At Pier 60, extending from West 23rd Street over the Hudson river, over 300 designers and design supporters gathered to celebrate a suite of bestowed honors.

The AIGA Design Legends Gala, now it its fourth year, is a like a mini design Oscars; however, the awards serve not to recognize not the year’s best but rather to honor life long accomplishments and future potential.

There’s something fulfilling about seeing luminaries sharing the stage with students, and clients doing so with designers. It’s a bit of a formalized we’re-all-in-this-together. I like that.

Corporate Leadership Awards are awarded to organizations who show a long-standing commitment to design as a valuable part of their business. One can’t help but draw the line between these awards and AIGA’s goal to make a case for design as a strategic business tool and its increasingly large-scale interest in all aspects of design.

John Maeda presented the first corporate award to Samsung.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was the recipient of the second award. Kurt Andersen gave a comical and somewhat ironic introduction (citing a false but critical article condemning Stewart in the first issue of his famed Spy Magazine), before Martha Stewart accepted the award. It was immediately clear that Stewart has an ability to command a room, even a room that might be partial predisposed to suspect her attendance.

Stewart was quick to insist that Gael Towey, now her Chief Creative Officer, has been an integral partner and visionary in developing the Martha Stewart brand. Though her talents hardly needed to be pointed out to the audience before her, it was a fine moment to see these two highly-influential women share the stage.

Recipients of both the Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing and Criticism

and the Worldstudio AIGA Scholarships were invited to the stage and received the warm applause of attendees.

The thrust of the gala was the awarding of the AIGA Medal to four designers marking very different relationships to the design profession.

Bruce Mau was introduced by Paola Antonelli as both a master of designing at large scales and a champion of large scale collaboration and designers’ “seat at the table.” Mau cited several of his noted collaborations and influential lessons and delivered what was a reoccurring theme in all of the acceptances of the evening: sincere appreciation for support from his family.

Ed Fella kept a humble demeanor as he was recognized for both his influential experimental typography and his late life career invigoration. Seeing his work slide across the screens was a reminder the excitement that a volume of well-crafted form can induce.

“Everything I do is education” said Ellen Lupton, another recipient. A roomful of designers literally cheered when the cover of her book Thinking With Type appeared on screen. Love was in the air.

Finally, Georg Olden was given a posthumous honor. Olden directed the identities of many iconic mid-century programs on CBS including I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, and Lassie. Following his influential years at CBS, Olden went on to equally notable roles in the Madison Ave. advertising world at BBDO and McCann-Erickson.

His son Georg Olden Jr. accepted the honor bestowed upon a father he barely knew—his father died when he was only a child—and appealed to the audience for anyone who knew his father and could share with him more of his life.

Designers young and old, clients, advocates, supporters, and fans gathered to celebrate design.

More information about the event’s tireless organizers, sponsors, and award recipients is available at aiga.org.

(Images from AIGA.org)