On July 21-24, a group of more than 50 dedicated creative professionals gathered in Birmingham at the AIGA Alabama Design Summit to learn, solve and model how creativity can be harnessed to defeat the limitations facing social and economic development in rural Alabama.

 

The Summit was an invitational event where attendees used design thinking to develop innovative contributions toward solving social and environmental issues that affect people’s everyday lives. Over three days, teams of participants shared ideas and experiences as they focused on four specific initiatives, then document best practices about how the design profession can influence and lead a social change agenda through active community involvement.

 

Initiatives included:

- Expanding Design Capacity for Mission Driven Organizations

- Thinking Like A Watershed

- Overcoming Nature Deficit Disorder

- Tourism for Community Regeneration

 

This extraordinary event included design leaders from more than 20 local AIGA chapter boards, businesses, and social institutions. Local participants included representatives from Freshwater Land Trust, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, US Fish and Wildlife, Cahaba River Society, Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, International Expeditions, Auburn University Urban Studio, and University of Alabama Center for Economic Development.

 

A complete list of participants can be found here: http://www.aiga.org/alabama-design-summit/

 

AIGA, as the professional association for design, is deeply committed to the Birmingham gathering, its experiences and its outcomes. The aim is to facilitate the kind of creative interaction among many types of professionals, all with a shared interest in solving a problem, that can be so successful in finding new solutions to stubborn problems that bear directly on the human experience. We want to help by convening the right people from many disciplines; channeling their interaction through a thoughtful process toward purposeful ends; and serving as a catalyst for real action.

 

Check out photos from the Summit on Flickr.

 

Originally published on AIGA.

 

 

Image courtesy of Alabama Innovation Engine.