001: Amanda Hovest of AIGA Los Angeles

Her knack for leading multidisciplinary teams has shaped impactful brands for cultural institutions, nonprofits, and universities. As President Emeritus of AIGA Los Angeles, Amanda helped revive LA's design scene and foster creative connections. A passionate mentor and facilitator, she's all about unlocking strategies and inspiring the next wave of talent. For Amanda, design isn't just work. It's a way to make the world brighter. Welcome, Amanda.

That's a great question. I did look it up and I started in 2014, which makes me feel really old. I didn't realize that that many years have passed between start point and today. I started with just a team of six, you being one of them, Rachel, as the membership director of AIGA Los Angeles. I mean, before that, I was a student member at Bowling Green State University.

But I really didn't take hold and really jump in full force until I became membership director, then transitioned into what was your role, secretaryvice president. And then I lucked out and got to be president. At least I think it was lucky now. Then it felt like a lot. And I did that all the way until 2019, right before the pandemic. It's like five years. Yeah.

And I have to say like the six people I met that night were kind of my core family in LA for my entire stay there, which is just kind of insane to think about. So I started going just a few, and then my mentor and boss, Kim Bear, from KBDA, was like, Hey, you seem like you wanna do things, you know, and she saw something in me and she's like, You should apply to be on the board. And I got lucky. Put in for membership director and I got the role. And then Rachel, you know, the spitfire she is, was kind of like, Here you go, this is what you do.

And we were put on an airplane to the Denver, I think it was Denver, AEGA Retreat. We met everyone for the first time in the LA Airport. And we all remember that. I was roomed with a random person at that time. Now she's a dear friend, Shannon Gabor.

And we kind of learned by doing right away. And Rachel wasn't gonna take any crap. She was like, no, no, you signed up for this. This is what we're doing. I say that, but she also was totally great because she introduced me to everybody at the retreat, and I knew no one, and I was like this little pumpkin. I knew nothing.

Well, you. Thanks for fostering it. I would say it was probably one of the hardest things I've done in learning about leadership in a leadership role, especially when you're directing, you know, 20 to 50 people on what to do and you're not paying any of them. So they can really like do what they want and you can't, get mad about it. You know?

What's really interesting from that is some of the best projects and jobs and people I work with today all stem from AIGA connections. Isn't that crazy? I get to work with my friends, like all the time.

Specifically, I remember walking into the second one I ever went to, so that was in Grand Rapids, and we walked into the bar, and everybody already knew people. And it was the first time I like walked up and people were Amanda, you haven't seen these people in a year? And then, you know, everything ensued so much so that I actually remember, Erik, you ended up meeting us by fluke in a like it was definitely a diner at, like, three in the morning. We had all been drinking, and then we wanted food. Rachel, you were there.

We were all there. I remember messing me. And I just remember, like, we all went for pancakes or something. And we were having pancakes, and Erik walks in and sits down with us. And I think

It was hard. It was so fun. And now, those kinds of connections led me to not feel so isolated coming to Pittsburgh. Right.

You know, some of my very first friends were the AIGA people I had met in many different ways, even just Zooms in their community. I just reached out and I'm like, I'm moving there, would you have drinks with me? This was right, COVID was just starting to be okay. I don't want you call it, it's not over, whatever you wanna call it. It was where people were starting to go back out again.

And Lindsay here in Pittsburgh, she's the past president, she was like, sure. And she met me at a bar, we had a drink and some food, and she just basically made me a friend right away. And I can feel lucky. Like, who else gets to just go, what city do I wanna move to? Okay. What set of people can I reach out to?

And, you know, the pandemic made it easy to forget how much you built in a location because you're in your home all the time. I had already started to think about moving closer. I went to Ohio at the beginning of twenty twenty to kind of ride out COVID with my family on our farm, because when as an adult, do you get to live with your parents and like, you know, really get to enjoy that? Really was a joy. My parents were actually pretty awesome.

And I'm an adult daughter that got to live upstairs by herself for six months, which was pretty great. And so I did that, and when I was there, I like, You know, I think this is the time to move out of LA. So I started doing a little research. And the easiest part for me was really, I wanted to have someone that I knew somewhere that I really knew. And I was between Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati were all on the table, and Pittsburgh.

And my friend Keith, one of the ones who brought me into AIGA and kind of fostered, I still work with him to this day, He and his partner live here part time because his partner's family's from here. And he's like, why don't you come and like, you know, be here while you quarantine for your couple weeks? Because he had to fly back anyway. And I was like, Pittsburgh's pretty cool. I I this is what I say.

I say it's a tiny Los Angeles. I mean, tiny, tiny, but comparatively. But it's a whole bunch of little neighborhoods that are all quirky and have their own cool things that make up one big city, which is how I describe Los Angeles. And so it's kind of what sealed the deal is that I didn't have to be alone, and it was a driving distance from my family. Plus the cultural institutions here, which is really like the number one thing for work for me was important.

Right? I have to have nonprofit cultural base for me to even think about moving there.

I'm looking for a job right now, so I'm leveraging that network.

Feels like a lost era or one that we got to experience anyway.

Rachel, you kinda taught me that. I mean, I came in pretty timid. Know, I didn't even know you until the day before. And we walked into, you know, the first welcome bar and I was just watching you. And you're like, oh, hi, I'm Rachel or whatever.

And like, so you just start introducing me to people that you just met too. Like, this is Amanda. And I was like, okay. This is how we do it. So that's what Erik is probably why it was corrupting you because Rachel showed me that that's just what you do. Aw. Aw. It might as well just get out there and meet as many people as possible. Definitely, those leadership retreats made me feel so comfortable to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I actually felt like I did learn a lot there too, so that was good.

Yeah. What did you learn? Tell me.

Like cold calling people, I made it my mission to use it as a learning experience. I failed a lot, but I was okay with it because I was just, I knew that other people were in the same position and the connection. You almost have to be there and I imagine the years before us when they had their retreats, they had their stories and you know, their slice of time.

So everyone had room parties. And we didn't have phones. So we would use, Sharpies, grab a Sharpie, and basically to remember where Philly was or Jacksonville, you would write the, room number on everyone's arm. So to know where the party was, you would just look around, and you would see these numbers on people's arms, and you knew exactly

So we heard they ran out.

That's interesting. I think way more than I ever thought. I was lucky enough to surround myself with really brilliant people. Not only when starting, but like as our chapter grew, we grew that great advisory board. That was another 25 people of, you know, people from April Greiman to anybody.

Like, all of them kinda brought something to the table. I mean, one thing I feel like I learned is listening first. I mean, learned that from Kim a lot. She's definitely a person who listens first, especially to the client, right? But learning that from a leadership capability standpoint, know, servant leadership, I also just emulated the people who I thought did a great job, which was, I mean, the people that were ahead of me.

And they all did it by doing too. It was never like, I'm the leader, I'm the president, hear me more. It was like, I'm gonna get down here and do this with you because we're a team and we're all doing this. How it's affected my career today is I feel like the type of work I do, like I've always been lucky enough to work in non profits and cultural institutions. But I'm starting to go into roles where my role is to be an event producer, my role is to be a community manager.

And so not only am I designing, but I'm doing the other things that were the core pieces that brought me up to be the president. Right? The membership Oh, wow. The event directing. Because I think I was an event director for six months because somebody dropped out.

I mean, there are all the things that you are before before you get to to do presidency. And so, I mean, one of the big things today is that I'm doing work and I learned that I liked more than design or design in different ways, design about the people. It's great.

Where else do you get to learn on the job as a nonprofit leader? Like you're running a nonprofit organization and somebody didn't I didn't really pick that up until my last year. Somebody was like, you know that you're running a non profit? And I was like, that's interesting. Oh yeah, that's definitely what I'm doing, you know, because I worked with non profits and I saw a lot of things, I'm like, wow, they're doing so much.

And somebody was like, you're doing that. And I was like, oh, yeah. It was like like you would have thought of something that would have came very quickly. But now I tell people, oh, I used to run a nonprofit because it's true. Oh, I thought it was just volunteering. I'm running a nonprofit? Uh-oh. Yeah, I think it's a little scary, but I didn't really realize it till the end. Did you guys ever feel that power and the weight of it?

And it's not an easy thing, I feel like, to figure out right away or whatever, but when you have 25 people that you're asking to do something, you gotta start seeing what they're gravitating towards, because you don't have a lot of time to make those moves, make things happen.

Feels like a crash course in leadership, honestly. Feel like, you know, when you're when you're working in a job, the things that are boundaries are how much people are getting paid, what everyone's titles are, how long they've been in the organization, not understanding how the communication channels or the structure was. But when you come into a board, everyone is fresh. Everyone's on the same. No one gets paid.

Everybody is doing this for a greater love. And because of that, I feel like the collaboration in the community is much stronger.

20% of the people take 80% of your time, which is something I definitely learned in leadership. But also that somebody's somebody's 80 or somebody's 50% is someone else's a %, and somebody else's 50%, or like 25%, however that works. Like, you think you're giving a hundred and it's somebody else's 200 and somebody else's 50. And that was really hard because I had to tell people, you know, had some people that were super gung ho and had the time to put in that others might not have the time to do. And I always had to remind them, like, you're doing amazing for you.

Thank you for doing what you're doing. I understand it's frustrating because you're working with people who have a full time job or that are doing this other project or that can't get back to you in forty eight hours. And it was a frustrating place because there is no rules, you're not paying anybody. So you always just had to, like, keep reminding, myself included, that, like, they're doing their 100% when it comes to this. And even if it's not mine, it's what they can give.

And I think that took a lot of patience, but good lesson. Well, you did a great job, Amanda. Obviously, very memorable, made a huge difference in the LA community, and also just in leadership across AIG. From what I remember, you're definitely a standout.

Oh, it's lovely. I'm so happy you guys are making this happen. Rachel, you're the core of you are the glue, and you've always kept the community going in all the different ways and all the career pivots you've had. So thank you for that. And you too, Erik. I love seeing you.