Tracy Swyst, Director of Operations, AIGA Boston
AIGA is the professional association for design. Founded as the American Institute for Graphic Arts, we are the largest and oldest community of professional designers, with over 60 chapters across the country representing over 20,000 members. The organization is nearly 100 years old our local Boston chapter just celebrated it’s 25th anniversary.
Our mission includes stimulating thinking about design and empowering the success of designers at each stage of the careers. That is one of the reasons we are particularly proud of our long-standing partnership with Youth Design. Our relationship with the professional design community puts us in a unique position to find mentors for our future design community: the students of Youth Design.
I like to ‘joke’ that we take all of our mentors kicking and screaming. As a busy professional, it’s one thing to think about mentoring…’oh…wouldn’t it be nice…’ but something else entirely to actually do it. And one of the most rewarding things about this program is that it offers something to both the interns and the mentors. I heard one mentor say “He opened up a whole side of my brain here….He’s going to inspire me to look at something different next time.” And another mentor shared with me that their intern was part of a client’s intended audience, and so having her input to the design was like going directly to the source. The students can become the teachers. In many ways these young interns are a clean slate, approaching design problems without all of the baggage and pre-conceived ideas that we professionals bring to the process. Having this type of fresh input in a problem solving effort is not only exciting, it’s addictive!
Most of us has had our own mentors in life or in work and when you think of that person, there’s emotion there: pride, growth, nurturing, comfort. I’ve met some of the Youth Design kids at their interviews before they participated in the program, and then again when it’s done. And the changes in them are noticeable. They appear more confident, excited and articulate.
AIGA learned from a recent survey of our members that young professionals want a relationship with AIGA for personal benefits. Designers at age 40 are more interested in what AIGA is doing to position the design profession in the business landscape. And designers who are 50 to 60 years old are most interested in giving back. Perhaps this means that the interns graduating from the Youth Design program today, are the mentors of tomorrow!
Tracy Swyst
Director of Operations
AIGA Boston