“How do you make design a strategic partner within an organization?” was the main topic of the night at the AIGA/NY In The House talk, which took place at the Tishman Auditorium on September 9, 2010. The talk featured leaders of three successful in-house design practices–JetBlue Airways, kate spade new york, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Each presentation touched upon organizational hierarchy, design approach and process, successes and challenges.

T.J. McCormick, general manager of brand design, and Fiona Morrisson, director of branding and advertising, presented JetBlue Airway’s in-house design. For JetBlue, the design group realized early on that they could distinguish the company by not thinking of themselves as an airline company, but instead as a people company that offers flights. “We fly people, we don’t fly planes,” said Fiona Morrison. The in-house design lives by 5 core JetBlue values, which act as filters for evaluating everything they do and design. Nice, fresh, smart, stylish and witty are the brand values that define all design decisions ranging from interior of the cabin, in-flight experience, uniform design, airport terminals, to even JetBlue branded rain boots.

“Design is the DNA of JetBlue, and our mission is to bring humanity to air travel,” said Fiona Morrison as she talked about the design of the cabin and the longevity of the design decisions. For example, in thinking about the in-flight experience, JetBlue took out the beverage cart and replaced it with tray service. The carts are bulky, they trap you as you’re trying to go to the bathroom, they bump your elbow if you’re sitting in the aisle seat, and they weigh down the plane a lot more than light trays. This seems simple and genius–so why aren’t more airlines getting rid of carts and offering drinks and food from a tray?

Next, Theresa Canning Zast, senior director of creative services, and Deborah Camplin, vice president of product design, presented the in-house process at kate spade new york. Similar to JetBlue, the kate spade new york design teams use brand values to filter products, windows and store design, and marketing materials. The brand values are playful, spirited, colorful, chic, optimistic, graphic, bold, clever aspirational and timeless. “Every channel and every piece has to go through these brand values,” said Deborah Camplin.

After a general overview of the brand, the speakers took us through a specific delivery (for August 2010) to show how the design process evolves from the beginning. There is an important storytelling quality to the design process at kate spade new york. Every season starts by putting together a room of inspiration with visual narrative. For the Aug 2010 delivery, the overarching idea for the fall was ‘Be a Culture Vulture’, and included inspirations from Matisse, color mixing on newsprint, spin art, complimentary colors, flea markets, vintage finds, and Paul Rand book covers. Having a defined narrative as a foundation for all design decisions helps the team translate the influences of Matisse into colors in the prints, as well as translate the theme of ‘Be a Culture Vulture’ into commercial products like handbags, shoes, jewelry and apparel, and later into the store display design.

The last presentation was by Rebecca Gimenez, design director at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The challenges within the Whitney’s in-house design team were streamlining the institution’s scattered visual communication and leading the Museum through design decisions in strategic and practical ways. By bringing people into the design process, the in-house team was able to showcase the values of design and ultimately get the buy-in of their internal clients.

A key point in this presentation was building trust: who has the final word over design decisions? Rebecca Gimenez explains, “Nobody should have final say. In in-house design situations, choosing who has final say is kind of like saying, ‘who has final say, the heart or the lungs?’ We’re here to let everyone understand that in order to make a good healthy decision, everybody has to come to an agreement.” The design team at the Whitney recognizes that working in-house functions on an economy of trust, “you give your work away, and you trust that the organization will return the value to you in ways that you may not be able to predict,” said Gimenez.

In contrast with established brand values of JetBlue and kate spade new york, the Whitney is still an organization that’s becoming. The long design process that Gimenez orchestrated is both inclusive and collaborative. She concluded with a quote by Buckinster Fuller that hangs over her desk for daily inspiration, “Go to work, and above all co-operate and don’t hold back on one another or try to gain at the expense of another. Any success in such lopsidedness will be increasingly short-lived.”

Andy Epstein, head of in-house design for the AIGA, moderated a panel discussion and audience Q&A. The discussion wrapped up with a simple question:

How do you stay inspired?

“We’re constantly re-evaluating what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. We hire people that embody our core values, so [inspiration] is self-generating.”

–Deborah Camplin, kate spade new york

“The airline industry isn’t really inspiring, so for us it’s important to talk to other designers and look at what people are doing outside of the airline industry”

–T.J. McCormick, JetBlue Airways

“We’re an artist lead institution, constantly having to keep up with what’s going on in contemporary art. When I feel uninspired I just go into the museum and take an afternoon or even a half an hour. It makes a huge difference”

–Rebecca Gimenez, The Whitney Museum of American Art

Finally, the evening concluded with drinks and good company at the first-ever PostScript Drinks + Conversation. Organized by Jessi Arrington, AIGA/NY Community Chair, the mixer was held at the City Tavern, and allowed the crowd to mix and mingle with the speakers and other attendees. Thank you to everyone who came out to PostScript. If you missed it, you can catch the next PostScript Drinks + Conversation following the Ian Wright Small Talk on September 22, 2010.

For more information on the speakers, visit

kate spade new york: http://www.katespade.com

JetBlue Airways: www.jetblue.com

Whitney Museum of American Art: http://whitney.org/

To view event details, visit

AIGA/NY In The House: http://2006.aigany.org/events/details/11P1/

AIGA In-house blog: http://invangelist.wordpress.com/aiga-initiative/

To view additional photos, please visit our Flickr photostream. We encourage our members to contribute their photos to the AIGA New York Flickr group.