Tonight our Environmental Design Department is hosting an event for all Environmental Design students, faculty and alumni at Hillside Campus.
Three of the department’s newest faculty members, Ben Luddy, Yo Oshima and Jennifer Silbert, will be on hand to introduce themselves and provide presentations on their work.
Click on the flyer for more information.
Art Center has been awarded $75,000 by the Surdna Foundation in support of a transdisciplinary Designmatters studio in which students will create a design for a Teen Art Park for underserved youth in Pasadena and Altadena. The park is a project launched by the Flintridge Center in collaboration with a number of community partners, including Art Center.
“We are grateful for this generous gift from the Surdna Foundation,” says Art Center President Lorne Buchman. “The foundation has been a wonderful supporter of the College, and previously awarded grants in support of our Public Programs.”
The two-part studio, held in conjunction with the Flintridge Center, will take place next year over Spring and Summer terms, and will be led by Environmental Design Chair David Mocarski and core faculty member James Meraz. The studio, made up of 16 Art Center students from all disciplines, will work with as many as 150 youth from these underserved areas to create the design for the park.
More Designmatters news: Change Observer has a nice write-up on Designmatters’ Safe Agua project, which we’ve written about here before, and which was the focus of an Art Center exhibition at the Cumulus conference held in conjunction with the Shanghai World Expo last month.
A woman in the campamento tests the Relava kitchen workstation prototype.
From the article: “For the teachers and students in the Environmental and Product Design departments at Art Center College of Design who signed up for the Safe Agua project in Chile, the first engagement with the problem was very close to home. An ‘empathy exercise’ at Art Center’s Pasadena, California, campus, before a two-week field trip to Chile, forced the 15-member team to experience what it’s like to limit their daily water intake to one 5-gallon bucket, and laid the groundwork for understanding the challenges faced by the slum families.”
Three of the projects from this studio—the Ducha Halo portable shower, ReLava kitchen workstation and Mila community laundry facility—have already entered the implementation and testing stages.
Read more: Project: Safe Agua
Ini Archibong
Environmental Design student Ini Archibong has been named Student Designer of the Year by Stylus and Bernhardt Design. The Stylus + Bernhardt Design American Design Honors are a new annual awards program developed to support the future of American product design. The American Design Honors will provide young designers with both exposure and financial support. Archibong will be honored by Stylus and Bernhardt at the 2010 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York next week.
“A few minutes after meeting Ini, you realize you are in the presence of someone destined to achieve great things,” says President of Bernhardt Design Jerry Helling. “His personal charisma complements his natural design talent—he has the drive, passion and commitment to sustain a long and successful career.”
Born and raised in Pasadena, Archibong began his studies at USC’s Marshall School of Business. He soon realized that he could not ignore his creative passion, opting to focus on fine art and architectural design. He worked for two years at George Architecture in South Pasadena, where he learned the essential skills of the trade and strengthened his application portfolio for Art Center. In 2007, he was accepted into the College’s Environmental Design program, and received both an Edwards Entrance Scholarship and an Art Center Outreach Grant.
Environmental Design alumna Shelly Shelly has won a Red Dot Award for her “Loft” lounge chair, designed for Art Center’s third Bernhardt sponsored studio. The chair will also be featured in the Red Dot yearbook and design museum.
Award-winners will be honored at an awards ceremony July 5 in Essen, Germany. Congrats, Shelly!
Environmental Design alumnus John Niero’s Elle is a finalist in the fourth annual Interior Design Best of Year Awards in the Seating: Contract/Lounge Category.
The Best of Year Awards is the preeminent design competition recognizing superior interior design projects and products in over 50 categories. More than 600 products were entered in this year’s competition. The awards ceremony will be held Dec. 3 in New York.
Earlier this year, Elle was awarded Best of NeoCon 2009 in the Seating: Sofas and Lounge category at the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair in Chicago.
Congrats, John!
It’s that time of year again—canned food drive time. You’ve seen them and donated to them, too. But you’ve probably never seen a canned food drive quite like this one.
The fourth annual Canstruction LA will be held from Oct. 30 through Nov. 15 at 5900 Wilshire Blvd., located across the street from LACMA. Organized by a collaboration of design industry leaders and AIA Los Angeles, Canstruction LA invites teams of prominent Los Angeles architects, engineers and designers to create exciting exhibits made entirely of cans of food.
Exhibits are on view to the public and awarded prizes by a panel of judges. Art Center’s Randall Wilson, Environmental Design instructor, is a judge this year.
Check out the Canstruction LA site for information, photos and video of the event.