Club History
Sacramento’s Creative Community comes of age
ADAC is lucky in that Sacramento has never lost its “small-town” feel, and members of ADAC have promoted that friendly, cooperative spirit from the beginning.
With a grand total of 15 charter members, the Art Directors and Artists Club of Sacramento launched in 1966, primarily because local graphic design professionals – who generally work in relative solitude – needed an opportunity to get out and socialize with their peers.
By the mid 1970s, membership opened to artists, illustrators, photographers and related disciplines; with small events and dinner talks added to the mix. The second Tuesday of every month became ADAC’s gathering date.
ADAC became known for expanding the practical knowledge of area professionals via showcasing exemplary work. Additionally, ADAC became a resource and a focus of educational programs within the design field.
Membership started to snowball.
The Envision Conference debuted in 1974, and for two and a half decades was the largest and longest-running design conference on the West Coast.
Envisionaries such as Saul Bass, Ray Eames, Herb Lubalin, Reid Miles, Lou Dorfsman, Ivan Chermayeff, Bob Gill, Paula Scher, April Greiman, Charles S. Anderson, David Carson and many, many more have graced stages at ADAC-run events.
Along the way, word spread that networking in ADAC brings results. Club members refer clients to other club members. Knowing who does what in this town is the key to ADAC’s networking structure.
To our credit, Envision was widely emulated by better funded-organizations, and was retired after 25 years. Since, ADAC has continued the best traits of Envision – and transformed them into the monthly 2ndTuesday Vision Series, ADAC and ARC’s Professional Series Workshops, as well as an annual seminar called CHAOS – all packed with an ADAC punch.
