Join us for a presentation and celebration of the College’s new five-year strategic plan, hosted by Art Center President Lorne Buchman on Tuesday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. The event will also be webcast live; stay tuned for details.
Create Change: Art Center’s Strategic Plan
Tuesday, March 8, 7:30 p.m.
Hillside Campus
Photo by Alan Kupchick
Art Center faculty members Brian Boyl and Krystina Castella have both taken somewhat non-traditional routes in their careers. Boyl, director of interactive design in the Graphic Design Department, has a degree in physics, studied film and animation, has created computer software and produced video games. Castella created her own product development, manufacturing and licensing company; helps people start businesses and license products; and has written five popular cookbooks; the most recent, A World of Cake, named by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the best cookbooks of 2010. And this are just a few of the many noteworthy things these two have accomplished.
Also interesting—Boyl and Castella are spouses, meeting 20 years ago this month. Intrigued and curious about what motivates them to teach, how students have changed over the past two decades, and what it’s like to work with one’s significant other, we sat down with the couple for a chat.
Dotted Line: How did you two meet?
Brian Boyl: We met in 1991 at a Valentine’s Day party that a mutual friend of ours held for people who didn’t have dates. I was in film school then…
Krystina Castella: …and I was working a corporate job at Disney. We met at the party and got along really well. He called me the next day to ask me out, and I was eating a popsicle while we talked. I wrote about this in the introduction to my popsicle book, because I actually ended up saving the popsicle and freezing it.
Boyl: Yes, that popsicle went with us, every time we moved. It lasted for years. But sadly, it didn’t survive our last move.
Watch video
Dotted Line: Does it take a while for students to realize you’re married?
Castella: Yes, it’s funny—it’s the same thing every term. Many people at Art Center don’t realize we’re married. People that we’ve known for a long time do, but students are always new and don’t know at first; it’s always a shock. They seem to figure it out around Weeks 5 and 6. A student will come in and say to me, “I saw you with my other teacher,” or, “You were in the parking lot with Brian…”
Boyl: Or, “How do you know each other?” and, “I saw you two leaving campus in the same car….”
Castella: We teach in different departments, but we do have students that cross over. It’s great, we really get to know the student when that happens. We ask each other, “So how are they doing in your class?”
Dotted Line: Why do you teach?
Boyl: I love giving back to the younger generation. I also find teaching personally inspiring, because it’s always about the next thing. It’s always different, and always new—especially in the area where I teach, which is on the cutting edge of everything. And I find students tend to push me in my own creativity. And, you’re dealing with people, so it’s a lot of fun. I think I have the best job in the world.
We checked in with Product Design alumna and faculty member Wendee Lee to see how the Rose Bowl 5K went earlier this month.
Lee ran the race to celebrate and honor the memory of fellow alumnus and faculty member Norm Schureman.
“The race was fantastic,” Lee says. “It was sunny and warm—perfect running weather. I had planned out my race tempo and while it was my slowest 5K, it was definitely the strongest and most enjoyable one I’ve run. I finished right at my target finish time, feeling no pain.”
Lee asked supporters to donate to Schureman’s Memorial Scholarship fund as a way to both celebrate his life, and help ensure that his legacy continues. It’s not too late to donate to the scholarship.
“The Norm Schureman Memorial scholarship is particularly important to me as a Product Design alum and faculty member,” Lee explains. “I had Norm as an instructor, and was lucky enough to have him as a colleague as well. It means so much to know this scholarship will help future Product Design students.”
Donate to the Norm Schureman Memorial Scholarship online today.
Guest post by Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig
Long before the Real Housewives invaded our televisions, there were the Art Center Wives.
Founded in 1956, the Art Center Wives Club was sponsored by the College to serve as a social and support group for the wives of the College’s male students.
Unidentified club members setting up the stage for skit about new students, circa 1966
Meeting monthly, the group had guest speakers, sponsored dances, picnics, talent shows and volunteered time to a variety of community organizations.
For most of the organization’s approximate 20-year history, it printed a monthly newsletter, The Breadwinners’ Review.
Shown are two images from the Art Center Wives Club collection from the Art Center Archives. Be sure to view the entire collection of photographs on the Archives Facebook page.
Do you recognize anyone in the photos? If you can help us identify anyone, or if you’d like to view the document collection in person, contact Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig at 626.396.2208 or robert.dirig@artcenter.edu.
For more information about the Art Center College of Design Archives, including how you can donate or access materials, visit artcenter.edu/archives.
Unidentified members of the Art Center Wives club at a garden buffet dinner at the home of Elizabeth Franklin, 1963
We’ve told you about the Google 5—and we have an update on what our Graduate Media Design alums have been up to over at Google Labs.
Today, Chris Lauritzen and team launched “Map Your Valentine,” which lets you use Google Maps to share a special place with a special someone. It’s been very well received—and it’s not too late to send your special someone one of these customized valentines.
Also today, Jonathan Jarvis and team launched Adroidify, a fun Android mobile application that lets you create custom versions of the Android mascot. Jarvis served as creative lead on the project, and it’s already a huge success.
Check them out—and we’ll keep you updated on what the team is up to.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re featuring this lovely poster from the Designmatters Human Rights Exhibition studio. A partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information, the studio challenged students to interpret and represent the Universal Declaration of Human Rights visually through a series of posters.
This poster, Everybody, was designed by Graphic Design student Christopher Kosek. (Kosek graduated in 2009.)
Everybody addresses Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Kosek writes:
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. I wanted to talk about the realization that once you get past nationality, race, gender and the external human things, we are all the same inside.”
From November 2009 through March 2010, the Images for Human Rights: Student Voices exhibition were on view at the Skirball Cultural Center. The exhibition is now in the permanent installation at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich.
See the rest of the posters (in PDF form) and read more about this studio at the Designmatters site.
© Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design
Long-time Art Center supporters the Pasadena Art Alliance (PAA) has announced that they are graciously awarding the College grants totaling $30,000. These grants will benefit the Pasadena Art Alliance scholarship, which supports undergraduate Fine Art students, as well as Williamson Gallery exhibitions in 2011.
Since 1955, the PAA has raised millions of dollars to support contemporary visual art in Southern California. All monies raised through the PAA’s fundraising, including its biennial art auction, go directly to the grants program. With each grant, the PAA hopes to encourage the creativity of the human spirit, and to enrich the cultural life of the Pasadena community.
Art Center has been a recipient of Pasadena Art Alliance grants since 1976, with totals gifts exceeding $620,000.
“These grants from the PAA have made a tremendous impact on our programs here at the College,” says Vice President and Director of the Williamson Gallery Stephen Nowlin. “Fine Art Department Chair Laurence Dreiband and I are both grateful and honored to have partnered with this important organization over the years.”
At Art Center’s annual Chinese Lantern Festival held today, the most common wishes penned on bright orange and red lanterns were for sleep and happiness.
Photo by Adam Lopez
Not necessarily at the same time–but one can certainly see a connection when realizing they were written by art and design students.
About 75 students, faculty and staff entrusted their wants, whims and yearnings to the promise of the lantern at today’s event, held by Art Center’s Center for the Student Experience (CSE).
Next week, all lanterns created today will hang along both sides of the Bridge for all to enjoy.
A sample of some of the other wishes:
Lunar New Year celebrations traditionally end with a lantern festival, during which colorful lanterns are lit and released into the air. This year the event lands on Thursday, February 17, to correspond with the full moon. In many Asian countries, releasing the lanterns is believed to bring good fortune and prosperity. People write their wishes on paper lanterns before releasing them in hopes that they will be granted.
Here’s to plenty of sleep and happiness to all of our students!
Photo by Adam Lopez
A Designmatters transdisciplinary studio with a San Diego-based international health and humanitarian aid organization has resulted in a beautiful promotional film created by Art Center students.
The studio, held last summer, focused on rebranding Project Concern International (PCI) for their 50th anniversary.
In August, three Photography and Film students traveled to Zambia with PCI to observe and document their work in the field.
“My goal for the film from the start was to document the people in Zambia, and to show the world what their lives are like,” said Film student John X. Carey, director of the piece.
“It was a difficult first film for me to make, but such an incredible experience.”
In other PCI news, this week the organization launched a new identity stemming from the student work in last summer’s studio.
“There is a different level of engagement when you are working with design students—their enthusiasm and energy are palpable,” PCI’s Shawn Ruggeiro said about the studio. “Their perspective on this project, as well as our organization, was refreshing and inspiring.”
View the piece below, and read more about the Designmatters/PCI 50th Anniversary Project.
Fine Art alumnus and Art Center at Night/Saturday High faculty member Ronald J. Llanos has been hard at work the past three years creating Ephemeral Views: A Visual Essay, for Metro’s Expo/Western Station constructed at Western Avenue in Los Angeles. He is creating 24 mosaic panels (each 8’ x 3’) that comprise the work under construction.
The Source brings us an update on the progress. From the article: “Ronald’s watercolor paintings have a fresh, spontaneous quality to them. The task of translating his translucent washes of color into a hard, permanent material was a challenge. Artisans at Mosaika Art & Design traced Ronald’s designs onto ceramic tile and added thin layers of glaze to preserve the feel of the artist’s hand in the work. Next the work was fired, cut into small pieces and placed within the panels.”
Read more, and also check out Llanos’ blog for details from the beautiful mosaic.