Category Archives: Designmatters

Pasadena City Buses To Get the Ultimate Detailing

Bus riders soon will notice a new look, a new name, and find a fresh mobile phone app for travel around the City of Pasadena. Art Center students are creating a new identity for the Pasadena ARTS transit system that will guide riders throughout the region.

City officials are now choosing which proposed design to implement. Contrary to what you might guess, the ARTS bus is not merely a way to hit the city’s multiple arts and cultural venues. ARTS stands for the Area Rapid Transit System, which transports locals and visitors alike to various spots around town. To address the confusion around the moniker, the design brief also encouraged students to come up with a new name for the transit agency.

In the spirit of local engagement, Art Center’s Dean of Special Programs and Chair of the Graphic Design Department, Nik Hafermaas, suggested that the college’s Educational Partnerships team coordinate the project through an Identity Systems course taught by Gloria Kondrup.

“Our goal is to demonstrate that well conceived design can significantly improve our communities, said Hafermaas. “This is a wonderful chance for our students to make a positive contribution to our own neighborhood.”

In the class, each student developed a new brand name and a design standards manual to guide the implementation of the new identity through its various applications. The manual addressed the use of color, typography and image across many touch points. This includes new bus graphics, signage, bus shelters, the agency’s website and its forthcoming smartphone app.

In April, Mayor Bill Bogaard joined a team of city executives to review final presentations. Once a choice is made, the new brand will be implemented across all city marketing materials.

Thought Leaders Gather at Art Center to Discuss Design for Social Impact

As part of Design Week 2012, Art Center and Dwell Magazine will jointly host a dialogue on how innovative design can influence social change. The event will begin with a keynote address by John Peterson, Founder and President of Public Architecture. A panel discussion, moderated by Michael Sylvester, Managing Director, Dwell on Design, will follow. Panelists include Frances Anderton, Host, DnA: Design and Architecture on KCRW and L.A. Editor, Dwell Magazine; Mariana Amatullo, Vice President, Designmatters and recipient of the 2012 Dell Outstanding Leadership in Social Innovation Education Award and David Mocarski, Chair, Environmental Design.

The event will be held Saturday, June 16 from 6-8 pm at Art Center’s Hillside Campus. Seating is limited; please contact events@artcenter.edu if you are interested in attending.

Art Center is proud to be an official partner of the West Coast’s largest design event, Dwell on Design, which boasts three days of the best and brightest products, services and thought leaders in modern design. Dwell on Design will be held from June 22 – 24 at the L.A. Convention Center.

As the only educational institution named a Silver Sponsor, Art Center will make a significant impact during the event. The College will occupy 1,000 square feet of exhibition space showing representative student and alumni work in Product and Environmental Design; lead a series of creative design activities on the show floor; and showcase student, faculty and alumni presentations on three separate stages at the event.

Dwell on Design runs from June 22- June 24 at the LA Convention Center.  Students can register for free.

Art Center College of Design’s “Designmatters” Vice President Honored with Dell Social Innovation Education Award

Mariana Amatullo

Designmatters' Mariana Amatullo

Mariana Amatullo, vice president at Art Center College of Design and co-founder of Designmatters, the College’s social impact initiative, has won the inaugural Dell Social Innovation Education Award.  The honor recognizes outstanding leadership in teaching and supporting student social innovators.

Designmatters engages students, faculty and alumni from across disciplines in an ongoing exploration of the role of art and design in effecting large-scale sustainable change through innovative partnerships locally and around the world.  It is through the impressive outcomes generated by Designmatters that the College became the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status.

“Art Center aspires to redefine and expand the role of the artist and designer into one who is a catalyst for social change and innovation, ” said Lorne M. Buchman, president, Art Center College of Design.  “Designmatters allows us to harness the power of creative imagination to effect that change.

“I’m very proud of what Mariana has created over the last decade and we congratulate her, “ Buchman continued. “We consider this award an endorsement as renewed encouragement to continue our commitment to contribute to, and learn from, our engagement in the social innovation space.”

“I am deeply honored to be selected as the inaugural recipient of this award,” said Amatullo. It has been my personal privilege and joy to be in a position of mobilizing the collective energy and creative talent of the Art Center community with an educational agenda for social impact through Designmatters.

“This award serves as a wonderful tribute to the body of work by our students, faculty, and staff during the last decade, and more broadly speaks of the growing recognition of the value of art and design in effecting consequential societal change,” she explained.

“We had many outstanding nominees for the Social Innovation Education Award,” said Dell  Challenge Executive Director Suzi Sosa, “however, Mariana stood out because of her ability to inspire institutional support for applying design solutions to social problems.”

Amatullo was chosen for her exemplary leadership and holistic approach in building new modes of engagement for art and design education with social impact, promoting broad collaboration through cross-sector partnerships with non-profit organizations, development agencies and industry. The award-winning and social innovation outcomes of Designmatters during the past decade are providing a key foundation for the framework of Media Design Matters, a new course of study in the Graduate Media Design Program at Art Center. Amatullo is co-leading Media Design Matters, which focuses on communication design at the intersection of new technology and social engagement.

She will be honored during the global awards ceremony on June 12th in Austin, Texas.

As part of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, several Art Center student projects from the award-winning Safe Agua initiative, a Designmatters partnership with the Innovation Center of Un Techo Para Mi Pais, were named semi-finalists.  The projects focused on innovative design products and systems to overcome water poverty with families of slum-dwellers in Lima, Peru.

About Art Center College of Design

Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, Art Center College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. Art Center offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide variety of art and design disciplines, as well as public programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for its ties to industry and professional rigor, Art Center is recognized as a United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), providing students with opportunities to create design-based solutions for humanitarian and nonprofit agencies around the world. During the College’s 80-year history, Art Center’s alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live, and important issues in our society.

To learn more

facebook.com/dellsocialinnovation

twitter.com/dellsocialinnov

artcenter.edu/designmatters

Filling in the Blank: Students Bringing TEDx to Campus

Class shot of the TEDx Art Center College of Design Studio. Photo: June Korea.

Orange will mix with red this summer when the student-driven TEDx Art Center College of Design conference takes over the Hillside Campus on Saturday, June 9 to explore the event’s theme: “Design a ________ for Social Impact.” The “blank” in that title is a call-to-action designed to inspire conference attendees to come up with their own idea for how to effect positive change in the world.

Also on hand to inspire attendees will be an impressive lineup of speakers, including Doug Powell, national president of AIGA and the individual spearheading that association’s Design for Good initiative; and Cameron Tonkinwise, chair of Design Thinking and Sustainability at Parsons The New School School for Design, whose current research is exploring design-enabled sharing of resources. And for something completely different, Art Center Product Design alumnus and KILLSPENCER founder Spencer Nikosey has been tapped to provide the day’s musical entertainment.

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It’s Important, It’s Easy, It’s Time

Next year, Es Tiempo, a multi-faceted cervical cancer awareness and support campaign is expected to begin a pilot rollout in Los Angeles.

The broad-based communications and outreach campaign—the result of an award-winning Designmatters studio project—will encourage Latinas to seek out early cervical cancer screenings.

A collaboration between Designmatters, USC’s Keck School of Medicine and USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Es Tiempo was led by the College’s Advertising Department, including lead faculty Elena Salij and Maria Moon.

Students Phillip An (Illustration), Mark Brinn (Graphic Design), Chris Lack (Graphic Design), Tracy Hung (Graphic Design), Haelee Kang (Graphic Design), Lucia Loiso (Photography and Imaging) and Camille Ontiveros (Fine Art) were challenged to create communications to persuade Latinas in Los Angeles’ underserved communities to comply with clinical guidelines for cervical-cancer screening.

The students began their research broadly: by visiting the USC/Norris Cancer Center, visiting local clinics and studying the visual and material culture of East LA. On the basis of this early research, the students created ‘rapid prototypes’ of their preliminary ideas.

Researchers at USC Annenberg School of Communications conducted focus groups with at-risk Latinas, and their findings brought the challenge into focus. Contrary to the class’ expectations, awareness of the pap test and its importance was not the fundamental problem: virtually all the women knew what a pap test was, and that they should be screened regularly. However, the barriers—cultural, institutional, and practical—were many and varied from a disinclination to discuss medical matters in general to a distrust of physicians and lack of relationship with a primary care physician.

Given the number and complexity of the obstacles it was determined that a simple advertising campaign wouldn’t be enough: a more elaborate integrated communications program, knocking down as many barriers as possible, was required. The students settled on a three-part program.

Salience and Way-Finding
The first part of the campaign links the jacaranda tree, the purple-flowered tree that blooms in Southern California and in Central and South America, to screening: posters, video, and radio advertising remind women that “when the jacaranda tree blooms, it’s time to schedule your pap test.” Maps and environmental graphics—again, featuring the jacaranda tree logo—direct women to local clinics where they can obtain low- and no-cost pap tests. All are signed with the tag line “Es Importante, Es Facil, Es Tiempo” (“It’s Important, It’s Easy, It’s Time”).

Incentives
To ease the financial burden of missing work during screening, students devised the Es Tiempo VISA Gift Card: when a woman gets her pap test, her card is credited with $20; when she calls back to obtain her test results, her card is credited with another $10; if she persuades a friend to get a pap test, her card is credited with another $5. The balance can be spent anywhere VISA is accepted. In addition, an easy-to-use website allows the woman to check her test results and card balance online, and offers videos explaining what pap results mean, and encouraging the viewers to follow up.

Fundraising
To subsidize the effort, the students proposed a themed fund-raising campaign. In the campaign, corporations committed to women’s health and well-being—OPI, Avon, and others—would offer Es Tiempo jacaranda-themed products (nail polish, perfume, room fragrance) to their customers and profits from sales would support the incentive program. By engaging the women everywhere, the fundraising efforts would continue and expands the central motive of the campaign: women helping other women.

Finally, a series of ancillary products and services—t-shirts, tote bags, even warm socks for the exam room—would perpetuate and amplify the campaign’s theme.

Students created an exhibition of the Es Tiempo campaign, displaying how all facets of the campaign worked together–from the moment a woman first encountered  the campaign poster in her local library, her experience at the clinic, to when she received her results. The exhibition is planned to be displayed at LAC + USC Keck Medical Center for prospective donors and partners to the campaign. It will also be used as a research tool with future focus groups at USC Medical Center.

Es Tiempo won Best of Category in the Student Division of I.D.’s 2010 Annual Design Review. The project was among more than 400 entries. Also in 2010, the project was featured at the I.D. Annual Design Review Exhibition in New York City, and in 2011 was also featured at HOW Design Conference in Chicago.

Partnering institutions USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism continue to collaborate with Designmatters on fundraising for an anticipated pilot rollout of Es Tiempo in  Los Angeles in 2013.

Read more about Es Tiempo at Designmatters’ website, where you can also read about the follow-up course Para Nuestras Hijas. And be sure to check out this great write-up by DesignObserver.

“Bad Weather” T-Shirts Offered This Friday During ArtNight Pasadena

Proceeds from the sale of the "Bad Weather" T-shirt directly benefit Pasadena's Bad Weather Shelter.

In addition to The History of Space Photography, which explores the beauty, mystery, science and meaning of images depicting our planet and worlds beyond, and a free dress rehearsal of John Cage’s 4′33″ (no. 2) (0′00″) in preparation for Saturday’s performance by Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music, visitors to Art Center’s Hillside Campus during ArtNight Pasadena this Friday, March 9 from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. can support the ”Friends of the Bad Weather Shelter” by purchasing a T-shirt for only $20.00.

Bus shelter poster designed by alumnus Patrick Hruby to create awareness of "Friends of the Bad Weather Shelter."

In the Fall of 2011, due to budget restraints and the recent economic downturn, local and federal funds were cut considerably, negatively impacting the Bad Weather Shelter, which provides numerous services to Pasadena’s homeless during the winter months. In response, Rebecca Huang, a local high school senior, started a creative program that encourages 100 local businesses and/or individuals to become “Friends” of the shelter for only $600 a year, which would offset the funds lost due to budget cuts and enable the shelter to continue to provide this important humanitarian service.

Soon after Rebecca launched her campaign, Art Center’s Designmatters and Illustration Departments partnered with the City of Pasadena to develop an effective campaign to create awareness of the program. In January of this year, the City of Pasadena implemented three posters art directed by Ann Field (Chair, Illustration Department) and illustrated by recent alumnus Patrick Hruby (Illustration, ’10) on 20 bus shelters throughout the city.

As a continuation of that campaign, proceeds from the sale of the “Bad Weather” T-shirt directly benefit the Pasadena Bad Weather Shelter. So far, the entire campaign has raised roughly $15,000 from local businesses and individuals.

Designmatters Projects Clean Up at the Spark Awards

Three Designmatters projects from Safe Agua Peru are among the winners for The Spark: Concept Fall Winter Awards: GiraDora: Safe Agua won the highest ranking SPARK! Award; Balde a Balde: Safe Agua won a Gold Award; and Vitamigos: Safe Agua won a Bronze Award.

GiraDora, Student team: Alex Cabunoc / Ji A You

GiraDora, by students Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You, is a human-powered washer and spin dryer that increases efficiency and improves the experience of hand-washing clothes. For under $40, GiraDora more than doubles productivity, increases health of women and children, and affords the opportunity to begin breaking the poverty cycle. The user sits on top of the drum-like appliance and pumps a pedal with her foot, which agitates, cleans, rinses, then spins-dries clothes. While providing a more comfortable, ergonomic, and efficient way to clean clothes, GiraDora also affords opportunities to generate income.

Balde a Balde, by students Kimberly Chow and Carlos Vides provides running water from any bucket, maximizing cleanliness while optimizing water use.  Nearly half of the world lives without access to running water. Balde a Balde (Spanish for “Bucket to Bucket”) is a portable faucet that provides running water from any container, bringing the health benefits and experience of using a tap to families living without running water. The user attaches Balde a Balde to any container with a universal clip, then begins a continuous flow of water with just a few squeezes of the siphon pump. Users can easily control the exact amount of water they need, with a simple click of the on/off spout or a twist of the valve to regulate flow. Balde a Balde harnesses gravity to bring the dignity of running water to the 3 billion people living without taps.

Balde a Balde, Student team: Kimberly Chow / Carlos Vides

Vitamigos, by students Thomas Kong and Cora Neil, combines water purification and nutrition in a tasty beverage. Kids want it, mom’s love it! For the 1 in 6 people living without access to potable water, purification methods are costly, time-consuming, and often inconsistent. Kids often end up drinking sugary-sodas in place of clean water. Vitamigos combines water purification and nutrition in a tasty beverage, creating a new, fun, playful, and interactive experience for moms and kids living without access to potable water. It is a more convenient and economical alternative to boiling water and healthier than the sugary drinks purchased from the local bodegas. The ultimate goal of Vitamigos is to help reduce the illness and medical costs associated with waterborne disease.

More about all the Safe Agua Peru projects can be found on the Designmatters website here.

Congratulations also to alumnus Dan Ashcraft for his Bronze Award winning project, Aria.

According to its website, “Spark is first and foremost a community of designers and creative people, bound together by the idea that Design can make significant, positive changes in the world and help make it better. The way we promote this Good Design is through the annual organization of international design competitions, exhibitions, blogs and workshops.”

Looking Back on a Year of Change

Art Center President Lorne M. Buchman.

Earlier this year, Art Center College of Design launched Create Change, our strategic plan for becoming the preeminent college of art and design in the 21st century.

With Fall graduation events set for tomorrow and the winter break nearly upon us, we felt it was the perfect time to sit down with Art Center College of Design President Lorne M. Buchman to hear his thoughts on the past year, get an update on the strategic plan and find out what’s in store for the coming year.

Dotted Line: Looking back at the past year, what are your first thoughts?

Lorne M. Buchman: I’d like to begin by expressing how deeply gratified I am by all that we’ve accomplished. This has been a banner year for Art Center. We’ve seen record enrollment of talented and gifted students, we launched our strategic plan and we are set to begin new degree programs in Fall 2012. We’re closing in on the purchase of the post office property adjacent to South Campus, a facility for which we’ve raised significant funds to purchase. We’ve built the Board and we’ve recruited some dynamic new faculty. We are connecting with alumni the world over. We’ve offered some fabulous new courses and we’ve made significant strides in acquiring new technology and equipment for our students. I could go on and on. It’s been remarkable. And all of this doesn’t happen by accident. The driving force of our success is the focused and diligent work of our trustees, faculty and staff. We should recognize with much gratitude the quality of this extraordinary community.

More questions with President Lorne M. Buchman after the jump.

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Mariana Amatullo on Cerro Verde

The following post is from the Designmatters blog.

Art Center students talk with community members as water truck arrives

Designmatters Vice President Mariana Amatullo reflects on her time spent in Cerro Verde,  a community on the outskirts of Lima, Peru where Art Center students have been conducting field research in collaboration with the Innovation Center of Un Techo Para Mi Pais, as part of the Safe Agua Peru project.

I am just back from Lima and time in the field with the extraordinary team of students and faculty who are leading the Safe Agua Peru project.

Safe Agua Peru marks our second collaboration with the Innovation Center of Un Techo Para Mi Pais and builds upon the lessons we have learned working together in Chile in 2009. At the helm of this transdisicplinary studio are once again Dan Gottlieb and Penny Herscovitch (Environmental Design) and Liliana Becerra (Product Design). Julka Almquist from our Humanities and Design Sciences Department rounds up the faculty team.

With the support of an NCIIA Sustainable Vision Grant, the team is charged to delve deep into the very systemic issues around water poverty that affect this community of about 85 families who are served by Un Techo Para Mi Pais Peru in Cerro Verde, Pamplona Alto, in the district of San Juan de Miraflores.

We are anticipating that the rigorous and participatory research framework of the studio, coupled with privileged access to the community thanks to Techo will yield outcomes that can make a lasting impact.

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Art Center and SHE: Changing Women’s Lives

Art Center’s Illustration Department, along with Designmatters, hosted a studio this spring in collaboration with SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises), to raise awareness and motivate action addressing the lack of access to affordable, eco-friendly sanitary products for women in developing countries such as Rwanda.

Bathroom poster designed by student Amy Cook

“Menstruation is one of those things that people don’t really want to have anything to do with,” says Elizabeth Scharpf, founder of SHE. “Most of the population is left hanging after donation supplies run out.”

Each year in developing countries, girls and women miss about 50 days of work and school because they lack access to affordable and hygienic sanitary pads. The sanitary pads sold in Rwanda are imported, expensive and subject to a prohibitive 18 percent tax.

According to a United Nations study, females are the economic and social engines of their communities, with one dollar invested in a female offering a much higher return on investment than in a male. As a result, the high rate of women and girls dropping out of school and work just reinforces the poverty and loss of opportunities for entire villages.

SHE challenged a group of Art Center students to create an advertising campaign using traditional and non-traditional media aimed at educating young women in the United States and the rest of the developed world on the critical lack of access to basic sanitary health supplies.

The project presented significant challenges for the students, most notably: How does one tackle a “taboo” issue that no one wants to talk about, even in the U.S.? How can we solve a problem that negatively affects millions of females every year?

Learn more about SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises): Awareness Campaign Directions