Perhaps more than graduation itself, Graduation Show Preview marks the culmination of a student’s years of hard work at Art Center. Each term, on the Thursday before Saturday’s commencement ceremony, the College’s classroom studios, hallways and exhibition spaces come alive with 2D, 3D, digital and other work renowned for both its conceptual rigor and its professional finish. It’s like one giant gallery opening — the Summer 2014 edition brimming with more than 450 invited guests — showcasing some of today’s most innovative and most driven emerging artists and designers.
Category Archives: GradID
Ready. Set. Snap! Corporate teams stretch boundaries at rubber band-powered Formula-E race
Team Mattel celebrates record breaking speed after competing in the new Formula-E race Pro-Class category.
Figuring out how to build and power a race car using a 16-foot long rubber band is not your typical corporate team building exercise. But, it turns out, that’s exactly the kind of creative boost the business world needs. For the first time, the international Formula-E race at Art Center included a “Pro Class” category with teams participating from Mattel in El Segundo and Axial, a remote control car company based in Irvine. Competition was fierce and teams were gunning for the gold in the 9th annual “day at the races” showcasing talented students, businesses and even a junior race car design set.
Summer 2014: Countdown to commencement!
Getting ready for Grad Show. Photo: Lucia Loiso
The computer labs are packed. The shops are humming at all hours. Visitors from sponsoring companies and organizations are streaming through campus to attend final presentations. And the Student Gallery is full of projects in and out of the coveted space. These telltale sights and sounds can only mean one thing at Art Center: Week 14 has arrived.
The state of the campus is a visual reminder of the frenetic energy generated by Art Center students sprinting toward finals. The end of the term is here; and for 111 students, this week marks their last. Saturday evening, after countless all-nighters, critiques, finals, internships and hopefully some fun, 100 undergraduate and 11 graduate students will be awarded their degrees. As we count down to commencement, we celebrate these creative and talented individuals who are about to take on the world and honor the great teachers who have guided the way. Here’s the lowdown for the week.
August 2014 Alumni Notes
Jennifer Steinkamp’s Murmuration
Summer 2014 has yielded a bounty of freshly produced works, events and ideas by Art Center alumni. And look for future editions of this dispatch to be equally flush, given July’s bumper crop of kickstarter campaigns. Read on to learn more…and get in on the fun(ding).
Art Center in the News | July 2014
National Geographic featured Art Center alumna Neeti Kailas’s award-winning device to detect hearing loss being tested on a baby at Vaani Vilas Hospital, Bangalore. Photo: ©Rolex Awards/ Ambroise Tézenas
From National Geographic to The Huffington Post; from stylish sensors for your fingernails to a design to detect deafness in newborns, Art Center’s students, faculty, staff and alumni are media headliners. Click a few of the links below to get a taste of recent coverage about diverse subjects including a mobile home tour through Detroit, origami art on speed, smart growth for future generations of artists and designers, the benefits of naps and much more.
- New York Times Magazine “It’s Official: The Boomerang Kids Won’t Leave”—Cover story featuring photo essay shot by alum Damon Casarez, who was also the subject of a Q&A published on the New York Times, the 6th Floor Blog “Under Cover: A ‘Boomerang Kid’ Documents His Generation.”
- GeekWire “’Sensor Salon’ brings LCD screens, 3-D printed objects and sensors to fingernails”—According to Geekwire, Microsoft Research’s Bill Buxton called the Graduate Media Design student project “one of the best examples he has seen that ‘designers think differently than computer scientists.’”
- National Geographic “Rolex Awards for Enterprise Granted to 2014 Young Laureates”—Highlights alum Neeti Kailas’s award-winning device to test newborns in India for deafness.
- Los Angeles Times “Art Center College of Design builds toward the future”—Features Art Center’s acquisition of South Arroyo property and plans to build student housing, including quotes from Art Center President Lorne Buchman, Associate Chair of Illustration Aaron Smith and current students.
- The New York Times “In Time-Lapse Videos, the Magic Unfolds”—Review of ‘Folded’ exhibition in the Williamson Gallery on the Hillside Campus.
- The Huffington Post “From the Garage to the Front Lines of Social Innovation: Learning From the Less Visible Traits of Intrapreneurs”—Article written by Mariana Amatullo, co-founder and vice president of Designmatters
- Outlook Pasadena “Davidson Set for Third Term Leading Art Center Board”—Profile of Robert C. Davidson Jr.
- Cinema Without Borders “Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead and Panel”—Features the screening of Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead Video and Panel Discussion.
- The Huffington Post “Art Center College Of Design Opens Nap Room To Combat Student Exhaustion”—Highlights Art Center’s offerings for students’ well-being, including the nap room, dog therapy, chair massages, yoga and basketball tournaments.
- Industrial Designers Society of America “Meet the 2014 Winners”—Art Center students are among the top winners as IDSA’s International Design Excellence Awards.
- Fast Co. Create “Learning In The Flesh: Why Disney Sends Its Animators To Life Drawing Classes”—Mentions faculty member Bob Kato’s Drawing Club.
- The Hollywood Reporter “Throwback Thursday: Michael Bay Scored With ‘Pearl Harbor’ in 2001”—Highlights career of alum Michael Bay.
- Wheels.ca “Hyundai Genesis designer started with interior concepts for auto supply company”—Highlights faculty member John Krsteski’s design of the Hyundai 2015 Genesis.
The age of the rocket-powered roller skates has arrived, like a futuristic ’70′s fever-dream made real
Acton Global
Today, the BBC’s Autos section published the following story about Art Center Grad ID alum, Peter Treadway’s ingenious antidote to urban commuter blues: RocketSkates. Treadway (MS, ’08) began devising these motorized shoe attachments (which resemble a futuristic take on the Roman chariot, with two large red wheels attached to a metal carriage) as part of his thesis project at Art Center. Seven years later, his high concept roller skates have come to fruition, lending new dimensions of fun and functionality to the booming wearable tech space. Read on to learn more.
Inside Job: Industrial Design alum Kevin Bethune helps companies innovate and disrupt from within
Kevin Bethune designed Ethereal, a fitness app and device, as a Grad ID student.
As soon as Kevin Bethune earned his master’s degree in Art Center’s Industrial Design program in 2012, he joined colleagues in establishing a digital innovation boutique to help Fortune 500 clients in health care, retail, consumer products and other industries “figure out how to incubate new ventures within their large corporations,” Bethune said. In early 2014, Bethune and his team relaunched as BCG Digital Ventures inside The Boston Consulting Group.
The new company’s stated mission: to establish “strategic partnerships with the world’s leading companies to create disruptive digital platforms” through “digital innovation, product development and commercialization.”
June 2014 alumni news and notes
Photograph by Damon Casarez for the New York Times
From The New York Times to Esquire, from Cannes to the Venice Biennale — Art Center alums have been busy making, making headlines and making their talents known within some of the world’s most prestigious events, platforms and publications. In addition to this primer on their accomplishments, we’re also inviting the Art Center alumni community to nominate candidates for this year’s Art Center Alumni Awards. Read on to learn more.
Graduate Industrial Design alumna snags Rolex Young Laureate Award for newborn hearing screening device
Neeti Kailas, 2014 Rolex Young Laureate. India, 2014. ©Rolex Awards/Ambroise Tézenas
Neeti Kailas (MS 13 Industrial Design) heard the news just in time to book a flight to the press conference at The Royal Society, London. Rolex had named her one of five Young Laureates for her work developing a hearing screening device for newborns in India. “I was very happy and excited [to be selected],” said Kailas. “The award will help the project advance, and the visibility is great for a start-up like mine. It is an honor to be selected as part of the community of laureates. They are all visionaries and change-makers.”
She and her husband, Nitin Sisodia, who was named one of the 2013 ‘35 Innovators Under 35’ by MIT Technology Review, identified hearing screening as a critical yet ignored aspect of healthcare across developing countries. Together they launched the Sohum innovation lab and created a functioning prototype that has been tested on adults. They are preparing for clinical trials in 2015.
Art Center Business Club launches design networking tour through San Francisco’s most innovative design studios
Hailing Uber cabs, grabbing a cup of the Bay Area’s finest coffee, snapping photos of Fisherman’s Wharf and meeting with some of the biggest design consultancies on the West Coast—it’s all in a day’s work for the the members of Art Center Business Club.
This past May, 14 members of the Art Center Business Club (ACBC) packed up for a week of exciting studio tours in San Francisco– ten in all. The agenda included meetings with such consultancies as IDEO, frog design, inc., and NewDealDesign, as well as print and media companies like Chronicle Books and WIRED.
In a time of unprecedented competition for art and design jobs, students actively seek out studios and companies they can join to jumpstart their careers. Students participate in internships offering a deeper understanding of a particular company’s creative ethos and workflow without the commitment of a full-time job. However, internships are seasonal and require a significant time commitment in order to determine whether that particular organization is a good fit. This is where studio visits come in. They deliver valuable insights into working culture, company culture, company structures—all the things you don’t learn as a student searching a firm’s website. With this knowledge, applicants emerge more informed and prepared to face the professional world.