our clients. I believe that, but I’m just a little short on the tools.
As much as I got out of this conference, I recognize that it had some deep flaws, some communication flaws that alienated many of my fellow attendees.
Overall, the conference had an important and viable message, but it suffered from a lack of challenge and a lack of real-world support to the majority of graphic designers in attendance. And Armin is right, Graphic Design was seldom, if ever, mentioned. Some attendees were alienated by this, some were overwhelmed by the repetitive nature of the environmental message, some heard an accusatory tone about themselves and the way they do business.
I think we’ve all been in the situation with someone who says, “The trouble with you is …” Well, you know what that does; it pulls a switch. I call this the “Fuck Off Switch.” What the Fuck Off Switch does is turn off our receptiveness to anything else that follows, and once it’s pulled, it’s hard to get it back into a receptive mode. I worry that some of the speakers, and the abundance of single-minded speakers may have pulled the Fuck Off Switch for many attendees of the conference.
I was very surprised by that an organization representing a profession that works in strategic communication wouldn’t know a little more about intelligent persuasion. Someone said that the moderator, John Hockenberry, liked to host the AIGA conferences because we were the most intelligent audience he gets to present to. So if they know that about us, why the need to give us the same message over and over and over? As a board executive for the GDC, I know how hard it is to organize even the simplest of events, so I don’t know how viable it would be to get the speakers to coordinate with each other so that their presentations are either building or supporting rather than repeating, but I would have preferred to see a 4-part structure that went something like this: Persuade, Question, Answer, Prove.
The Persuade section would give us the big picture: I’d have opened with Fritjof Capra, David Orr, Michael Braungart & Janine James, and Jessica Helfand & William Drentell. (I actually might have opened with Bruce Mau, just to get people into the room, even though I think his view of Designer as God was certainly not in keeping with eg. Fritjof Capra)
The Question section might take the form of some kind of debate, or series of debates (Debbie Millman vs Jessica Helfand?). I would have liked to see open questioning of how single owner-operators and small firms can begin to challenge the existing systems, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing a “failure” story. How a firm tried to make change and how that got whittled down, or how it failed and what they learned and what steps they’d take the next time.
The Answer section would give answers to some of the questions raised in the previous section, with real companies and projects, including Studio eg, Tony Golsby-Smith, Brenda Laurel, and most importantly, smaller Graphic Design firms illustrating the steps they took and are taking, and a speaker giving some kind of guideline for where to start, how to deal with clients’ questions, how to persuade, and how to deal with budgets.
The Prove section would provide proof of situations where change is happening or where the holistic model is the way they do business (Michael Volkema of Herman Miller, Dan Sturges), and at least two Graphic Design firms working in paper and on the web. Then I’d close with a superstar, just to keep people in attendance.
Also, I’d have made the breakout sessions Q&As so that I could ask Studio eg how much it cost to build a machine to strip old tires, or ask The Moderns how to evaluate the skills of a Sociologist.
As it stands, I feel a bit like the cave man who has been shown the amazing things that can be done with fire: elaborate heating systems to heat my house, gas-burning 6-range Garland stoves, super-efficient airtights, waterproof matches, pietzo-electric lighters … and I’m left kindof standing here going, “I believe it, I want it, I’ve seen it, but … what do i do with these 2 sticks again?” And meanwhile half of my clan is saying, “Fuck that, it’s too hard: come gnaw on this yummy antelope with us.”
Not related to the conference per se... I would like to welcome Marian as the newest Speak Up author.
Welcome.
On Oct.28.2003 at 01:06 PM