¶ Intro / Opening
Chapter two.
I'm Erik Cargill.
And I'm Rachel Elnar. And this is Cheers and Tiers.
Design leadership tales retold.
Oh my god, Erik. I am so excited for today's guest. She is an experienced designer with a passion for design operations, crafting dynamic spaces where creatives can connect, grow, and recharge. Formerly at Amazon, she led creative gatherings for Amazon Design, driving events like Confluence and shaping new experiences that foster learning and collaboration. Her work is bold, experimental, and always community driven.
An active member of AIGA, Design Ops Assembly, and Volunteers of America, she is constantly exploring, learning, and turning big ideas into unforgettable moments. Say hello to a dear friend of mine, truly unforgettable, Elysia Syriac.
Hello, Elysia Hello, How are you?
I am doing great. I'm so happy to be here.
Good. Good. We're happy that you are here. If you could just give us a little breakdown, how did you get involved with AIGA? How long ago was it?
¶ AIGA Involvement and Early Experiences
Yeah. Yeah. Great questions. I'm gonna date myself through this very hardcore. So I got involved with AIGA as a student probably around 02/2003, 2 thousand and 4, so I went to events that way, volunteered, and then throughout my early design career I was realizing that I wanted to learn more and I didn't really know what more meant.
So one of the things that I did was start going to more AIGA events and start meeting people, but really what got me into being on the board was our office at the time was next to a art gallery called Access Gallery, and they were part of VSA, which is a national organization for people with disabilities, and they were doing events, and they had done this really small skateboard art show. It was like with AIGA fifty artists, and it was a mentorship program thing, and I was like, Man, that looks really cool. I wanna get involved. And so then, that's the beginning of the end of the story because that ends up setting me on this trajectory of like a ten year tenure of AIJ and board service. So I opted in to be the mentorship director, which was the role that ran this skateboard art event, which was called Bordo Bello, and so I did that, which then transformed me into the president, which then put me into the president's council chair, and then local advisory board.
So yeah, over the course of ten plus years, I was an active board member, and it was some of the most challenging times, but also definitely the most rewarding.
For AIGA Colorado?
¶ The Bordo Bello Skateboard Art Project
Yes.
Ten years? I had no Yes. Wow.
Yeah. So while I was on president on the president's council chair was probably the only time I wasn't official, but I was still an advisory member, really active in the local chapter. But at that point, my my point of view was, like, more broad. So I was working for all the chapters at that point.
As a former skateboarder myself, I I say former just simply because I I just don't wanna get hurt that much anymore.
That's fair.
Curious about the the skateboard project, simply because I find skateboard art to be very inspiring, very passionate, and and there's a lot of people that do it. And and I'm curious, were they one offs? How did how did that work?
They were all one offs.
They were all one offs.
Yeah. So what we did was we the first year, it was strictly a mentorship project, so all the boards created were with mentorship pairs. But what we realized in the second year was that the idea had so much momentum, we didn't want to pigeonhole it into just having mentorship and really have a really larger reach. And selfishly, a little bit, I wanted to get to know my design heroes, and I was able to just cold call my design heroes and ask them if they would design a skateboard, and most of them said yes because the skateboard, to your point, is a really interesting canvas, it could be really easy, you can vector design and get it digitally printed. You can spray paint on it, you can do laser cut on it.
I've seen skateboards be transformed into LightBrites and Billy Bass fish holders and robots, and I somebody would just, like, break a skateboard, and that was art, that it also became commentary, and some people would do series, and it really did the whole range. And what we found was, like, the skateboard was a really democratic way for anyone in design and art to participate in it. And so people did one offs. We encouraged them not to do multiples, and nobody really has. But it was, like, the coolest thing.
We'd have repeat people, like Debbie Millman did a few, Sean Adams did a few, Aaron Drablin did a few, and people would just come back over and over again because it was super fun. And it got me to understand, like, how to do cold calls, how to, like, ask for things, you know, what to do to convince people, like, how do I actually gain momentum and get people to say yes to me on a regular basis for my hair brained ideas. Now this lesson comes in handy for my future career over and over again, because I am not afraid now to call up Priya Parker, or insert famous name here, and get them to come to my events. And oftentimes, I don't know, I get people to say yes, and they can't even see this gorgeous smile.
Oh, I love that. The the boards that you collected, was it for an exhibition? Was it were they, like, auctioned off?
Yeah. That was, that's a great question. So every year we did an open call for entries, and so once I took it over, we ended up at least with 200 boards every year. They started off at $50 and then would go up, so they were auctioned off. And it was really an entry level price for people because we didn't want the boards to be so unattainable, and the cool thing was is they were also curated through the Denver Art Museum and local people so that your board could also be next to somebody who's really famous.
And they were they were curated blind, so it wasn't like, oh, we're gonna put Demi Wilmans over here and next to Aaron Draplin's. It wasn't really about that. It was about the art, and you could have that kind of beautiful experience of like, oh my god, my stuff was next to so and so's, and all the money got donated either back to the chapter or we split it 50% with VSA. We gave our money to VSA so that they could teach students with disabilities job skills. So they were learning Creative Cloud and other graphic design and art programs on the computer because students with disabilities and people with disabilities in general are highly unemployed.
So we were giving them actual viable, billable skills through this program. And over all in the years that I was leading it, we donated over $50,000 just to VSA.
Wow. Wow. That's incredible.
Amazing. So you
have some skateboards behind you. Are are those some of them?
Yes. That's about half my personal collection. There is a whole bunch in a drawer over there that you can't see. The other thing that was really interesting is when AIGA had a national office in New York, we were one of the chapters that were invited to have a gallery show there, and that was really great to kind of do like a retrospective and elevate the work that we were doing at a national level. And it was a real honor because not very many chapters got the ability to showcase at the National Office in New York, and it was a definite highlight to my career and to the whole program itself to just sign off with a really beautiful moment in time in New York.
I'm sorry. I'm just very interested in the whole skateboard thing. I mean, this is my last question. We can we can stop talking about skateboards and start talking about your role on the board. Don't unfriend me, please.
I will. To
this day, do you ever see any of those out in the wild?
I feel like the answer is yes, but Yeah. You know, I honestly haven't seen many people since the pandemic, and it's been hard to know. But I know the answer is yes, because there are so many out there, and I know my friends have all bought them. So but I couldn't tell you whose house they're in.
Fair enough.
I'm really interested on all those boards. Was there a catalog? Was there any , yeah.
Yes. Oh, thank you. So every year, because I'm a big old dork, we photograph them. So I'd get a local photographer to professionally photograph all the boards, we'd put them on Flickr, hey, that everybody could see the boards in advance of the show and be able to kind of understand which ones they wanted to bid on, and then we created books every year. So people, as part of their ticket price, would get an archived book.
It was very frugal in the sense that it was just Gator board, wire o, printed. We'd get all that donated, but it was a great repository for all the different experiences that we had. And then what we did with those books when we went to New York is made an interactive book wall so that you'd be able to see all the different boards from all the different years in this experience, and then we created a news fold, tabloid fold for the New York show. But yeah, it was very important to us that we documented all the incredible diverse work that we did and give people high res portfolio images so that they can't they could then put that in their portfolio as well. So we really wanted to think about the whole entire experience, not only, like, when you come in, but how it's documented and then what happens afterwards.
¶ Leadership Retreat Experiences
And just another reason to participate. Right?
Like, it's
gonna add value to your life to participate. You're not just painting a board and giving it to us.
Right. Yes. Yeah. Because some people don't wanna give it away afterwards. Right?
Like, you fall in love with your art piece, but now you have this documented thing that you can go forward. And we'd make, like, videos, and we'd have the photographer come in and do stop motion. Like, we just wanted to feel, like, alive and vibrant, and it was the early days of Twitter, which was a gorgeous, wonderful time. So you could reach out to Jessica Hish, and she would, like, say hello back to you or whatever, and it was just, like, a really vibrant is the best way to say it because it was just, like, new and friendly, and everyone's, like, excited to get to know each other in this different platform. So we really got a lot of momentum and forward movement because of Facebook and Instagram in those early days.
The way you talk about this, I I wanna I feel like I missed out. I I wanna see this again. Wanna You did? Want this to resurrect. You
know, Erik, you hit on something that I toy around with all the time, but I cannot figure out if it's just beautiful to leave in the nostalgia of my memory. Or do I wanna open Pandora's box and bring it back? Like, maybe ask me in, like, six months, see what I'm doing.
I'm gonna make a note and ask you in six months.
And let's also pin the fact that you might have some images or something that we can show on the So
many. I have so many. Okay. You just tell me, and I'll I'll say that. I'm excited
to see it.
I got assets for days. That's gonna be the cold open right there.
I've got right.
I've got assets for days.
Let's talk about your first leadership retreat. The first one you went to, what was that experience like? What were some of the memories that stick out to you of the program and then post program as well?
Yeah. Great question. I've been to seven leadership retreats. So not the most, but a pretty reputable number, I would say.
Up there.
Up. That's okay.
Upper and the higher end. My first one was Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was amazing, but I was so nervous and so scared, because I was just like, oh my god, these people are amazing. It just blew me away that all these designers were so excited to be together, to talk about design, to talk about their community, and they just were the smartest people I'd ever seen. Like, I was so shy the first year, and didn't really talk to anyone, and I remember seeing Mira Asram and James Hobbs.
I remember seeing them. They were the the two people on stage, and I was like, oh my god. Who are these people? I will never be them. They are so funny.
They're so smart. And I was just, like, enamored, I guess, just by being in everyone's presence. And the president before me was really wonderful, but he didn't, like, sit us down and say, like, this is what you need to do to have the best experience. And I really wish he had made sure that we didn't talk to each other, and that we were making sure that we were meeting people. And, like, anytime I was talking to a Colorado board member that, like, they broke us up because this is what I did to my my people later on.
I was like, you guys cannot talk to each other. Go meet other people. And it was I just learned so much on, like, how to be a leader, how to introduce myself to other people, to get over my own fears, and to understand that other people want the same things that I do. Like, we wanna see a vibrant community. We want people to come to our events and learn, and there's just a snowball effect.
And one of the things that I remember most about that first retreat was the pins. So the first night you'd play, like, bingo or something, you'd exchange pins. I feel like you would have to go and collect pins, and there would be, like, everyone's badge would have all these pins. It's really vague to me right now because it went off. And then also, the other thing I remember very clearly are the chapter display tables.
Because you'd walk around and see all these wonderful events, you'd get all this swag, people would sell t shirts, and you'd buy them, and then you'd go home with all these, like, beautiful ephemera, and goodies, and inspiration to apply to your chapter moving forward.
I was in the Seattle chapter, and we did make note of things around the tables, and I I have some ephemera around here somewhere. I don't have assets for days, but I have ephemera. And I remember having conversations like that. Oh, what what if we did something like this? Thank you for highlighting that.
It was definitely inspiring, I think. Taking a look at what everyone else has produced, what they're doing in their programming, all these different ideas that they are doing in their own chapter, and just the ability to share. It's not like you're stealing ideas, but the fact that everyone's sharing their behind the scenes, how they did it, I thought it was so inspiring.
It was so open source.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Like an opportunity for connection. Hey. How'd you guys do this? How did you how did you get the money to print this very nice printed brochure or or book?
Yeah. Or even introductions to speakers or fundraisers. Like, everyone was so kind to be like, oh, you want this? You need this. I got this, and here's that, and here's a playbook, and da da da da da da. And it's like, if only the world would be that kind all this I know. All the time.
Exactly. So my first leadership retreat was Denver.
Good one.
Yeah. What was your role in Colorado at that time, and what were some some memories behind the scenes that stick out for you?
Yeah. That was a good one. So I was incoming president's council chair. So it was a really big deal. We had just submitted our application before, and I did at this time, I didn't even know I was gonna be PCC when we submitted the application, but all I wanted to do is do a retreat.
I wanted to design it for my friends, make sure they had the best time, Mile High City, you know, it was a lot of stuff was happening in Denver at that moment, and so we hired the group to do the design, we did the schedules, we chose the chapter inspiration stories. It was really awesome to figure out the activities and go to New York and plan the event, and really just come together and be a host for my peers. Like, was just everything that I wanted to do. I'm such a goober, but we wanted to make sure people got to see the breweries in town, and have a good after party, and the people on our chapter board did an excellent job curating the golf carts to get around, making sure that we had a really fun band after hours, and I think they were called Rowdy Shade House, and they were a party. And it was great because we would give guides to the city, encourage people to go check out different things.
During the conference, a couple of things that I remember is Drew Davies was, I think, the president at the time, and Rick Graffe gave him a ridiculously sized gavel. And it was just this obnoxious moment in the the end of the experience for that to happen. And then, I know there were some other things, but yeah, those are the ones that I definitely remember about Denver. Now Philly was a really good event because we had a AIGA member. I thought it was a chipmunk that they dressed up as, but apparently, was a groundhog or a squirrel.
But that one sticks out as, like, the best memory of all time was the Philly chapter because they just had so much fun, like, dressing up. And there's a gentleman named Nick Prestileo who is a very wonderful human who will go above and beyond to make people smile, and he definitely made all of his events really, really special because of it.
And are you referring to the chapter while you're at the Denver Leadership Retreat? Or were you talking about AIGA Philly, the leadership retreat?
Good clarification. I am referring to the Philly Leadership Retreat.
Oh, got it.
So that one is where Nick and his other president I forget his name. I can see him. Alan. Alan. So the Philly retreat, Alan and Nick were definitely they dressed up in colonial wear, doing their opening ceremony. They definitely made us feel at home with our own silliness and extrovertedness to really go hard and celebrate just being together.
¶ Creating Unforgettable Events
I love that. What what year was that? What year was the Philly retreat? Was that before Denver?
It was before Denver. I think it goes, like, Chattanooga, Minneapolis, Salt Lake, Philly, Denver, Grand Rapids, Raleigh. Those are the seven I participated. So whatever year it is.
That's why you know that. Okay. Got it. Yeah. Obviously, you you remember Nick getting dressed up as a chipmunk or whatever this was. Right? What makes an unforgettable moment at an event? The hell. Because you produce a lot of them. I mean, you produce a lot of events. What makes it unforgettable?
Yes. Okay. This is I wanna give you the perfect answer, but I'm going to do my best, because I don't know if it's gonna be perfect. I think something, well one, it's a surprise, right? Something definitely unexpected that happens because you know in a retreat there's a sequence of events, just like any other conference is something that's gonna happen, so you understand the arc that's going to but when somebody comes in sideways a little bit to that and just puts it off kilter, I feel like that's the thing that really changes the dynamic, right?
We knew Nick and Alan would come out and do a welcome presentation. What we did not know is that they would come out in colonial wear. And we knew Drew would be thanked as his service of national board president, but we did not know that a massive gavel was going to be part of the gifting process. So I think those types of things are really what changed the dynamic, because they're on par with your expectation, but just have a little bit of a twist that makes it unforgettable. And I know that that is something that we have tried, Rachel in our times together, making sure that there is something that's a little bit different or something that somebody doesn't know in order to make it, just that much more important or novel for the moment, even though it's not like totally out of the ordinary.
Oh, I like that answer. I feel like creativity is always at play. Right. You have to get really creative with these events. I mean, love the events that you've been producing, not only with AIGA, but also with Amazon and whatnot. Have a simple structure right at, at Adobe, we always had a simple structure, But to get really creative and try to figure out how do we make it out of the ordinary, I think has been something that you've been very good at.
Thank you. Yeah. I've learned from the best
of Rachel.
Was it the Denver chapter that did mugshots at the Denver retreat?
Yes.
Yes. It was?
Yeah. But that was AIGA San
Francisco San Francisco, that's right.
Brought that to the conference. Right. So that was like Phil and Dawn, they brought it, and that was a really good addition. And that was the fun part, is like, just because we were the host chapter, it wasn't about us. People were able to bring in their own touch to the experience and add to it. And that's what was really great is that it wasn't our it wasn't ours as in Colorado's, it was ours as in everybody at AIGA.
¶ The Highs and Lows of Retreats
I have to also bring up the fact that we also had a reunion. So it wasn't just the leadership retreat. There was also a reunion that just made the event huge.
Alumni.
Alumni.
It was so long. I definitely remember after because it was two days on top of the retreat afterwards. And I just remember being so tired and burnt after that, because there was, like I don't know if you guys got it, but I would get the post retreat hangover that would last for the week after. And it was just like, I had all this love, and I just had so much fun, and I had all my best friends. We hang out longer?
Please, please, please. And then all of a sudden, it'd all be gone. And I'd be back home, and I'd be, like, empty inside for a good few days. Yeah.
Yeah. I I same feeling. I know that feeling well. It's it's you you come out you come back from that high, and then, you know, reintegrating yourself into normal life, know, going back to work. I was the sole designer in a 500 person company working in house and I, it was just, I had nobody to talk to.
I know. It's so sad.
Nobody to relate to. Hey. I did this great thing. Okay. I'll keep going.
My husband's just like, okay. Whatever. Stop talking about this.
Although Denver, I forget where we were. But there was a bar up front, and then there was a bar outside in the back.
We were at the Meadowlark.
Yeah. Thank you. I I'm standing there, and all of a sudden, I'm like, I don't feel very well. Just kinda chills and just and then I I got back to my hotel room, and I had a suit on, and I went to bed wearing my suit, and I'm just sweating and, like, convulsing.
I'm sorry. Hopefully, it wasn't altitude sickness because I know there was definitely people that had to go to bed early or just, like, didn't go out as much as they wanted because they were getting headaches. And, like, it's a real thing. Yeah. There was yeah. It was also the year that marijuana got legalized in Colorado. Remember that. So some other people might had to go to bed for a different reason. I don't know.
Johnny McConnell was from Seattle was was my roommate. He was studying the packaging design and everything for, you know, when he came home. And so he brought a lot in.
What? Do we need to beep his name?
He went back to Seattle?
He he went back to Seattle with the packaging.
Oh, with the packaging. Okay. Got it.
With the packaging. You know, I mean, was legitimate. He was very curious about the packaging because it was all new.
I definitely remember us sharing with the group, like, don't eat it all. Whatever you do, don't eat it all. Like, Take some, wait some time, and when you think you need to eat more, wait again. And then, you know, consume as as needed.
I also remember another bar we went to, and we we basically took over the bar. It's wide open, the bar was in the middle, you know, we're both just commenting. I wonder if they know what they're what they're in for, and then just well, these people just descended.
Yeah. That was the night before the the retreat, which I always find to be a really special one. Whether it be, like, the night before the retreat or the night before an AIJ conference is kind of this not everybody's there, you're just catching up. It's gentler a little bit because the momentum of the event hasn't quite started yet, and you're just like loving on all your friends. And yeah, that I remember I don't know if that place is still there, but I I can visualize exactly where you're talking about.
Oh, and okay. So another place, we would walk to go get ice cream. On a hill, it has a tower. Little man. Yeah.
¶ Memorable Moments and Pyramids
Little man. Ice cream. Good.
Salted Oreo is my favorite.
That sounds so good.
Some great some great memories. Definitely a highlight leadership retreat for sure.
Well, I grand I wanna actually talk about Grand Rapids and the pyramids that we had there because I know this person who was really great to get on top of a very impressive pyramid at a bowling alley. And so and that person was Rachel. But, yeah, the pyramids that we had, I definitely know that I've done pyramids in a variety of locations, like in bars, in hallways. I've seen pyramids go across hotel beds, in elevators, bowling alleys. Interesting, iconic thing that we've always done.
And luckily, I've always been on top because I'm a smaller person, but I always feel bad for anyone who was stuck on, like, the lower tiers.
Okay. What was the most memorable pyramid for you? Obviously, they've been done all sorts of places.
The memorable one that is definitely the one that was in the hotel room that kind of, like, across two beds was very impressive.
How did they do that? How did they do that?
There was people in the middle that kind of, like, got them up to the top of the even of the the two beds, and then they came across that way. I don't think it was very successful, and I will say my memory is a tiny bit hazy about how it all came together, but I know there's a photo somewhere of it, like, falling down.
Was it in Philly room, or whose room was it?
I don't know. Insert any one of my friends here.
Alright. So this is the new quest. I'm gonna try to find this photo.
Yeah. I will look in my archives. It is definitely possible that I have one.
Is there a photo of the bowling alley?
-We yes. We have yes. Sure. Oh, yes.
Right. Yeah.
I'd love to see that.
Erik, were you ever part of one?
I was. I was but, you know, being my size, I was always on the bottom, which was totally fine. But, yeah, I was I was always on the bottom. And I could not tell you which ones.
You don't need to.
Yeah. I I know I participated. I know it was you know, at at one point, I was running to be on the bottom. Go ahead.
It would be really fun to do, like, AIGA bingo card. Like, have you ever, you know, been in a pyramid of I don't know. Insert thing here. Like, part of the six AM club. Designed a t shirt. Whatever it might be. I think that would be a really fun big go get for for your guests.
Bowl a strike with Rachel hanging on your back.
Yeah.
Karaoke, you know?
Yeah. Karaoke.
Oh, yeah. The karaoke. That's right.
Karaoke. I've only done karaoke once, and it was in Denver at the very end of the alumni retreat. I didn't sing, but I was a really impressive backup dancer. Of which, I do have video and photos of, so, you know, we can share Is
this the song that Aaron Shurts sang? Because I've seen that video.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. We're gonna have him on at some point.
You should. He We've had a lot of good times together.
Alright. So we have so many things to put in the visuals for this one.
And, you know, like, I would go and I'm such a again, like, this is how silly I am, but now I'm really glad I did it. Like, after I would go and scour Instagram and Facebook for all the photos, and then download them to share when we would do our retreat recap to the group, to the AIGA Colorado board, because that was really important is that we tried to translate the retreat experience back to the board, not only so they could understand what they're part of, but also to help teach them and get them excited to engage more so that we could bring them next year. So I would take all these photos off the internet and put them in a slideshow for our board retreat, our local board retreat, and they would just play in a slideshow while we were having lunch or doing whatever so that people could see, kind of give them a little bit of FOMO of what they were missing, and also for my own collective memory. So I have a lot of random images from those days because I wanted to share it with my peers, and they're gonna come real in handy now.
Yeah, absolutely. So folks, stay tuned. After this, we're gonna have a two hour slideshow. Yes.
We are.
You were talking about Grand Rapids. I was looking for something else, but I came across this Grand Rapids city guide, which I absolutely love and that's when they had
¶ The Importance of Community in Design
the Wes Anderson theme?
Wes Anderson theme, yes. Thank you.
Yeah. Was such a nice framing for all the design.
It was. And that was fun because Gwen and I dressed up as Mean Rice Kingdom for that as well and did a photoshoot, so I'll add that to the slideshow.
Oh, of course I didn't.
And those are the things, whether it be a really good theme or a good photo booth opportunity, those are the things that really made everything just stay beyond, not just the people and the conversations because that was so valuable and those connections live on. My peer group today is all from that time period. And the thing about AIGA that I really loved is that I could go to any city across The United States, and if they had an AIGA chapter, I had friends. And I could go say hello, somebody would meet me for coffee, somebody would take me out for drinks or have dinner, and like, it was just the coolest way to see new places, to have friends to teach me about other things, to tell me about opportunities, and then I loved being that host as well when I was president of AIGA Colorado. When new people came in or people were visiting, if I couldn't meet them for coffee, I would introduce them to somebody else, and it just made design being a designer that much more meaningful to me rather than pushing pixels, designing a brochure.
I mean, that's oversimplifying what we do, obviously, but my career in development was much more rich and expansive because of my AIGA community, 100 %.
Ugh, I love that so much. So let me ask you a question that I've not asked anybody. Why is the leadership retreat so important for being in the AIGA board?
Being in the leadership retreat was the most important thing because you got to see people who were investing as much time as you were in other areas. So you were able to learn about your role from a peer, or have shared challenges with peers, or talk to somebody who had had the same challenges as you. There was so much peer mentorship that happened live in that moment, and what we were doing as chapter board members is really unique, right? Like, your day to day doesn't really teach you like how do you lead a mentorship program or how do you run an event? How do you do x y z?
Like how are you developing membership processes? Like your job is not teaching you how to develop other creatives, or how to connect in general, or grow a career. And what AIGA leadership did was gave you professional development and a whole lot of soft skills and business skills that you weren't probably getting at your job. And then you could just be like, oh, that person's just like me, and they're the creative director of da da da da, like I get to be that. And oh, I use Debbie Millman as an example, because she's such a beautiful archetype of a chapter member who was then president, who's had a successful career, followed her crazy ideas to have a wonderful career, and she always says yes.
She's always so kind and giving, and that's the that's the community in the the world I wanna live in. Right? And so you just saw that over and over again. And the beauty of that being in person is, like, you got to, like, live in this bubble for three days and not feel alone, to feel comforted and supported and, like, oh, you doing all this volunteer stuff is worth it? 100 %. Because your peers back home may not get it. Like, my friends didn't get it. They're like, okay, that's cool.
Oh, a sense of belonging.
Yes. That sense of belonging.
A sense of belonging that's not only just with your chapter, with the local people who are in your area, but also that you realize you are plugged into, like, a nationwide, something larger, larger, larger than you, and yet you still fit in. Yeah. It was mind blowing.
And just to feel part of something bigger than yourself. Right? And design does have the ability to change the world, and we need that to be a collective feeling in order for that to happen, and AIGA really gave us kind of that that connectivity, that the tapestry for all of us to be together and move forward, and right now, more than ever, designers need to come together, I feel like, to move the culture forward, move business forward, because we're the ones that shape all the deliverables that go into your hand. Like, everything that you touch a designer has put their mark on, we hold a lot of responsibility and accountability for our world and how it communicates, and we need to take that very seriously. And AIGA helped articulate that for me and understand the power that we have in this place.
¶ Preserving Design History and Legacy
You know, one thing that I miss, and maybe you guys do too, is the history of it. I feel like some some of the history is is missing.
I feel like we we have to preserve the legacy of the organization because there's just so much that the industry has changed since it was founded. There's a lot that we can learn from our previous designers that need to be implemented now, particularly around craft and how we understand craft as the industry tools change. I think we can definitely look into our archives and our elders for that information. I was just talking to someone yesterday about the Eames Institute, and that would actually be an interesting case study to learn from about how they're preserving their legacy for the future, and also how the Eames, there was something about how they would innovate at the last that would be the last thing that they would do. They would study history, they would look through what is available to them, and then innovate as a last resort to make sure that they've expounded on all the options before they make big jumps, which is a really interesting perspective, and you should definitely fact check that before this goes live.
¶ The Future of Creativity and Community
Because I don't wanna be spouting untruths about what they do, but it's an interesting concept of how you apply the important parts to move forward. And I know students history, but how are we writing the history of design right now? Because and even how do you write the I feel like my design history lessons end with April Greiman. Right? Once the computer came in and she was leading the way with digital art, I feel like my lessons stop after that because it's just all too much.
And that's not appropriate. Right? So how do we articulate what's been happening when the the rate of change is so fast?
No. Let's just focus on community. That's what
you Yes.
Are good at. That's where your heart lies. And that is definitely something that will not only are you rooted in it, Alicia, but I feel like it's going to be always a part of your future.
Yeah. I've had the fortunate opportunity to have creatives as my customer for a really long time. Accidentally through AIGA, and then officially when I went to Adobe and got to work with Rachel on Creative Jam, and then when I went to Amazon and worked on the Amazon Design Excellence team. That's what I hope to do in whatever my future holds. I don't really know what that looks like, which is a beautiful thing, but I know developing creatives is core to my being, my passion, and we need that sort of ability to move each other forward, and now more than ever, honestly, for a variety of reasons.
So I look forward to seeing, like, what this weird experience of my career has for me, because I got a lot of friends, and a lot of things to do and a lot of energy to do it with.
And we can't wait to see where that goes.
Absolutely.
Well, thank you for sharing, Elysia I really appreciate the time.
Oh my gosh. I can't wait.
Your passion is palpable. I I just I mean, I walk away with a huge smile on my face and probably have a little withdrawal, Cute.
I'm so happy to hear it. Oh, I have one one final thing before we sign off. What you just experienced, apparently, is called being Syriac'd. So my board members would have maybe into a verb, which for a while, I was like, oh, no. Like, is this a bad thing?
But what I realized is, like, it's it's my je ne sais quoi. Right? Like, I have a love for people, and I just think creatives are the most interesting, important humans that could ever walk this Earth because we have a bizarre ability to synthesize and create and do, and just like this, I don't know, menagerie of skills, and I wanna celebrate that. And I just can't have myself. I
love that. I love it. And I love you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Love that.
You're welcome. Well, thank you all for hosting this. I can't wait to hear all the other ones and see who else joins this.
Thank you, Elysia
You're welcome. Appreciate it. Bye. Bye.
Alright. Bye bye.
Cheers and Tiers. We'll be back next time with more design leadership tales retold.
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Cheers and Tiers Design Leadership Tales Retold is a production of chapter two and hosted by us, Rachel Elnar and Erik Cargill. This episode was produced and edited by Rachel Elmer. Podcast graphics by Eric Cargill. Animation by Verso Design and Megatoe Design.
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