Show us your Best of 2020
Calling all Arizona designers: it’s time once again for show and tell! Submit your favorite project(s) from the past year to AIGA Arizona’s ongoing design archive and you could be chosen for Best of 2020 honors during Phoenix Design Week.
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 three of 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, this Best of 2020 archive will become the first step toward fulfilling 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.
Shown above is 2019’s Winner “Antibition” created by the team at Bridge. Tune in to hear designers Steffan Stewart and Colton Barry discuss the winning project during the PHXDW Virtual Closing Party on Friday evening, October 9.
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 3 entries.
- Work must have been first created between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020.
- 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.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Midnight on Tuesday, September 29, 2020
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 September 29, 2020. 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.