Note: This is in response to “Letter from AIGA’s incoming president” from AIGA National
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/letter-from-aigas-incoming-president

Firstly, Don’t get me wrong. I have had some great times working and planning events with the AIGA. The Boston crowd is a great one. I was a student member for two years, and then I lapsed my membership when the dues went up. Typical story.

After reading the letter from newly elected AIGA President Debbie Millman, I was both relieved, and well, let-down. The buzz words were there that enticed me to read on (facebook, connection, transparency etc..). But when I got to the end of the letter, I noticed a few things that jarred me. Here are my comments on each section of the new AIGA initiative:

The Connectivity Initiative

This initiative boasts that “a revolution” is happening! Quick! Gather your vintage, socially active posters, and unite!! – Well, when I think of the typical AIGA fashion sometimes that is my first thought. But really, if you are a working designer right now, this is not news to you. You probably found this post by checking your Facebook or Twitter. There is a new communication structure in the works that is to be “progressive, authentic and meaningful”. I am hoping at least that what ever it is, can be proven to be effective for jobs, and useful before people buy in. There is no more “trust me” source any more in this Twitter environment we live in.

The Inclusivity Initiative

You can imagine our understanding of Debbie’s point about multi-disciplined designers feeling out of sorts with the AIGA. For a while there, we here at Dirk+Weiss felt that way. But however, only recently, have our view points changed about this topic. I feel, at least in the Boston chapter, that the need to embrace all viewpoints of design has come from a dwindling membership and the need to be unique in a print-less environment. It is great to see that AIGA National has started its 21st century emergence (even if it is nine years later), but I get the feeling that its still, just too slow of a process, and there is a lot of catching up to do (and fast).

Also, I have had a long standing gripe with AIGA’s perspective of students or recent graduates. Students are commonly overlooked by AIGA as real designers. But in reality, students are the future of this profession. They will be in the next wave of industry trends. Even in Deb’s letter, there is a feeling of catering to the thirty and over crowd. Just because someone has recently graduated, or is about to, does not make them a less valuable member of the design community.

Let’s see some student board members!

In the 20th century method, junior designers became senior designers after having much “experience”. Well, experience never hurt anyone in any field, but the playing field has changed remember. In the 21st century method, that same junior designer has probably been laid off, and is now creating a web based company, and some sort of viral mechanism to promote their venture. Why? How?! It’s simple. There are tools out on the web that allow almost anyone to do this and enable it to be seen by the world.

AIGA needs to become one of those tools. A viral, job-getting mechanism. This means they need to pull the trigger on more situations. I have noticed in my dealings with AIGA, that pulling the trigger is rare sometimes.

Oh yeah, “Break down barriers by 2014″? again, too slow of a process. In today’s time management arena, six months is long term, and technology is king. Predicting and strategizing a whole nicely packaged plan for that long away is overly ambitious, I think, for AIGA, or any company/organization. The real solution here is to get the AIGA vehicle up to the speed of not only its members, but to non-designer folks, you know, your clients. Then, when at that speed, determine how far ahead to look and plan.

Advocate the AIGA Mandate

A new mandate is a great launching pad for new things. But, I had no idea there was an AIGA mandate before I read Deb’s letter.Hmm…

“As a result, we have adopted a bold new course for meeting our mission “to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force.”

The official new mandate can be found here.

Still, I hear nothing about how AIGA would like to help get you jobs. Designers understand their ‘craft’ and ’strategy’. In this economy, AIGA needs to be more than an “Inspirational Resource”, and actually help promote designers to non-designers.

How about this for a new AIGA mission: “The goal of AIGA is to promote the value and effectiveness of designers to the world”.

We here at Dirk+Weiss are active participants with AIGA Boston (although not members). The trend it seems is now from the ground up, rather than the top down. I feel that chapters are becoming much more independent, and almost competitive, with each other. A great, and healthy point. We feel that progression is happening, and love seeing it happen. Even if it means pushing all the right (or wrong) buttons.

Overall, all comments aside, we would like to say good luck in your new endevaur, we’re rooting for you AIGA.

If you have not already seen our smash hit site AnyoneCanSwiss, please do check it out. In the first 48 hours, 11 thousand unique-visitor, poster submissions, we’re collected and shared on Flickr. And now, AnyoneCanSwiss, is going mobile.

Here at Dirk+Weiss, we have created a new iPhone app that takes the concept of AnyoneCanSwiss, and makes it mobile. In the next few weeks, you will be able to download your own Swissmaker 2.0 App to your iPhone from the App Store on iTunes. And did we mention, its totally free!

The app will not only make instant Helvetica posters, but will allow you to save the posters to you photo library on your phone. From there, the possibilities are endless! Email a poster to friends, or set one as your phone wallpaper. If any other app on your phone can access your photo library, it can also access your posters.

Also included with the launch of the Swissmaker 2.0 iPhone App, is an advertising model that can connect interested brands to a niche viral market. This process of co-branded advertising is a no-risk model in you only pay for the views you receive. If you our your company is interested in co-branding with AnyoneCanSwiss, send us a message.

Join the AnyoneCanSwiss Facebook Group for early tidbits!

In this video, Jason is speaking about how people use the web now, and mentions some stats from an “internet usage” study that was released. Always great to see how Jasons knowledge aligns with our practice and usage of marketing across social networks.

Very interesting: “Is social media being used more for communication or entertainment or both?”

So what’s in an iPhone app? Well, from what we can see, besides some code and graphics, there is an underlying philosophy that has put up the white flag to proprietary software piracy. Software companies have, and are beginning to understand that there is no bringing down piracy. The old mentality and business model of “big box, big software, big price” has been eradicated by open, collaborative development, and the iPhone has brought the same software development strategy to a mobile and light weight, if not viral stage.

Lets do a quick calculation for an example iPhone app’s annual revenue:
200 downloads/day x 1.99/download x 365 Days = $145,270!

Now that’s the way to make a six figure salary.

Stay tuned for the Anyone Can Swiss iPhone app!!

Above: Microsoft’s Surface Interface. Proprietary madness. Lets go open-source and make it available to everyone!

In typical Dirk+Weiss fashion, we are building an interface for this years 2009 AIGA BoNE Show. This kiosk combines projection and a touch input device, powered by a custom software interface.

The purpose of this kiosk is to showcase the website winners of this years Best of New England design competition. Our goal is to create an interface that is not only well designed, but extremely intuitive.

The next generation of software interface is well, interface-less. Menu’s are going away and being replaced by hand gestures and organic content design. Thanks to a generous donation from TechSuperpowers in Boston, we have access to a MacMini and other various components for hardware. Come by the show in June, to check it out!

AIGA BoNE Show 2009 Info >>

And we still are, but different.

After some great brainstorming and critically mapping of our original business model, it became instantly clear that what we were doing for our clients was more than just design and programming, and was more in the Marketing arena. We were always trying to find what field exactly uses graphic design and technology combined. Our solution was to re-structure our business model and brand as a fully capable, creative marketing agency.

If you follow our blog, you know that we know, transparency is king. Just like our advice we give to our clients, we applied to Dirk+Weiss. The cases are real, the videos are real, results are quantifiable and we can help make you money. Enjoy.

Usually when I talk about free things, its mainly Open Source software or great places to learn technology for free. But in this case, free refers to “Freelance”. Out of all the people I talked to (about 12 in 2.5hrs), five have either quit their job or got laid off, and are starting to freelance and independent contract regularly. Of course, Freelancing is not free, you will get paid, but what a connection.

This trend is just one of the clear examples I can see, that proves that the web is still in an infant stage, and efficient technology drives design. Freelancing and independent contracting gigs are out there, lots of them. Business’ still need designers, just with no strings (salary, benefits, etc.) attached. What is a pension anyway?

I am excited to see that designers are getting themselves out there. By using social media and Open Source technology, plus some smart branding, you can make a business for yourself. Set up your website to give the user instant gratification; the faster the better.

In this economic climate, if you can deliver good, efficient design, companies will hire you. They just want to know that you can make it work.

Google is not going away, aggregators are only going to get faster and more efficient / accessible. So the only advice to give is: Wake up and smell the ink-on-paper!”. Newspapers, you’ve had your time.

I wonder though, what is the solution for a medium that thrives on yesterdays news? There must be a solution to this! In a previous post, I talked about a theory for a new E-Paper device. Good idea, but the rate of closing newspapers is faster than the rate that the device could be distributed. Not to mention prototyping and research. A large E-paper device is just to satisfy the “ritual” of holding a newspaper as an object. Google has already proven that people will forgo the physical object if they can access more data faster. So is there a solution? Slim to none.

Our business is located in the heart of the Boston area. When we heard that the Boston Globe was given an ultimatum to find 20M, or face the reaper, it was an eye opener, but not un-expected. Boston is known for its twenty something college students. Sorry Boston Globe, in the life of a college town, Facebook and iPhones are king.

Entitled: “Design in the Age of Biology”, Hugh covers his thesis that explains how the ideas and principles of design have moved from mechanical to organic, and object to system. Many points (and charts) show how the trends of technology movements influence designers and the products they make.

In terms of technology, the Open Source software movement is one example of his theory. The old dev model was to have software be proprietary, with big conglomerates holding all the cards. The new dev model, that is proven to work, is to allow software to be developed by an unlimited community of developers. This creates faster more efficient development, as it uses the “from the ground-up” model instead of “from the top-down”. In short, let the users design the software, for free.

The second point that seemed to stick out in my mind was the “then and now” of the designers role. There is a transition going on now for designers. Graphic designers especially, seem to be in the thick of it. Before graphic designers, there were printers who set type. Then graphic design became what it is/was in the 20th century, a slew of  “Lone-Gunman” designers, who (are expected to) hold all the cards for the client. Now, a transition is happening again. The days of the “Lone-Gunman” are over. Designers can produce a stronger, more efficient product for their client if collaboration is encouraged and implemented.

Clients expect the designer to be at maximum efficiency. The internet, social media, and the speed of information access set the standards for designers to operate in.

“In the first part of the 20th century, there were great circus posters in Poland. Go to Poland, and see. But now, designing the poster is just not enough. Designers are expected to design an entire circus. Oh yea, and a poster to advertise the show.”
-Nathan Felde, Chair of the AIB Design Department, Boston.

From www.dubberly.com