AIGA NY has revealed a brand new emblem and strategic course, marking one of many organisation’s most vital shifts in additional than 4 a long time. The chapter, which stays the oldest and largest throughout the nationwide AIGA community, says the refreshed identification displays a renewed dedication to group, visibility and open dialogue throughout the design business.
Introduced at the moment in New York, the replace arrives at a time when town’s design ecosystem is each increasing and evolving. Stacey Panousopoulos, government director of AIGA NY, says the work is much less about reinvention and extra about readability.
“This mission is not about beginning one thing new, it is about actively showcasing what we’re already doing so nicely,” she explains. “Our focus has at all times been on organising and bringing voices collectively to spark significant conversations and create experiences that unite the design group, and we need to spotlight and amplify that distinctive position.”
The brand new technique positions AIGA NY as a sort of civic sq. for designers, the place individuals collect, debate, be taught and help one another. It additionally goals to deal with long-standing misconceptions concerning the chapter’s remit, making its mission unmistakable. At its core, AIGA NY is about community-building and shared ambition relatively than top-down programming.
On the centre of the refresh is a customized emblem by designer and native New Yorker Christopher Guerrero. Quite than counting on the same old New York visible tropes, Guerrero rooted the mark within the metropolis’s rhythm and construction.
The letterforms sit across the unique AIGA field, making a pocket of detrimental area that turns into the emblematic “city sq.” in a neat, virtually architectural gesture.
Guerrero labored with additional design help from former board member Raven Mo and approached the identification as a versatile system relatively than a set badge. He says: “Designing for New York is at all times a problem as a result of it is really easy to fall into clichés.
“We needed to inform a narrative that felt genuine to town’s inventive power with out leaning on overused tropes. It was about capturing the essence of New York’s system and expression, its construction and chaos, and translating that right into a design that resonates with designers and creatives alike.”
Color performs its personal position in that story. As an alternative of predictable flag references, the palette attracts from the streets with scaffolding greens, pavement blacks, comfortable sidewalk whites and a lightweight inexperienced that nods – subtly – to the Statue of Liberty. Locals would instantly recognise the visible language with out it feeling heavy-handed.
Stacey provides that the consequence displays the chapter’s DNA, saying: “This new identification is greater than only a emblem, it is a reflection of who we’re as a chapter and as a group.
“We have at all times been about creating areas the place designers can come collectively, share concepts and really feel represented. This emblem is a dialog starter, a logo of our legacy and city sq..”
Over its 43-year historical past, AIGA NY has welcomed greater than 90,000 attendees to occasions, exhibitions and programmes, usually collaborating with teams such because the Queer Design Membership. The chapter’s Board of Administrators has now formalised three guiding pillars – elevating various voices, celebrating design excellence and advocating for stronger business requirements – which anchor the brand new technique.
Because the birthplace of AIGA, New York continues to form the organisation’s wider course. Stacey believes the brand new identification units an vital precedent: “The DNA of AIGA is New York. We take that DNA, make it shine – and need to encourage different chapters to do the identical, to activate and have a good time what makes them distinctive.”
The rollout begins this month and can step by step seem throughout AIGA NY’s web site, occasion supplies and digital platforms. It marks solely the second time the chapter has adopted a novel emblem, the final being its influential 2007 redesign led by Carin Goldberg.
