Los Angeles, CA – February 15, 2022: AIGA Los Angeles and the California Department of Education’s Arts, Media and Entertainment Career Technical Education (CTE-AME) Industry Sector announced today a partnership to form an advisory group of design industry professionals for the AME Emerging Careers and Workforce Training Initiative.

The advisory group will help develop new standards for design education in California public high school CTE-AME programs and establish a registered youth apprenticeship program for continued training. These programs will support the initiative’s goal of inspiring the workforce of the future and creating equitable pathways into the design industry, which will ultimately help create a more diverse workforce.

This initiative is an extension of the work AIGA Los Angeles had accomplished along with Los Angeles Unified School District’s CTE-AME programs in early 2021 where design professionals visited students in classrooms and facilitated career exploration. The success of this partnership cleared the way for AIGA chapters of California (Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco) to come together and pursue their mission at a grander scale.

“To truly begin furthering our mission of advancing design, we must first consider how we infuse the tenets of equity and inclusion into everything we do,” said Sam Cabrera, AIGA Los Angeles President. “Without the bold leadership who breathed a new fire and shared vision into AIGA over the past two years, we wouldn’t be here today: bringing together a collection of individuals who quite literally are creating change. We hope the outcome of this work will be the beginning of our profession’s potential to truly change the world.”

“As someone who also entered the design profession in a non-traditional way, I’m excited to know the results of this advisory group and youth apprenticeship program will allow greater inclusion of people who may not have access to traditional (i.e. expensive) higher education. Pathways to a creative career have evolved so much in recent years; it’s time that design education does the same.” said Venessa Baez-Jones, AIGA Los Angeles Secretary and President Emeritus of the AIGA Tampa Bay chapter.

Initial members of this advisory group include names such as Louise Sandhaus, Faculty, California Institute of the Arts and Founder/Co-Director, The People’s Graphic Design Archive; Mike Monteiro, co-founder and Design Director at Mule Design; Erika Hall, co-founder of Mule Design; David Dylan Thomas, Founder & CEO, David Dylan Thomas, LLC; Author, Design for Cognitive Bias; Inez S. Bush, Assistant Dean of Extension, Otis College of Art and Design; Nick Gawith, SVP, Executive Creative Director at Razorfish; Love Beach, VP of Creative Strategy at Blavity Inc; Matthew Carlson, Director of UX Design, Creative Cloud at Adobe, and more.

The advisory group will include professionals across various design disciplines, thought leadership, education, and  representation of historically excluded communities. This will be a group which holds bold, futurist ideas which will advance the design profession in areas of diversity, equity, decolonization, inclusion, ethics, and emerging technologies. Work is slated to begin in February and will continue in 2022.

How can you help us in our mission?

• Keep up to date with AIGA Los Angeles and all CA chapter events that help fund programs like these on our newsletter, Instagram, Linkedin, and TikTok.

• Want to volunteer to help us or know someone who would? Contact us at lausd@aigala.org!

• Consider donating to AIGA LA. Your donations make a difference in what we’re able to achieve by providing valuable resources to grow. All charitable contributions to AIGA LA are tax-deductible to the extent the tax code allows. AIGA LA’s U.S. federal tax ID is 95-2080216.

About AIGA Los Angeles

AIGA Los Angeles is a volunteer-run, voluntary membership 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for the design community in Los Angeles. We are one of the largest amongst 70+ sibling chapter organizations in the nation. AIGA LA was founded in 1983 by influential designers who have shaped our industry, a legacy that we take very seriously — our city and community is the destination for anyone aspiring to create no matter where they came from.

About AIGA

AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. Learn more at aiga.org.

About the Artist

Marina Murad is an award-winning Iraqi-American designer and art director living in Los Angeles. Currently, she is a Senior Designer at Media.Monks for Google and serves on the Board of Directors at AIGA Los Angeles.

Murad’s work has been shown on the covers of Adweek, and Advertising Age magazines. Her past clients have included Apple, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Mattel Games, Snapchat, Yahoo, Verizon Media, DC Comics, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Live Nation, Disney, The Hollywood Reporter, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and various Los Angeles based start-ups and businesses.