Category Archives: News

Flattery Named Chair of Entertainment Design

Concept artist, designer and educator Tim Flattery has been named Chair of Art Center’s Entertainment Design Department.

Flattery

Most think of Entertainment Design as how films come to look the way they do. Yet today, the field is much greater, encompassing any project in which storytelling is important—themed environments, exhibitions, gaming and learning institutions such as museums and libraries.

“For 24 years, I’ve worked in the entertainment industry and have been fortunate enough to have realized my dreams,” Flattery says. “As Chair of Entertainment Design at Art Center, I hope my passion and expertise will influence the next generation of talented designers so that they, too, can realize their dreams.”

Flattery is a multi-talented creative concept artist and designer with expertise in concept development, design and fabrication. In a career spanning more than two decades, he has worked on some of the biggest films for some of the most famous directors in the world. Among the number of highly anticipated projects he has worked on are Green Lantern, Real Steel, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Mission: Impossible IV.

He has overseen the full-size construction of custom vehicles, which he designed for films such as the Fantasticar for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Batmobile for Batman Forever, and the Amphibicopter and other vehicles for A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He has raised the creative bar with acclaimed design work on award-winning and blockbuster films, including Terminator Salvation, The Incredible Hulk, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Spider-Man II, Saving Private Ryan, Men in Black and many others. Beyond his career as a concept artist and illustrator in the film industry, Flattery has done creative work for Walt Disney Imagineering and Chimera Design in the area of theme parks and resorts. He has also done worked independently for Entertainment Arts and the EA Games Label.

This appointment represents a homecoming of sorts for Flattery, who taught visual communication at Art Center to industrial design students in the early ’90s. He received a Teacher of the Year award from the College in 1994. Flattery graduated from College for Creative Studies with a bachelor’s degree in Transportation Design.

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!

Art Center Honors Doyald Young

This is turning out to be quite a week for Doyald Young.

Tomorrow night he’ll be honored at a special Art Center reception (RSVPs required) with a screening of Doyald Young, Logotype Designer, a new documentary about Young by lynda.com.

Photo by Louise Sandhaus

At Saturday’s commencement ceremony, he will receive Art Center’s Alumnus of the Year Award for his dedicated work as an educator and lifetime of legendary work in typography, logotypes and alphabets. At Saturday’s commencement, he’ll receive an honorary degree from Art Center, where he studied Advertising in the ’50s, and where he has taught lettering and logotype design in the Graphic Design Department for decades.

We caught up with Young this week to talk to him about Art Center, his thoughts on teaching and those things computers can’t do.

Dotted Line: Congratulations on the alumni award and honorary degree.
Doyald Young: Thank you! I’m honored and thankful for such honors. I am an amalgam of the people I’ve known whose ideas have permeated my being. I’m blessed—so many people have kindly befriended me. I often wonder, “How do I repay them?”

I believe that teaching and writing books about what I do is a form of payback. Both of which I continue to do, and will, as long as I am able. A priori, how could I not be deeply touched with the awards I’ve received? I’m humbled that Art Center has allowed me to teach these many years, and blessed that I receive support from my fellow teachers and staff.

Dotted Line: What has Art Center meant to you?
Young: Art Center has been one of the great forces of my life. I learned, most importantly, that our first efforts are just that. They need refinement. A good job is done over and over, and oftentimes is changed again and again when marketing forces or creative directors change their minds. Final art does not emerge full-blown. I make my living making changes.

At Art Center, I learned professionalism, punctuality, and above all, how to continue my skills and burnish my talent. And a mentor of mine, Henry Dreyfuss, taught me the value of a thank-you note.

Dotted Line: You’ve said that you are an educator first, and a designer second.
Young: It’s true. When I was a student in Mort Leach’s class, he noticed fellow students coming to me for help on their projects. They came to me voluntarily, and I found that I enjoyed helping them. Mort later asked me to become his teaching assistant.

Teaching requires patience. I firmly believe that if you have the gift of teaching, you must pass it on. As Woodrow Wilson said, “You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

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The 2011-2012 Viewbook is Here!

We’re excited to share with you the 2011-2012 Art Center Viewbook, created by Art Center’s in-house Design Office in collaboration with faculty member Simon Johnston. Flip through this beautiful publication online. You can also request a catalog from Admissions.

A ton of work by many went into this newest book, and we’re quite proud of it. Check out the video above (made by alumna and one of the Viewbook designers Eliana Dominguez) and slide show below to see more.

Faculty member Simon Johnston visits the bindery where the Viewbook is being printed:

Photos of the Viewbook installation at Hillside Campus:

Awards Honor Exceptional Alumni

Each December, the College and Office of Alumni Relations present the Art Center Alumni Awards to three outstanding alumni.

The winners, chosen by the Art Center community, are recognized during the Fall Term graduation ceremony.

Photo by Lara Warren

We are honored to announce the following Art Center Alumni Award winners at Saturday’s commencement:

  • Doyald Young ADVT ’55, awarded the Lifetime Achievement Alumnus Award in recognition of his dedicated work as an educator and lifetime of legendary work in typography, logotypes and alphabets.
  • Stephanie Sigg GRAD ID ’98, awarded the Outstanding Service Alumni Award in honor of her humanitarian design impact through her work with various NGOs, nonprofits and cause-related campaigns.
  • Geetika Agrawal GRAD ID ’05, awarded the Young Alumni Innovator Award in recognition of her passion and accomplishments in social media, digital culture, physical interactive art and new technologies.

Congratulations to our alumni for these well-deserved marks of distinction!

Grant to Create New Demonstration Shop

The Model Shop is one of the busiest areas of campus, buzzing with activity around the clock. The shops are where virtually all our students—from Product Design to Fine Art—learn to build models and use a variety of skills such as woodworking, metal fabrication, vacuum forming, plastic sheet fabrication, fiberglass and composite skills.

Work is already underway on the new shop

As Art Center’s student population has grown, however, space in the Model Shop has become more limited.

Luckily, a generous $100,000 grant from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation is creating a demonstration shop, where students from all majors will have their first experience with power tools under the watchful eyes of their instructors.

The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Demonstration Shop will be equipped with miniature and model-scale tools, and having this additional shop will enable the Model Shop to be used primarily as a production facility.

“The Parsons Demo Shop will further enhance Art Center’s level of instruction, allowing us to provide students with greater knowledge and flexibility in the types of projects they’re tackling in earlier terms,” explained Wendy Adest, Chair of Art Center’s Integrated Studies Department.

“When the Demo Shop is not in use as a classroom, Industrial Design and other students may use it as an additional shop and work space. The purchase of model-scale tools compliments the current array of equipment we already have, and will allow all students access to appropriate tools for their projects, regardless of major. The Parsons grant also funds needed upgrades to classroom 229, as well as creating a clean space for our popular rapid prototyping equipment. We are all very grateful to The Parsons Foundation for their generosity and for recognizing the value of such a venture.”

Work is already underway on the new shop, which is expected to be functional in January with a formal dedication to take place in the spring.

All Roads Lead Back to Art Center

Photo © 2010 Art Center College of Design/Chris Hatcher

Alumnus and Trustee Doug Boyd has spent time across the map: he was born in Canada, went to high school in Phoenix, moved to Los Angeles to study Transportation Design at Art Center, then to Detroit for work. But he found himself returning to Southern California—the warm climate and creative energy drew him back. More than a decade after graduating from the College, he found it calling as well, and became reconnected with his alma mater and fellow alumni.

The founder and president of integrated marketing firm Boyd Communications, he was recently appointed to the Art Center Board of Trustees. We sat down with him to find out a little more about our new Board member.

Dotted Line: Any fond memories that you’d like to share about your time at Art Center?
Doug Boyd: How much time do you have? There are so many. The classes I had with Strother MacMinn are memorable to this day. Fine art instructor Lorser Feitelson had some of the most remarkable people stop by his Saturday morning classes. One morning, we came in and Edward G. Robinson was standing there smoking a cigarette in the auditorium with Lorser. They were talking about having lunch with Picasso in Paris, and all the affairs he was having with women. It was fantastic! I have countless memories like this.

Dotted Line: Have you remained active with the College over the years?
Boyd: I have, since returning to Southern California. I’ve been actively involved with alumni groups over the years. Occasionally I’ve helped instructors, coming in to a class and giving special assignments, or sometimes just sitting in on a class and observing. I love being involved and I love being around the students. Their creative energy is contagious.

Click here for a video interview with Doug Boyd

Dotted Line: You’ve witnessed the evolution of the College over the decades first-hand. How is it different from when you were a student?
Boyd: The differences from when I was a student at the campus on Third Street are extraordinary and quite significant. The world has also changed a great deal–students that were in the school then had a much smaller world to deal with. As the Board, College administration, faculty and alumni look at how to prepare our students for tomorrow, we realize that the world is much more complex, and far more demanding. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the school to provide an environment and instruction and vision for students to thrive in this new world. 

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Who Will Take on Craig Ellwood?

Photo © Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

More than three decades ago, Craig Ellwood Associates designed a building for the College’s new Hillside Campus nestled in the San Rafael Hills overlooking the Rose Bowl. The 200,000-square-foot modernist steel-and-glass slab soon became an Art Center icon and a Pasadena historic landmark.

A lot has changed since we originally moved here, including the way we teach and the resources our students need. At 35 years old, the Ellwood building is in need of a few changes and renovations, and we’re looking at architecture firms for the job.

The renovation will encompass not only the classroom structure of the building, but also make important seismic upgrades. We’ll be looking at issues of sustainability and access as well.

Our search for an architecture firm parallels the College’s strategic planning process, which has engaged students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and members of the community in a meaningful dialogue about the future of art and design education. The strategic plan focuses on critical issues related to curriculum and pedagogy, governance and diversity, and facilities and technology—some of which will be addressed in the renovation.

“Art Center is looking forward to getting to know each of these firms as we look for the best fit for this project, our culture, our mission and our strategic plan,” said Art Center’s Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Operations George Falardeau.

The finalist firms include:

Art Center will announce the chosen firm early next year. And that’s just the beginning! The strategic plan and selected firm will inform Art Center’s Master Plan with lots of discussion between the College, our neighbors and city officials before anything is set in stone (or glass and steel). Stay tuned!

For more details, our friends at A/N Blog first reported the story: Exclusive: Art Center Renovation Shortlist

Williamson Gallery Gets Press, Readies for New Show

DeMarinis exhibit at the Williamson in 2001. Photo by Steven A. Heller.

The Williamson Gallery’s 2001 solo exhibition of media-art pioneer Paul DeMarinis— Resonant Messages: Media Installations by Paul DeMarinis—is included in the new book Interactive Art, written by Ryszard W. Kluszczynski and published in Poland. The book features artists and writers who have played a prominent role in the development of media and interactive art from the late 20th century to the present.

In addition to DeMarinis, many of those featured in the book have been included in Williamson Gallery solo or group exhibitions as part of its 15-year series bringing together the domains of art, science and technology. Artists in the book include Natalie Bookchin, Ken Goldberg, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, Erkki Huhtamo, Eduardo Kac, George Legrady, Bernie Lubell, Laurent Mignonneau, Christian Moeller, Simon Penny, Bill Seaman, Christa Sommerer, Victoria Vesna and Stephen Wilson.

In other Williamson news, they are hard at work readying the gallery for the next show, The Curious World of Patent Models and The Future of Objects, opening June 3. The show continues the exploration into the intersecting domains of art, science, technology and design with side-by-side exhibitions that look at the interplay between the technologies used to fabricate objects and the thought-processes used to conceive them. We’ll blog more on the show soon.