Category Archives: Events

‘To the Batmobile!’ The iconic car makes a victory lap

The Batmobile has undergone several on-screen incarnations — from the finned Lincoln Futura designed in 1966 in three weeks to 2012′s tank-like Tumblers that were five months (and reportedly millions of dollars) in the making.

All seven of the Caped Crusader’s rides — including the Batmobile designed by Art Center’s Tim Flattery — are on display through Dec. 14 as part of a free exhibit at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.

More of Gotham’s finest are also showcased, including costumes and props from the Batman film franchise, as well as art from a traveling DC Comic exhibit featuring work by Jim Lee.

Flattery’s stealth-looking Batmobile, featured in 1995′s “Batman Forever” with Val Kilmer at the wheel, was powered by a 25-gallon propane tank that could shoot a 25-foot flame from the rear exhaust.

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Students craft art from fallen trees to raise funds

Art Center students have turned fallen trees into art as part of the “Forces of Nature” project on display through Sunday at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.

The exhibit features woodworks from 130 artists that will be sold during a silent auction to raise funds for the Arboretum and replant trees. Each piece was crafted from a piece of fallen wood from last December’s windstorm that toppled 235 trees at the Arboretum.

Sixteen students in Fridolin Beisert’s Creative Strategies class were given a 6-inch slice of wood and two weeks to craft a piece.

“The challenge was to create something in a short amount of time that would sell for the highest amount,” said Beisert, a professor in the Product Design department.

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VIDEO: Car Classic – 90 years of design in 90 seconds.



Art Center recently celebrated 90 years of design — from the 1924 Rolls Royce to the 2012 Fisker Karma — at Car Classic 2012.

The annual event, held Oct. 21, drew a crowd of 1,500 and featured colorful all-American classics, French Citroens, and a progression of cars built for speed, from a Corvette Stingray (designed by alums Pete Brock and Larry Shindoa) to the 2011 McLaren (designed by alum Frank Stephenson).

A section of the event — a ‘61 Cadillac Coupe, ‘88 Fiero, ‘64 Corvair Monza Coupe and a ‘58 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe — was dedicated to designs by Ron Hill, an Art Center alum and former chair of transportation design. Hill also received the Lifetime Achievement award for his 30-year career that spanned Corvettes, Camaros and Cadillacs.

The College also gave out 25 awards in three categories, including audience and designers’ picks. Click here to see who was best in show.

Graphic Design student wins Adobe Design Achievement Award

Recent graduate Jeff Han GRPH 11 (top) and current Graphic Design student Jerod Rivera represented Art Center at last week's Adobe Design Achievement Awards.

Recent Graphic Design graduate Jeff Han GRPH 11 walked away a winner at last week’s 12th annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards.

The event, which was held at the DesignThinkers 2012 conference in Toronto, honored students and educators whose winning projects were selected from 41 finalists out of nearly 5,000 total entries from 70 countries.

Han’s museum re-branding project for the fictional Contemporary Museum of Architecture (COMA), which he created as a seventh term student in instructor Brad Bartlett’s Transmedia course, won the award in the the Print Communications category.

“I’ve always had a very strong interest in architecture,” said Han of his winning design, which utilized a typographic solution inspired by the generative creation of forms in contemporary architecture. Part of the rebranding project included creating a series of posters promoting an (also fictional) exhibition by Greg Lynn, an architect whom Han lists as a creative inspiration.

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Designer Simon Johnston on Factory Records, Q-Tips, lawyers, self-destructing magazines

Simon Johnston with his work "Investigation" at the "PAGES" exhibition opening. Photo: Chuck Spangler

Students recently packed an overflowing Los Angeles Times auditorium for 3×3*: Type Guys, an event that featured three presentations and a lively Q&A with three individuals that have crafted the way we see, understand and interact with typography.

Previously we shared highlights Kyle Cooper‘s and Jeremy Mende‘s presentations. Today we focus on Art Center’s own Simon Johnston.

Johnston was educated at Bath Academy of Art in England and the Kunstgewerbeschule, Basel, Switzerland. In England he founded the design practice 8vo, as well as the influential typographic journal Octavo. Since relocating to Los Angeles in 1989, he has run his own design office, Simon Johnston Design, with a particular emphasis on typography, especially book and catalog work for museums and galleries.

Johnston has taught typography and design at Art Center for 20 years. He is currently faculty director of the print area of emphasis in the Graphic Design department. In addition to his teaching and design practice, he works on his own art and photography projects.

At the event, Johnston touched on a variety of topics, including the importance of typography, working with some of his idols and the minefield of registered trademarks.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

On typography:
There’s an old joke: It’s the scene of an accident, a crowd is gathered around an injured person, and from the back of the crowd a voice is heard, “Let me through! I’m a typographer!” Typography may not be a matter of life and death, but as visible language, it is the key means through which we communicate as a society, and as such it’s the spine that runs through the body of graphic design practice.

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Designer Jeremy Mende on ‘anxious futurism,’ petroleum, biorhythmic data

Jeremy Mende's "100 Years from Now" installation in Rome.

Students packed an overflowing Los Angeles Times auditorium last Thursday night for 3×3*: Type Guys, an event that featured three presentations and a lively Q&A with designers Jeremy Mende, Kyle Cooper and Art Center’s own Simon Johnston—three men that have crafted the way we see, understand and interact with typography.

Last week we gave you highlights from Kyle Cooper’s presentation. Today we focus on San Francisco-based Jeremy Mende, an associate professor of design at the California College of the Arts, where he teaches experiemental typography and critical theory.

In 2000, he founded MendeDesign, a firm that describes itself as creating “unique, poetic and unexpected messages” and that believes that beauty and authenticity have a “critical role in producing things of value and durability.”

Mende has been recognized internationally for his work and has pieces in several collections including at SFMOMA. In 2010-11, he was the Rome Prize Fellow in Design at the American Academy in Rome.

At Art Center, he spoke with students about work he’s created that meet at the “interesection of [his] interest in psychology and [his] interest in design and [his] interest in typography.”

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Flea, Carnegie Hall cellist to play at Art Center

Flea, the famed (and sometimes pants-less) bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, will share the stage at Art Center College of Design with some interesting company: a Carnegie Hall cellist and a Caltech physicist.

Part of the Muse/ique classical concert series, the show on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. will explore vibrations of all kinds with a program that includes Bach, Coltrane, Vivaldi and the Beatles.

Crossover cellist Matt Haimovitz — known for his blend of pop, jazz and rock — will play a Jimi Hendrix-style version of the National Anthem on his 300-year-old Venetian cello. And Caltech physicist Sean Carroll will rap about String Theory, the idea that vibration is at the center of all life.

A pre-concert reception will include wine and tours of Art Center galleries. Tickets are $60; $10 for students (go to http://www.muse-ique.com and use promo code “Student”); and $30 for alumni, staff and faculty (use promo code ACenter).

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Title sequence designer Kyle Cooper on fear, bleeding type, and going lo-fi for “Argo”

(L to R) Simon Johnston, Jeremy Mende and Kyle Cooper field questions from students.

Students packed an overflowing Los Angeles Times auditorium last night for 3×3*: Type Guys, an event that featured three presentations and a lively Q&A with designers Jeremy Mende, Kyle Cooper and Art Center’s own Simon Johnston—three men that have crafted the way we see, understand and interact with typography.

You can read highlights from Johnston’s and Mende’s presentations; today, we’ll focus on Cooper.

The founder of Prologue Films, Cooper has been credited by Details magazine as “almost single-handedly revitalizing the main title sequence as an art form.”

The designer behind the title sequences for films like Se7en, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and the critically acclaimed current release Argo shared with the crowd his process, his philosophy and some behind-the-scenes tidbits.

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Art Center’s Car Classic showcases nearly a century of design

Art Center College of Design celebrated nearly a century’s worth of vehicle designers and designs — from the 1924 Rolls Royce to the 2011 McLaren — at Car Classic.

The annual event, held Sunday at the Hillside campus, drew a crowd of 1,200 and featured a cameo from “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno who arrived in his jet-powered EcoJet.

Nearly 90 vehicles were parked in a series of style-themed vignettes, including colorful all-American classics, a series of French Citroens from the ‘70s and a progression of cars built for speed, from a 1947 Indy racer to the 2011 Leela Spyder.

A section of the field — a ’61 Cadillac Coupe, ’88 Fiero, ’64 Corvair Monza Coupe and a ’58 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe — was dedicated to designs by Ron Hill, an Art Center alum and former chair of transportation design. Hill also received the Lifetime Achievement award for his 30-year career that spanned Corvettes, Camaros and Cadillacs.

“The theme of inspiration makes our car show unique,” said Stewart Reed, chair of Art Center’s undergraduate and graduate Transportation Design programs. “While other Concours d’Elegance events showcase the world’s most historic and luxurious vehicles, Car Classic draws a parallel between the vehicles on display and the people who created them.”

The event also benefitted Art Center students: General Motors Foundation donated $100,000 for Transportation Design scholarships and programs, and undergrads had a chance to talk shop with industry leaders.

“You get to meet world-class designers as car lovers,” said fifth-term Transportation Design student Marcello Raeli. “I talked to [General Motor design executive] Clay Dean for 40 minutes until I realized it was him.”

Click here for more photos.