AIGA Brand Central presents a short-film screening to celebrate its speakers + a live, interactive Q&A panel discussion that needs your questions!
Click here for info and tickets.
Featuring iconic designers, this interview series highlights insights and directives of these five branding and design professionals:
David Ceradini
Stan Church
Milton Glaser
Gerard Huerta
Cheryl Swanson
The discussion segment will be moderated by Tina Essmaker.
David Ceradini is Chief Creative Officer of Ceradini Brand Design, a boutique package design and branding agency committed to bringing brands to life and unleashing their true potential through the power of great design. For over 20 years they have been committed to creating intelligent solutions that captivate the heart, stimulate the senses and motivate consumers to choose your brand.
Stan Church is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Wallace Church & Co., an internationally recognized brand identity and packaging design firm based in NYC. In his 40+ years with the company, Stan has led Wallace Church & Co. to an accomplished and highly respected agency in the design field. Stan oversees creative efforts from inception to realization and has worked on leading consumer brands in nearly every category. Stan is a graduate and former distinguished faculty member of Parsons The New School for Design. He has served as a national board member of the AIGA, and was named as an AIGA Fellow in 2011.
Milton Glaser is among the most celebrated graphic designers in the United States. He has had the distinction of one-man-shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. He was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (2004) and the Fulbright Association (2011), and in 2009 he was the first graphic designer to receive the National Medal of the Arts award. As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with the painter, Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, and is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design. He opened Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and continues to produce a prolific amount of work in many fields of design to this day.
Gerard Huerta is a designer of letter forms. Born and raised in southern California he graduated from Art Center College of Design and began his career at CBS Records in New York creating artwork and iconic logos for Boston, Blue Oyster Cult, and later Foreigner, ACDC and many others.  He left CBS to expand his work beyond the recording and movie industry to design logos for HBO, CBS Records Masterworks, Spelling Entertainment, Nabisco, Calvin Klein’s Eternity, The National Guitar Museum, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, the mastheads of Time, Money, People, Architectural Digest, and many others. He designed watch dials for the Original Swiss Army Watch and their complete line for fourteen years and also created original product illustrations.  Gerard also designed the multi-necked fully-playable stringed instrument known as The Rock Ock for the National Guitar Museum, which is on tour along with his Vintage Guitar Art. His work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
Cheryl Swanson leads big, medium and small brands ”” including those for Pepsico, Nestle, General Motors, Serta, Weleda, Traditional Medicinals ”” to increased market presence and revenue by inspiring the hearts and emotions of consumers for their products. As a trained anthropologist, Cheryl’s passion is finding brand meaning within cultural contexts, then decoding the symbols ”” both verbal and visual ”” that help people navigate their lives.  Cheryl created the practice of Visual Positioning through the use of semiotics in the 90s, when positioning was done only in words. Over the last decade, this practice has been widely adopted by the branding industry. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Chair of FUSE, the annual conference on design, branding and culture, and a past President of AIGA Brand Central, the AIGA’s branding chapter.
Tina Essmaker is an NYC-based coach, writer, and speaker. An expert in the creative landscape with more than 10 years of experience, Tina’s practice draws on her formal education as a coach and social worker, and years researching and interviewing creatives as Editor in Chief of The Great Discontent magazine. Personable yet practical, Tina equips individuals and teams across creative industries to take action toward their goals.