Author Archives: Mike Winder

Prefaboo: LivingHomes’ Steve Glenn Visits Art Center

LivingHomes founder and CEO, Steve Glenn

Have you made it to each and every one of this term’s Big Picture Lecture Series? No? Did you know you can watch them, in their entirety, on Art Center’s iTunes U page? Just make sure you have the latest version of iTunes and start watching!

This past Monday, ecological entrepreneur Steve Glenn spoke to a standing-room-only crowd in Art Center’s Los Angeles Times Media Center about his company LivingHomes, which works with renowned architects, like Ray Kappe and KieranTimberlake Associates, to create prefabricated homes.

During the lecture, Glenn made a compelling argument for why prefab homes can be built “better, quicker, cheaper and with a smaller ecological footprint” than traditional on-site construction.

LivingHomes first building, Glenn's house

He also shared some personal history and provided insight to his business decisions.

On his earlier aspirations:

“I wanted to be Frank Lloyd Wright. In college I [entered] a design program and learned that I neither had the talent nor the temperament to be an architect. I also learned that [Frank Lloyd Wright] wasn’t such a nice guy.”

On Ray Kappe:

“Ray Kappe is one of my all-time favorite architects. He has a big ego about design but not about himself. His public reputation . . . is nowhere as great as it should be, based on the work that he does. He’s a rare modernist that integrates a craftsman-like attention to detail and warmth.”

On the ecological benefits of prefab:

“In typical site-built construction, 30 to 40 percent of the materials end up as construction waste. Indeed, if you talk to any of the landfill guys, they’ll tell you the biggest part of any landfill, up to one third, is construction waste.”

On why he chose his house as LivingHomes’ first project:

“I didn’t want any other customer to bitch at us if anything was wrong. I’d be the customer. There’d be no one else to bitch at. I’d take the biggest grenades.”

Glenn’s home, a modernist structure chock-full of ecological amenities—a photovoltaic “LivingRoof” that produces 75 percent of the home’s power needs, a cistern that recycles water into a pond and a waterfall, and low-flow faucets, just to name a few—was the first home to ever receive LEED Platinum certification.

Be sure to check out the entire lecture online.

Next up in the Big Picture Lecture series: LA Weekly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold presents “Authenticity, Culture and the Kimchi Taco” (July 5, 1 pm, Los Angeles Times Media Center).

The Image Gets Ready for Its Close-up: Art Center’s Imaging DNA Conference

Sure, Imaging DNA might sound like a new song from the Stanford biology rappers, but it’s actually an upcoming two-day conference (July 10–11) that Art Center, in association with NMC Partners, has organized to gather leaders and innovators in imaging, technology, media and education. The goal of the gathering? To immerse attendees in the ideas, discussion and debate surrounding all things image – their production, display, licensing and, in general, their usage.

“Imaging DNA is poised to be the crossroads for artists, educators, photographers and futurists, and therefore a perfect fit for Art Center,” said Dennis Keeley, chair of Art Center’s Photography and Imaging Department, who will moderate the two-day event. “The way the world captures, enhances and distributes photographs is continually transformed by technology. In the Photography and Imaging Department at Art Center, we focus on what does not change: the essence of great photography.”

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4 Hours Solid: Intimidating Title, Illuminating Event

Dubbed “the event with the intimidating title” by its organizers, the first annual 4 Hours Solid took place on April 21 at Art Center’s South Campus and marked the first time the College  specifically showcased work and ideas from its four graduate programs—Graduate Art, Broadcast Cinema, Industrial Design (GradID) and Media Design (MDP).

Over 300 people attended the evening event, which included a panel discussion, exhibitions of recent student theses and work, student film screenings and a reception.

For the students showing their work, the evening provided a welcome opportunity to get feedback on their projects.

MDP student Haemi Yoon, who presented her thesis project that explores the down-time of everyday electronic objects, said she was surprised by the questions visitors asked her. “I thought people wouldn’t understand the project, but they totally got it,” said Yoon. “People asked me, ‘What do you think a future object will look like?’ and ‘Do you think these objects should have personalities?’ It was a great dialogue.” Continue reading →

The Mystery of the Pimped Ad

Pimp My Ad poster

If you’ve walked through Art Center recently, chances are you’ve seen posters for Pimp My Ad.

The first poster that caught the Dotted Line’s attention was designed by second-term Advertising major Chris Gilbert and was a visual nod to William Bernbach’s classic 1959 Volkswagen ad campaign.

Printed on larger stock than most anything else adorning the College’s hallways, the poster featured a black-and-white photograph of, well, a “pimp hat,” paired with copy about a campus group whose existence was no longer a mystery.

Pimp My Ad, which borrows its name from MTV’s popular car customization show Pimp My Ride, is a weekly art direction workshop in which Advertising majors have their work critiqued informally by Advertising Department Acting Chair James Wojtowicz, guest speakers like Art Center Advertising alumnus Zhorab Gevorkian and, most importantly, their academic peers. Continue reading →

Get Your Group On: Spotlight on ACCD/AIGA

If you’re a graphic designer, you’ve heard of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).

A professional association for design founded in 1914, AIGA’s mission, according to its website, is “to advance designing as a special craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force.”

Not surprisingly, Art Center has a student group affiliated with the association—ACCD/AIGA. We recently caught up with the group’s president, seventh-term Graphic Design student Amelia Stier, to get the lowdown.

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Words, Words, Words! Marion Bantjes brings her candor to Art Center

Marian Bantjes, fresh from her appearance at TED, stopped by the Ahmanson Auditorium last Thursday to share some riveting stories behind her internationally-recognized work. The Canadian artist, typographer, designer and writer touched on her project selection process, the philosophy behind her unique aesthetic and the difficulty of finding something worth saying.

Did you hear Bantjes speak? What did you think?

Here are a few highlights:

On her early career as a typesetter:

As a typesetter, I didn’t do any creative work at all. The designer told me what to do and my job was to know typography well enough to get it right. I did this for ten years. Most people who want to be designers think of this as tedious. But I learned a lot about typography and I loved that job. It’s something undervalued in most design today. People want to do the fun stuff, the crazy stuff, the stuff that I do now, but it’s really important to be able to get pleasure in the fine details.

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Thinking Outside the Dot

The brainstorming group in the SDR.When he first arrived on campus in October 2009, Dr. Lorne M. Buchman said one of his first tasks as Art Center’s new president and chief executive officer would be to listen to students, faculty and staff to hear their thoughts on a future direction for the College.

“We must first come together as a community to envision our opportunities, to imagine new possibilities, and to enter into a bold, habit-breaking conversation about our educational future,” wrote Buchman in December when he announced a comprehensive planning process for the College.

To get the conversation rolling, Buchman invited the entire community to attend two back-to-back events: an evening kick-off panel discussion in the Ahmanson Auditorium featuring provocative national thought leaders (for a recap, see yesterday’s post); and a brainstorming session the following day to tackle key issues derived from Art Center’s mission statement.

On January 14, approximately 300 members of the Art Center community—faculty, staff, students and alumni—gathered in the Student Dining Room for the daylong brainstorm. “I want to encourage you all to imagine without limit,” urged Buchman to the larger-than-expected group. “Imagine without limit what Art Center has always been, or what an art and design college ‘ought to be’.”

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