Steve Kapsinow (bio)

The AIGA is collecting information and assembling a task force to help designers who were affected by Katrina. Information on how you can help is in the following message forwarded to me by my colleagues at STEP and DGM:

"The AIGA is actively involved in making contact with designers in the Gulf Coast region devastated by Katrina and subsequent floods. As we work to assess how the design community can support our fellow designers most effectively, we have created a means of collecting information on the status of the affected, their needs and the offers of others to help (see http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentAlias=reliefeffort).

AIGA member Terry Stone (Los Angeles) is organizing a relief task force to coordinate actions and responses. Designers in southeastern states who would like to take an active role in the task force should respond at relief@aiga.org. AIGA will focus on creating a network to allow displaced designers to communicate with those who can help and are concerned about them; we will also help them in regaining their professional practice. Other organizations with experience in disaster relief are better equipped to handle humanitarian aid and we encourage designers to support their efforts.

AIGA will launch a relief fund with $10,000 to help designers re-establish their practices and will encourage our corporate partners to work through the task force to coordinate additional financial and in-kind support.

To help inform the effort, two sessions will be added to the AIGA Design Conference program: one on how to be most effective in aiding relief in the Gulf Coast area and a second on what this dreadful experience suggests in terms of the power of design to aid emergency procedures and evacuation."