Design Guild SF was founded in 2006 to provide a community where independent design professionals and small design firms could gather to share ideas, resources and inspiration. Running a small, creative business is an exciting and rewarding experience but it can have it’s challenges as well. Membership in the Guild allows our member businesses to maintain their independence but enjoy many of the bennefits of a larger organization such as shared resources, economies of scale, social and professional interaction, an expanded knowledge base and collaboration between members.
Our headquarters is located at 427 Bryant Street near Southpark in the SOMA district- an area with a rich history in art, design, architecture and technology. Our two story building has an open plan office area upstairs, where many Design Guild members run their businesses. Downstairs is a flexible space with conference rooms, a kitchen and a large studio room that Design Guild members can access for client meetings and projects.
Our goal is to become the most active, most beneficial, and most fun design community in San Francisco. So what makes us different from other design organizations?
1. We’re local. The Bay Area is teeming with top notch designers, so we don’t have to travel far to establish a strong network of professionals. This proximity allows our members to build face to face relationships with other designers without having to travel to attend events.
2. We’re multi-disciplinary. Design is becoming more and more integrated. A consumer electronics product, for example, may require industrial design, interface and graphic design, application design, marketing and promotional work, packaging, etc. Our members include:
- Architects, Landscape Architects and Interior Designers.
- Graphic, Web, and Interaction Designers
- Industrial Designers, Furniture Designers and Design Engineers
- Video Producers, Photographers and Creative Marketing Professionals
- Fashion Designers, Design/build artists
- and much, much more…
Building a strong network across disciplines connects you with the right people who can help on any project or solicit your help on their projects.
3. We’re active. We are planning a full calendar of diverse events. From happy-hours, to design presentations, to business development, to community projects and much more. We will even promote your own event. Membership gets you more than just a discount at a yearly conference and a glossy magazine.
4. We’re customizable. Our members are unique, and we let them leverage the Design Guild community to put their best foot forward. You’re more than just a username. Each member creates their own company profile page, can post news about their business on our website and social networks, and can interact with other members in the member forums. Members have access to the Bryant Street studio to meet with clients in a professional setting, use the project rooms, share tools through our peer to peer tool exchange, or even rent office space when available.
If you would like to be a member of our dynamic and growing organization, pre-register here. We will keep you posted on updates and put you on the list for our launch party on May 9,2012.