Assignment #1 - Rough

Who?

TODA Design Firm (located in New York, New York)

What non-profit?

TODA recently worked with AIGA to create an exhibit at their national gallery called"Design Journeys: You Are Here".

Their goal?

Their goal in creating this exhibit was to "bring awareness of the need to increase diversity within the graphic design profession".

AIGA was "seeking the opportunity to create an awareness of outstanding designers from culturally and racially diverse backgrounds by creating a show of the work of the designers".

The "Design Journeys" project "seeks to achieve both by not only celebrating the lives and achievements of 25 selected practitioners, but by also encouraging aspiring designers from all backgrounds to consider design as a viable and rewarding career".

The collaboration between TODA and AIGA resulted in an "interactive exhibition open to the public at the AIGA National Design Center on May 20 through August 6, 2010".

How did TODA go about creating this project?

TODA contributed to a number of things for this project. They worked on the design and production, creating the overall concept for the exhibit as well as designing all aspects of the exhibit space and visual identity and promotional materials.

The design firm also worked with other design firms such as Alfalfa Seeds and Cubanica, along with working with a number of designers in-house which included staff, interns and volunteers.

The first focus of the project was to "find a way to create an exhibit that both showcased the work of 25 designers, while also creating a secondary level of experience that involved asking participants to examine their own point of view and experience on the topic of diversity. With the concepts worked out, TODA worked on creating design installations for a number of exhibit pieces working within a limited budget. Designs then needed to be translated to finished pieces which required working with a number of vendor specialists in order to bring the designs to life and allow them to work at a large scale".

What was TODA's motivation to work with AIGA?

A part of "TODA's mission is create ideas that inspire and make a difference in our lives. Working on non profit efforts is a big opportunity to make differences, and TODA believes in giving back to the community by balancing it's project base to include pro-bono work".

"TODA is also interested in growing it's network and capabilities, and working on pro-bono projects gives us an chance to meet new people and do interesting and diverse work. Lastly pro-bono work can be an opportunity to promote the company and can result in building new business opportunities".

What was the concept behind the project?

For the AIGA Design Journey's Exhibit, "TODA came up with the concept "You Are Here" in order to tie in the idea of honoring the accomplishments of a select group of diverse designers, while also challenging visitors to explore their own point of view on diversity. This platform allowed TODA to create an exhibit that broke out of the typical format of showcasing design work and instead supplemented the traditional exhibit format with a series of interactive installations. These installations where all based on 'big questions' that allowed viewers to think about diversity in their own life and career".

"The questions; "Where are you from?", "Why are you here?" and "Where are you going?" were connected to interactive installations that allowed the viewers to contribute to the exhibit. Installations included an oversized multiple choice magnetic arrow, a "map yourself" world map made of hanging strings and an interactive mural.

What effect did you want it to have on the public?

TODA wanted to be able to "take the issue of Diversity and turn it into a pro-active positive experience that was a "fair like" atmosphere of fun and fellowship. These goals were fully realized as the opening event was a vibrant and exciting event with visitors viewing and interacting with all the installations at the exhibit".