Tan Le urged me: be nice. Perhaps he had heard about one of my past experiences judging a design competition, wherein the debate I had with one of my fellow jurors nearly resulted in fisticuffs. Or perhaps not, and he just knows how I can get. As my ex-husband once told our friends as we argued about what year Eric Clapton had been inducted into the Rock �n’ Roll Hall of Fame: Debbie is always persuasive, but she is not always right.
I planned on taking Tan’s advice, and was absolutely prepared to be as open-minded as possible in judging the first annual AIGA Origination Design competition. This particular competition had an interesting angle: it was for work only created by designers practicing in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. My main concern with judging any type of design competition is just that—it is a “design” competition. In my (humble) opinion, design can not or should not be evaluated purely on aesthetics, as for the most part, graphic design is not fine art. As I have written in this forum before, I believe that (good) graphic design needs to be a sound combination of cultural anthropology, psychology, marketing and creativity. Therefore, the effectiveness of the design needs to be evaluated in tandem with its performance in the marketplace as well as its level of ingenuity and technique. Which makes for difficulties when talking to designers who are what I call “design purists:” those (mostly) passionate designers that don’t want to consider that assessing the results of the design you are analyzing is a big part of measuring it’s power. I would hope that work worthy of an award should have a positive impact on culture, both aesthetically and commercially. But that’s just me. If you disagree, please see the last line of the first paragraph in this critique.
So it was with a bit of trepidation, curiosity and excitement that I flew off to Cincinnati, Ohio. Then I read Jason’s post on regional design, and I thought: “Cool!”—if nothing more I would get a sense of whether or not there is a regional distinction to the work in the greater Cincinnati area. Oh, and I would be able to visit the new Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art which was redesigned by the phenomenal Zaha Hadid Architects.
Well I needn’t have worried. I have never been part of a competition that was so easy to judge. What was even more surprising and inspiring was that all three of the jurors were nearly on the same page (literally and figuratively) about the quality and worthiness of the work. Now, a word about the other judges: I was working with the lovely, classy, funny, wonderfully talented Sam Shelton (who had already impressed me when I met him over the summer at the AIGA Harvard program); and one of the coolest dudes in the universe: Marc English, who I hadn’t seen since 1998. He wore both his blue turban and his skunk hat over the course of the day and charmed everyone in his path, including the timid, somewhat shocked elderly woman manning the entrance of the museum as she checked us all in.
Okay, back to the work. Jason, to answer your question: yes, there seems to be an apparent regional distinction to the work I saw coming out of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Or at least the work that was submitted to this competition. I have been thinking about this a lot since the judging, and I think there may be a couple of reasons for this. First, all the work submitted had to answer the question (on the entry form): “What resulted after the design of this work was completed?” I have not often seen that on application forms for design competitions (unless you are in the UK—check this out). That was nice. So most of the entries had an articulated reason for being and an apparent measured effectiveness. This contributed to understanding how and why specific design choices were made, why the piece was created and for whom. Second, much of the work had a sort of elegant thoughtfulness—it was either minimal or purposefully deliberate yet still quietly right. Some of the stand-outs (without giving too much of the competition results away before they become public): Brian Hock’s gorgeous work publicizing the competition; a beautiful, nearly all white, progressive poster created by four designers for the Cincinnati Art Directors Club; Integrate and Keith Noviki’s work for Limited Brand’s annual report, and Brainstorm’s whimsical work for a financial institution.
Now, the biggest surprise of the experience, for me: seeing the student work. Poppy Evans, a professor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the co-education chair of the AIGA Cincinatti Chapter, is doing something right. The work coming out of this area of the country contains some of the best student work I have ever seen. Ever. If there was a “best of show” award for this competition (there wasn’t), I am pretty sure that we all would have given it to a student. Of particular mention is Deidre Evans from Bowling Green State University, who we choose to win the student scholarship. So not only is there a regional distinction to the work in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, but I predict that the next wave of designers to hit the streets there are going to take the world by storm. If you are looking for new, knees-weak kind of talent, check out the graduating classes of the School of Advertising Art, Ohio State University, University of Dayton, University of Cincinnati, Columbus College of Art & Design, Miami University, as well as the AAC and Bowling Green. You won’t be disappointed.
Next year the Origination competition moves to Indiana. I am anxious to see what develops from that region next year; could it be a new movement taking form?
When I moved to Chicago from Atlanta we put all of our stuff in a U-haul and hauled (sorry for the lame pun) ourselves from the Southeast to the Midwest. We drove past Kentucy first, then Indiana… really fast. I don't think there is any reason why I would go there out of my own free will, no disrespect intended, but there ain't much goin' on.
Anyway, when Debbie told me about this thing I went to the site and see what it was all about. My first thought was Sheesh, exciting (with a tone of irony of course). Evidently, this proves my ignorance as to the going ons of that region, but let's face it, in the past decades we've heard nothing from there. I visited the three web-sites Debbie linked to and I was very impressed with the work of Integrate and Brainstorm. It too, has that Chicago aesthetic. Very midwestern.
> could it be a new movement taking form?
Highly doubtful in my opinion. The work is strong and well-developed but not different enough as to warrant a mention of distinct regionalism lilke Minneapolis or Tennessee.
On Feb.11.2004 at 09:35 AM