NEW YORK, December 8, 2008. At this year’s “Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference,” held October 23–25, in New York, more than 25 business and creative leaders captivated a sold-out crowd of more than 700 attendees by sharing their effective designs, business strategies and thoughtful innovations.

The ideas and excitement of “Gain” will now live on through a collection of accessible video presentations at www.aiga.org/video-gain-2008, in order to extend the conference experience and give those who were unable to attend a chance to enjoy the wealth of knowledge shared at this biennial event. By making the “Gain” presentations available to a wide audience with a broad range of abilities, AIGA strives to open the discussion and demonstrate the value of design and design thinking to business leaders and the world at large.

Each full-length “Gain” video is available with a full transcript, closed-captioning and, when possible, a PDF copy of the speaker’s main-stage presentation. Highlights include:

• Luis Fitch, principal and co-founder, UNO Hispanic Branding, on “UNO’s Filtros: A Hispanic Ethnography Tool for Better Design.” Fitch pointed out that, although nearly 50 percent of the United States is Hispanic, there is incredible diversity among these Spanish-speakers and varying degrees of acculturation. As such, companies should make an effort to understand their differences and commonalities to better reach this coveted market.
• Malcolm Gladwell, author, The Tipping Point and Blink, on “Outliers: The Story of Success.” Gladwell deftly brought Fleetwood Mac’s rise to success into the design discussion—and made miraculous sense of it. His enlightened (and circuitous) discourse, inspired by his latest book, Outliers, cited what it takes to become a success: innovation, genius, creativity, time and experimentation.
• Jonah Lehrer, author, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, on “Why the Sciences Need Art: Or, What a 19th-Century French Chef Can Teach Us About the Brain.” Lehrer, scientist and author, stretched people’s imaginations by linking gustatory discoveries by French chef August Escoffier with painting practices by Paul Cezanne and musical ruminations by Mozart and Kanye West.
• Stephen Doyle, principal and creative director, Doyle Partners, and Gael Towey, chief creative officer, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, on “The Visual Language of Martha Stewart.” Doyle and Towey, design collaborators and spouses, bantered about designing for Martha Stewart: from hand-carving the company’s identity to deriving inspiration from a collection of more than 50,000 objects.

To see all 18 accessible videos from “Gain,” visit www.aiga.org/video-gain-2008.