Meet your newly elected student and emerging designer representatives, Kristin Fowler—Director of Emerging Designer Programming and Rich Griffis—Director of Student Programming. Together, they will work towards narrowing the gap between veterans and designers right out of college. Between a variety of workshop’s, lectures, resources, and social events, their goal is to provide students with any and everything they’ll need to become the next leading designers of tomorrow.

A native of Burlington, NC, Kristin attended Meredith College where she graduated in 2011, with a BA in Graphic Design. Fowler currently resides in Cary, NC and is employed as a graphic designer at Liason Design Group. Her passions include publication, brand identity, and collateral design. In the future, she has aspirations of attending graduate school to ultimately become an Art Director of a design firm and show the world what great design is all about!

Also a native of Burlington, Rich Griffis is a recent graduate of East Carolina University, where he earned his BFA in Graphic Design. Upon graduating, he accepted employment at French/West/Vaughan, located in the heart of downtown Raleigh, as a graphic designer.  Rich loves all things creative—be it playing the piano, painting his next great masterpiece, or simply doodling in his notebook— he has enough to keep him occupied!

Collaboratively, these two form your link between students, emerging designers and the AIGA Raleigh Board.

What is an Emerging Designer you might ask? An emerging designer is anyone typically in his or her first 3 years out of school. Emerging Designers have both a place and a role within the AIGA community. AIGA is a community of designers who have joined together to develop a network that strengthens both their own practice and benefits the profession as a whole. With that being said, the most important initial opportunity for a graduating student or a young designer just starting out is to establish a network and become linked to practicing designers—for mentorship, connections, information about what is happening in design, and perhaps even employment. Just as important, however, is the value of a community in connecting with other designers like you, who share the same needs and uncertainties. [Click here to read more about “How AIGA serves Emerging Designers.”

AIGA is constantly seeking to expand its membership. If you are interested in becoming a student member, please follow the link here. To learn more about running a successful student group, check out “How to Run a Successful Student Group” Our Raleigh chapter is always looking for ways to get involvement from you. To get involved with AIGA Raleigh, just check out the Get Involved section of our site. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions­—we’re only one click away!

Kristin and Rich are looking forward to a productive and meaningful year. With the help of you—students and emerging designers— they hope to take AIGA Raleigh to the next level!