Volunteer Leadership · Case Study
DC Design Week
Building a citywide celebration of Washington’s creative community
Years
2017–2021
Organization
AIGA DC
Role
Volunteer Leadership
I spent four years helping lead DC Design Week, a volunteer-run, citywide celebration of design and creativity across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. What started as a programming role grew into leading a 20+ person volunteer team, shaping the vision and positioning for each year’s event, building partnerships, developing communications, and creating the systems that made the whole thing possible.
From the archive
2017 – 2020
01
From Programming to Leadership
My role with DC Design Week grew from programming individual events into shaping the vision, structure, and leadership behind the entire week. After serving as Director of Programming in 2017, I became Director in 2018 and 2019, leading increasingly large teams of volunteers and overseeing programming, partnerships, communications, marketing, and production.
In 2020, I joined the AIGA DC Board as Vice President, working in a supporting capacity alongside the new DC Design Week Director to ensure a seamless leadership transition. When the pandemic made gathering in person impossible, I helped the team transition an entire year of programming into virtual experiences, keeping the creative community connected at a moment when people needed it most.
02
A different vision every year
For three years, I shaped a distinct identity and voice for the festival—new creative direction, new campaign language, new ways to invite DC’s creative community in.
2017
Programming centered around speakers and organizations including Mike Monteiro, Emory Douglas, NPR, Politico, CreativeMornings, and the National Poster Retrospecticus.
2018
A much larger program featuring Adam J. Kurtz, creative lunches with 15 local studios, and workshops with National Geographic, NASA, USPS, US Digital Service, Pyramid Atlantic, and PBS.
2019
A new “DC is Fact-sinating” concept turned quirky facts about the city into a campaign language system spanning headlines, longer descriptions, and social captions—connecting to writing, voice, and place all at once.
03
Making DC the venue
DC Design Week wasn’t meant to happen in one conference room. I intentionally sought out venues, partners, sponsors, studios, cultural organizations, and public spaces throughout the DMV so that the festival could reflect the breadth of the region’s creative community.
Programming stretched across all four quadrants of DC and into Maryland and Virginia—including events in Alexandria, Greenbelt, Sterling, and neighborhood venues throughout the city—bringing people into places and communities they might not otherwise encounter through a traditional design conference.
04
From concept to execution
My responsibilities as Director touched every layer of the week, from the first creative concept to the final volunteer debrief. I spent late nights updating spreadsheets, cold-calling potential sponsors, hand-printing and wheatpasting posters, and making thousands (literally) of buttons. Doing whatever needs to get done was part of my job description.
Positioning
Developing the annual theme, messaging, voice, and public-facing story for each year’s festival.
Promotion
Creating campaign concepts, event descriptions, social content, email messaging, and visual assets for each year’s program.
Partnerships
Working with speakers, studios, sponsors, cultural organizations, venues, and community partners to shape a program that represented the full breadth of DC’s creative community.
Production
Coordinating schedules, volunteers, venues, speakers, supplies, registration, and the inevitable last-minute problems that are part of every live event.
Community
Creating programming that gave different corners of the creative community (studios, nonprofits, government agencies, students, freelancers) a reason to show up.
05
The invisible work that made it sustainable
Behind the scenes, I realized that the biggest opportunity wasn’t just making each year’s festival better, it was making the work easier for the next person.
I created a shared organizational system in Google Drive containing planning calendars, worksheets, timelines, templates, surveys, communications materials, and other administrative tools. The system was designed to capture the institutional knowledge that otherwise disappeared when a volunteer director’s term ended.
The goal was simple: spend less time reinventing the wheel, and more time imagining what DC Design Week could become next.
06
Recognition & community impact
Mayor’s Office
2019 & 2020
Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a proclamation recognizing DC Design Week—the first-ever mayoral recognition of the festival, with the 2019 dates officially recognized as September 20–27.
Media
2019
Interviews with local radio stations, including at the Apple Store, We Act Radio, and Full Service Radio Station, discussing the growing DC creative community and the expanding reach of the festival across the region.
Design Continuum Fund
2020
DCDW proceeds supported AIGA DC’s Design Continuum Fund, providing scholarships to students pursuing design education in DC, Maryland, and Virginia—with $5,000+ directed to the fund in 2020.
07
A week built to last
DC Design Week taught me that successful events are equal parts creative vision and infrastructure. The visible part—the speakers, posters, venues, and packed rooms—is only possible when someone is paying attention to the spreadsheets, timelines, relationships, communication systems, and hundreds of small details underneath.
I loved both sides of that equation.
More than anything, I’m proud that the work I did helped create a stronger foundation for the people who came after me. Each new director could inherit a functioning system and spend their energy putting their own stamp on Washington’s creative community.
Selected Programming
Emory Douglas
Speaker · 2017
Mike Monteiro
Speaker · 2017
National Poster Retrospecticus
Speaker · 2017
NPR
Speaker · 2017
ADAM JK
Speaker · 2018
POP UP SHOP
Event · 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Mural Run
Event · 2018
Pyramid Atlantic
Workshop · 2018
Spotify
Speaker · 2019
Apple x Carnegie Library
Workshop · 2019
Globe Posters
Event · 2019
Antionette Carroll
Workshop · 2018
MADE BY WE
Made by We is the independent design studio I founded in 2012, where I collaborate with organizations large and small to create thoughtful brands and digital experiences.
Visit Made by We →
Liz Rose Chmela
2026