Without a History, One Has No Future - 10/05

I’ve had the pleasure of previewing a new book by Robin Landa, entitled Designing Brand Experiences (Thomson Delmar Learning), which also features a forward by Steve Liska. I was particularly drawn to Robin’s discussion of ethics, in which she thoughtfully addresses the designer’s potential impact, both positive and negative, on audience, client, society and environment. Responding to the criticism that brand design exists to solely encourage soulless materialism, she nicely stakes out a middle ground by not only treating the critique with respect, but also explaining the significant economic and social benefits of branding, design and consumerism.

Robin also observes, in a point that seems prescient in light of the ongoing hurricane disaster, that “the same skill sets used to promote brands are used to promote social causes, organizations and charitable groups. Advertising agencies and the creative professionals employed by them donate time and talent to create public service advertising. Innumerable public service advertising campaigns have greatly benefitted society... The graphic design community is a generous, intelligent and kind one. A recent Icograda survey reported that ‘ninety percent of designers do pro bono work. Almost a third do it on a regular basis, and sixty-one percent do it occasionally for causes they consider worthy.’”

Timely examples of the generous, kind and intelligent nature of the creative community are starting to emerge as the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina recede and we go to press. We are keen to report on them in more detail next month, as relief and recovery activities accelerate. In the meantime, however, I call your attention to two projects to provide aid and comfort to the graphic designers of the Gulf Coast. As reflected in our story this month by the New Orleans graphic designer, Matt Touchard, many creative professionals lost homes, jobs, studios and so much more as a consequence of Katrina.

One project is Displaced Designer (www.displaceddesigner.com). It’s focus in the immediate aftermath of the storm has been to match designers in need with offers of help in several categories, including gear, work, cash and schools. The effort is being coordinated by William Drenttel, a former AIGA president, and Matthew Richmond, principal of The Chopping Block, Inc. Displaced Designer is a wonderful example seeing a job that needs to be done and doing it. No muss, no fuss, no asking for permission.

The other project is the AIGA’s Disaster Relief Task Force (www.aiga.org/reliefeffort). Efforts there include coordinating relief in collaboration with Displaced Designer, raising money for a Relief Fund to facilitate the recovery of design practices, seeking opportunities to volunteer for wayfinding and other design-related projects as the recovery takes shape, and developing a handbook and strategies for mobilizing to help in future disasters. Checks can be made out to the AIGA Disaster Relief Fund and sent to AIGA’s national headquarters at 164 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. The group assures us that all funds “will benefit designers. No monies will go to administrative expenses or other general purposes. Some funds, however, may be used by AIGA chapters in the affected areas to establish networking and support systems.”

Matt Touchard puts the relief efforts in context, when he states:

“Though this is a heart-wrenching, life-altering event that will haunt generations of us here in my deep, sultry south, let me tell you this — we will rise above this and hold our heads high, so very high above these waters. And we will be back. Right here with our gumbo of cultures, our jazz and delta blues and, of course, our rich history that so many across the world come to experience. Because, you see, without a history, one simply has no future.”