Advertising student Andrew Kapamajian says that the incredible creativity of his classmates was one of the most surprising things about coming to Art Center.
“You come to Art Center thinking you have the most unique ideas, then you go to class and find at least three or four others there with the same idea,” he says. “It’s frustrating, but it pushes you to think harder.”
Read more about Andrew and his Art Center experience at in this great interview.
Next week Art Center students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends will come together for Art Center Takes Action: A Day of Service in Pasadena, a volunteer initiative launched in celebration of Art Center’s 80th anniversary. The event will be held Saturday, June 12.
Among the local organizations that Art Center volunteers will assist include AIDS Service Center, Boys and Girls Club of Pasadena, Pasadena Senior Center, Rose Bowl Stadium and Villa-Parke Community Center.
The day of service will kick off at 8 am on Saturday, June 12. Participants will begin the day at Pasadena’s Memorial Park for breakfast with College President Buchman, representatives from participating organizations and patrons of the Pasadena Senior Center. From there, teams of Art Center volunteers will be dispatched to locations around the city to take on such tasks as picking up garbage, serving food and moving boxes.
We’ll bring you more information on the event and the participating organizations next week.
It’s not too late to join us. To sign up or for more information, contact Betsy Edmunds in the Center for the Student Experience at cse@artcenter.edu or stop by the CSE.
Art Center’s Williamson Gallery is continuing its series of explorations into the intersecting domains of art, science, technology and design with side-by-side exhibitions exploring the interplay between the technologies used to fabricate objects and the thought-processes used to conceive them. The Curious World of Patent Models and The Future of Objects open Thursday, June 3, will be on display through August 15.
The relationship between technology and its influence over the process of conceptualizing objects, inventions and innovations is referenced overtly in The Curious World of Patent Models, an exhibit of more than 50 scale models representing ideas submitted for United States Patent protection between 1800 and 1880. A concurrent exhibit, The Future of Objects, displays new digital-age fabrication and prototyping techniques in which complex forms are created by 3D printers. As the exhibit reveals, technologies related to those used daily in households and offices to print 2D information on flat pieces of paper are now being used to create freestanding 3D objects using a variety of solid materials.
“As we celebrate Art Center’s 80th anniversary, it’s fitting to showcase advanced computer modeling and 3D printing techniques that will very soon become such a big part of the planet’s visual culture,” says Gallery Director Stephen Nowlin. “Exhibiting 19th-century fabrication alongside 21st-century technology opens an entirely new conversation about what is coming in the future, and where it came from.”
The Curious World of Patent Models and The Future of Objects On Exhibit
Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Hillside Campus
June 4—August 15
Opening Reception: June 3, 7- 9 pm
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
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.
Transportation Design alumnus was recently named number four on Fast Company’s “The 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2010” list. Chief Creative Officer at Nissan, Nakamura is famous for being hands-on in his creative endeavors.
For more on Nakamura, check out our Outer Circle interview, in which we spoke to him about the future of transportation design.
Congrats, Shiro!
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
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
Paying homage to the American landscape, Transportation Design student Anthony Sims has created a low-emission concept car that generates power from a hybrid engine. Called the Mazda Tanken, the vehicle features a 4-cylinder engine that charges the vehicle’s batteries with electric motors.
Learn more: Mazda Tanken: Hybrid SUV pays homage to versatile American milieu
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.