AIGA Boston Journal, Buffalo Issue, 2008

In AIGA Boston’s archives, we discovered a 2008 issue of the AIGA Boston Journal titled “Buffalo.” Over 48 pages, various designers from the Boston design community contributed perspectives on sustainability. The issue was designed and edited by Andrew Smiles and Kevin Grady. In the introductory Letter from the Editors (p. 3) Smiles and Grady state, “‘Buffalo’ is a timely special issue that explores the topic of sustainability as it effects graphic designers today. Taking a thematic cue from the economical practices of Native Americans—renowned for using every part of the bison they hunted—‘Buffalo’ attempts to explore the many difficulties and moral dilemmas that we face as designers in today’s beleaguered world.”

The journal is treated with bold duotones throughout, featuring punchy slab-serif typography in headlines and titles. It features a gatefold cover and back cover. The inside front cover provides readers with a set of resources labeled “Buffalo Tips,” including keyboard shortcuts, a guide to recycling logos, and a measurement conversion table.

The contents of the “Buffalo” issue are broken into four conceptually themed sections: 1) Fur, 2) Blood, 3) Bone, and 4) Skin. The journal contained articles by Tracy Swyst, Kathleen Byrnes, Neal Kane, Nancy Boissonnet, Andrew Smiles, Kevin Grady, and Andrew Childs. Several of the articles take the form of interviews. The first interview (by Gina Deschamps) titled “Cause-Oriented Design” is with Elizabeth Resnick, with photography by Lance Hidy. The second interview (by Kathleen Byrnes) is with Robert Brown from Kirkwood Printing. A third is with the editors and Boston-area digital artist Peter Harris and features wonderfully textured examples of the artist’s work. The final interview, “Adbusting,” is with the editors and Estonian-Canadian filmmaker, author, magazine editor, and activist Kalle Lasn. 

On pages 22-27 Neal Kane and Nancy Boissonnet graphically present a survey of local designers and design groups on various topics and metrics related to sustainability. This section, which is titled “Designer Guilt: Beyond the Blue Bucket,” captures responses from Sloltze Design, Carol Diga at Bentley College (now Bentley University), MB Flanders of Flanders + Associates, Aaron Haesaert from Catapult Thinking, and Stefane Barbeau from Vessel. The issue concludes with a book review of William McDonough’s 2002 book Cradle to Cradle.

The inside back cover gatefold contains production credits, sponsors, and the following quote by the American environmentalist Paul Hawken boldly set over eight lines on a single page: “The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them.” Along these lines, the cover features an annotation that notes that although typographical errors were found [during production], the issue was not reprinted. As the editors state, “We considered a reprint, but then thought we’d be better off coming clean. Twenty-nine trees are glad we did.”