Asai

[amer abidi]

I'll Join, count me in! =)

[Jim Kessler]

I have been a member since 2000 and have found it to be somewhat helpful but could defintely use a boost. Count me in for whatever is necessary.

[Ernest Burden III]

I'll join the cause

I'll help, join....what ever we are calling it.

I'll Join, count me in! =)

Count me in for whatever is necessary.

etc.

 

Hey Devin, thanks for bringing this up. Seems we're making some real progress here!

[Devin Johnston]

I'm just glad something is being accomplished and it hasn't been just another thread where people complain but nothing gets done.

[BrianKitts]

Okay, add one more to the list, I'm in!

[RyanSpaulding]

I'm willing to join up...I'll try to get 40 hours in this year. I have to apply for membership still but I'm for anything that helps us out.

 

EDIT: Did I miss where we said WHAT our 40 hours would be spent doing?

[Matt Clementson]

Add me to the list Jeff - I've just got my membership to ASAI. Obviously as an international member my hours will have to be dedicated to tasks that don't actually require me to be in the States.

[BrianKitts]

was wondering if anyone includes ASAI on their business cards after their name along with group affiliations such as AIA, or LEED cert.

[aaron-cds]

was wondering if anyone includes ASAI on their business cards after their name along with group affiliations such as AIA, or LEED cert.

 

I do

[Chad Warner]

was wondering if anyone includes ASAI on their business cards after their name along with group affiliations such as AIA, or LEED cert.

 

I do

 

I've been wondering about this myself. Aaron--Do you think that having ASAI after your name lends more credibility, or do people ask "What's ASAI?"

[aaron-cds]

Well, I figure it couldn't hurt. Besides, ASAI is a professional organization just as the AIA is a professional organization. It also gives more exposure to the ASAI. I'm still waiting for my little shiny ASAI pin that I can where on my suit lapel.

[Chad Warner]

That's true.....it could work as "reverse credibility with exposure thrown in" When someone asks you what ASAI means, you direct them to the website, which shows that you're a member of a professional organization and the ASAI gets more exposure out of it as well.

[aaron-cds]

It also allows them to see that there's other fish in the sea.

[BrianKitts]

I have mixed thoughts on it.

 

As I was filling out our company form to get new cards in time for DMVC.... I was giving it some thought because specifically it asks for any professional affiliations or memberships.... my first thought was "hey I have one now"

 

I have it on my email signature, and more often the question that comes up from people that see it following "what is it".... is they ask "do you have to pass a test to get that, or do you just sign up?"..... The question bothers me a bit, and that's kind of what differentiates it in my mind from the other typical organizations that you see in someone's title line.

 

I do like aaron's mark of making it an awareness factor.

[aaron-cds]

Well, unlike the ALA or AIA, which you have to be a licensed architect to join, I suppose anyone could join ASAI and put it behind their name. No a-holes have ever asked me if I had to pass a test for joining the ASAI

[Chad Warner]

Adding a test might add some (more) legitimacy to having ASAI behind your name, but with such a broad field and so many mediums, it'd be a hard test to come up with.

[aaron-cds]

I guess it would open up an opportunity for you to say they can visit your website to see your portfolio to see if you qualify to meet their standard.

[katkatemos]

A test would just restrict other individuals to join and, therefore, decrease the number of members. We cannot expect everyone to appreciate what we have done or what we have been doing.

 

In an organization, cooperation and service should come first, legitimacy follows.

[ikinman]

The idea of a test has come up before. I can't speak for ASAI, as although I am a member I am not an officer of that group. But discussions of having some prerequisites are regularly bandied about.

 

At NYSR, we don't have a formal test for membership, but we were faced with a situation about two years ago where someone applied for membership who clearly was not up to any kind of standards for rendering. None of us thought it would be a good idea for him to become a member, as we felt that his portfolio would dilute the 'brand' as it were, and make the organization look that much less impressive.

 

The problem one immediately runs into though is where does one draw the line? Quality in visualization is heavily subjective, and it doesn't seem 'fair' to declare yourself God and deem who is good and who isn't. However, we quickly settled on a compromise, which is rather than to make decisions based on someone's perceived quality of art, to make a decision instead based on their quality of professionalism. In this case it was easy - the guy's website was crap, with broken links, a phone number that didn't always work, etc. So we rejected his membership based on that.

 

It was the first time that I'm aware that NYSR rejected someone for membership, and I think it was the right decision for the right reason. ASAI, NYSR and the other organizations are professional organizations; I think professionalism, which is fairly easy to define, should be the litmus test for membership, and that it should be taken seriously and enforced.

 

ASAI and NYSR are for people who take visualization as a profession, not as a hobby. This is not to be elitist - these are organizations dedicated to marketing, public outreach, and business issues; none of this is relevant to people doing visualization for fun, and having a membership of hobbyists will hamper the ability of these groups to function well.

 

-Ian

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I think you are on to it Ian. I think portfolio submittal and a statement by the artist or firm should be the criteria for joining the ASAI or NSYR. The submittal would then be subjected to peer review, and either allowed to join, or not allowed to join. This would mean that belonging to the society is an honor, and that your work is recognized as having both quality and value.

 

I am opposed to the idea of a formal test because to me that is saying that this person can create something, and this person cannot simply because one passed our test, and the other did not. I don't think a test would stand up in the global market as being a decent measure of creating art or production art.

[aaron-cds]

AIA and ALA require licensure because they're associations for licensed architects. The purpose for the license is to protect the public from untrained imposters who may end up designing a building with undersized beams . . . you get the idea.

 

ASAI is an association for architectural illustrators. It's an organization that provides resources to its members. I don't see how they can discriminate and deny membership when there isn't a requirement to obtain a license to practice arch-viz. I understand Ian's point about not wanting to make the organization look bad. However, this seems like it would be opening the door wide for discrimination lawsuits.

[jkletzien]

I actually think ASAI provides the correct balance now. There is no hurdle for membership, which means anyone can join that wants to support its mission of good drawing (and there are a handful of members who belong that aren't illustrators), but then the juried show provides some selectivity. So open enrollment and then some editing for the public face.

 

The standards thing is I believe a little difficult in an arts organization, because if you're always judged by a group of "established" artists you're likely not going to be accepted if you're doing something different. ie. I doubt John Singer Sargent would have been accepted for his watercolors in his day because they were so loose, or Picasso for his work as it wasn't perspectival. I just don't see within an arts organization where shutting yourself off from possible invention, dialogue, new ways of seeing, is at all helpful.

 

Crap most of the time is crap, but sometimes it is ingenuity and until the government passes a law saying illustration can only be practiced by licensed illustrators (which I shudder to think) ASAI is better off not subjecting folks to the perils of the portfolio review process for membership.

 

Bad architects can make people wish they were blind, and kill them, bad illustrators can only do the former. The consequences are so small I think we can let the marketplace determine who is and who isn't qualified to work in it, and by extension who will want to join and remain a member of a professional organization. My 2 cents

[Ernest Burden III]

if you're always judged by a group of "established" artists you're likely not going to be accepted if you're doing something different....

I think we can let the marketplace determine who is and who isn't qualified to work in it, and by extension who will want to join and remain a member of a professional organization. My 2 cents

 

I have to agree with that. There have been a few members of the NYSR who's work I didn't think much of, yet they were getting hired. If the same clients the rest of us were trying to sell to chose to patronize them, that was enough to justify good standing in a professional organization. It can be a tricky call, and it doesn't come up very often. So its not much of a worry to me.

[Scott Erstad]

Good talk, good talk.

 

thanks to all for their participation on this forum. My thought is that there should be some hurdle to a membership. Not a test, but as this is a professional organization, professional practice is needed. Either or sort of approach - a number of executed commissions over a period (1-2 years) or if in house, length of employment or experience. There already is a student grade membership I believe, there could be an apprentice level membership (a year?), which owuld allow enough time to gain some level of skill in the medium of choice.

 

Not a huge bar to overcome no doubt. Just a thought, to make the membership more valued.

 

Scott

[Devin Johnston]

The idea of qualifying for membership does appeal to me as well. It would give more value to the membership however it would seem that the criteria for membership would be based on someone’s subjective interpretation of an individual’s work which is difficult to justify to say the least. I suppose they could test someone’s knowledge of their chosen field and if they meet the minimum requirements they are in, but that would mean the ASAI would need to come up with as many tests as there are different software applications and that would also be difficult. In any case I don't thing the ASAI is interested in putting that kind of qualification into their memberships at this point, they don't have enough members to justify that kind of "quality control".