Two students from California Lutheran University’s Multimedia Department received the opportunity to volunteer at  Design for Good L.A. 2015.  This is their third annual 24-hour design service for nonprofit organizations, and they recently presented their works to the organizations on Oct. 27.

Cal Lutheran’s American Institute of Graphic Arts club President Will Houser and club Vice President Alexandria Pico came into the event as volunteers but left with the experience of professional designers.

“Design for Good L.A. is basically pro bono work that graphic designers all throughout the Los Angeles area come to volunteer 24 hours of their time to nonprofits who can’t afford to rebrand, make logos or hire a graphic design firm company or a designer” Houser said.

The AIGA hosted this pro bono event from Oct. 10-11 as a way for volunteer designers to contribute their creativity and graphic arts experience to nonprofit organizations in L.A.

According to losangeles.aiga.org, “During a 24 hour design blitz, volunteers contributed over $50,000 worth of design and strategy for five very lucky L.A. nonprofit organizations. By donating design services, the volunteers of AIGA Los Angeles are able to communicate the value of design to groups that often put design needs off for years.”

At this event, the volunteers were able to gain graphic arts experience as they helped out nonprofit organizations with design projects.

As volunteers, Houser and Pico had a rare opportunity to take on a rebrand project for a nonprofit organization called TEEN LINE, which is a teen-to-teen hotline where teenagers can communicate their problems to one another.

“I thought their organization was really cool. It is a unique concept of having teenagers talk to other teens. It really makes them more personalized and makes a major difference,” Houser said. “But what was hard for them was that their branding strategy was so weak that it was hard for them to make a difference.”

As students majoring in multimedia, Houser and Pico did not hesitate to take on this opportunity, which added to their design experience as well as helped promote the organization’s message.

“It was a 24-hour blitz so we went and met the client and had 24 hours. We weren’t originally supposed to be a part of it,” Pico said. “Their design crew ended up not showing and we were just volunteering for the event, but then we were asked if we were willing to participate for the next 24 hours. Will and I, we jumped at the opportunity.”

The nonprofit organization came to Houser and Pico for ideas, asking for a brochure design to get more donors and get the word out about their company which has been around for 35 years.

Houser said one of the challenges that he and the design team came across was relaying the organization’s message correctly in their design.

Despite their lack of sleep that weekend, Houser and Pico managed to transform the logo and previous brochures for the organization, and even made postcards which had links to websites for teens to access on their smartphones.

On Oct. 27 they officially presented their finished works to the organization at the Design for Good L.A. reveal party and now hope to hear soon from the organization.

“It was an amazing opportunity to be tossed at us. We were ecstatic and we just took everything that they had and transformed it into something that we think would have been able to present the organization better,” Pico said.

Houser said the Cal Lutheran chapter for AIGA plans to host a design for good on-campus event within the school year, open for students to apply and participate or volunteer.

“It’s definitely not just a portfolio piece. It’s something we can be proud of as student designers, as young designers,” Pico said.

Kristen Cueva
Staff Writer
Published November 11th, 2015