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UPDATED: Graphic design art exhibition of M/M (Paris) makes West Coast premiere

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

VIDEO:  Watch artists Augustyniak, Amzalag in conversation with Illustration Associate Chair Aaron Smith and instructor Nancy Reigelman here. 

Art Center College of Design is pleased to announce the first ever West Coast exhibition by M/M (Paris), the celebrated Paris-based art and design partnership created by Mathias Augustyniak and Michaël Amzalag in 1992.

The exhibition M/MANIFESTATION runs March 8–April 28 at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at Art Center’s Hillside Campus.

The free opening night events on Thursday, March 7 begin with a conversation with M/M (Paris) at 7:30 p.m. in the Ahmanson Auditorium, followed by a book signing and reception in the gallery. Please R.S.V.P. to events@artcenter.edu.

M/M’s close associations with the art, music and fashion worlds have led to their becoming one of the most distinctive and acclaimed creative voices of their generation, within graphic design and beyond.

(more…)

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Diversity: good for education, good for business

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

GM Design Chief Ed Welburn (second from right) speaks with Transportation Design student.

Most Art Center students will tell you that being part of a diverse student body enriches their educational experience. The opportunity to collaborate with other artists and designers from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives is a hallmark of the Art Center experience. It’s one of the reasons that diversity and inclusion are included in the College’s six governing values and principles, and broadly represented throughout the College’s strategic plan.

Of course, diversity isn’t just good for education. It’s also good business. Many of Art Center’s corporate partners are choosing to enhance their philanthropic support of the College with scholarships that promote diversity – of experience, economic background, race, gender and more.

Art Center partner Sodexo is a case in point. The food services and facilities management company, which priorities diversity and inclusion, recently made a gift to continue its annual Sodexo Diversity Scholarship. Established in 2011, the scholarship provides financial assistance to qualifying students from diverse and historically underrepresented groups.

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Posted in Diversity | 1 Comment »

In Search of Textured Stories: An Illustration Student Explores Children’s Books by African-American Illustrators

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

 

Art Center librarian Simone Fujita and Illustration student Kristina Halcromb discuss children’s books by African-American illustrators. Art Center photo by Sylvia Sukop

“You get a feeling of music. Totally music. Rhythm,” Kristina Halcromb muses out loud as she runs her fingers over Duke Ellington’s blazer, rendered in rich hues of purple, pink, blue and brown in a children’s book she is encountering for the first time. Emanating from the trombone pressed to the jazz musician’s lips, clouds of sound swirl across the page.

“The hand drawing makes it more appreciative,” says the Illustration major, in her final year at Art Center College of Design.

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Posted in Diversity, Illustration | 1 Comment »

Art Center gets interactive at SXSW

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Art Center tech-heads will have a chance to talk design at the 20th annual SXSW Interactive festival, held March 8 to 12 in Austin, Texas.

The College will host an alumni event March 7 with panelists – including Anne Burdick, Chair of Graduate Media Design Practices, and Maggie Hendrie, Chair of Interaction Design – discussing challenges facing designers in a networked global future.

Additionally, a trio of alumni from the Media Design Practices program will sit on panels: Jayne Vidheecharoen (Shaping the Future of Play Is Serious Work), Carina Ngai (Design for Aging, Your Future-Self) and Jennifer Darmour (The Next Frontier of Interactive: Smart Fashion).

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Posted in Alumni Relations, Events, Faculty, Graduate Media Design, Interaction Design | 2 Comments »

Alum Leslie Ekker reveals how he designed modern-day ‘Munsters’

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Visual Effects Supervisor and alum Leslie Ekker recently earned a Visual Effects Society award nomination for “Mockingbird Lane,” NBC’s reboot of the 1960s classic “The Munsters.”

The pilot, which earned a nom for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program, starred Jerry O’Connell as family patriarch Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily, and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa. We caught up with Ekker to learn how he helped design modern-day Munsters.

Describe the visual effects your team is being recognized for on “Mockingbird Lane.”

There were 75 visual effects shots for a 40-minute pilot. For example, specially designed particle animations were created to show the appearance and special powers of matriarch Lily Munster (Portia De Rossi), who first arrives in a wooden crate. A languid vapor begins to flow from the chinks in the crate and then flow together to form a nude Lily. (more…)

Posted in Alumni Relations, Product Design | Comments Off

‘Rise of the Guardians’ director to speak at Art Center

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

“Rise of the Guardians” director Peter Ramsey will speak at Art Center Thursday at 4 p.m.

Ramsey’s Hollywood credits include “Panic Room,” “Fight Club,” “Batman Forever” and “Backdraft.” And by helming DreamWorks Animation’s “Rise of the Guardians,” Ramsey became first the African-American to direct a major animated film.

His decades-long Hollywood career includes turns as a storyboard artist, illustrator, continuity artist and production illustrator.

(more…)

Posted in Entertainment Design, Events | Comments Off

Art Center hosts distinguished speakers from the art world

Monday, February 18th, 2013

Andrea Fraser

The Graduate Art Seminar at Art Center College of Design welcomes internationally recognized artists, critics, art historians, architects, filmmakers and writers to Pasadena to share their insights into the world of contemporary art. The seminar — a core component of Art Center’s Graduate Art program — takes place at the Hillside campus Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. throughout every Spring term.

All events are free and open to the public.

Next up Tuesday evening is New York-based performance artist Andrea Fraser, whoseinstallations have been featured at the Berkeley Art Museum, the Kunstverein Munich, the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial.

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Black History Month: A few things you might not know

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Carter G. Woodson

In terms of socio-political significance, February is also an important month in the United States. It is Black History Month. It is a time when the country recognizes the struggles, achievements and contributions of the African-American community. In the course of researching this topic, I learned something I didn’t know before. I want to pass it along.

Black History Week was founded at a time (the 1920s) when forces actively tried to write famous African-Americans, such as Harriet Tubman and Crispus Attucks, out of the history books.

The annual observance was created by Carter G. Woodson. He was an educator who graduated from the University of Chicago and was the second black man (behind W.E.B. Du Bois) to receive a doctorate from Harvard University.

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Re-designing movies: How Art Center educates the next generation of filmmakers

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

During a break on the set of Man of Steel, the upcoming Superman reboot directed by Zack Snyder FILM 89, Jack Foley, a teen actor whose character in the film bullies a young Clark Kent before the two become friends, started asking questions. “I began talking with Zack about how he became a filmmaker, and the conversation led to film school,” Foley says. “I asked him about where he went, and he spoke very highly of Art Center.”

Like many others, Foley is an actor who wants to direct. And in Snyder he saw his college future. “I was pretty much set to go to a different film school, but after seeing Zack’s methods and the way he controlled his set, it was clear to me that I was working with a true artist. I started looking into Art Center.”

The Visual Storyteller, Act One:

As befits a successful screenwriter (Rush Hour), novelist and, most recently, graphic novelist, Ross LaManna, chair of the undergraduate Film Department since 2006, has countless stories to tell. Many center on the program’s students, such as Dan Bartolucci FILM 10, who got a job on the graveyard shift at special effects house Lola, right after graduating.

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Sustainable solutions: by bike, on a plane or by hand

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Pop quiz:

What do the following design concepts have in common: a streamlined re-design of in-flight meal preparation and service that reduces air-travel waste; a bicycle for tourists that collects environmental data as cyclists explore the city; and a human-powered washing machine and spin dryer for families living on $4 to $10 per day?

a. They were all designed by Art Center students.
b. They reflect the growing awareness of sustainability within art and design.
c. They are the winning concepts of the 2012 Denhart Family Sustainability Scholarship Prize.
d. All of the above

Too easy? The answer (d) shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the cutting-edge role Art Center students are playing in environmentally and socially responsible art and design. This year’s Denhart Prize winners, chosen from a highly competitive pool of undergraduates from Fine Art, Film, Photography, Illustration, and Industrial and Environmental Design, represent some of the year’s top design ideas in sustainability at Art Center.

(more…)

Posted in Development, Environmental Design, Film, Fine Art, Illustration, News, Photography and Imaging | Comments Off

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