Background

AIGA, the professional association for design, is one of the best places for design—to discover it, discuss it, understand it, appreciate it, be inspired by it. It is the place designers turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in different conferences, and learn more. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts.

It was founded in 1914 and remains the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design. AIGA now represents more than 20,000 design professionals, educators and students through national activities and local programs developed by 65 chapters and 200 student groups.

Texas A&M is one of these 200 student groups. Unfortunately however, very few A&M students were aware of AIGA. To solve this, the student group sought to redesign & rebrand itself.

Problem

Very few people were aware of AIGA, let alone what it was about. To add fuel to the fire, AIGA is focused on design in general, not one specific type. That makes promoting extremely difficult.

Strategy

To overcome these challenges a brand needed to be created that can change depending on its purpose and still hold meaning. This was an extremely difficult challenge and with the help of Amanda Jill Bragdon we came up with a solution that did more than solve the problem. It all started with the logo.

Logo

Since AIGA focuses on a large range of design techniques, a logo that adequately represents each of these techniques would have been very difficult to execute, while at the same very inefficient. Instead, a different approach was taken to rebrand this student chapter. AIGA is the group to join for those interested in design. Its members are some of the most extremely passionate designers around. The new AIGA brand sought to show this passion. The logo is composed of a series of exciting phrases that echo the members’ love for design. A consistent pattern was created using fun phrases to get the viewer’s attention.

Business Card

Money was an issue that needed to be overcome. And in true college student fashion, this challenge was overcome creatively. To help lower costs as much as possible while maximizing exposure, the group decided to use a unique approach to business cards. Each card is actually a paint swatch donated by our friends at Lowe’s. Each paint swatch was then wrapped with a small strip of paper with the organization’s information. The final result was a great conversation starter and a memorable impression around campus.

Also, because each card was different, it become a game for some students. They wanted to collect each card design save them for themselves. This approach to business cards did more than just give people the group’s information, it created an incredible amount of buzz around campus and set the foundation for a full house during each meeting.

Website

To help future members get information about the group, a website was developed using Drupal CMS. Every page of the website is designed using a different color. This helps maintain the groups fun personality. It also makes for an interesting browsing experience. And like the business cards, this too was a great way to generate buzz for the organization.

Each page also maintains a white strip similar to the business cards. This pulls the brand together, as well as give a place to put the page title.