AIGA Index aspen design challenge

AIGA Index aspen design challenge
The Aspen Design Challenge is an annual call to students worldwide, inviting them to address an international problem that is not only crucial in today’s world, but critical to our survival and the world that they will one day inherit.

The Challenge is a partnership between AIGA, the professional association for design, in the United States, and INDEX:, a nonprofit organization in Denmark that is dedicated to changing global mindsets by exploring and showing how design can improve life for people. This year’s challenge, “Designing Water’s Future,” is a collaboration with Circle of Blue—the international network of leading journalists, scientists and communications designers that reports and presents the information necessary to respond to the global freshwater crisis—and COLLINS:, a communication design and innovation firm based in New York City.

Organizer’
AIGA and INDEX

Important dates
December 15, 2008: Deadline for entries
February 2010: Finalists announced
February-March 2010: Finalists refine concepts and presentations
Late March 2010: Finalists (up to four per team) invited to the Aspen Environment Forum in Colorado, USA, to discuss proposals with designers, scientists, journalists and business leaders
August 2010: Finalists (up to four per team) invited to Copenhagen for a collaborative workshop in connection with the INDEX: Award 2010; implementation plans developed with venture capitalists and foundations
Late August 2010: One finalist awarded INDEX: | AIGA Aspen Design Challenge Prize, a $10,000 grant to be put towards implementation of the winning project
October 2010: Finalists’ projects published
November-December 2010: Selection of projects presented to participants of the World Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen