Fellows

 2006 AIGA Miami Fellow Award / Annette M. Piskel

Annette M. Piskel, born, raised and schooled in Pennsylvania, holds her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Communication Design from the college of Visual and Performing Arts at Kutztown University.

Careered in graphic design for over 25 years,  Annette began her profession as a designer when she moved to  Los Angeles in the early 80’s.  Marked by a strong belief in the ability of art and design, she founded AMPdzine,  a multi-disciplinary design firm, helping individuals, companies and institutions achieve and communicate their goals.  AMPdzine is a driven and distinguished hands-on studio, with an eye for unique perspectives, it centers its creativity as a craft, the passion, that finds its own point of view, its own vision and style.

Annette is a fourteen-year member of AIGA. Her start with AIGA Miami began innocently enough. She accepted a piece of cake that obligated her to a volunteer position on the exhibition committee. She eventually joined the board and served as the publication director for 1 year, Vice-president for 2 years and President for 2 years. Annette’s role on the board is legendary. Her uncompromising belief in the value of AIGA, is summed up in her well-known challenge, “y’in or y’out.” Her strong relationships with vendors has ensured solid financial support for AIGA.

She implemented, managed and raised sponsorship contributions for AIGA Miami with 20 + events, collaborations and initiatives for the design organization and its related industry resources.  Annette spearheaded The Show- Fashion of Paper with Unisource and AIGA Miami.  It success can be directly attributed to her early vision and hard work.  Her evangelical dedication to AIGA is evidenced in her attendance at the last 6 national biennial AIGA design conferences and 6 leadership retreats.

In addition to Annette’s service to AIGA Miami, with her unrelenting drive and passion for graphic design, she is also an integral part of the adjunct faculty at New World School of the Arts in Miami.  Her loyal students ensure her continued influence in the design community, as she teaches graphic and package design curriculums.  She inspires her students with great initiative in her facility by providing them real life experiences, and is both supportive and innovative in encouraging their creativity and to guide them to understand their own potential as they grow using the creatively and emerge in the vocation.

Annette’s has firmly established herself as a force in the South Florida design community as she continues to contribute to AIGA Miami through her participation, peers, students, on-going advisory and support . The efforts of Annette M. Piskel and other like her have helped to build a small but strong community of designers.

The Fellow award program is a means of recognizing mature designers who have made a significant contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within their local or regional design community as well as in their local AIGA chapter. The areas of education, writing, leadership and reputation, as well as the practice of design are given equal consideration in measuring significant contribution.

AIGA Fellows at the 2008 Design Legends Gala (from left): Frank Baseman, Sam Shelton, Scott Gericke, Paula Savage Hanson, Jennifer Morla, Kenneth Botts, Terry Marks, Mick Hodgson, Tim Smith, R. Michael Hendrix, Antonio Alcalá, Christopher Liechty, Noreen Morioka, Christopher Pullman, Reed Agnew, Doug Kisor, Jim Watson, Don Moyer, Grant Smith, John Bielenberg, MaeLin Levine, Ron Miriello.

The following Fellows have been recognized in recent years.