A Concise Guide to Archiving for Designers
With the objective to support design professionals when it comes to protecting and preserving their own work, DHUBdoc published the translation to Catalan and Spanish of a guide, originally published in Dutch by the Nederlands Archief Grafisch Ontwerpers (NAGO), and in English by the American association AIGA.
NAGO is a foundation which aims to collect, preserve and provide access to online archives of the leading designers in the Netherlands.
A Concise Guide to Archiving for Designers (881 KB, pdf)
Ten Tips for Designers to Avoid an Archive-Disaster:
- Do not keep everything. Archiving is identifying.
- Keep the process, not only the final result.
- Keep items that belong together, together. Archiving is organizing.
- Describe what you have and where you have it stored.
- Keep your archive in a safe place—high and dry.
- Remove the enemies.
- Protect your archive from mold, animals and bugs.
- Safely house your archives in suitable boxes, files, folders or tubes.
- Think about long-term access.
- Prevent obsolescence.
The guide was translated to Catalan and Spanish by DHUBdoc, the documentation centre of the Disseny Hub Barcelona, and was presented at the centre's inauguration on January 20th, 2011.
The author of the text, art historian Karin van der Heiden has been in charge of the Dutch Archives for Graphic Designers (NAGO) in the Netherlands for more than nine years. She was responsible for the digitization of the work of various Dutch designers and design agencies. She moderates discourses, gives workshops and lectures on design history and design archives at universities, colleges and conferences.
In 2006, she published the ‘Beknopte handleiding archiveren voor ontwerpers’ (A Concise Guide to Archiving for Designers) , a comprehensive manual on how to preserve and organize designers’ archives. Currently, she consults archival institutes, museums and design agencies on collection accessibility and digitization. She is preparing a publication on the pioneers of digital graphic design and is developing a strategy to preserve digital designers archives in collaboration with the Dutch association of designers BNO and Premsela foundation.
Text and Photos: Karin van der Heiden
Design: Meri Iannuzzi
Translation: Glòria Bohigas
Edition promoted by DHUBdoc, the documentation centre of the Disseny Hub Barcelona, January 2011.
@2006 NAGO, Utrecht, Netherlands
