According to, of all places, USA.gov, Americans make (and break) the same 13 New Year’s resolutions year after year. To help you keep yours, we offer these inspirational works from AIGA’s Design Archives to help guide you towards a healthy and prosperous 2015.
1. Lose weight
“There’s only way to lose weight. Stop eating.” Sound advice from the good folks at Young & Rubicam, circa 1971.
2. Volunteer to help others
In 1991 Charles Spencer Anderson and Lynne Schulte of the Minneapolis-based Duffy Design Group called us to arms.
3. Quit smoking
Thanks to Seymour Chwast, a picture is worth a thousand words.
4. Get a better education
Winner of the 50 Books/50 Covers competition in 1992, from designer and art director Rita Marshall and illustrator Etienne Delessert.
5. Get a better job
This is how Microsoft recruited college students back in 1996. Not so sure this would work nowadays…
6. Save money
Book cover design for I Love Dollars, by Metalmother in 2008.
7. Get fit
Neither designer Louise Fili nor illustrator John Craig said it would be easy.
8. Eat healthy food
Svelte, in a bottle. According to Addis Creson, “To get on shelves and into shopping carts, we knew we had to make a big impression on busy, diet-conscious women seeking nutrition in the midst of a hectic day.”
9. Manage stress
This poster by Sackett Design Associates “referred to the stress and anxiety of producing projects during the busy holiday season and suggested that it was no time to have to question your choice of printers.”
10. Manage debt
If this image Christoph Niemann and the team at the New York Times Magazine doesn’t scare you into action, nothing will.
11. Take a trip
The charming illustrations for Butterfield & Robinson’s biking catalogue “are designed to reinforce the company’s position as the world leader in biking and walking vacations for a sophisticated, upscale North American clientele.” But you don’t have to be a bipedal sophisticate to take your two-wheeler for a spin.
12. Reduce, reuse, and recycle
A reminder from Michael Schwab back in ’91. And you thought today’s global climate change campaigns were scary.
13. Drink less alcohol
“FREE BEER advice.” A reminder to always read the fine print.
