Soviet Posters, STDs & World Design Capital: Amy Jo and MaeLin Levine of AIGA San Diego Tijuana

When Amy Jo and MaeLin Levine joined Erik and me on Cheers & Tiers, I’ll admit I was a little intimidated. These two have been the backbone of AIGA San Diego Tijuana for decades. I figured we’d get some good leadership insights, maybe a few retreat stories.

What I didn’t expect was Terry Marks’ face plastered on erectile dysfunction billboards.

Framing Posters, Building Empires

MaeLin’s origin story was perfectly unglamorous—she got called to help frame Soviet posters in 1987. Actual manual labor, putting propaganda art behind glass.

Then she dropped the wildest detail: the Soviet Union fell during the time they had this collection on loan. There was literally nowhere to send them back to.

“Wait, so you just had this historically significant collection?” I asked.

They did. It toured the country and fueled the chapter for seven years.

Amy jumped in with perfect deadpan: “I was on the board 17 years and dealt with those posters about 15 times. Please let the posters go somewhere. I don’t want to move them again.”

Terry Marks and the Billboards

Erik is in Seattle, so naturally we started to talk about Terry Marks, current president of AIGA Seattle. Amy casually mentioned that Terry’s face became stock photography for sexually transmitted diseases.

“A photographer friend had taken photos of him, and it was part of the first stock photography that got utilized. His image became—was it sexually transmitted diseases?”

MaeLin jumped in: “It was everything inappropriate you could think. His face was the poster child.”

I looked over at Erik. He was already writing: “Ask Terry about STDs.”

I nearly lost it.

The Toronto Death March

Bennett Peji convinced 40+ people to walk to this amazing restaurant he’d found in Toronto. “No, no, no, you guys, we’re just gonna walk.”

“How far was it?” Erik asked. Amy’s response: “People were dropping like flies.”

They started with 70 people. Every twenty minutes, someone peeled off to hit the nearest restaurant. By the time they reached the place, maybe six remained.

This was pre-Google Maps, pre-cell phones. Just blind faith and empty stomachs.

The Y Conference: $500 to Twenty-Six Years

The chapter had $500 in the bank. The board was depressed. Then “the guy named Guy” challenged them to stop thinking about what they couldn’t do and dream big.

The room started riffing—a conference for students? No, everybody. They realized they didn’t care about the how, they cared about the why.

Dave Conover: “Yeah, but it should be the letter why. Like, why is it a why?”

They ran it for twenty-six consecutive years. First chapter outside of New York to do a conference.

MaeLin got so passionate talking about thinking big that her necklace started hitting the mic.

What’s Being Lost

MaeLin’s energy changed completely when she talked about people who never experienced a leadership retreat.

“There’s a ton of people who’ve never gotten to go. I don’t see how they will have lifelong friendships and go to people’s weddings and be people’s children’s godparent.”

I felt that. Erik and I have both experienced those retreats—the intensity, the lifelong bonds you form.

Amy added: “That’s the connection of why you’d be part of a national organization. Without that, there is no point to have a national.”

We sat with that for a moment.

The Tenfold Return

Before we wrapped, I asked what AIGA leadership gave back to their lives.

MaeLin didn’t hesitate: “Ron Muriello told me early on, anything you give to this organization, you’re gonna get back tenfold.”

The Harvard Business School program changed their business. Leadership skills led her to help start a K-8 charter school now in its sixteenth year.

Amy: “There were hard choices made. But I had faith in our process and us, in that we have done some amazing things because of AIGA that we never would have even thought to do before.”

I kept thinking about Amy spending seventeen years moving Soviet posters. About a network that will roast you with love when your face ends up on an STD billboard. About MaeLin’s heartbreak over what’s being lost.

That’s AIGA—slightly chaotic, deeply committed, absolutely worth showing up for.

And yes, Erik did contact Terry about those billboards. You’ll hear about it in the next episode.