Category Archives: Uncategorized

Henrik Fisker
 to address Beverly Hills business forum April 9

Henrik FiskerNotable Art Center alumnus and leading electric car designer Henrik Fisker will be speaking at Beverly Hills Tomorrow, a forum sponsored by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. The founder and former executive chairman of Fisker Automotive, whose tenacity and passion to pursue a childhood dream of becoming a car designer became a reality after completing Art Center’s renowned Transportation Design program in 1989.

In addition to Fisker, the forum will feature: Emcee Frank Mottek, veteran broadcaster and host of the top-rated Business Hour and anchor of Money News, on KNX 1070 News Radio; Michael Burns (Vice Chairman of Lionsgate Films), who helped engineer the acquisition of Summit Entertainment; Dr. Eduardo Marbán (Director, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute); and Lynda Resnick (Vice Chairman, Roll Global, a holding company whose business divisions include Teleflora, POM Wonderful and Fiji Water).

The Chamber, a membership organization founded in 1923, works with city officials, local businesses and the community at large to promote the local economy. The audience will include business people ranging from small business owners to chief executives and entrepreneurs.

To attend, register by April 5. For more information, visit beverlyhillschamber.com/tomorrow.

A Decade That Matters: Leading the Way in Social Innovation

Ten years after its founding, Designmatters is making a difference within and beyond Art Center.

By ALEX CARSWELL

“This University is not maintained…merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I’m sure you recognize it.”

—John F. Kennedy, October 14, 1960, speaking to students at the University of Michigan

Faculty member La Mer Walker consults with students and UN Population Fund partner Christian Delsol.

As he campaigned for the White House, John F. Kennedy challenged America’s younger generation to use their talent not just to better themselves, but also to somehow make a difference in the world. Shortly after taking office in 1961, President Kennedy formed the Peace Corps, a transformational government agency that celebrated America’s core values, galvanized our national will and has facilitated service in support of that “greater purpose” for more than half a century.

Forty years later, Art Center students were surveyed on their desire to have some sort of curricular “Peace Corps-type” opportunity. The overwhelmingly positive response set the wheels in motion for what would soon become Designmatters at Art Center, the College’s innovative social-impact initiative. In addition to the Peace Corps model, the brain trust that conceived and developed Designmatters also had other influences. Erica Clark—then Art Center’s senior vice president of International Initiatives—had investigated a number of socially engaged design programs at European institutions. And here at Art Center, “Community Workshop” was already a popular graphic design class that engaged students in projects with local social-impact objectives.

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Roger Martin to visit Art Center to share “How Strategy Really Works”


On Wednesday, March 20, Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and author of The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage, will stop by Art Center’s Ahmanson Auditorium for a free presentation and signing of Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, which he co-wrote with A.G. Lafley, the former chairman & CEO of Procter & Gamble.

Working together, Martin and Lafley doubled Procter & Gamble’s sales, quadrupled its profits and increased its market value by more than $100 billion in just ten years. With Playing to Win, they show how leaders in organizations of all sizes can guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around clear, essential elements that determine business success. The book recounts stories of how Procter & Gamble successfully applied this method to iconic brands such as Gillette, Swiffer and Febreze.

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Zack Snyder Opens Dot Independent Film Festival at Art Center College of Design

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Tom Kuntz and Matthew Rolston speaking at March 16 event honoring student films from around the world

Zack Snyder at Art Center

Zack Snyder at Art Center. Photo by Chuck Spangler.

March 12, 2013, Pasadena, Calif.—Visionary director and Art Center College of Design alumnus Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300) is set to open DIFF | LA, the Dot Independent Film Festival, the premiere student-led film festival on the West Coast taking place Saturday, March 16, 2013 from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. on the Art Center College of Design Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, Calif., 91103.

In addition to screening official selections in the categories of Directing, Cinematography, Writing and Editing, the event will feature presentations by Snyder and the critically acclaimed directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks), Emmy-winning commercial director Tom Kuntz (Old Spice, Skittles), and legendary photographer and filmmaker Matthew Rolston (Kelly Rowland, Christina Aguilera).

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Designmatters Welcomes Fellow-in-Residency from Ireland, Sponsored Project Representative from Chile

Dr. Muireann McMahon

Dr. Muireann McMahon, Designmatters Post-Doctoral Fellow-in-Residency. Photo by Alex Aristei.

Art Center welcomes Dr. Muireann McMahon who joins the Designmatters Department as the inaugural Designmatters Post-Doctoral Fellow-in-Residency through August.

McMahon is dedicating her six-month sabbatical, generously funded by the University of Limerick in Ireland, to contribute her teaching and research expertise to a variety of courses and projects during her time at the college.

For the Spring term, McMahon is embedded in the Product Design Sustainability course led by Heidrun Mumper-Drumm and Dice Yamaguchi. Her intent is to gain a close understanding of the transdisciplinary teaching methods and project-based learning that occurs across the college, with a particular focus on studying Designmatters courses, and the collaborative models the department has in place to structure social impact projects that yield real-world outcomes.

We caught up with McMahon during a mid-term presentation by a different group of Designmatters students, collaborating on the Coaniquem project led by Graphic Design faculty member Guillaume Wolf. The in-depth creative proposals they unveiled—for a campaign to raise awareness and funds to prevent and treat childhood burns—belied the short six-week time frame the 12 students had to develop them.

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Sold-out conference features Art Center faculty, highlights vitality of photographic education

Dennis Keeley

Photography and Imaging Chair Dennis Keeley to lead Industry and Education Forum at SPE conference

Teachers, critics, curators, gallery directors, image-makers, collectors and students convene in Chicago this week for the 50th National Conference of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE). With 1,600 registered attendees, the conference is completely sold out for the second year in a row.

Invited participants in the March 7–10, 2013 conference include Dennis Keeley, chair of Photography and Imaging at Art Center and board member of SPE, who will lead the Industry and Education Forum on Sat. March 9 at 9 a.m.; and featured speaker Mona Kuhn, Art Center faculty member, presenting her work on Friday, March 8 at 10 a.m.

This year’s conference theme, “Conferring Significance: Celebrating Photography’s Continuum,” examines how concentration on a subject has allowed image, concept, criticism, teaching and learning to shape the past, present and future of photography. Continue reading →

Art Center full throttle at 83rd International Geneva Motor Show

Automobile enthusiasts from around the globe are gathering in Switzerland for the 83rd International Geneva Motor Show March 7–17, 2013 and Art Center faculty, alumni and staff are circulating among them.

An Art Center alumni event
is set for Wednesday, March 6, 17:00-20:00 
at the C Bar and Lounge, Starling Geneva Airport Hotel.

Alumni and friends are invited to meet up at an informal reception in conjunction with the show. Geoff Wardle, executive director of Graduate Transportation Design, and Cathy Karry, director of the College’s Career and Professional Development office, will be among the faculty and staff in town to connect with alumni who live in, or near Geneva as well as those visiting for the auto show. For more info, please contact Alumni Relations at alumni@artcenter.edu.

Wardle will be meeting with industry and media representatives to discuss Art Center’s new Grad Trans program that offers two tracks for students to pursue:

Geoff Wardle

Geoff Wardle, executive director of Graduate Transportation Design

  1. The Vehicles Track is for those who are intent on entering or returning to the vehicle manufacturing industry who have strong strategic thinking skills and the ability to focus on the bigger issues facing the field relating to its customers and its future business models.
  2. The Systems Track is geared to individuals who have a more varied background plus are interested in a more holistic, systems-thinking approach to innovative transportation solutions from personal mobility in the urban environment through to more sustainable freight transportation, for example.

Wardle will also discuss the development of automated road vehicles, future business models for the industry and generally what the outlook is for the future of the automobile—which, in his opinion, is positive!

– Teri Bond

For more information on the graduate program, visit

http://www.artcenter.edu/accd/admissions/graduate.jsp

http://www.artcenter.edu/accd/programs/graduate/transportation_design/course_of_study.jsp

For Art Center at Night director Dana L.Walker, “Diversity is really about all of us.”

Dana L. Walker, Photography and Imaging alumna and Art Center at Night director. Photo: Ken Merfeld.

Many students who end up studying at Art Center are first introduced to the College through Art Center at Night (ACN)—Art Center’s continuing studies program headquartered at South Campus. And chances are that at some point many of those students also came into contact with Photography and Imaging alumna Dana L. Walker (PHOT 1995). Walker serves as both the director of ACN and the managing director of Public Programs, Art Center’s suite of programs that also includes Art Center for Kids (grades 4–8), Saturday High (grades 9–12) and Summer Institute for Teachers (for K–12 educators).

In addition to her Public Programs duties, Walker is also co-chair of Art Center’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion, which the College created in 2011 as part of its Create Change Strategic Plan. She’s also a board member of the 120 Group, an ethnically diverse, alumni-based organization that promotes educational and career opportunities in art and design for underrepresented minority populations.

We sat down recently with Dana to talk about diversity, her work as an artist and what it’s like to be a student in her own program.

Dotted Line: You’re on the College’s diversity council. How do you define diversity?

Dana Walker: I don’t define it. In fact, one of the things we’ve done on the Council is purposely not define it. Because once you define it, it becomes a quantity rather than a quality. Diversity is not just about race, ethnicity or religion. It’s also economics, geography, gender and more. In fact, diversity includes so much that it’s really about all of us. And that’s what makes it challenging. To become a better artist or designer, you need to understand the world that you live in and the people who live in it. Whether it’s learning about another culture or learning how to work with different people, you can’t design for the world if you don’t understand large parts of it.

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Art Center to host Kickstarter workshop

Students and alums can learn more about the relationship between Art Center and Kickstarter, including Art Center’s curated page.

Kickstarter’s Art Program Director Stephanie Pereira will host a workshop at Hillside campus Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. to discuss the power of Kickstarter and best practices to reach your funding goals.

An alumni reception will follow. RSVP by Feb. 4 to alumni@artcenter.edu.

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