For the past six years, AIGA Colorado has proudly partnered with The Creative Group in hosting the event series Buzz: An Independent Creative Roundtable. This programming has allowed us to help hundreds of creatives develop and grow their professional career through thoughtful discussion and speaker presentations. Buzz is held every third Tuesday at SHIFT co-working space. Topics range from developing passive incomes, building client relationships, project management, self-promotion and more.  We are honored to have such a long relationship with The Creative Group and look forward to many more years to come. We wanted to share why they matter to us and our community, so we took some time out to chat with them about why they continue to work with AIGA CO.

Why do you partner with AIGA CO?
AIGA CO is a tremendous resource for the graphic design community. Its commitment to advancing design as a profession is something we have in common. As a creative staffing firm, our goal is to provide our clients with immediate access to highly skilled creative talent. Our partnership with the AIGA CO allows us the opportunity to meet top-shelf creatives who help us achieve that goal.

What benefit does TCG provide independent designers?
At the very least, we are a resource for obtaining freelance design opportunities. The benefits we hear cited most often are:

• We provide access to job opportunities that one may not have on their own
• We take on a significant portion of the administrative process that running a freelance business requires – creating invoices, collecting on invoices and handling local, state and federal taxes
• The freelance professionals we have on assignment are compensated every week

What is your favorite thing about being in Colorado?
Where else can you snowboard in the morning, play nine holes of golf in the afternoon and watch the Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl all in the same day? True story!

What trends do you see happening in your industry?
A continuing and evolving trend is the demand for digital creative talent. UI/UX and Creative Technologist roles are especially hot. Responsive design experience is practically an assumed requirement and there is rarely a job that doesn’t have a digital element.

What else do you want us to know?
To address the unique opportunities and challenges faced by in-house designers, we have partnered with AIGA to form “INitiative,” a program to help in-house designers make a greater impact at their companies, evolve professionally and connect with a broader network of peers. The Creative Group specializes in connecting talented creatives with companies looking to hire interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations talent. To learn more, contact TCG’s Denver team at (303) 295-7979 or denver@creativegroup.com.

Thank you again to The Creative Group for their continued support. We hope you will join us at AIGA’s Buzz series soon.