Actors' Equity
A Program that Depends on Responsiveness
Responsiveness, flexibility, and versatility. That’s what Noah Diamond, Designer at Actors’ Equity Association, values about the union’s relationship with F.I.I.
“We come in with complicated orders really often, like asking for thousands of t-shirts to be made and sent to four different locations,” Noah explains. “It’s never a problem for F.I.I. They help me figure out how to streamline everything.”
“I feel like it’s a good partnership. There’s a handful of vendors who Equity works with, and anytime F.I.I. is an option for the type of project I’m working on, I generally want to go with F.I.I. because of that partnership. It’s often like, ‘Hey, listen, this is what we need. What would you recommend?’ Sometimes I’ve gotten suggestions from F.I.I. that are better than whatever we brought to them. It feels collaborative,” Noah elaborates.
He looks for more than “just a printer who can do this,” but a printer specifically geared to union work and political campaigns. “I think F.I.I.’s major strength is the very high level of communications we experience. I know I’m talking to real people with real experience with union work and political campaigns. And you know, F.I.I. really is a very good match for this organization,” says Diamond.
Noah also surmises that because the union’s members are actors, they feel very strongly about what they’re wearing. “We hear a lot about like, hey, this shirt could should be a little softer and thicker than the one we used last time, and those kind of very specific, very human requests. They always get attention from F.I.I. when we discuss them,” Noah feels.
Merch for Events, Rallies, Parades and More
The union has a pretty wide range of merch needs. “Actors’ Equity often needs printed materials or merch or swag that are for the general public and often has a completely different set of internal needs. We have a lot of annual special weeks that come up every year that we need merch for. Every year we celebrate Swing Day, for example,” explains Diamond.
“There’s usually a specific gift item that we’ll order for that. So that’ll start with a meeting on our side, somebody will suggest a gift item. I tell F.I.I. ‘Listen, it’s got to be black so that people can have it backstage. It’s got to be quiet, something that doesn’t make noise, you know. And they’ll respond with a few options, which I can then take to the organizing team or whoever’s making the decisions. These gifts go to theaters all across the country.”
Merch for Organizing & Negotiations
Noah comes to F.I.I. for many types of printed materials for negotiations themselves. “And we’re heading into a leafleting period too, where there’s going to be a lot of that, distributing on the street printed materials to inform and rally the public. We’ve sometimes done things like hand fans, for summer outdoor events. Those both serve their natural purpose as fans, but they’re also like little signs, and we’ve used them for messaging,” Noah explains.
Merch for their Online Store
Diamond explains that very often, in the process of working on a campaign, some designs wind up being highly regarded among the staff or members, and usually the specific groups of workers they are organizing. “We’ll wind up getting campaign t-shirts made, and putting them on our online store for people to get,” he explains.
Every year the union produces a different set of Labor Day looks. “This year, our Labor Day design is a kind of reimagined version of the Equity star, which was this old emblem based on a design version from the 1920’s. We kind of had a big push with that design, as a kind of tribute to our history and a way of looking forward,” explains Diamond.
To give the merch some promotion, they did some social media posts about the history of the equity star, and what that design has meant to the organization over the years. “I would say that was a slightly higher profile print on demand item for us,” says Noah.
Ease of Getting Orders in Process
Diamond usually feels the organization has a real sense of urgency after his initial meetings with the union’s communications and organizing departments. However, his designs go through a long vetting process before printing. The approvals process also involves multiple people across the organization.
One of the areas needing specific attention is the challenges associated with the Actors’ Equity Association logo. There are challenges with the very small lettering at the bottom of the logo, especially when it has to be printed in small sizes.
Noah explains, “Those letters in print can get lost. I really value that F.I.I. is super vigilant about this. They’ll tell us, ‘The o’s will close up,’ for instance. That knowledge and experience really helps us.”
It’s definitely a partnership valued by both parties!