Show us your Best of 2021
SUBMIT YOUR BEST OF 2021 NOW
Calling all Arizona designers: it’s time once again for show and tell! Submit your best project from the past year to AIGA Arizona’s ongoing design archive and you could be chosen for Best of 2021 honors during Phoenix Design Week (*end) 2021.
We’re looking for submissions that represent the favorite work you produced during the past year – from the smallest business card to a full-out campaign, we want to see your part of the Arizona design story. Think about the projects you were proudest of and challenged you this past year: Did you accomplish something amazing that you didn’t think you could pull off? Launch a brand that touched people’s lives? Design a new system to solve a problem? Challenge yourself to tackle a new skill set? Tell us about it.
Time is short, so don’t overthink it or get intimidated by being the “Best Of!” AIGA Arizona’s true aim is to give every Arizona designer at any level of experience — student to veteran — the opportunity to have their work documented and recognized as part of our common history, to hear about why each project was significant to you, and to keep a living archive of what design was about in Arizona every year.
BUILDING THE AIGA ARIZONA DESIGN ARCHIVE
In 2014, in celebration of our chapter’s 25th anniversary, we took on an ambitious task of collecting, archiving and showcasing the work of Arizona designers. Hundreds of submissions were received from far and wide of the best and most significant design work that had been produced over the previous 25 years.
That collection became known as the AIGA AZ Legacy Exhibition (now Archive), and was first displayed at the 2014 Phoenix Design Week conference. Since then, we have supplemented our ongoing archive project with a call for the Best Of your work every year.
Above: Viewing the Best of 2019 exhibition on display at the PHXDW Evolve Design Conference.
In a “normal” year (when will there be one of those again?) the Best Of exhibition is presented as a physical display during the two-day Phoenix Design Week conference. Unlike a traditional design competition, there are no official judges and no categories — each item submitted is given equal opportunity to be viewed and evaluated on its own merits. Attendees browse all the entries and cast their “people’s choice” votes for their favorites. After the votes are tallied, a Best-of-that-Year winner is announced at the end of the two-day conference.
And now, thanks to the efforts of our agency partners at User10, the Best of 2021 archive will join last year’s Best of 2020 gallery to continue building the original vision of the AIGA AZ Legacy Archive — as a perpetual online documentation and celebration of Arizona’s vibrant design community. We plan to continue building a comprehensive gallery from past years’ entries, and supplement it with each future year’s Best Of submissions. Watch for an all-years call for submissions after Phoenix Design Week (*end) concludes!
Shown above is 2020’s Winner Noms Cookies website created by Quan Long. Read more about Quan and this winning design on our blog.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- There is no entry fee! This exhibition is being produced by AIGA Arizona as a service to the design community.
- Each designer/agency/company may submit up to 2 entries.
- Work must have been first created between September 15, 2020 and October 15, 2021.
- For inclusion in the online gallery, at least one cover image must be submitted with each entry, preformatted as specified on the submission form.
- AIGA membership is not required.
We would also love to hear your insights about design and what others have said about your work. There is a section in the submission form where you can share any special acclaim, articles, achievements or recollections. We really encourage you to share a brief personal statement in that area — it helps us and the entire community get to know you better.
SAVE AND SEND YOUR PHYSICAL ENTRIES, TOO!
Just because we’re going virtual with the exhibition again this year doesn’t mean that we won’t eventually want to show a live exhibition again one day! Please save up and send us your physical samples for the permanent AIGA AZ collection – and if you get them to us before October 15, we may even feature you during the Phoenix Design Week (*end) 2021 conference, regardless whether your entry receives the most votes or not.
Mail your physical submission(s) to:
AIGA Arizona
℅ Kathy Morgan
MAC6 Conscious Workspace
1430 W Broadway Road, Suite 201
Tempe, AZ 85282
JOIN US IN CELEBRATING ARIZONA’S CREATING COMMUNITY
The winning entry will be announced as Best of 2021 at the end of the Phoenix Design Week(*end) virtual conference on Sunday, October 24, 2021. The AIGA AZ board of directors may also choose to award special recognition depending on the number of entries and votes received.
To watch the Best of 2021 award ceremony live, be sure to snag your all-access pass to Phoenix Design Week (*end) today! This year, all passes are entirely donation-based and get you access to all AIGA Arizona-hosted events (and recordings!), all weekend long.
Call for Submissions Closes: Friday, October 15, 2021
Online Exhibition and Voting: October 18-22, 2021
Best of 2021 Winner Announced: October 24, 2021
QUESTIONS?
Contact Kathy Morgan
THE FINE PRINT
Due to space or technological constraints, all submissions may not be displayed. Work will be curated by members of the AIGA Arizona board of directors, and submissions may be subject to compliance with AIGA’s national Code of Conduct.
The call for submissions closes at midnight on October 15, 2021. Work must have been designed while living and working in Arizona, although the client does not have to be located in Arizona. All submissions will be retained in digital form for the AIGA Arizona legacy design archive. Copyright and reproduction authorization required on submission form.