Projects

Fresno Design Alliance is giving back to the community by their involvement with student mentoring, hosting community events, and supporting worthy organizations.

Art + Design Show

Project champion: Suzanne Bertz-Rosa
Group: Line Between Art + Design

On April 2, 2009, Fresno Design Alliance held its first art and design exhibit. The show was held during Art Hop at Broadway Studios. Where is the line between art + design? received over 50 entries. Seven industry professionals judged the entries to determine which pieces made into the show and which pieces were the best.

“One of the things I really loved about the show is that it provoked the mind and helped foster dialogue about the differences between art and design.”
— Katrina Neufeld

The exhibition explored the line between art and design. Is there a point where something crosses over? Is it all art? All design? What differentiates one from the other? Attendees were asked to help answer these questions.

 

Salary Survey

Project champion: Katrina Neufeld

In January 2009, Fresno Design Alliance conducted its first Salary & Price Survey. The survey aims to help Fresno area designers gauge their own pricing structure and annual salary. It drew 33 online responses with some surprising results.

 

Iron Designer

Project champion: Layne Lev
Group: Iron Designer Challenge

The Iron Designer Challenge was conceived as a friendly design competition amongst local designers to benefit a local non-profit organization. Participants were given a logo project and had 36 hours to submit a design concept via email for consideration. The winner of the competition walks away with the satisfaction of helping a worthy cause and a secret unnamed prize. The beneficiary of the competition is the happy recipient of a professionally designer logo for their organization.

Past non-profit beneficiaries:

• Fresno Arts Council*
• Rainbow Ranch Equine Therapeutic
• Center Central California Mennonite Residential Services
• Central California SPCA

* LIVE version — participants had only 1 hour to complete the logo assignment and they had to do it in front of a crowd.

 

McLane High School ArtVenture Academy

Project champion: Suzanne Bertz-Rosa 
Group: ArtVenture Academy

Launched in January 2006, the McLane High School’s ArtVenture Academy is an art school within the high school. Fresno Design Alliance volunteers mentored students throughout an entire semester, meeting with them on a weekly basis. FDA volunteers also lectured on the basics of design and brought in guest lectures from various areas of the industry who spoke on storyboarding commercials to publishing graphic novels.

“As a designer, I benefited from attending every Friday session of ArtVenture Program. The students of McLane gave me a fresh eye with which to view art in general and our industry in particular. As a result of our commitment to the program, Fresno Unified was able to institute a new field of study in their curriculum.”
—Lynn Baker

 

Using the Web to Shape Social Change

Project champion: Suzanne Bertz-Rosa

In January 2006, Fresno Design Alliance hosted a VIP Reception following a New Valley InForum Series on social change. The event featured guest speaker, Tiffany Shlain (award-winning filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and Good Morning America’s Internet Expert).

 

Fresno Arts Council > Arthop and Calendar Events List

Project champion: Katrina Neufeld

Since our memorandum of understanding with the Fresno Arts Council on October 6, 2005, the Fresno Design Alliance has hosted and managed the Fresno Arts Council's email discussion list. The Fresno Arts Council > Arthop and Calendar Events List is a daily digest of upcoming ArtHop and other art-related calendar events. To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the FAC-List Archives or better yet, sign up for the list.