VRA seeks partner to create design 2025 Annual Conference in Portland, OR

Objective

The Visual Resources Association (VRA) seeks a partner to create a design for the Association’s 2025 Annual Conference in Portland, OR, October 7–9, 2025.

About the VRA

The VRA was founded in 1972 as a professional association for visual resources curators working with collections of 35mm slide and photograph collections at universities and cultural heritage institutions. 

Today’s VRA is a multi-disciplinary, international non-profit organization dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of media management within the educational, cultural heritage, and commercial environments. The Association offers a forum for issues of vital concern to the field of digital and analog curation, including: preservation of and access to media of visual culture; cataloging and classification standards and practices; integration of technology-based instruction and research; digital humanities; intellectual property policy; visual literacy and other topics of interest to the field. Through collaboration, partnership, and outreach with the broader information management, educational, and scholarly communities, the Association actively supports the primacy of visual information in documenting and understanding humanity’s shared cultural experience.

Recent surveys of the membership indicate that the VRA community is known for its collegiality and emphasis on practical knowledge.

Project Description

The design should communicate both the VRA’s identity and the character of the host city. The illustration will be used in electronic media related to the conference, including the Association’s social media, website, email communications, and slide deck templates. The illustration will also be printed on a tote bag and other promotional materials (e.g. stickers or buttons) given to all conference registrants.

The following deliverables are desired by May 2, 2025:

• Screen printing-optimized files for Enviro-Tote’s Economist Tote (10” x 10” imprint area): maximum of 5 colors preferred

• Web-optimized files appropriate for website and social media use (e.g. 1584x396 Linkedin background, 2880x953 conference website banner, 1080x1080 Instagram post)

• Hi-res vector format files

• Sufficient logo variations to meet the format limitations of most use cases

Interested artists should provide their rates for design services that encompass the project description and desired deliverables. Please reach out to initiatives@vraweb.org with any questions.

VRA 2025: Call for Proposals opens January 27!

The Visual Resources Association invites proposals for our 2025 Annual Conference, to be held at the Porter Hotel in Portland, OR, October 7–9, 2025. The submission deadline is Friday, March 14, 2025, at 11:59 pm PDT.

View the full call for proposals

Whether you are a current member or a potential attendee, we encourage you to reflect on your experiences, ideas, and expertise. We encourage submissions from VRA members and non-members, seasoned attendees and first-timers, as well as students, early-career, mid-career, and senior professionals.

Please direct any questions about the submission process to VRA’s Directors for Events & Initiatives at initiatives@vraweb.org. 

VRA 2025: Conference Format

As we look ahead to VRA 2025, we are excited to announce a carefully considered shift in the structure for our upcoming annual conference. 

Five years since the onset of the pandemic, the landscape of large-scale conferences has profoundly transformed. Priorities have shifted, placing greater emphasis on health and safety, accessibility, affordability, and environmental sustainability. These changing expectations have inspired us to reimagine how we structure our conferences to better serve our community.

Over the past three years, the VRA Annual Conference has embraced a hybrid model, accommodating virtual and in-person attendance with a mix of in-person and remote presenters. However, in 2025, we are embarking on a new approach to enhance the experience for all participants.

VRA 2025 will feature two distinct components: virtual pre-conference programming held a week prior to the main event, followed by three days of on-site conference programming at the Porter Hotel in Portland, OR.

On-site conference attendees will automatically be registered for the virtual pre-conference, and folks unable to attend on-site will have the option to register for the virtual pre-conference programming separately. 

This change is designed to ensure flexibility and accessibility while creating a more engaging experience. It will also lessen the burden on both our organization’s finances and the volunteers who make this event possible. Furthermore, by separating virtual and on-site programming, we aim to avoid the challenges posed by the hybrid model, which often leads to a fragmented experience for both in-person and virtual participants.

To help us in this effort, we invite you to share your feedback through an anonymous survey. Your voice matters, and we want to hear from you as we work toward a more inclusive and engaging conference. Click here to access the feedback form.

Working together, we can design a conference experience that adapts to the evolving expectations of our field for 2025 and beyond.

Please direct any questions about the conference format to VRA’s Directors for Events & Initiatives at initiatives@vraweb.org.