A Letter from Our Chapter President

You say tomato, I say in-house design.

A significant percentage of our design community work in-house at large corporations. HOW Magazine April 2008 issue featured a survey of readers. Here’s what they found.

46% Solo design practice or full-time freelance business
17% Graphic design firm
31% In-house design department

The fundamental principles of design communication remain constant regardless of organization size and expertise, or computing system. However, within larger organizations, the act of applying these principles, the ability to produce quality design communications, and overall job satisfaction are challenging at times. Learning how to hone your technical skills, or more importantly your soft skills, to effectively maneuver the politics and red tape that are common at larger organizations is often difficult and overlooked.

In my opinion, we’re a little late in focusing on in-house design, and I’m excited to take a shot at addressing it.

But I’d like your help. What can you add?

We’re going to conduct an online survey of AIGA Upstate New York's approximately 300 members and 500 friends. Our goal is to identify designers and gather information to assist in developing programming specific to their needs.

Join us in January for In the House, when leaders of three successful Kodak in-house design departments - Product Design, Web Design, and Social Media - will share their experiences and talk about how their teams work, what they love about their jobs, where unique challenges lie, and how working for an internal client is both similar to and different from the client-studio/agency relationship. A members-only Q+A session will follow the presentation.

To register for the event, visit this link: http://inthehouse.eventbrite.com/

Email me your reaction to this letter, or post something to our Facebook page. Simply put, your participation goes to the core of many of our activities and assumptions; we cannot help but pay it some mind.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

Yours,
Chris

Mark your calendar: Business of Design - January 26, 2012

Posted by upstatenewyork | December 5, 2011