AIGA, What About the Web Designers?

Joining the AIGA has been a goal of mine for some time now. One that procrastination has surely got in the way of. As a cross discipline designer I do find a number of the AIGA’s current programs interesting, unfortunately it is the things that they are not doing that have led to my procrastination. It appears however that I am not the only designer who feels this way.

While the AIGA has said numerous times that they are expanding to include other design fields outside graphic design or what I would consider “print design.” In my opinion, the problem is that it is being done in a reactionary rather than evolutionary manner. As a designer working for an agency specifically focused on associations (AssociaDirect), I have seen this all too many times. This is especially true of larger organizations; their structure is actually what keeps them from being agile enough to serve new trends.

But how new is the web?

In comparison to print the web may be very young but the web reached what can be considered a mature state some time ago. At least enough to justify web design as a valid position and practice. There are now literally thousands of web design firms, traditional agencies have and have ingrained it into their set of services, and corporations have developed internal departments. Yet still web design is still looked at by some graphic designers as an inferior or infantile medium.

I have heard the arguments that the organization just can’t attract web professionals to give speeches or run programs. What seems more probable is that they just aren’t asking the right people. Web designers maintain blogs and publications, they run their own conferences, and they create their own groups because they didn’t otherwise exist. I am sure that any of these individuals would be more than happy to speak at an AIGA event.

The Chicken and the Egg

The problem with the whole situation is that the individuals in place to allow for the expansion of the organization into the web discipline are probably not the right ones for the job. As Jeffery Zeldman explains in his critique of the AIGA Business and Design Conference: “…if one of the two speakers with web experience thinks the web is a crude medium where second-rate designers create unmemorable and mediocre works—AIGA is unlikely to reach this audience.” Mr. Zeldman may only be talking about the conference, but isn’t this a great representation of the organization as a whole?

Many people have stated that the web designers should be the ones to initiate the change. I find it hard to believe that this responsibility should fall on the web designers though. As an organization the AIGA and its managing board should be the ones who initiate the change. If they don’t have the correct people in place to make that happen, then they should be responsible enough to find them. An effort of this scale can only hope to be universally successful if it is adopted from the top down.

It’s too soon to give up

I don’t believe all is lost. Mr. Zeldman’s upcoming speech is surely a step in the right direction, and hopefully it will serve as an example of what should be done. I will still be joining the AIGA in the near future, but the length of my membership will honestly be based on the ability of the organization to evolve and serve my needs on both sides of the digital divide.

I would love to hear what other cross discipline designers, or web designers think about this issue. Would you consider joining the AIGA if they acknowledged web design in a more fitting manner?