RGD’s Year in Review: 2023

We had one of our best years ever in 2023 with our highest ever attendance at DesignThinkers and highest number of entries ever in our Student and professional awards programs.

RGD’s 2023 in numbers


Membership

• 4,508 total Members in 2023
• 47 new Certified RGDs
• 150 Committee and Board Members
• 15 presentations on RGD & Student Membership to school groups across Canada
• 11 Virtual Communities with 300+ members

Communications

• 24 RGD Word e-newsletters sent to 23,800 subscribers
• 56,300 followers on social media
• 122 jobs on the RGD Job Board
• 40K+ posts/messages on RGD’s Slack Community

Professional Development

• 49 webinars with 1,900 attendees (including 152 guest passes used)
• 2,760 attendees at our DesignThinkers Conferences
• $7,500 in cash scholarships for Members to attend RGD conferences

Awards

• 70 Branding Awards given
• 2 Design Educator Award Winners and 1 Honourable Mention
• 35 Student Award Winners and 112 Honourable Mentions ($15,000 in cash prizes)
• 5 Trailblazer Award Winners ($5,000 in cash prizes)

Mentorship

• 74 emerging designers paired with 65 Mentors
• 260 virtual and in-person portfolio reviews

RGD’s 2023 achievements

Perhaps more importantly, the RGD continued to advocate on behalf of the profession and raise the profile of graphic design across Canada. In 2023, the RGD:

• Launched our new Branding Awards Program with the most entries the RGD has ever received for a professional awards program.
• Launched a new event featuring virtual tours of creative studios across Canada with participation from more than 20 participating studios.
• Published results of the 2022/2023 Creative Earners survey, receiving 3,343 responses (over 1,000 downloads of the results in less than one month) and media coverage of the results in Strategy, The Message and Applied Arts.
• Presented DesignThinkers as an in-person conference in Vancouver and Toronto, with Toronto having the highest attendance ever with over 2,100 delegates.
• Presented a new two-day Certification Sprint to help prepare candidates for the RGD Certification Online Test.
• Launched a new Design Systems Webinar Series, in addition to continuing our other webinar series for In-House Design, UX Design, Culture Shock, Accessible Design, Signage & Wayfinding and Freshly Certified.
• Held our second in-person Design Educators Conference in Vancouver (in partnership with Capilano University and Vancouver Community College).
• Launched a new RGD Book Club, now with over 120 Members.
• Further developed our social media presence, with 14% growth on LinkedIn in 2023 and 17% growth on Instagram over the same time.
• Received design/branding support from Sid Lee (DesignThinkers 2023), Forge Media (DesignThinkers website), Clear Space (Creative Earners), Rethink (Branding Awards), Elyssa Schmid RGD (Educators Conference), Raj Grainger RGD (2023 Certification Sticker), Becoming Design Office Ltd. (Student Awards)