AIGA National Diversity Taskforce

Did you know AIGA is seeking diversity now? Did you also know a National Diversity Taskforce has been established? Here are some statistics to get you thinking about the landscape of our profession and the plans moving forward on this initiative.

According to the 2000 census, by 2025 what are currently considered minority populations are predicted to be 40 percent of the U.S. population. By 2050, more than half of Americans are expected to be members of current minorities. In contrast, a recent survey of AIGA members finds that of graphic designers who responded, 2 percent are black, 4 percent Hispanic/Latino, 6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander and 2 percent other. The design profession is still overwhelmingly homogeneous in its racial composition.

AIGA has launched a national initiative on diversity to actively include designers of diverse ethnic backgrounds in the organization and profession. A nationwide task force chaired by Andrew Bass (adbass:designs, New York) is focusing on defining diversity within AIGA; bringing diverse voices to the AIGA speaker roster; reaching out to students outside traditional art schools; creating an online archive and exhibition of design pioneers of color; and developing a catalog of best practices for chapters reaching new audiences.

If we don’t actively seek to reflect the changing racial and ethnic composition of our society, the design profession may well find itself marginalized in a whole new way. Diversity, especially race, is an issue that all designers need to be concerned with in terms of the future of the profession.

If the profession as a whole cannot communicate to the diversity of languages and cultures that comprise the nation’s population, how can it be considered an effective and critical agent in the economy? In speaking across the country on this issue, AIGA president Bill Grant says it all: “Diversity is critical if the design profession wants to remain relevant to business and society.”

Diversity Task Force working list of recommendations
Chapters should:

• Appoint a diversity chair to their board. Dependent on the board structure and chapter size, this position can be combined with or be separate from the position of membership chair.
• Recruit at least one board member of color.
• Reach out to nontraditional art schools and seek to raise interest in AIGA activities, ideally planting the seed for AIGA student groups.
• Build relationships with area junior and senior high schools to raise awareness of design and AIGA, ideally setting up student mentoring programs.
• Partner with local organizations such as the Organization for Black Designers, Focus On Design, Project Osmosis and The Inneract Project to raise awareness of AIGA and reach out to designers of color.
• Hold at least one event a year focusing on a topic relevant to a diverse audience.

Develop their speaker rosters to include designers from different perspectives, communities and disciplines that speak to the myriad practitioners in the industry.