Ben Koditschek — Creative Designer

TThis past Thursday I went down to The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, to attend a Designers Accord town hall meeting, hosted by SAIC’s AIGA student chapter.

If you haven’t heard, “The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact.” The accord is a relatively recent venture, started in 2007, but has had some remarkable success in becoming a beacon for those interested in doing good through design. This event featured four talks by some pretty cool Chicago designers from all ends of the design spectrum.

First to speak were Sharon and Tedd Burdett who run a small studio named Strand Design. They strive to provide consumers with high quality objects that have minimal environmental impact from fabrication to destruction. Over the course of their talk, they told us about how their products tap into the local industrial ecology, combining recycled and scrap materials with mass produced hardware to create (relatively) affordable high design.



Next up was Antonio Garcia, an interaction designer at the innovation consultancy gravitytank. He described his own engagement in directing gravitytank’s powerful fusion of product design, interaction design, and visual communications to tackle issues of social innovation. He then presented examples of how, with a little smart communication design, complex systems and interventions undertaken by Kellogg foundation grantees could be easily communicated, and used as educational material.

Third Was Michael Newman, an architect and co-founder of SHED Studio, who had more of a critical perspective to share. After presenting some of the projects SHED Studio had worked on, and how they fit into the overarching trends of designing for the social and environmental good, he focused in on the topic of pro bono work, which makes up about 35-50% of the projects SHED takes on. Michael warned against rising trend towards free architectural work, which too often, in his opinion, fails to take a critical stance on the matter, leading to clients who expect something for free or cheep, and who don't understand the immense amount of time and thought that goes into creating design solutions. According to Michael, pro bono of projects only really make sense in two cases. First, as a catalyst for change; when there is no precedent or client but the designer has a vision and sees the opportunity to carry it out, working for free may be the only way to prove ideas. Second, and as a “loss-leader”; working for free can be a good marketing tool, which is totally fine, but should clearly articulated.



Last up was Erin Huizenga, Founder of EPIC, and Creative Strategist at Faust. She described how EPIC sources the best local design talent to volunteer on teams that are paired up local non-profit organizations in need of a communications makeover. In contrast to Michael, Erin believed that this type of pro bono work could actually help spread awareness about the value of design. The key to unlocking this conflict is that EPIC brings a representative of the paired non-profit organization into the every meeting, letting them see first hand how much thought and effort good design entails. Erin also Pumped EPIC as a great way to network with other Chicago designers, showing how doing good for your community can simultaneously be good for you.

A few years back, I’d gone to a designer’s accord event hosted by gravitytank and had enjoyed it, but had taken the organizational component for granted. Since I myself had served as a member of this current SAIC AIGA board’s sometimes lethargic predecessor, I was very impressed that this event happened at all, let alone so smoothly and with such a well rounded cohort of speakers. I guess It goes to show what dedicated leadership and energetic support can accomplish.