Degrees of Separation is a postcard publication about post-Katrina responses from designers with a connection to New Orleans. It looks beautiful, it a great cause… you should order - we just did!

The T-shirt features the word “Creatives Care” hand-lettered by Marian Bantjes, who donated the design for this cause. Profits from the Creatives Care campaign have been divided between the AIGA’s Disaster Relief Fund and the American Red Cross. The T-shirt sells for $22 USD and is available at: veer.com/care.

This T-shirt is a small way for Veer to help bring the design community together. Veer reaches hundreds of thousands of design professionals through our monthly catalogs and other communications - we thought we could use this reach to help. >From this campaign, we’ve seen that great things can heppen when the design community is beckoned.

Yours truly,
Marla Clarke
Veer

Before Katrina hit, I had a small independent design studio in New Orleans. Business was doing quite well, so I never took the time to put together an online portfolio or worry about marketing myself. After disaster hit however, that situation changed dramatically, as many of my clients were thrown into a situation of uncertainty themselves, possibly never reopening and unable to pay what they owed already.

None of us knew what would happen. Everything just stopped.

I was displaced with only a portfolio and a laptop, but needed to rebuild a business with new clients not affected by the disaster. With no online portfolio and no extra samples of work to send out, I knew this would be a challenge. However, a design team in the northeast who I met via displaced designer and the AIGA conference, came to my rescue offering to take my portfolio, scan in some of the work and post a small website displaying it. I am nevertheless especially grateful for all the generosity I received and the new friends made. I still plan on working with those New Orleans clients who are reopening, but now I also have the opportunity for a new start with work coming in from as far away as California and New York. I will be returning to New Orleans at the end of this week more than 2 months after I left it, and though there is much trepidation in returning to a city so critically injured, unsure of exactly what we will find, I have a new found desire to continue painting and designing.

Thanks much - I’ll be forever grateful!
Jaye

Not too long ago we heard from our good friend Ness, one of the many designers affected by the hurricane season. He sent along a link to this set of images he had taken upon making his way back into New Orleans. We have seen a lot of images like this in the last few months, the thing to remember here is that a lot of this still looks the same today.

It’s been a while, and we have heard from many of you, however lots of folks still could use a bit of help.

I also want to thank my software provider for upgrading my software. My original CDs and manuals are all at the bottom of my studio in a wet heap, and they sent me the latest and greatest, when all I requested was what I had.

Thanks bunches!

Thanks to those of you who wrote in to post about the online art sale/exhibition going on at 25abovewater.com. Each artist created 12 limited edition posters to be sold online in an effort to raise money for American Red Cross, 10 posters for sale, 1 poster for the traveling exhibition and 1 poster for the artist’s personal collection. Head on over, browse the gallery, (get em while you can!) there is some really great work up for grabs.