Category Archives: Product Design

In Case You Missed It…

As you know, there’s always something going on when it comes to Art Center alumni, students and faculty. Some of the latest:

  • Photography alum Lara Rossignol talks about her time at Art Center. Steve Huff Photo
  • Check out Product Design student Jaewoo Kim’s handmade case for the Samsung P3. Anything But Ipod
  • Will alum Henrik Fisker’s new automotive designs be a success? Delaware Online
  • Bronze sculptor and Advertising alum Malcolm Alexander talks about his life’s journey. Arizona Daily Star
  • Former faculty member Buzz Spector recently joined the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts as dean of the College and Graduate School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis. Washington University in St. Louis Newroom
  • Who would Advertising alum David Arnold invite to a dinner party? Del Mar Times
  • Illustration alumnus Mike Shinoda to be honored by Asian American group East West Players at their April gala. BroadwayWorld.com

(Photo by Lara Rossignol)

INSEAD Week at Art Center

For the past six years Art Center and INSEAD, a top-tier business school with campuses in Singapore and Fontainebleau, France, have participated in an annual study abroad program. Each year, a group of Art Center Product Design students travel to one of INSEAD’s two campuses to collaborate on a creative project with MBA candidates. They also attend graduate-level business courses in finance, marketing, entrepreneurship and various other business subjects.

Every March, INSEAD students and leadership visit Pasadena as part of INSEAD Week at Art Center. To help the visitors better understand the role of design and the design process, they are taken on a five-day tour of Southern California that includes workshops, presentations and visits to corporate studios. The latest batch of participants arrived in Pasadena Thursday, and will be here through Tuesday. They will tour Belkin, Stuart Karten Design, Idea!Lab, RTT and Disney Consumer Products, among many more fun activities. Be sure to welcome them to campus!

Alumnus Designs Hackable Solar Electric Car

Product Design alumnus Yves Béhar unveiled design plans for a “hackable” solar-powered electric car at last week’s Greener Gadgets conference in NYC. The affordable car will have a standard base frame, with user-customizable components. While Béhar and his design studio Fuse Project are not new to transportation design, this project covers new ground for the studio: it’s designed for the developing world. Read more about this interesting project at Inhabitat.

Catching Up with Karen Hofmann

Karen Hofmann, recently appointed Department Chair of Product Design, sat down with us to discuss the future of the department.

As an alumna and educator, Hofmann has developed innovative curriculum—such as DesignStorms,  immersive collaborations of students, faculty and professionals from sponsoring companies—and defined new strategies benefiting the entire College. She has served as director of the Color, Materials and Trends Exploration Laboratory (CMTEL) at Hillside Campus since 2006, and has been on the Art Center faculty since 2001. She was recently named one of the Most Admired Educators of 2010 by DesignIntelligence, published by the Design Futures Council.

Prior to joining Art Center’s faculty, Hofmann held leadership positions at o2studio and Johnson Controls. She graduated from Art Center in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in product design and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University, Northridge. She served as Acting Chair of the department from 2008 to 2009.

Dotted Line: What do you bring to the Product Design Department as Chair?
Karen Hofmann: I am deeply committed to upholding the great legacy and strengths of the department. I feel a great sense of responsibility to prepare young designers as creative citizens of the 21st century, and will evolve the program to best prepare our students for meaningful careers that positively impact the world.

DL: What does the future hold for product design in general?
KH: It has gone beyond just producing objects. Today product design is about applying the design process to any number of problems in the world, from social impact challenges to redesigning organizations. The term “design thinking” is very in vogue right now—product designers have led these collaborative and iterative processes for years.  Product designers are responsible for bringing non-designers along in the creative process as they identify and solve problems.

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Meet Bryce Butcher

Product Design student Bryce Butcher says that she first set her sights on attending Art Center while in elementary school.

“After experiencing what other colleges were like, the professionalism and level of work done by the students at Art Center surpassed anything I could compare it to. I knew that if I wanted to be a successful professional in Product Design, I had to attend Art Center.”

Read more about Bryce’s experiences growing as a designer, favorite projects and visiting the student gallery as a child with her grandmother in this great interview.

Meet Mariana Prieto

For Mariana Prieto, the path to Art Center was a journey on many levels.

Moving to the U.S. from Spain to attend the College, Prieto says that “becoming a better designer meant leaving a school where I was comfortable and reapplying to a place that had already rejected me—but it was all for an enormous reward.”

Read more from this Product Design student in this great interview.