Fellow Award and Annual Meeting Attendee List

Save the date to join us September 22 as we kick off a new year with our Fellow Award and Annual Meeting. The evening will include an address by current AIGA DC President Jill Spaeth on the state of the chapter, as well as presentation of the chapter Fellow Award to David Franek. Please plan to be a part of this festive event and Happy Hour to follow!

Costs: Members, $10 ($15 at the door) | Non-members, $15 ($20 at the door) | Students, $5 ($10 at the door)

Registration opens at 6:30 PM, and the event begins at 7:00 PM. Happy Hour to follow at Zengo, 781 7th Street, NW.

About David Franek

David has over twenty-five years as a professional designer. He started his career as design director with a Baltimore design firm, Ashton-Worthington, Inc., working out of a beautifully renovated row house in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore. After spending over five years there, he came to Washington to join a young firm, Invisions, Ltd. as a junior partner under the stewardship of Leo Mullen. David formed his own company, Franek Design, in the mid 80s and a sister company, Modus Interactive, a few years later. In the late 90s Franek/Modus were acquired and merged with MHI Communications, the largest marketing communications firm in the region with over 200 employees. At MHI, David was an Executive Vice President and then became President and Chief Creative Officer of the company. In 2001 he started The Design Channel, a branding and integrated marketing communications company. Recently he formed a subsidiary media company and micro site, thedesignetwork.com, focused on developing content and telling stories about design and designers and promoting design as a part of our popular culture.

David served as past president of American Institute of Graphic Arts, Washington Chapter (AIGA). He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington (ADCMW), and International Design By Electronics Association (IDEA). He has been a visiting lecturer and panelist at colleges, universities and business organizations. David has been a judge at various national and regional design competitions including the Mead Annual Report Show, Print Magazine, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and others. He also served as an adjunct faculty member teaching advanced graphic design at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Shepherd University.

David received his degree in design from the Pennsylvania State University. In 2004 he was given the alumni achievement award from Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture. He has received over a one hundred awards from local, regional, national and international organizations. His design work has been published in Communications Arts magazine, AIGA, Print Magazine, Art Directors Club Annuals, Graphis Magazine and Idea Magazine (a Japanese international publication). Critique Magazine named his company one of the top ten design firms in the Washington region, Novum Gebrauchs Graphik Magazine, an international German magazine featured an eight-page article on his work. He has received branding and integrated communications awards from Marcom Awards, Communicator Awards, and American Corporate Identity. Recently his TV spots and documentary films won top awards from the Ava and Telly Awards.

About the Fellow Award

The AIGA Fellow is a national program through which each chapter can recognize one or more mature designers who have made significant contributions to the local design communities and chapter by raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct. In measuring significant contribution, the areas of education, writing, leadership, and reputation, as well as the practice of design, have equal consideration. A Fellow Award nominee should be: * A practitioner and/or educator with more than 15 years of experience in the profession * A member in good standing * Making or has made a significant contribution to AIGA * Making or has made a positive impact within their local or regional design community * Advancing or has advanced excellence in graphic design as a discipline, profession, and cultural force. Past AIGA DC Fellow Award recipients include: * Tom Suzuki, 2000 * Pat Taylor, 2001 * Stephen Kraft, 2002 * Terrence McCaffrey, 2003 * Charles Michael Helmken, 2004 * Ethel Kessler, 2004 * Judy Kirpich, 2005 * Beth Singer, 2005 * Sam Shelton, 2006 * Antonio Alcalá, 2008