Advisory Board
Agustin Garza has been active and influential in the Los Angeles design community for over 25 years. His firm, Garza Group Communications, has been a leader in the field of inter-cultural communications with a focus on strategic branding, position and marketing communications in the U.S. and internationally. Founded in 1987, Garza Group provides services for corporate, real-estate/destination and consumer product clients, such as the cities of Los Angeles and Mexico, Jones Lang LaSalle, Catellus Development Corporation, American Express, Reichmann International and Adheva, among others.
Agustin was born and raised in Mexico City. After undergraduate studies in political science at the Universidad Autónoma de México, he attended the Fine Arts program at CCAC (California College of Art and Crafts). He graduated from Art Center College of Design with high honors in Graphic Design and entered Art Center’s masters program in Fine Arts. He has served as a professor at Art Center for over a decade. Agustin was a founding professor of Art Center’s European campus and has also taught Advanced Graphic Design at Universidad Anahuac, in Mexico City. Agustin is a Member of Quórum (The Design Council of Mexico), serves on the Advisory Board of the Glenn Canyon Foundation, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, and has recently been appointed to the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Design Advisory Steering Committee.
Advisory Board ChairKim Baer, principal of Los Angeles-based design studio KBDA is a strong believer in the power of design as a strategic tool. Her firm has created research-driven work for clients as diverse as The Getty, Nike, The Skirball, Toyota, Hilton Hotels, Inner-City Arts and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Consistently honored by every major design organization in the country, KBDA has produced work that has been featured in the Library of Congress and regularly published in numerous design anthologies. Premiere design magazines, including Communication Arts, Print, Graphis, STEP, and HOW, have regularly showcased the firm’s work and methodology. Kim Baer frequently judges design competitions and speaks at conferences across the country. She recently received the Fellows Award from AIGA Los Angeles in honor of lifetime achievement.
Rob is Principal and Creative Director of Robert Bynder Design, a studio that offers strategy, direction and design for interactive media. With a career that includes more than 20 years experience invarious areas of the design industry, he has worked with clients that include BMW Group DesignworksUSA, Staples Center, Sony Pictures Studios, RE/MAX, Interface and Wellpoint. A native Southern Californian and a graduate of California State University Long Beach, Rob maintains his office in Westlake Village, CA.
Louise Sandhaus is the former Program Director and current full-time faculty in the Graphic Design Program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Her design office, LSD (Louise Sandhaus Design), partners with multiple disciplines to realize interpretive projects from the simple to the complex, re-gardless of media. Clients include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, UCLA Hammer Museum, City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Los Angeles Natural History Museum, and Los Angeles World Airports.
Her work, writing, and writing about her work, have appeared in numerous publications including The Women of Design, Information Design Handbook, and Metropolis magazine. Recently she completed the Hearst-sponsored Future of “Publications” class in which interdisciplinary students developed po-tential directions for content and media.
Louise currently serves on the AIGA board, on AIGA LA Advisory Board, and she is Chair of the AIGA Design Educators Community steering committee.
Senior Advisory Board
Nan Faessler, Manager of Specification Sales for Southern California’s leading paper merchant, calling on designers, art directors and production managers at ad agencies, end clients and print sales representatives. Although she started a Masters/PhD program at University of Washington in East European History, she learned to how to print in 1973 and ink still runs PMS 185 red in her blood. A confirmed design groupie Nan began working with the Art Director’s Club of Los Angeles in 1983, becoming President of that organization in 1990/91 and was one of the key people behind the merger between ADLA and the local chapter of AIGA. Nan joined AIGA Los Angeles in 1985 and has consistently served the design community, either as a committee chair or as an advisory board member. Under Nan’s leadership, Patron’s Night grew to include silent auctions that have delighted the design community and help to raise additional funds for AIGA Los Angeles. Nan was named a Fellow of AIGA Los Angeles in 2003, one of the first vendors/non-designers to receive this distinguished award in recognition of her many years of service. Prior to joining Kirk, she sold print for Donahue Printing, and spent a year and a half working on the design side with Looking.
Toni Hollander-Morse, a consultant to designers and businesses, is known as an energetic, enthusiastic combination of award-winning design director and account supervisor. Known for her mix of professionalism, marketing insight and creative talents, her firm, The Design Works, started in 1976, served clients in the fields of real estate, technology and health care. Toni's packaging and integrated marketing materials and programs have long been recognized for outstanding achievement. Winning awards in the major design and advertising competitions around the nation, her work was selected for the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress. Ms. Hollander, the first woman elected president of The Art Directors Club of Los Angeles, serves without term limits on the Advisory Board of the AIGA/Los Angeles. She was named as one of the first the AIGA Fellows in recognition of her contribution to the organization and to excellence in the design profession. She holds a BA in Art and Design and an MA in Environmental Design. Ms. Hollander-Morse studied at the University of California at Berkeley, the Universita` di Padova, Italy and UCLA. Together with her husband, Lawrence Morse, she actively supports several charitable, cultural, philanthropic, academic and athletic programs.
Board members serve a two-year term that runs from June-May. In April of each year, chapter membership is asked to nominate AIGA Los Angeles members that you think will be an asset to the Board and our chapter. And remember, you can always nominate yourself!
Volunteering for AIGA Los Angeles is a great way to meet other designers, hone your professional skills and give back to your community. Plus, without our dedicated volunteers, we would not be able to carry out the incredible events and initiatives planned throughout the year. So we need you!
