Graphic Design student Lois Kim tests her transmedia installation piece.
Pick up the current issue of Dot and you’ll find a feature–Transform, Transcend, Transmedia: The Changing Face of Graphic Design–that takes a look at the transmedia area of emphasis within Art Center College of Design’s Graphic Design Department.
One of the students whom we highlighted in that story, recent graduate Paul Hoppe, has just been named a finalist for the 2013 Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA)–an impressive feat considering that only 30 students out of a total pool of 3,752 submissions from around the world made it that far. Hoppe is a finalist in the category of Installation Design for his project ECHO: The Fragility of Moments Suspended in Time, which explores the rise and fall of a popular turn of the century tourist attraction in Pasadena.
Immediately after graduating this past spring, Hoppe became a teaching assistant for instructor Brad Bartlett’s Typography 5: Transmedia and Advanced Graphic Studio: Transmedia courses. He spent the Summer 2013 term at South Campus, helping two dozen Graphic Design students with their projects in which they dived deep into their personal interests to rebrand cultural institutions and create complementary interactive installations.
He also created a video (above) that not only showcases the projects of the students he was working with but that also poses the central issues and challenges that the Graphic Design Department’s transmedia curriculum addresses.
“As students, there are so many topics, whether it’s the sense of smell or architecture, that we love but are not quite sure how to approach because they’re so different from what we do,” said student Lois Kim, who rebranded the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) during the Summer term. “But with these transmedia classes you can do so much, and it’s really fun to see how your classmates tackle their interests.”
One element from Benjamin Lee’s rebranding of The Old Globe Theatre’s Shakespeare Festival.
Joining Hoppe as a 2013 ADAA finalist is current Graphic Design student Benjamin Lee, who is competing in the Print Communications category for his transmedia rebranding project for the Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. For this project, Lee–who has also been a teaching assistant for Bartlett–developed a new logo-mark for the theatre inspired by its architecture, hand-painted typography inspired by the passion of the Bard’s plays, and illustrative interventions on found photography.
“I am humbled to be in such great company, especially alongside my friend Paul Hoppe, whom I have such a deep respect and admiration for,” said Lee of becoming a finalist. “It’s indicative of my whole experience at Art Center, being surrounded by generous, affirmative and lovely people while working hard on things we love.”
“These projects never exist on their own,” Lee added. “We’re always working alongside and supporting one another as we go. I am grateful to them and our incredible faculty.”
