Monthly Archives: May 2010

Design Thinking Comes to the U.S. Army

Just in time for Memorial Day, an interesting article at Design Observer about the U.S. Army and how it has embraced the concept of design thinking. However, the struggle to get design thinking ensconced in Army doctrine is no easy feat.

From the article: “The core of the Army’s business involves not just maintaining market share or enhancing shareholder value but life versus death, freedom versus oppression. Surprising as it may seem at first blush, the U.S. Army has incorporated design thinking into the core of its battle doctrine — and there is something to learn from its efforts.”

Read more: Design Thinking Comes to the U.S. Army

Summer Term Educational Partnerships Announced

Just because it’s Summer Term doesn’t mean things move any slower here at Art Center. Take a look at some of the educational partnerships happening this term:

Para Nuestras Hijas: This Designmatters TDS will tackle this issue of cervical cancer among Latinas in Los Angeles. Students will create a communications program designed to increase acceptance of the cervical cancer vaccine among young women in under-served neighborhoods such as East L.A., where few are getting the vaccine. The program will be implemented by the LAC+USC Medical Center at the conclusion of the studio.

PCI 50th Anniversary Communications Program: This Designmatters TDS is the second phase of a two-part corporate identity design and 50th anniversary campaign project for Project Concern International (PCI). The course will focus on development of a visual communications programs promoting the 50th anniversary of PCI, recognizing its past accomplishments but also looking forward to the promise they have as a nonprofit global health organization.

Continue reading →

Design Thinking in India

A very interesting article at Design Observer about design thinking in India. Everyday items such as saris, hand-painted signs and bicycle seats are made with remarkable ingenuity and embellished with great attention to detail.

From the essay: “Design might be thought of as a two-stage process, the functional and the elaborated. First, the functional requirement is fulfilled — a chair, a cup, a lamp, a sari. The process could end with the simple, usable object, but this lowest-common-denominator problem-solving is often not enough for both makers and users, who long for something more profound — an aesthetic ‘adjustment,’ a deliberate attempt to make the functional object beautiful.”

Read more: The Subtle Technology of Indian Artisanship

Business Dialogue Series June 1

Art Center’s Business Dialogue Series brings industry professionals to campus to share their personal career paths, showcase their studios and projects and, most importantly, answer student questions. The series is presented by the College’s Office of Career Development. All majors and term levels are invited to attend and join the dialogue.

Turner Duckworth, an award-winning design consultancy with studios in San Francisco and London, will come to campus as part of the series next Tuesday, June 1. Turner Duckworth maintain a constant collaboration between both of their studios, and designers swap places for month-long exchanges. This unique collaboration provides clients with a broader design perspective than they would find with other design agencies.

Business Dialogue Series: Turner Duckworth
Tuesday, June 1, 1 pm
Hillside Campus, Boardroom

Big Picture Lecture Series Kicks Off June 7

It’s the start of a new term, which means the start of a new Big Picture Lecture Series. The Toyota Motor Corporation Endowed Lecture Series brings visionary thinkers from around the world to campus to discuss the cultural and political currents shaping art and design.

The series kicks off Monday, June 7, at 1 pm in the Los Angeles Times Media Center at Hillside Campus. All lectures are free and open to the public. Coming up for Spring Term:

June 7: Jack Rakove, Revolutionaries: Big Thoughts on Founders’ Chic
Jack Rakove is a history and political science professor at Stanford University. The recipient of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in history, his research revolves around the American Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution.

June 14: Steve Glenn, High Design, Low Impact: Creating LivingHomes
Steve Glenn develops modern, prefabricated homes that combine world-class architecture with a commitment to healthy and sustainable construction. He is founder and CEO of LivingHomes, a company that creates homes with a small ecological footprint.

July 5: Jonathan Gold, Authenticity, Culture and the Kimchi Taco
Jonathan Gold is the LA Weekly’s renowned restaurant critic and the author of Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles. In 2007, he became the first food writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

July 12: Sandra Ball-Rokeach, The Seeds of Civic Engagement in Contemporary Urban Communities
Sandra Ball-Rokeach is a communication and sociology professor at USC and principal investigator of the decade-long research program, Metamorphosis: Transforming the Ties that Bind.

July 19: Jean-Pierre Hebert, Art and Science
Jean-Pierre Hebert is artist-in-residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His 40-year interest in mathematics, physics, music and computer science has resulted in the production of a large body of work at the intersection of art and science.

July 26: Paul Vangelisti, The Art of Being Elsewhere: A Writer’s Life
Paul Vangelisti is a poet and broadcaster who has written more than 20 books of poetry, and is also a noted Italian translator. He helped create the graduate writing program at Otis College of Art and Design.

Meet Julia Tsao

Just what is Media Design?

Graduate Media Design student Julia Tsao defines it as “an opportunity space for designers to grapple with the existing elements in the world—whether those elements be tangible, intangible, digital, physical, cultural, social—and out of which create something new, exciting and sometimes confusing. It’s making the old feel new, and the new feel familiar, yet remarkable.”

Read more about Julia and her experiences studying Media Design at Art Center in this great interview.

Williamson Gallery Gets Press, Readies for New Show

DeMarinis exhibit at the Williamson in 2001. Photo by Steven A. Heller.

The Williamson Gallery’s 2001 solo exhibition of media-art pioneer Paul DeMarinis— Resonant Messages: Media Installations by Paul DeMarinis—is included in the new book Interactive Art, written by Ryszard W. Kluszczynski and published in Poland. The book features artists and writers who have played a prominent role in the development of media and interactive art from the late 20th century to the present.

In addition to DeMarinis, many of those featured in the book have been included in Williamson Gallery solo or group exhibitions as part of its 15-year series bringing together the domains of art, science and technology. Artists in the book include Natalie Bookchin, Ken Goldberg, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, Erkki Huhtamo, Eduardo Kac, George Legrady, Bernie Lubell, Laurent Mignonneau, Christian Moeller, Simon Penny, Bill Seaman, Christa Sommerer, Victoria Vesna and Stephen Wilson.

In other Williamson news, they are hard at work readying the gallery for the next show, The Curious World of Patent Models and The Future of Objects, opening June 3. The show continues the exploration into the intersecting domains of art, science, technology and design with side-by-side exhibitions that look at the interplay between the technologies used to fabricate objects and the thought-processes used to conceive them. We’ll blog more on the show soon.