Monthly Archives: April 2011

Syd Mead: “The Future Starts Right Now”

Legendary visual futurist and Art Center alumnus Syd Mead stopped by Art Center’s Ahmanson Auditorium last week as part of the Design Studio Press Spring Lecture Series.


Syd Mead signing "Sentury II."

The always entertaining Mead delivered a presentation to a packed house whose attendees included The Lord of the Rings visual effects director Paul Lasaine, Megamind concept artist Samuel Michlap and Tron: Legacy vehicle designer Daniel Simon.

Mead’s lecture traversed the history of the automobile (“My total contribution to Americana automobilia is the taillight of the Ford Falcoln Futura.”), the future of transportation (“Antigravity is the answer for designers who don’t like to draw wheels.”) and his favorite color (“Cherenkov radiation blue, a fascinating optical phenomenon.”).

He also touched on Blade Runner, his early work for Ford and U.S. Steel, his latest book Sentury II and why the future is so difficult to predict.

Here are some highlights from his presentation.

On creative control:

The idea of controlling your creative idea right to the final format? That will never happen. Or rarely. Your ideas will go through a series of committees, compromises and pummels every single time.

On doing things by hand:

I learned how to hand-letter at Art Center, and that was very good training for drawing perfect ellipses. I still use gouache, which is putting paint on cardboard with animal hairs at the end of a stick. I know that’s not very romantic, but it works. All of today’s rendering software and code is made deliberately to mimic the hand-drawn technique.

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It’s Here: Week 14

© Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

Art Center, we’re already halfway through Week 14, and you know what that means—tons of events culminating in Graduation on Saturday.

Rest up and prepare for:

  • Wednesday, April 20, 6-10 pm: 4 Hours Solid (South Campus)
  • Wednesday, April 20, 7-9 pm: Experience Art Center at Night (South Campus)
  • Thursday, April  21, 6 pm: Graduation Show Preview and Alumni Reception (invitation only)
  • Saturday, April 23, 2:30 pm: Faculty Reception (faculty, special guests and College leadership)
  • Saturday, April 23, 4 pm: Spring Term Graduation (Hillside Campus, and webcast live)
  • Saturday, April 23, 4-10 pm: MFA Open Studios (South Campus)
  • Saturday, April 23, 6 pm: Graduation Show (Hillside Campus)

It’s a jam-packed few days. But don’t worry—there’s still time to sneak in a nap before the fun begins!

Swing By Art Center at Night’s Open House

Photo by Lara Warren

Have you ever wondered about Art Center at Night (ACN), the College’s continuing studies program? Then check out Experience Art Center at Night, underway at South Campus through Wednesday.

A variety of classes are open to the public tonight and tomorrow night from 7 to 9 p.m. Stop by a class, sit in on critiques and student presentations, view student work, take a self-guided tour of South Campus, ask questions and register for Summer Term classes.

ACN offers a variety of courses, short workshops and seminars to help you update your skills, polish your portfolio or recharge your creative energy.

New ACN courses include The Ultimate Photo-Shoot Guide for Photographers and Designers; Create and Publish Content for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone; and Transpor-Tainment. “Summer-only” offerings include Manufacturing Techniques; Shoes: Fact and Fantasy; Neoimpressionism: Painting the Landscape; and Animal Sketching.

Courses begin May 16, and registration is now open. Check it out—there is something for everyone at ACN.

4 Hours Solid: April 20


Art Center’s newest tradition is back for its second year. Join us for 4 Hours Solid, an annual showcase of work and ideas from Art Center’s graduate programs in Art, Broadcast Cinema, Industrial Design and Media Design. Enjoy four jam-packed hours of exhibitions, screenings, installations, presentations, food trucks and more. The event will be held at South Campus. You won’t want to miss it!

4 Hours Solid
Wednesday, April 20, 6-10 p.m.
South Campus

Meet Meliné Khatchatourian

Meliné Khatchatourian didn’t always know she was going to enter the arena of transportation design.

Khatchatourian

In fact, she never even took a fine art course until her senior year as a communications major at the University of California, San Diego.

“I was surprised to discover that I not only enjoyed those [art] classes, but I excelled in them,” Khatchatourian says. “I knew that I had discovered a path I had to pursue.”

She soon enrolled in Introduction to Product and Transportation Design at Art Center at Night (ACN). Khatchatourian vividly recalls the first day her class focused on transportation studies when her instructor used her car as a teaching tool. “My car was dissected and explained as a work of functional art,” she says. “I remember thinking, ‘I need to learn as much about this discipline as I can.’”

So Khatchatourian met with ACN Director Dana Walker, who suggested courses to prepare her portfolio for the College’s Transportation Design program. And the rest is ACN history.

Read her full story.

Ready to make history yourself? Then come to Experience Art Center at Night, April 18 through 20, 7to 9 p.m., a three-evening event where you can explore ACN’s broad range of courses.

Registration for ACN’s Summer Term is now open; courses begin May 16.

Who Said Creatives Can’t Be Athletes?

While many students were feeling the pressures of final exams and likely recovering from recent all-nighters, a team of Art Center students rallied together to participate in the second Annual Collegiate Field Tournament last Friday night.

Art Center, along with Caltech, PCC, Le Cordon Bleu, Pacific Oaks and Fuller Theological Seminary competed in an array of challenges that included the Lego Car Design Challenge, Capture the Flag, Amazing Russet Race, Monster Croquet, and Frisbee Challenge.  The Art Center team was comprised of 10 students both undergraduate and graduate across majors. Although smaller than the other teams in sheer number, the Art Center team brought a spirit of collaboration and passion to each event. Teams created unique uniforms, and Art Center chose to represent various tools used by artists and designers—such as an X-Acto knife and Sharpie maker.

“Quality is more important than quantity,” said Team Captain, Advertising student Dante Barsotti, who was visibly  unphased by the larger teams Art Center faced. “I love competition and the opportunity to bring some glory to Art Center. Not to mention, to show people that we don’t just sit around behind computers all day.”

Representatives from ACSG, CSE, Marketing and Communications, and alumni came out to PCC’s Robinson Field to support the team.  “It was great to see students off campus, outside in the fresh air, and having fun,” says Hannah Huang, director of International Exchange and Study Away.

A great time was had by all. Check out the slideshow from the event below.

Shattering the Glass Backboard: Alumnus Chronicles Lakers Championship

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein, from Journey to the Ring

Like many of the professional athletes he captures on film, Photography and Imaging alumnus Andrew Bernstein is recognized as an all-star in his respective field. As NBA Senior Official Photographer and NBA Photos Senior Director, Bernstein’s photography has appeared on thousands of magazine covers around the world.

What’s different about Bernstein’s work is the unique personal rapport that he’s developed with the athletes he shoots, allowing him exclusive access to behind-the-scenes moments. His work has been exhibited in solo shows around the country, including a 20-year retrospective of his work in 2004. Bernstein is among just four photographers whose work was selected for permanent exhibit in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also instrumental in the development and use of the multiple-camera Flash Wizard II system, which revolutionized indoor sports action photography. His most recent book, Journey To The Ring: Behind the Scenes With The 2010 NBA Champion Lakers, written by Lakers coach Phil Jackson, chronicles the team’s season leading up to the championship.

Just in time for the NBA playoffs, we caught up with Bernstein to talk to him about basketball, photography and everything in between.

view slideshow

Dotted Line: Tell us about what you do.
Bernstein: I am the team photographer for the NBA’s two local teams, the Lakers and Clippers. I travel with the teams and cover all the major NBA events—Olympic Games, USA Basketball, WNBA, All-Star Games, Finals. As a senior director, I oversee various team photographers, mostly in the Western Conference. With my boss, the VP of NBA photos, we manage photography throughout the league.

I started working as a freelance photographer for the NBA in 1983. That year’s NBA All-Star Game was my first assignment. I continued freelancing for them and in 1986, helped create the position of official NBA photographer. It was a contract position, and I continued that in that manner until I became an employee of the NBA.

I’ve worked as the team photographer for basically every team and every venue in L.A. since then. I was the Dodgers team photographer from ’84 to ’95. And I’ve become the director of photography for AEG’s two main facilities, the Nokia Theater and Staples Center. I have a crew of five or six people, depending on what’s going on that time of year. We’re responsible for photographing every event in these venues, sporting or otherwise. In addition, I’ve been fortunate to run a successful business, Andrew D. Bernstein and Associates Photography, Inc.

Dotted Line: Which sport do you enjoy photographing the most? Is there one that’s more difficult to capture?
Bernstein: I’ve shot every sport known to man. Baseball was very tedious and challenging because of the boredom factor— sometimes you can go an entire game without really getting a great picture.

When you shoot a hockey or football or a basketball game, though, something’s always happening. It makes it fun to shoot. I love shooting football—I shot UCLA football for five years, and shot the Raiders and Rams when they were in L.A. Hockey is probably the hardest to photograph, because we’re physically limited to where we’re allowed to position ourselves and shoot—we have to shoot through a little hole cut in the boards beside the rink. Not to mention, it’s very fast moving, with players coming toward and away from you at a fast speed. It can get crazy.

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AutoPacific Enhances Transportation Design Education at Art Center

The most successful transportation designers are not simply adept at creating exciting new vehicle concepts, they are able to participate in and understand market research, brand development and user scenarios.

© Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

But how do Art Center’s Transportation Design students gain these skills?

For a decade, AutoPacific has partnered with the College to enhance the educational experience of transportation design students through its annual donation of consumer and market research and forecasting data for the transportation industry. This highly valuable data is the same information used by major automotive manufacturers, suppliers and agencies around the world to understand market and consumer trends and sales projections for a range of vehicles.

Faculty member Robert Blum forged the relationship with AutoPacific in 2001 and the data the company makes available is central to his class, Introduction to Product Planning for Transportation Design. “The students are able to dig into this massive amount of information and learn how to interpret it for the purposes of product planning and development,” he says. “It helps them understand how to make choices about what to develop for whom, and why.”

Adds Stewart Reed, Art Center Transportation Design Chair, “It’s exciting for us to see students learn the broader language of product strategy and business and be able to talk about how their concepts address real market opportunities.”

The licenses that AutoPacific donates provide access to Competitive Battleground data for North America, Asia and Europe with consumer insights for every segment, make and model the company tracks; five-year Sales Forecasting information that is updated quarterly; and the company’s exclusive Research Suite database which is made accessible through PAI survey analysis software. “PAI’s mTABTM software allows for the easy statistical analysis of large amounts of data from AutoPacific’s database,” says Blum.

“Art Center’s partnership with AutoPacific has been incredibly valuable in elevating the educational experience for our students. The data they provide is also used by many of our eighth term students on their thesis projects. It increases the sophistication of our graduates, without a doubt.”

Reflecting Back at 80: A Department is Born

Guest post by Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig

The year was 1931. Nevada legalized gambling. The Empire State building was completed. And Art Center created its Photography (now called Photography and Imaging) Department.

Pictured: Advanced Photography students shooting dancers outside, 1949 (photographer unknown)

Initially led by Will Connell, the department offered coursework in amateur and professional photography.

By 1935, there were 12 faculty members and in addition to the core classes, there were specialized courses in portraiture, color photography, 16mm cinematography, and composition and lighting.

Ansel Adams joined the growing program’s faculty in the early 1940s, joining such faculty members as Fred Archer, Otto Halmer, Edward Kaminski, Albert King and Charlie Potts.

In this photograph from 1949, advanced photography students are shooting dancers outside. Do you recognize anyone in the photo?

What are your memories of our Photography Department? To visit the Archives, or if you recognize anyone in the photo, contact Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig at 626.396.2208 or robert.dirig@artcenter.edu.

Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship Established

Young

Award-winning graphic and logotype designer, alumnus, mentor and revered faculty member Doyald Young, who passed away in February, will be honored by his alma mater with the Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, which will be available to incoming and current Graphic Design students, was announced at Young Love, a celebration of Young’s life and legacy taking place at the College last weekend. With enough support, the College intends to endow the scholarship to benefit its students in perpetuity.

“Shortly before his passing, Doyald said, ‘If you have the gift of teaching, you must pass it on,’” Art Center President Lorne Buchman says. “In establishing the Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship, it is our hope that we honor the generosity and strength of a gifted artist and powerful teacher—and encourage others in that same spirit of giving to ensure his legacy in the next generation.”

Young taught lettering and logotype design in Art Center’s Graphic Design Department for decades. His freelance work included logotypes for hotels, clubs, universities, financial institutions, arts, entertainment and practically every other industry. He created several corporate and commercial fonts and published three books about his work: Logotypes & Letterforms, Fonts & Logos and Dangerous Curves.

Young was named Inaugural Master of the School by Art Center in 2001, named a Fellow of the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA in 2006, received an AIGA Medal in 2009 and received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Art Center in 2010. His life story and immeasurable talent was also documented by lynda.com as part of their 2010 “Creative Inspirations” series. Young received his formal education at Frank Wiggins Trade School and Art Center.

Individuals interested in making donations to the scholarship can donate online, or contact Senior Development Officer Palencia Turner at 626.396.2366 or palencia.turner@artcenter.edu.