What is design but a series of interrelated networks? For a people-focused industry like ours, one’s network is literally one’s lifeline. Like any other system of connections, a social network needs to be maintained and cultivated in order to continue to be relevant and vital to its respective community. Top on the list of mandatory events for design professionals looking to expand their network and renew old contacts is the 2011 IIDA Color Invasion, which happened last Thursday at Center 548 in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea art gallery district. To any outsider unfamiliar with the territory, it looks a big party with a fun theme; for design veterans, it is an important opportunity to interface with hundreds of potential sources of business in one location at the same time.
Starting in 2002 with the South African-themed event called WOZA, the New York chapter of the IIDA began this annual event, which in later years was branded as the Color Invasion, to provide funds for design student scholarship awards. Using funds raised at the Color Invasion and the Leaders Breakfast, the chapter annually gives $15,000.00 or more to students who submit a package of work, which is then vetted by a committee of design professionals. Five winners and five honorable mentions are chosen, all of whom get a free membership to IIDA for one year. The IIDA’s awards program is one of many ways students can benefit from IIDA membership; from design competitions to speed mentoring events that match design students with working professionals to the IIDA’s annual student day at 200 Lexington Avenue, which includes hosted visits to showrooms as well as a panel discussions, lectures and networking, the IIDA realizes that the students of today will soon be the designers of tomorrow.
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