AIGA is nearly 100 years old. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, which might be true. Fortunately, AIGA is a 22,000 person strong organization, not an aging canine. We’re changing our membership structure, and we couldn’t be happier about it.

You now have the ability to choose how much you want to pay to be an AIGA member. Think of it like how a museum might structure their membership. You can go to a museum without being a member, just like you can come out to AIGA Charlotte events without being an AIGA member. And you should come out—we have a lot of cool stuff going on.

But if you do donate to a museum, you get certain perks. You might get access to after-hours events, where they let you touch the paintings and climb on the sculptures. Your AIGA membership gives you access to AIGA/Adobe webinars, AIGA Survey of Design Salaries, AIGA Design Job Board, and AIGA event discounts. Sustaining members get access to significant discounts on Adobe and Apple products. No sculptures, sorry.

AIGA has done a great job of writing about why they are making these changes, and have tried to anticipate a lot of the questions that you might have. But if you have questions they haven’t answered, or you just want to talk through something with a friendly Charlottean, please drop us a line. This is a huge change, and there will undoubtedly be some issues that arise. But it was a change worth making, and we hope that you’ll join us as we move forward.