Monthly Archives: April 2010

Dressing for Access

Ever felt that your computer and iPhone don’t keep you as connected to Facebook as you’d like? You’re in luck.

Graduate Media Design alum Jennifer Darmour has created hot-wired garments that can “poke” a friend, “accept” a friend request and receive notification alerts—all from the comfort of your clothing.

From InventorSpot.com: “In the development genre of ‘gesture’ technology, Seattle designer Jennifer Darmour gives a whole new meaning to ‘good vibrations.’”

Read more: Wearable Social Networks and at Jennifer’s site, Electricfoxy


Happy 100 Years, OAS!

Today marks 100 years since the founding of the Organization of American States. The milestone will be celebrated with a series of events in Washington, D.C. Art Center students developed work that will be prominently featured in the celebration over the course of two funded TDS/Designmatters projects led by the Graphic Design Department last year.

Congratulations and thanks to faculty member Simon Johnston, who led the TDS that developed a new identity for the Museum of the Americas of OAS, implemented on their website. Thanks to Gloria Kondrup, Brian Boyl and Jonas Mayabb, who led the centennial rebranding TDS. A new logotype, as well various elements of the student work, have been implemented by OAS on their website. Also, a big thank you to Jonas Mayabb, who worked closely with his team, Elisa Ruffino and our OAS partners after the studio’s conclusion to create the final version of the public service announcement for the centennial. Watch it below:

PSA: Common Values on Common Ground from OAS Video on Vimeo.

Storyboarding Seminar This Weekend

Pre-visualization is an essential step in the creative process of making a film. Writers and directors for years have used storyboards as well as shot lists and overhead diagrams to create a “visual script,” experimenting with compositional elements before incurring the cost of production. These materials are usually the first visual expression of the script, the first translation of words into the language of imagery.

Learn how to use words to craft images in a reader’s mind and create a shot list that tells a visual story in words at an upcoming two-day course with author and Art Center faculty member Marcie Begleiter, author of From Word To Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process. The seminar, Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, will be held this weekend at The Writers Store in Westwood. Find out more and sign up at their website.

Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process
Saturday, May 1—Sunday, May 2
The Writers Store
2040 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025

80 Years on Film

Check out the new “Art Center at 80” film that premiered at President Buchman’s inauguration Thursday.

The film chronicles 80 years of Art Center history and includes some amazing archival footage as well as interviews with alumni, faculty, students and Buchman himself on the future of the College. The film was directed by Broadcast Cinema alum Robert McClendon ’07.

Frank Nuovo’s Luxury “Communication Devices”

The New York Times visits with Product Design alum and Art Center 2008 Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award recipient Frank Nuovo. Formerly the chief of design at Nokia, Nuovo now creates luxury phones for Vertu.

From the article: “‘The watch is disappearing. And everybody in the world is walking around with these,’ [Nuovo] says on a recent afternoon, spreading an assortment of cellphones—all of them Nokias or Vertus of his own making—on a table at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., where he was once a student.”

Read more: Crème de la Cell: Six-Figure Phones

A Visit With Pae White

The L.A. Times recently visited Graduate Art alum Pae White in her studio. Best known for large-scale commissions, such as a piece in the 2009 Venice Biennale, White says she’d now like to work on a much smaller scale.

“Though she makes self-deprecating jokes about the anxiety that often accompanies her creative endeavors – ‘I always say to myself, why do I get into this situation where I have no idea how to do this?’ — it is also clear that she thrives on the risk associated with testing unproven fabrication techniques on the large-scale, high-visibility, site-specific projects that have dominated her agenda of the last few years.”

Read more: Pae White, an artist ‘in the world’

Graduation Ceremony Webcast Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Spring Term 2010 Graduation! Join us as we welcome the newest graduates into the Art Center family, and hear our honorary degree recipient Katherine Hayles issue the graduation address. Can’t join us at Hillside Campus tomorrow? Watch our live online webcast.

Spring Term 2010 Graduation
Saturday, April 24, 4 pm PST
Hillside Campus

Es Tiempo Wins I.D. Award

Great news: Es Tiempo, a cervical cancer awareness campaign which resulted from a Designmatters transdisciplinary studio has won Best of Category in the Student Division of I.D.’s 2010 Annual Design Review. The project was among more than 400 entries.

The project, a collaboration between Designmatters, USC’s Keck School of Medicine and USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, took place last summer and was led by the College’s Advertising Department, including lead faculty Elena Salij and Maria Moon. Es Tiempo is a broad-based communications and outreach campaign encouraging Latinas to seek out early cervical cancer screening.

A warm congratulations to the student team behind Es Tiempo: Phillip An (Illustration), Mark Brinn (Graphic Design), Chris Lack (Graphic Design), Tracy Hung (Graphic Design), Haelee Kang (Graphic Design), Lucia Loiso (Photography and Imaging) and Camille Ontiveros (Fine Art).

Read more about Es Tiempo at the project’s website, and be sure to check out this great write-up by DesignObserver.