AIGA Chicago held its Annual Members Meeting at the MCA on June 12, 2008.

The festivities opened with an eloquent speech delivered by chapter president, Tim Bruce. He began with a humorous anecdote about walking into a burning building while carrying a moving box. He related that experience to the passion behind local involvement in AIGA and to the “smoldering creativity” present in Chicago’s design community. The overall message was about the value of serving.

“Over the last three years, each time I give to the community or our organization, I receive far more in return,” said Bruce.

After Bruce’s welcoming comments, the first of three short videos rolled. In each clip, several designers were asked a question in regards to creativity. For the first, “What is creativity?” participants answered in many interesting ways. Some were facetious, like Chip Kidd who made a raspberry sound with this mouth. Others took it more seriously, like Matt Mason, who said that creativity is “adding value to an existing idea or coming up with a new one.” Jake Burton offered his belief that creativity makes it possible for problem solving and expression to co-exist.

Following the video, the chapter board’s outgoing and newly seated members were acknowledged. Steven Ryan, incoming president, gave a very funny speech in which he accepted his new position with thanks while warning the audience about his former recluse personality. Ryan shared that there was a time in his life when he didn’t see the value of AIGA. He felt the same few names were always at the center of attention and that the organization didn’t offer much to young designers. So when he began to participate, he did so with a skewed perspective. He concluded that AIGA’s benefits come “when you contribute — when you make it relevant to yourself.” Ryan believes in challenging the “boys club,” reputation of AIGA’s past and bringing value to all its audiences.

The AIGA Student Scholarship was awarded to Andrew Hardy. He attends Kendall College of Art & Design in Michigan.

“What is process?” was the topic for the next video interlude where answers varied from placing importance on “a good space to work,” to “making a lot of sketches,” to “having many life experiences.”

Then it was time to honor two members of the community through the AIGA Chicago Fellow Award. This year’s recipients were Jilly Simons and Art Paul.

A quote appeared in red letters on the large black screen. “I’m never satisfied with my work," it read, "I’m completely cursed by design. I sweat the process every time. I eat a lot of chocolate and too much cake…” With the audience captured by this humility, Cheryl Towler Weese presented Jilly Simons with her Fellow Award.

Simons’ breadth of work has been mostly printed, packaged or environmental with an emphasis on materiality. She likes to play with meaning and language. Her work is timeless, original and also personally expressive. When Simons came to accept her award, she talked about experiences she had at different points in life and how this resulted in a creative journey perpetuated by the relationship between fear and inspiration.

“If you’re passionate about what you do, you have to take risks,” said Simons before putting on black fuzzy bunny ears. “No pictures,” she said in a charming though self-effacing transition to the next Fellow Award recipient.

Joseph Michael Essex then took stage to present Art Paul, the original Art Director for Playboy Magazine, with his award. A short film featured the personal testimonies of Christie and Hugh Hefner in which both graciously praised Mr. Paul who created the brand for the magazine, including the highly recognizable rabbit logo. Above and beyond his employment at Playboy, Art Paul is a pioneer in the field of commercial art.

Brad Holland sent his acknowledgements in a written letter that Essex read aloud to the audience, “With nothing to prove, [Art Paul] reveals himself by boiling things down to the essence.” Holland also reflected on the warmth and professional courtesy that Mr. Paul paid to his colleagues, even those less experienced then him. “Because he respected himself, he respected others,” said Holland.

“What everybody is saying here is moving my heart and mind around,” said Paul while accepting his award. He appeared to be most flattered and perhaps even a little overwhelmed, as all he could say before leaving the stage was the simplest, most earnest expression of gratitude. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

The third and final video interlude of the evening posed the question, “What is value?” Designers answered that creativity is the most important thing we bring to our clients, that it creates an open mind, that it unlocks mysteries, but also that it is essential to life.

Closing comments came from Pete Douglas of Lake County Press, the event sponsor. Douglas thanked everyone kindly, showed off the snapshot book (designed by 50,000 ft and printed by LCP) and promised no further delay in getting to the refreshments.

The evening concluded with finger-food and wine, a glimpse at the new Jeff Koons exhibit, an eco-friendly schwag bag and networking on the patio. As usual, it was a very enjoyable night.