Members of The Academy have pledged to uphold, promote, and uncompromisingly adhere to the standards set forth in The Academy's Code of Professional Conduct. As such, The Academy of Design Professionals represents some of the most responsible and competent professionals in the design world.
- Why an Academy of Design Professionals?
- The Academy exists functionally as a home for the Code of Professional Conduct and symbolically as a public recognition of individuals who represent the highest standards of design professionalism and competence. Membership is voluntary. To join, a design professional need only read, consider, agree, and publicly pledge his or her promise to conform in every respect to The Academy's Code.
- As an effort toward improved professionalism, The Academy administration urges design organizations to adopt this Code without substantive alteration.
- The Code of Professional Conduct
- The Code of Professional Conduct is an effort to address the many moral and rational inadequacies of other similar codes put forth by popular design organizations. By contrast, The Academy's Code of Professional Conduct is uncompromised by immoral ideals, irrational requirements, and irrelevant nods toward social activism; all of which compromise or distract from professionalism.
- The Code was composed and edited by Andy Rutledge and draws from similar codes by the American Bar Association, AIGA, The American Institute of Architects, and others.
- Membership is voluntary, and a privilege
- Academy membership is maintained through consistent individual behavior in meeting the obligations defined in the Code. As there is no governing body for the professional practice of design, a member's standing is measured by their integrity, as clear to all with whom they work.
- To join the Academy is to willingly invite scrutiny, to assume the onus of significant and codified obligation, and to be held to account by peers, colleagues, and clients.
- View the list of Academy Members »