A few memories from 9/11 and the AIGA Voice Conference
I remember arriving at the office on the morning of September 11, 2001. I typically rode my bike to work and didn’t listen to the news in the mornings. Ryan, our office manager was wearing his I❤️NY t-shirt and had the TV on. The rest of the day, and for many days after, people were in shock. I called friends & relatives living in NYC. I remember walking around later that afternoon with my friend Carole, a Swiss designer who had come to Portland on a visa to work at Plazm. Streets were quiet, empty. I worried about what would come next, the American response with George W. Bush as president.
Flights stopped for days after the tragic events of 9/11, and were sparsely attended for weeks after. Less than a week later I was on a plane to Tokyo for work at Weiden+Kenndedy with John Jay. The airport surreal, the plane mostly empty.
There was a global outpouring of support and sympathy after the attack. The American response, however, was a multi-decade occupation of Afghanistan, and, a couple years later, a conflated invasion of Iraq.
Plazm was booked to do a workshop at the AIGA Eye on Design national conference in Washington D.C., 2002. The theme was “Voice.” The event was postponed slightly, the prior title was “VO1CE.” It ultimately took place in the wake of the terrorist attacks and general the national political climate had become xenophobic, to say the least.
In addition to our workshop at the @aigadesign Voice event in Washington D.C. in 2002, we were also given a one-minute spot on the main stage the opening night of the event called “20/20” where twenty participants had one minute each. He also screen printed the words onto two American flags, which he and our intern at the time, Donny Kersey, carried onto the stage. Sarah wrote the words, I collected a montage of images showing the American flag in its myriad of commercial and non-commercial uses from car sales to tattoos. The images were projected behind us as I questioned blind loyalty to the American brand. The video quality isn’t great, but it’s the one we have!
Our workshop was about how we, as designers, balance the the inherent struggle between a desire to use our time, energy, and skills to do meaningful work within a capitalist society. It was run by myself, Sarah Dougher, and Pete McCracken. As with everything we do, there was a collective effort. Pete had created a piece of screen printed art with the words “Save Me” on it. We used that as the lead image for the workshop and our presence at the event. He printed the phrase on small cards punched with a single hole with dayglo yellow ink on a neon orange paper. We used rubber bands to hang these in various places throughout the event. The cover of a notebook was also printed in this way, and given to workshop attendees.
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We made postcards for the AIGA to distribute using a series of questions that Sarah wrote. I designed the card using Pete’s typeface 3000.
Sometime between 9/11/01 and the AIGA event, Charles Powne of Soleilmoon Records came into our office. We regularly did record cover packaging for Soleilmoon in those days. Charles had just come back from one of his trips to India. He gave me a World Trade Center shopping bag at our meeting, woven with a depiction of planes crashing into the twin towers. I have always found to be an interesting artifact of commemoration, neither cheering on nor condemning, but simply documenting the event. I used this bag during the 2002 AIGA conference to carry around my things. It provoked numerous discussions and reactions. Brian Collins stopped me and we talked about the friends he lost that day. I am sorry for your loss … do you think I should I stop carrying this bag around? Keep carrying the bag he said.
Copy from the front of the Save Me notebook:
Voice02 : Plazm workshop
Use this notepad to answer the following questions:
How do you experience the conflict between commercial and pro-bono work?
How have you reconciled it?
How does your work build community?
Copy from the original postcard:
What does your art save?
Who does your art serve?
What does your art conserve?
What does your art convey?
Whom does your art convince?
What does your art confirm?
What does your art affirm?
To whom does your art ascent?
Where does your art ascend?
What does your art pretend?
How does your art blend?
What does your art bend?
What does your art defend?
What does your art detail?
What does your art entail?
What does your art excite?
What does your art expect?
What does your art expand?
To whom does your art pander?
On whom does your art depend?
What does your art suspend?
What does your art suffer?
What does your art offer?
Whom does your art offend?
Whom does your art attend?
What does your art attack?
What nut does your art crack?
What does your art crave?
Who does your art save?
