Great news—Art Center’s recruitment and portfolio posters, designed by MDP faculty member Brad Bartlett, have recently received Gold Awards from Graphis.
Congrats, Brad!
Category Archives: General Interest
Pasadena Groundbreaking
Check out this new addition to our online videos, courtesy of Archives: silent footage from the groundbreaking for the Pasadena campus in 1974. It’s hard to imagine Hillside Campus looking this way—where are all the trees? And the tent reminds us a little of graduation. Architect Craig Ellwood makes an appearance in the film, as does famed designer Charles Eames. Very cool stuff.
Check it out: Pasadena Groundbreaking
Meet Steven Butler
Film student Steven Butler is a professional dancer and choreographer in addition to being a full-time Art Center student.
Recently, he worked on a project for a cinematography class where the assignment was to reveal objects in a frame using just one shot. Steven decided to capture a dance performance.
“The idea was to choreograph the camera movements of 10 to 15 dancers to match three minutes of pre-edited music. This meant I had to shoot a three-minute take with no mistakes,” he remembers. “I ran into obstacles with lighting and shadows and most of all, blocking the dancers’ movements off-camera. After about eight takes we got it right.”
Read more about Steven and his experiences at Art Center in this great interview.
Art Center Joins Designers Accord
We are pleased to announce that Art Center has joined the Designers Accord, a global coalition of designers, educators and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact.
Sustainability is a subject of great concern at Art Center, and we recognize that design has a responsibility to address its many challenges and opportunities. The College believes that design, with its ability to see the big picture and integrate multiple interests, is uniquely capable of creating sustainable systems and solutions.
Over the past five years, Art Center has been introducing a comprehensive design approach recognizing environmental, social and economic interests. Through new courses, research in design process and lifecycle methodology, and active partnerships with other colleges, communities and organizations, this College-wide initiative is slowly transforming how design is taught.
At the same time, Art Center is in the often difficult stage of integrating teaching with doing. Progress with re-making the campus is slow, but steady. Support for sustainable practices comes from all parts of the college community, though students remain the strongest advocates.
Through participation in the designers accord, Art Center hopes to learn from others and share what we know. We want to keep improving in all aspects of what we do. We also hope to inspire and mobilize the ingenuity of our students and faculty towards creating solutions that support human and natural systems, over the long term.
Art Center Inaugurates Fifth President
President Buchman
“Come Art Center—meet your own demand,” Dr. Lorne Buchman urged the crowd assembled for his inauguration at Hillside Campus. “Let us bring to our future the very fortitude we exact from those we educate. Some of the same magic that for 80 years, brought to life those gods of design, art and human expression. It’s a mammoth but vital task. We know how to do this—it’s in our DNA. Conjure and imagine things that don’t yet exist. Designers, design your school.”
On Thursday, April 22, Art Center ushered in a new era as it inaugurated Buchman, its fifth president and chief executive officer. Named president last year after a nationwide 10-month search, Buchman is the former provost and president of Oakland’s California College of Arts and Crafts. Most recently, Buchman served as President of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. A trained theater director and scholar, he has held a number of faculty and administrative positions at the University of California, Berkeley.
Graduate Media Design Department Chair Anne Burdick, who served as Department Chair’s representative on the Presidential Search Committee, said that while many leaders in the art and design world were interviewed for the position, just one candidate was both a team builder and a change agent. “Only Lorne had that precise combination of empathy and chutzpah,” she told the audience.
Dressing for Access
Ever felt that your computer and iPhone don’t keep you as connected to Facebook as you’d like? You’re in luck.
Graduate Media Design alum Jennifer Darmour has created hot-wired garments that can “poke” a friend, “accept” a friend request and receive notification alerts—all from the comfort of your clothing.
From InventorSpot.com: “In the development genre of ‘gesture’ technology, Seattle designer Jennifer Darmour gives a whole new meaning to ‘good vibrations.’”
Read more: Wearable Social Networks and at Jennifer’s site, Electricfoxy
Happy 100 Years, OAS!
Today marks 100 years since the founding of the Organization of American States. The milestone will be celebrated with a series of events in Washington, D.C. Art Center students developed work that will be prominently featured in the celebration over the course of two funded TDS/Designmatters projects led by the Graphic Design Department last year.
Congratulations and thanks to faculty member Simon Johnston, who led the TDS that developed a new identity for the Museum of the Americas of OAS, implemented on their website. Thanks to Gloria Kondrup, Brian Boyl and Jonas Mayabb, who led the centennial rebranding TDS. A new logotype, as well various elements of the student work, have been implemented by OAS on their website. Also, a big thank you to Jonas Mayabb, who worked closely with his team, Elisa Ruffino and our OAS partners after the studio’s conclusion to create the final version of the public service announcement for the centennial. Watch it below:
PSA: Common Values on Common Ground from OAS Video on Vimeo.
Storyboarding Seminar This Weekend
Pre-visualization is an essential step in the creative process of making a film. Writers and directors for years have used storyboards as well as shot lists and overhead diagrams to create a “visual script,” experimenting with compositional elements before incurring the cost of production. These materials are usually the first visual expression of the script, the first translation of words into the language of imagery.
Learn how to use words to craft images in a reader’s mind and create a shot list that tells a visual story in words at an upcoming two-day course with author and Art Center faculty member Marcie Begleiter, author of From Word To Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process. The seminar, Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, will be held this weekend at The Writers Store in Westwood. Find out more and sign up at their website.
Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process
Saturday, May 1—Sunday, May 2
The Writers Store
2040 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
80 Years on Film
Check out the new “Art Center at 80” film that premiered at President Buchman’s inauguration Thursday.
The film chronicles 80 years of Art Center history and includes some amazing archival footage as well as interviews with alumni, faculty, students and Buchman himself on the future of the College. The film was directed by Broadcast Cinema alum Robert McClendon ’07.
Frank Nuovo’s Luxury “Communication Devices”
The New York Times
From the article: “‘The watch is disappearing. And everybody in the world is walking around with these,’ [Nuovo] says on a recent afternoon, spreading an assortment of cellphones—all of them Nokias or Vertus of his own making—on a table at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., where he was once a student.”
Read more: Crème de la Cell: Six-Figure Phones