Look through the pictures above for the photo recap from the October Community meeting! Thanks so much to Kaliq Ray for contributing these photos and this post!
Designers have always used their skills in the commercial space for advertising and business interests. But very rarely do we see designers take part to raise awareness in politics. That is why it was very refreshing to see AIGA Raleigh doing just that. Last month on October 5th, AIGA Raleigh held a politically themed community meeting at leading design studio, New Kind to discuss the role of design in democracy and to motivate designers to engage civically. Here are the five highlights that stood out during the meeting:
1. AIGA Raleigh Purpose: A place where design thrives for everyone.
Co-Presidents Hannah Hoffman and Joseph Schlosser started off the meeting by sharing the AIGA Raleigh’s initiative to make a better chapter by uniting people, impacting with design, and improving design ability. Due to the divisive rhetoric in politics these days, I thought AIGA Raleigh really set a positive tone before speaking on the topic of civic engagement and design.
2. Get Out The Vote! Poster Series
A poster show was held to show how designers could take part in democracy and legislation. There were many different posters. For example one of the poster showed the voting percentages of young people from past elections and encouraged to make that percentage “100%”. I was really impressed with all the designs and I was ready to go cast my ballot.
3.Hope + Action Presentation by Joe Schram
Joe Schram, principal and founder at Sparktivity gave a rousing talk on why it is important to be civically engaged as a designer rather citing on the sidelines. It was very inspiring and even involved some elements of quantum mechanics. (i.e. Schrodinger’s cat)
4.Open discussion & Dialogue
After the talk, we had an open discussion on everyone’s thoughts on the election and what they thought of the role of design in democracy. Every word said that night was spot on and it felt like this meeting came at the right time!
October’s community meeting was a success! We ended the meeting by getting some drinks and food. It was great to see an AIGA chapter keeping it open and honest about civic engagement. Although I am new to the AIGA Raleigh chapter, I look forward to more programming from AIGA Raleigh. AIGA Raleigh has shown their commitment to bringing engaging content that is relevant, fun and thought provoking. I encourage every creative to come out and take part in the programming to learn, grow and connect.
About the Author: Kaliq Ray is a freelance graphic designer. Kaliq approaches his work with a collaborative spirit, inviting feedback and research to attain the most effective design solution. When Kaliq is not designing, he can be found watching vast amounts of video essays on YouTube, reading, engaging in community events, working on his salsa moves, trying new restaurants or playing guitar. Kaliq is always looking to meet new people and collaborate.
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