Publications

AIGA is committed to publishing critical thinking about design and designing. In addition to its imprint AIGA Design Press, AIGA is involved in publishing other works that address the needs of today’s designers. The following selections are available from Amazon and other sources.

365: AIGA Year in Design 28
Each year, in conjunction with the “365: AIGA Annual Design Competitions” and “AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers,” AIGA publishes an annual to showcase the work selected as the best examples of design excellence for that given year. 365: AIGA Year in Design 28, designed by 2006 AIGA medalist Rick Valicenti of Thirst (Chicago), is a 54-page, 5x7-inch, full-color volume documenting the results of AIGA’s 2007 competitions. This annual was mailed in early December 2007 to AIGA members who joined prior to December 1.

Members receive the annual as a membership benefit, but a limited number of these publications may also be purchased in the online store.

Design for Democracy: Ballot + Election Design
Marcia Lausen, author
From the confusing butterfly ballots of the 2000 presidential election in Palm Beach County, Florida to the misaligned punch card layouts of Cuyahoga County, Ohio just four years later, design counts in our elections. Design for Democracy: Ballot + Election Design illustrates real solutions that are poised to improve elections across the country in 2008 and beyond.

The long-awaited book by Marcia Lausen, a founding member of the AIGA strategic initiative Design for Democracy, is an essential advocacy tool for designers and election officials, lawmakers and citizens. Design for Democracy: Ballot + Election Design harnesses the power of design to increase voter confidence, promote government transparency and create an informed—and empowered—electorate. Its prototypes and recommendations have already been used successfully in major Illinois and Oregon elections and are fundamental to AIGA Design for Democracy’s 2007 ballot and polling place design guidelines on behalf of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

The book, available November 1, 2007, is a co-publication of University of Chicago Press and AIGA.

AIGA Design Business and Ethics
AIGA has released a series of brochures outlining the critical ethical and professional issues encountered by designers and their clients. The series, entitled "Design Business and Ethics," examines the key concerns a designer faces in maintaining a successful practice and speaks directly to the protection of individual rights.

Authored by industry leaders from across the country, each brochure offers clear and concise information, as well as practical and specific directions for approaching design issues. The brochures are available on the AIGA website as PDFs. We encourage you to download and reformat the information as part of your regular proposals to clients, giving proper attribution to AIGA.

AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries
The AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries is the most comprehensive survey of graphic designers available. It reports average annual and hourly rates of compensation for designers of print and electronic media, from entry level employees to principals and solo practitioners.

The printed publication is sent each May to professional and associate-level members.

AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design
Tad Crawford, editor
A comprehensive guide to every aspect of the graphic design business, from designer relationships with clients, employees, and suppliers to management issues, marketing strategies, rights, and ethical standards. It covers negotiation principles, setting fees, contracts, structuring the design firm, audits, insurance basics, studio safety, marketing on the web, copyright and licensing, trademark infringement, and business ethics. Short and long versions of the AIGA Standard Form of Agreement are included for easy reference, and a complete resources section highlights selected publications and organizations for graphic designers.

Design Culture : An Anthology of Writing from the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design
Steven Heller, editor
A selection of nearly eighty essays, interviews and symposia from the AIGA's pioneering Journal of Graphic Design. Prominent designers, editors, academics and professionals from within and outside the field offer stimulating views on the impact of graphic design on everyday life, bringing new meaning and vitality to a variety of design issues.

Looking Closer : Critical Writings on Graphic Design
Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Steven Heller and D. K. Holland, editors
A collection of the best recent writing on graphic design. A stimulating look at how design issues influence and are influenced by contemporary culture.

Looking Closer 2 : Critical Writings on Graphic Design
Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Steven Heller and D. K. Holland, editors
Looking Closer 2 offers more of the best recent writing on graphic design, covering new and important issues in design language, education, intellectual property, new media, the state of the business and the place of design in society.

Looking Closer 3 : Classic Writings on Graphic Design
Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, and Rick Poynor, editors
Rare and difficult-to-find essays provide fascinating reading in this third anthology in the Looking Closer series. Looking Closer 3 brings back into discourse more than thirty seminal essays by such distinguished figures as William Morris, Aldous Huxley, Alvin Lustig and Paul Rand, reviving ideas of form and content as well as arguments over manner and style that have been lost for decades.