What an exciting year this has been for our AIGA chapter! From celebrating AIGA’s centennial anniversary and hosting a record number of design events throughout the year, to planning our first Phoenix Design Week and building up a presence in Northern and Southern AZ, we sure have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season.

Here is a look back at some of the AIGA AZ highlights from 2014.

January: AIGA AZ’s Tucson Committee and Idea Farm’s Tamara Christensen kicked off 2014 with their New Year’s Evolution workshop on amplifying your creative practice. Members gained inspiration and advice on how to make this year the best one yet for their businesses. We also had the privilege of sponsoring a sold out WordCamp Phoenix event. What a great start to the year!

February: Our Tucson members got up close and personal with design legend Aaron Draplin during a dinner, while our Phoenix members listened to Brian Wood coach us on what’s new with Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Eric Torres also designed AIGA AZ’s Centennial Chair for AIGA’s 100th anniversary celebration, giving us an amazing memento to commemorate our chapter and represent Arizona.

March: We tuned in to the incredible speakers who spoke during The Walker Design Lecture Series, while Tucson hosted Creatives + Coffee + Cool Places, as well as a mixer with Startup Tucson. AIGA AZ also partnered up with the Digital Summit Phoenix conference to bring the digital marketing and design communities together.

April: LaneTeralever’s Joe Ray shared his bi-cultural perspectives on Latino marketing during a Luncha Learne lunchtime session. Several groups also gathered after work for a museum meetup at Phoenix Art Museum and the FilmBar showing of the award-winning Persistence of Vision documentary. Finally, we hosted the first Dinner with a Design Legend, giving local designs the opportunity to meet Bob Case from The Lavidge Company and get his advice on building a career in design.

May: We fed our portfolios at the Spring Behance Portfolio Review, our stomachs at Tucson’s Cocktails with Creatives, and our hearts with a kickoff roundtable discussion for Design for Good, our committee dedicated to using design thinking for social change.

June: Although the weather was sweltering, members came out in full force to two sold out events: Branding Arizona with Professor Alison King and a Luncha Learne presentation on designing for social media at Sitewire.

July: With a new board term beginning, almost 100 people gathered for an epic Town Hall meeting to discuss the future of our chapter and rally new volunteers who wanted to get involved. As a result, our volunteer team grew to 30+ people — all who have a passion for making AIGA AZ the hub of Arizona’s design community.

August: Brian Wood returned for a workshop on designing a response website with Adobe tools, while Tucson hosted another successful Cocktails with Creatives mixer.

September: AIGA AZ’s Flagstaff and Tucson Committees proved design is alive and well throughout the state. Flagstaff hosted their first Northern Arizona AIGA Meetup, and Tucson planned a sold-out PechaKucha 20×20 event chock-full of inspiring presentations.

October: This month featured the crowning design event in Arizona: Phoenix Design Week! With a world-class, two-day conference and over a dozen other design-related events, we were proud to gather the community for the biggest and best Phoenix Design Week yet.

We also hosted the AIGA Arizona 25-Year Legacy Exhibition + Reception to recognize the talent and projects from all of the years AIGA AZ has been a chapter.

November: Both Phoenix and Tucson hosted Behance Portfolio Reviews to get our portfolios prepared for the new year, while Flagstaff members convened for their third meetup. Tucson also helped independent creative professionals get better at the business of design with their Creative Spark event, Setting Rates and Fees for Freelancers.

December: With the holidays and 2015 looming, we capped off the year with our annual Programming Retreat (where over 30 people from our board gathered to plan next year’s programming) and the Mingle Bells event in Tucson, co-hosted with AD 2 Tucson.

We hope you have enjoyed these opportunities to learn, grow, get inspired, and socialize with your fellow creative friends. Thank you for supporting AIGA AZ and helping make our design community better and better each year. Cheers to 2015!