Our 2010-2011 programming year was another active and successful one for AIGA San Francisco. We have seen a rebound in membership and an increase in event attendance and sponsorship. AIGA SF has now surpassed Chicago to become the second largest of the 66 chapters nationwide, with over 1475 members, half of whom are students.

We are in the best financial shape we have seen for our chapter, with a healthy balance sheet and reserves. Our social network continues to grow dramatically and we have added two new affiliated student groups for a total of 12. We held over 50 events in the past year, not counting the 34 free mentoring classes for middle school students as part of the Inneract Project.

Programming highlights include:

• The 21st year of the Design Lecture Series featuring David Butler, Cameron Sinclair, Vanessa Eckstein and James Victore.
• D. Talks on Design Entrepreneurs, Service Design, Finding your Dream Job and Print to Pixels.
• Members only Studio Tours throughout the Bay Area at Communication Arts, Office: Jason Schulte Design, Oakland Museum of California, Markatos | Moore, Method, NOON Design, I shot him because I loved him, damn him, MetaDesign and Vertigo.
• Our annual Fall Gala, Pimp My Pinewood Derby, with over 500 attendees. Local designers and members created custom pinewood derby cars to be raced or auctioned off.
• A revamped two-day Compostmodern conference with over 600 attendees; Day 1 featured 17 speakers such as Janine James, Mark Mathieu and Bruce Mau and Day 2, an Unconference, which allowed attendees to meet and collaborate on projects and topics of their own creation along with selected speakers and designated Compostmodern fellows.
• Continuum, our celebration of our three 2011 Fellows — Linda Hinrichs, Michael Mabry, and Dugald Stermer — and our local AIGA 2010 Medalist, Jennifer Morla. The evening provided a great way to reconnect with the chapter’s founders, past Fellows and long-term supporters. All proceeds benefited the AIGA SF Enrichment Scholarship Fund.
• Portfolio Day had over 94 reviewers and 140 student participants. We awarded $6000 in scholarships this year. The 2011 Enrichment Scholarships were awarded to 11 students from our affiliated schools with a student group. One overall winner selected from the 11 was awarded the Rick Tharp Scholarship.
• Interactive Chats featuring topics on Designing for Web, Tablet and Mobile Environments, Type on the Web and User Experience.
• Design Week, a full week of events including networking events, parties, open studio crawls, panels and workshops with our partners American Institute of Architects (AIA), Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Interactive Design Association (IxDA) and Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD).
• cause/affect 2011, our third biennial competition for do-gooders, drawing over 200 entries from around the world. Thanks to Sappi’s Ideas that Matter program, a $5,000 donation will be made to the nonprofit chosen by the winner of the People’s Choice Award at the awards ceremony this fall.

You may have also run into our new Membership Team at one of our recent events. They will be on-hand at the majority of our events to answer questions about membership, our initiatives and the chapter as a whole. We’ve retooled and renamed our free social networking events — After:Hours. These informal events will include collaborations with relevant organizations and links to Bay Area happenings to provide a richer networking experience.

Pricing has been restructured for all of our events to help increase the value of membership. We’ll be keeping member prices the same or lower, while charging non-members a bit more.

We continue to be committed to providing programming for our members throughout the large geographic area we serve. We’ve held Studio Tours and Traveling Lounges throughout the Bay Area and would like to find a way to offer more programming options to members outside San Francisco. Repeated low turn-out let us know we‘d missed the mark in 2010 with our South Bay lectures series, Small Talks, so we’ve opted to discontinue it. We hope to gain insight into how we may improve our offerings through periodic surveys and a South Bay Roundtable happening in August.

We maintain the tradition of partnering with likeminded organizations such as the AIA, IDSA, IxDA, SEGD, Society for Marketing Professionals, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. We aim to be a hub for design inspiration and information and have been promoting events we think our membership might find interesting in addition to AIGA SF programming.

As one of the most active chapters in the nation, other chapter leaders continue to turn to San Francisco for guidance on how to run a successful chapter. With four national board members selected from the Bay Area, it is clear that our design community is seen as a benchmark for innovation and success.

The ongoing challenge for our chapter leadership is to continue to provide relevant programming for our members and to reach out to designers who are looking for resources, community and inspiration. In our rapidly changing and continued uncertain economic times, I believe opportunities for success still abound. The breadth of skills, resilience and the great sense of community that I witness amongst our members leaves me quite optimistic.

As I enter my second and final year as president of the San Francisco chapter, I am excited about the possibilities that still remain. I look forward to serving another year working alongside you, ensuring that we continue to provide relevant and valuable programming, supporting our student members as they embark on their design careers while also continuing to honor the contributions of our long-time supporters.

The success of the chapter would not be possible without the dedication of our Board of Directors, volunteers and our Executive Director. We are also truly grateful for the unprecedented support from our sponsors. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all of them for their amazing continued efforts and support.

Alice Bybee
AIGA San Francisco President

Read the full 2010-2011 Chapter Highlights