Scope and Content of Collection

The International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA) records document the activities of the annual conference that, from 1951 until 2004, served as a forum for designers and business leaders to discuss and disseminate current developments in the related fields of graphic arts, industrial design, and architecture. Consisting of office files and correspondence, printed conference materials, photographs, posters, and audio and video recordings, the archive illustrates the governing ideas and themes addressed each year and provides information about the individuals who participated in and planned each conference. While the majority of documentation pertains to the IDCA itself, the archive also includes materials about other organizations with which the IDCA was affiliated such as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies.

Records of the individual annual conferences comprise Series I. Documentation is present for each conference, but the amount and type of material preserved varies from year to year. Overall, there is abundant documentation of the planning and execution of each conference, including materials relating to administration and finances, matters relating to the board, correspondence, the development of the program and the attendees and speakers. The archive also contains the annual press releases and press coverage for the conference. The development of graphic design is documented in the printed material produced for the conference (posters, programs, flyers, abstracts), which each year featured work by a well-known designer. Most significant, however, is the documentation of the actual conference sessions. Over the life of the conference, the initially printed conference papers develop into audio recordings of sessions, first with sporadic reel-to-reel recordings in the 1950s and early 1960s and then more consistently with audiocassettes starting in 1974, and videotapes starting in 1986. Films, photographs, slides and digital files further document the conferences.

Series II is comprised of cumulative files and miscellaneous material. These files are cumulative in that they do not pertain to one annual conference. They range from office files, predominantly vendor billing and receipt files, to attempts by IDCA to collect and preserve its history. The material in many respects mirrors Series I, with groupings of administrative and financial records, lists of attendees and speakers, board records, programs and graphics. Of particular interest are the interviews with board members and the inventory project.

Arrangement

Arranged in two series: .
Series I. Annual conference records, 1951-2004;
Series II. Cumulative files and miscellaneous material, 1949-2006