RIT expands relationship with AGI

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A. Sue Weisler

The Vignelli Center for Design Studies is the new home of the Alliance Graphique Internationale Foundation offices.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences is increasing its relationship with the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI)—an exclusive group of the world’s leading graphic artists and designers—by hosting AGI’s foundation at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

Widely considered the “Academy Awards” of the design industry, AGI unites the world’s leading graphics designers and artists in a professional organization of common interest and achievement. Among other responsibilities, the foundation supports faculty research and student grant projects that AGI considers important to the design industry.

“This brings RIT into direct contact with a major international professional advocacy organization, extending our global and collaborative initiatives,” said R. Roger Remington, RIT’s Vignelli distinguished professor of design who was inducted into AGI last year. “It’s an elite group, which makes this a key move in further enhancing RIT’s visibility in the international design community.”

AGI members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world’s top corporations and institutions as well as for countless examples of globally recognized packaging, publications and illustrations.

The organization’s role and importance within the professional field of graphic design is different from the existing national and international professional organizations, according to Remington.

“AGI is a platform for activity. It has a task to tell the world and change it,” he added.

Through the relationships and interaction of its members, AGI promotes graphic design in lectures, education and publishing. The organization encourages knowledge and understanding of design and has deep contacts with other institutions, organizations and companies involved in graphic design.

The organization has approximately 350 members from 27 countries around the globe and only admits members who have achieved high professional standing in the field of graphic design in their native country or internationally.

Remington will serve as the foundation’s treasurer from his office at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. The RIT professor said it was the suggestion of the late great design icon Massimo Vignelli—his longtime friend who passed away in May—to house the foundation at the RIT center for design studies bearing his name.

“Massimo was a member of AGI for many years,” Remington said. “He saw moving the foundation here as a continuation of his legacy at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.”