Category Archives: Graphic Design

From a Block to a Tablet

Guest post by Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig

It’s so exciting to see the new iPad editorial class break ground in Art Center’s Graphic Design Department. Take a look back to see how far have we come in 25 years with us, won’t you?

Art Center offered computer graphics courses beginning in the early 1980s, and a department was established in 1990.

In this photograph from 1986, students are seen in a computer graphics class.

Do you recognize the instructor or any of the students in the photograph? What was it like studying computer graphics in the 1980s?

To visit the Archives, or if you recognize anyone in the photo, contact Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig at 626.396.2208 or robert.dirig@artcenter.edu.

Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship Established

Young

Award-winning graphic and logotype designer, alumnus, mentor and revered faculty member Doyald Young, who passed away in February, will be honored by his alma mater with the Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, which will be available to incoming and current Graphic Design students, was announced at Young Love, a celebration of Young’s life and legacy taking place at the College last weekend. With enough support, the College intends to endow the scholarship to benefit its students in perpetuity.

“Shortly before his passing, Doyald said, ‘If you have the gift of teaching, you must pass it on,’” Art Center President Lorne Buchman says. “In establishing the Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship, it is our hope that we honor the generosity and strength of a gifted artist and powerful teacher—and encourage others in that same spirit of giving to ensure his legacy in the next generation.”

Young taught lettering and logotype design in Art Center’s Graphic Design Department for decades. His freelance work included logotypes for hotels, clubs, universities, financial institutions, arts, entertainment and practically every other industry. He created several corporate and commercial fonts and published three books about his work: Logotypes & Letterforms, Fonts & Logos and Dangerous Curves.

Young was named Inaugural Master of the School by Art Center in 2001, named a Fellow of the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA in 2006, received an AIGA Medal in 2009 and received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Art Center in 2010. His life story and immeasurable talent was also documented by lynda.com as part of their 2010 “Creative Inspirations” series. Young received his formal education at Frank Wiggins Trade School and Art Center.

Individuals interested in making donations to the scholarship can donate online, or contact Senior Development Officer Palencia Turner at 626.396.2366 or palencia.turner@artcenter.edu.

Graphic Design Student Exhibits Photos of Sudan

Graphic Design student Tyler Paulson currently has an exhibition of photographs on display at the South Campus Gallery.

Teed ["in waiting"]: Portraits of South Sudan highlights portraits and images captured while Paulson served local missionaries in the region from 2008 and 2010.

“Taken after a ceasefire, these portraits capture a people experiencing their first taste of peace in decades while awaiting the hope of becoming a new nation,” Paulson says. “ I met a people of great beauty, but with deep scars—and I sought out to know and serve them, and to share their story.”

The exhibition is the culmination of a Designmatters-facilitated independent study led by faculty member Gloria Kondrup.

The exhibit is on display through April 1, with an artist reception held on Saturday, March 26 at 6 p.m.

More information about Paulson’s powerful journey, and to view his work, visit teedsudan.com.

Also, be sure to check out the brand-new Designmatters website at designmattersatartcenter.org.

Postmodern Suicide: The intersection of Peter Saville Factory Records and Joy Division

Don’t miss a special guest lecture and discussion on graphic design history focusing on the influence of designer Peter Saville and Factory Records on postmodern design, along with an examination of the music and ideas that made this design phenomenon possible. The talk will lurch from Situationism in France in the late 1960s, to protopunk and punk rock in the ’70s , to the post-punk and new wave era of Joy Division, The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire and New Order.

Guest lecturer Eric Mathias is a California-based graphic designer and Graphic Design alumnus. Born in San Francisco, Mathias is a creative consultant, art director and designer who operates his own design firm (National People’s Gang) and has served as frequent guest lecturer on Apple and Adobe products. In addition, he is a published news writer, editor and award-winning designer. His clients include AT&T, PBS and Disney.

The event is free and open to the public.

Postmodern Suicide: The intersection of Peter Saville Factory Records and Joy Division
With Eric Mathias
Thursday, March 24, 7 p.m.
L.A. Times Media Center

OutNetwork Presents Mapping at Brewery Annex

OutNetwork, Art Center’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning, Intersex and Allies (GLBTQIA) student club, will exhibit the work of a dozen artists and designers the L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex in downtown Los Angeles throughout March. The exhibit, Mapping, examines the GLBTQIA community and their location geographically, politically, internationally and locally.

Mapping is an extension of the mission of OutNetwork, which not only supports and embraces a variety of individuals from every socio-economic background, but also provides opportunities for networking and advancement for its members.

An opening reception will be this Sunday, March 6, from 2 to 7 p.m. at the Brewery. Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Art Center students exhibiting in the show include:

Lauren Coffin (Advertising)
Adam Cottingham (Environmental Design)
Natalie Embrey (Photography and Imaging)
Richard Funsten (Graphic Design)
Braden Graeber (Environmental Design)
Jaime Lopez (Graphic Design)
Jessamyn Prince (Photography and Imaging)
Rene Rodriguez (Photography and Imaging)
Bryce Shawcross (Graphic Design)

Alumni exhibiting:

Takayuki Shimada (Fine Art)
Jason Shorr (Illustration)
Jennifer Whitney (Illustration)

The exhibition will be on display through March 31 at L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

3×3 Tonight!

Don’t miss tonight’s lecture, hosted by the Graphic Design Department: 3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time and Behavior.

Hear from three pioneers who navigate uncharted communication design territory. They engage space through narrative environments, engage time through motion and behavior programming and engage language in traditional and interactive formats and combine all of this into compelling transmedia design.

Tonight’s lecture features:

Aaron Koblin, an artist specializing in data visualization. His work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Koblin is technology lead of Google’s Creative Lab in San Francisco, and shows work at international exhibitions and galleries.

Dan Goods, visual strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has drilled a hole into a grain of sand, created installations out of aerogel, and is currently trying to put an object on a spacecraft going to Jupiter. In the evenings he works on commissions, such as eCloud.

Brad Bartlett, who earned his master’s degree in design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work at Cranbrook exploring the relationship of media and culture was presented at MIT and Fabrica of Benetton in Italy. He was selected as New Visual Artist by Print Magazine before establishing a small, multidisciplinary design studio in Los Angeles in 1999. In Art Center’s Graphic Design program, he teaches the wildly successful Typography 4: Transmedia studio.

The lecture, held in the L.A. Times Media Center, begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time and Behavior
Thursday, Feb. 24, 7-9 p.m.
L.A. Times Media Center

Colleagues, Designers, Partners in Life: Brian Boyl and Krystina Castella

Photo by Alan Kupchick

Art Center faculty members Brian Boyl and Krystina Castella have both taken somewhat non-traditional routes in their careers. Boyl, director of interactive design in the Graphic Design Department, has a degree in physics, studied film and animation, has created computer software and produced video games. Castella created her own product development, manufacturing and licensing company; helps people start businesses and license products; and has written five popular cookbooks; the most recent, A World of Cake, named by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the best cookbooks of 2010. And this are just a few of the many noteworthy things these two have accomplished.

Also interesting—Boyl and Castella are spouses, meeting 20 years ago this month. Intrigued and curious about what motivates them to teach, how students have changed over the past two decades, and what it’s like to work with one’s significant other, we sat down with the couple for a chat.

Dotted Line: How did you two meet?
Brian Boyl: We met in 1991 at a Valentine’s Day party that a mutual friend of ours held for people who didn’t have dates. I was in film school then…

Krystina Castella: …and I was working a corporate job at Disney. We met at the party and got along really well. He called me the next day to ask me out, and I was eating a popsicle while we talked. I wrote about this in the introduction to my popsicle book, because I actually ended up saving the popsicle and freezing it.

Boyl: Yes, that popsicle went with us, every time we moved. It lasted for years. But sadly, it didn’t survive our last move.

Watch video

Dotted Line: Does it take a while for students to realize you’re married?
Castella: Yes, it’s funny—it’s the same thing every term. Many people at Art Center don’t realize we’re married. People that we’ve known for a long time do, but students are always new and don’t know at first; it’s always a shock. They seem to figure it out around Weeks 5 and 6. A student will come in and say to me, “I saw you with my other teacher,” or, “You were in the parking lot with Brian…”

Boyl: Or, “How do you know each other?” and, “I saw you two leaving campus in the same car….”

Castella: We teach in different departments, but we do have students that cross over. It’s great, we really get to know the student when that happens. We ask each other, “So how are they doing in your class?”

Dotted Line: Why do you teach?
Boyl: I love giving back to the younger generation. I also find teaching personally inspiring, because it’s always about the next thing. It’s always different, and always new—especially in the area where I teach, which is on the cutting edge of everything. And I find students tend to push me in my own creativity. And, you’re dealing with people, so it’s a lot of fun. I think I have the best job in the world.

Continue reading →

Happy Valentine’s Day from Art Center

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re featuring this lovely poster from the Designmatters Human Rights Exhibition studio. A partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information, the studio challenged students to interpret and represent the Universal Declaration of Human Rights visually through a series of posters.

This poster, Everybody, was designed by Graphic Design student Christopher Kosek. (Kosek graduated in 2009.)

Everybody addresses Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Kosek writes:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. I wanted to talk about the realization that once you get past nationality, race, gender and the external human things, we are all the same inside.”

From November 2009 through March 2010, the Images for Human Rights: Student Voices exhibition were on view at the Skirball Cultural Center. The exhibition is now in the permanent installation at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich.

See the rest of the posters (in PDF form) and read more about this studio at the Designmatters site.

Happy Holidays from Art Center!

Happy Holidays from Art Center! We hope you have a happy and safe holiday season. Check out our beautiful holiday greeting, designed by Graphic Design students Jason Yeh and Nadia Tzuo.

For Art Center, 2011 will be a pivotal year, culminating in a year’s worth of preparation and resolve. Under the leadership of our president Lorne Buchman, and in conjunction with our 80th anniversary, the Art Center community came together this year to envision what our future will look like. Early next year, we will unveil the College’s new strategic plan, building on a long tradition of preparing art and design students to become leaders in their chosen fields.

We hope you will join us as we embark upon the next 80 years.

Our campus and administrative offices will be closed beginning Dec. 23 and will reopen Jan. 3. Happy Holidays!

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