Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Timothy Bardlavens

So, I’m leaving AIGA — not just a task force or committee nor just the local chapter, but the organization as a whole. This isn’t a scathing review of the organization, I have no hatred or ill feelings towards anyone in particular and I must say Julie Anixter, the Executive Director, is one of the most beautiful souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. That said, I’m leaving for local and national reasons.

Now, before I continue I’ll point out a few things:

I barely (never) post on Medium so why now? Because this has been on my mind and writing it out helps me understand and focus my thoughts — outside of that is simply my desire to share.
I’m not a high-level super well-known designer, so why should anyone care? Perspective. I’ve been a member since 2011 and have served on a couple of boards thus far, albeit maybe not the most effective. Point is, I’ve seen things through various lenses.
I’m not privy to every national conversation or the inner workings of every initiative. This is all from my perspective. If things are happening that I’m unaware of as a board member then maybe there needs to be an improvement in transparency and communication?
Those passionate about AIGA and feel contrary to what I’m about to say — my opinions are my own, I don’t need convincing otherwise.

Let’s jump into it: I don’t believe AIGA represents me. Not as a person or a designer. I mean this in a myriad of ways, but I’ll narrow it down.

As a UXer, I recognize that AIGA is still largely an organization of Visual Designers, or “Visual Communicators” if you’re feeling fancy. But that’s not really who I am. And while AIGA is working to diversify it’s speaker line-up at conferences and each chapter has programming specific to it’s market, by and large UX design is a second class citizen at best. I feel as though it’s included out of obligation to seem as though we care about all design rather than understanding and inclusion — which now that I type it, sounds very similar to another point I’ll make later. So, if you hate creating logos, can’t draw for the life of you or could care less about some new typography trend because you work in-house and only use one typeface, then you pretty much can ignore the Eye on Design emails. If aesthetics is secondary and you believe in function over form, or hate listening to other designers complain about bad menu design or some other vacuous pet-peeve, then it begins to feel pretty trite.

I don’t care about your new logo.

As a board member, I honestly don’t believe AIGA teaches its presidents on how to be effective leaders or how to run a non-profit. It seems as though, they’re taught enough to keep chapters in good legal standing, but not how to evangelize the national message to the rest of the board and the community or how to manage people. I have seen the impact of a single AIGA president on an entire design community; how a lack of professionalism, entrepreneurship and close-minded views on design can cripple a chapter in a way that takes years to recover.

Just because you have the role doesn’t mean you’re a leader.

As a black designer, I’ve now sat through multiple presentations and IBM Design Thinking exercises around how to bring equity into design. I get it, blacks only make up about 6% of the industry. I feel it, I see it, I know it. Every time I go to work, go to a networking event or attend an AIGA Conference I notice how few of “me” there are. So, even with the D&I Taskforce, what is AIGA doing about it? How is it pushing from a national level to get the industry more diverse? Are we providing pathways for recent graduates of color, who had to use their university labs to do their design work, get a Mac and subscription to Adobe to continue to build their portfolios while transitioning into professional careers? Are we, from a national level, searching for ways to get funding into schools, especially in lower-income areas, to create graphic design classes, thus introducing more people of color to design sooner? Are we creating messaging for parents of color to show the impact and viability of design as a career?

Are we providing lasting mentorships or targeting HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and HSIs to understand how to better engage these communities?

Or are we merely talking about the homogeny in design or actually taking real action?

What’s the point of awareness, if there’s no action?

How can AIGA be “the professional organization for design” when it feels as though we are continuing the status quo? We aren’t moving things forward, we’re preaching to the choir. For example, the Gender Equity Toolkit — beautifully designed, well thought out and highly ineffective. Who does this toolkit help outside of the AIGA member who read it once or a group of AIGA members in a room? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met Leyla Acaroglu multiple times and she is an amazingly powerful, genius of a person, so I mean no slight towards her. But the toolkit is all but useless in an actual setting in which a woman is being discriminated against in some way.

Don’t just tell people how I feel, help me learn to overcome.

And let’s not get me started on the tone-deaf Twitter posts…

Ultimately, my perspective is that AIGA is more focused on making a pretty message than doing the ugly work. It is my assertion that we do too much preaching to the choir, but rarely step outside of our walls in an effective way. Not one person can disagree that design is human-centric, but I feel AIGA does things for the sake of design as opposed to the sake of people.

That’s my 30,000 foot perspective of AIGA. Yes, the organization is amazing for meeting new people, making connections and, possibly, new job opportunities. I believe there are more people who truly care about the organization than those who only use it for career advancement. But, I also believe AIGA has major blind-spots, and they’re big enough that I no longer see the benefit of me paying $500 or $50 per year for membership.

Dear AIGA, Goodbye. was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dear AIGA, Goodbye.

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