Hasta La Ideas

In probing interviews, she reminds the world just how much design matters. She wrote the book on how to think like a great graphic designer. And now, it’s official: UnBeige favorite Debbie Millman is the president of AIGA. She replaces outgoing president Sean Adams, who will remain involved in an ex officio role. Millman’s three-year term begins today, as do those of four other newly elected AIGA board members: Julie Beeler (Second Story Interactive Studios), AIGA treasurer Zia Khan (Lucid Partners), James Koval (VSA Partners), and Angela Shen-Hsieh (Visual i|o). Additionally, three board members will begin positions to finish the incomplete terms of former directors: Shelley Evenson (Carnegie Mellon University), Louise Sandhaus (California Institute of the Arts), and Lynda Weinman (lynda.com). They’ll all be working toward AIGA’s new mandate—”to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool, and vital cultural force”—as the organization approaches its centennial in 2014. Check out the below video from last month’s AIGA Leadership Retreat in Portland, where Adams passed the baton to Millman. Note that the baton was metaphorical, but were it literal, it would be one well-designed baton.