The Art Directors Guild (ADG; IATSE Local 800) is a labor union and local of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) representing 2,979 motion picture and television professionals in the United States and Canada. The ADG's sponsored activities include a film society, the annual ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards, an art gallery called Gallery 800, technologY training programs, and the professional quarterly news magazine
Perspective
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Membership

Local 800 has four main craft classifications: # Art Directors (including

Production Designers In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Wo ...

) # Scenic, Title and

Graphic Artists A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published ...

Illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

s and Matte Artists #

Set Designers Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics * Set (mathematics), a collection of elements * Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Elect ...

and

Model Makers A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

In addition, the ADG has recently included

previs Previsualization (also known as previsualisation, previs, previz, pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows) is the visualizing of scenes or sequences in a movie, prior to filming. It is also a concept in various creative practices, including an ...

artists into their membership. Individual crafts represented by the ADG: *

Production designer In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Wo ...

s * Art directors * Assistant art directors * Set designers * Graphic artists * Illustrators * Matte artists * Model makers * Scenic artists *

Previs Previsualization (also known as previsualisation, previs, previz, pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows) is the visualizing of scenes or sequences in a movie, prior to filming. It is also a concept in various creative practices, including an ...

artists

Origins

Art Directors Guild

The Art Directors Guild was originally named the

Society of Motion Picture Art Directors The Art Directors Guild (ADG; IATSE Local 800) is a labor union and local of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) representing 2,979 motion picture and television professionals in the United States and Canada. Th ...

(SMPAD), which was founded by 59 Art Directors on May 6, 1937, at a meeting at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, many " below the line" industry labor organizations, including SMPAD, signed on with the IATSE for overall union representation. SMPAD became more active, grew in membership, and expanded opportunities as television developed. In 1967 the Society included "television" to their name before settling on its current moniker, the "Art Directors Guild" in 1998. The Art Directors Guild included only men until 1972. Production designer Polly Platt was the first woman inducted into the Guild, in 1972.

Toby Carr Rafelson Toby is a popular, usually male, name in many English speaking countries. The name is from the Middle English vernacular form of Tobias. Tobias itself is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew טוביה ''Toviah'', which translates to ''Good i ...

was the second woman inducted.

Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists

The creation of its own local (formerly known as Local 816) in March 1949 marked the first time the Hollywood Scenic Artists and Title Artists had its own local representing its unique needs. Previously, the members were part of Local 644 of the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) working in film and theater. The overwhelming majority of Local 644's membership, however, had been made up of set painters and paperhangers and included set designers as well. It was not until the dissolution of the CSU after a long series of bitterly contested strikes that the scenic artists were able to organize exclusively. Those artists had been pioneers in their field, responsible for devising and developing the methods used to create representational scenery unsurpassed anywhere in the world. The size and strength of the local grew with the inclusion of television contracts in the early 1950s. Television, at that time, was in effect an extension of live theater and required a lot of painted two-dimensional scenery instead of the three-dimensional sets used in film. As the nature of television scenery changed, the responsibilities of the television scenic artist broadened to include those of the set painter. Local 816 was the only local in the entertainment industry that worked in all three major areas of the business: film, television and theater. In January 2003, the 850 members of ADG merged with the 650 member Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists to form the Art Directors Guild & Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists.

Illustrators, Storyboard Artists and Matte Artists

In the 1930s, the Illustrators and Matte Artists were part of the Federation of Motion Picture Crafts. By 1941 they became a part of the Conference of Studio Unions. In 1945, they received their own chartered local, Local 790 in IATSE, which by the 1950s became the dominant labor organization representing the motion picture and television job categories working behind the camera. On July 1, 2008, under the orders of IATSE International President Thomas C. Short, Local 790 Illustrators & Matte Artists and Local 847 Set Designers and Model Makers were merged into Local 800.

ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards

The ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards are presented annually by the Art Directors Guild to "recognize excellence in production design and art direction in the film and television industries".

ADG Lifetime Achievement Award

The ADG Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals who have been outstanding in the four crafts of the Art Directors Guild.

Hall of fame

The Art Directors Guild established its Hall of Fame in 2005 to honour the contributions of significant past production designers and art directors. The Hall of Fame inducts new members annually, with the first group formally inducted at the 9th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards ceremony on February 12, 2005.