Design event seeks pro bono talent

Like a bit of television seeping into reality, 20 designers and 10 design students on Oct. 10 will spend 12 hours providing pro bono work for 10 worthy Charlottesville-area nonprofits.

The projects have been chosen and organizers of the inaugural Design Marathon are taking applications from professional or student designers, graphic or architectural, who are ready and willing to play.

“It’s about being a designer and providing a service,” said Serena Gruia, of Alloy Workshop, a local design firm. “We’re looking for designers as individuals to work with other designers to come up with a workable project that meets the nonprofit’s needs, and do it in 12 hours.”

For the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network, which will have designers develop an advertising campaign for advocacy and fundraising purposes along with a banner for special events, the marathon is a method to get out the word.

“It’s important for people to know who we are, what we do and understand the issues of poverty in their community,” said Ruth Jones, of the Harrisonburg-based food bank. The bank operates a variety of regional food banks, including the Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank in Charlottesville.

Jones said food supplies are critically low throughout the state, leading local advocates to schedule an array of events to generate donations of food and money.

“People don’t realize how many we serve in their communities or how widespread the problem is,” Jones said. “This can only help.”

Gruia, the primary force behind the design marathon, said the project is meant to bring designers together.

“We’re not asking for firms to apply as firms,” she said. “Firms will be recognized because they’re lending their employees, but we want to put individuals together to see what happens.”

Designers interested in participating can apply by downloading an application at http://www.designmarathon.wordpress.com. Designers will be chosen and announced Sept. 22, Gruia said.

The 12-hour challenges facing designers run the gamut, from advertising and graphic campaigns to designing restrooms and a low-cost playground. The projects:

- Design an ad campaign and banner for special events for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

- Design a site, including fencing and landscape, for a small, low-cost playground for Children, Youth and Family Services.

- Draw a schematic design for a concession and restroom facility for Greene County’s only public park, on behalf of the Greene County Ruritans.

- Redesign the logo for the Music Resource Center.

- Design posters for placement in buses that promote the Clean Rivanna Campaign on behalf of the Rivanna Conservation Society.

- Create a conceptual design for the new Rockfish Sanctuary Center to be located on about three acres.

- Create a conceptual design for a visitor center and compostable restroom for the Rockfish Valley Foundation.

- Redesign dog housing, runs and training grounds for Service Dogs of Virginia, with focus on reducing stress on the land.

- Design a retrospective piece to celebrate the Shelter for Help in Emergency’s 30th anniversary in 2009.

- Design logos, T-shirts and event program covers for two Special Olympics of Virginia events, the Alpine Championships at Wintergreen Resort and The Experience Tennis Invitational at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.

“We chose the projects based on a variety of things, but mostly on whether we could really accomplish what the agency needed in only 12 hours,” Gruia said. “We want to have a challenge that, at the end of the day, is something the nonprofits can really put into use.”

Gruia said organizers hope the marathon will become an annual event.

“It should be a lot of fun,” she said. “There’s also a need out there. There are lot of projects out there and we wish we could do more.”