One Day For Design

On April 13, 2011, AIGA brought designers and design enthusiasts together for One Day for Design—an open, global dialogue on the meaning and future of design, and on the meaning and future of professional associations in our field. Led by eight moderators, it was an astonishing 24 hours of input. More than 30,000 tweets. Nearly 3,900 Twitterers. More than 650 hashtags tweeted. At one point, it ranked as the number-four trending hashtag on Twitter in the United States. Visitors to this site posted more than 300 entries on our blog.

The group input will contribute to the evolution of AIGA, the world’s largest design advocacy organization, as we explore ways to better serve the needs of the design community.

We at Studio 23 support the effort by AIGA to establish a dialogue among the design community. It was exciting to watch the outpouring of ideas and follow the themes that were presented. But if there was one thing to be learned from the exercise, it’s that the issues of design are interesting enough and profound enough that to establish a meaningful dialog requires more than 140 characters at a time. I found myself reading an interesting tweet only to have 14 additional tweets come in before I could even begin to try to formulate a response. Instead, I didn’t even try—preferring instead to be a voyeur in the discussion, the proverbial fly on the wall in the crowded bar. I only hope that what dialogs that could be established be followed up in greater depth. When that happens, I look forward to having my say. Until then, I do hope that AIGA has another one of these tweet-fests. I’ll look forward to watching the sparks fly.

Learn more at onedayfordesign.org and at Twitter (#1d4d).