Category Archives: Uncategorized

Art Center Welcomes Cathy Karry as New Director of Career & Professional Development

Art Center College of Design has named Cathy Karry as the new Director of its Office of Career & Professional Development, it was officially announced today by Art Center Provost Fred Fehlau.

“Having worked in recruitment for art and design professionals for many years, Cathy has a deep knowledge of our student’s talents and aspirations, our alumni and our disciplines,” Fehlau said. “Career and professional development is an important aspect of our students’ education, I am confidant that Cathy will bring new ideas and opportunities to the College.”

“It is an exciting time to be in career development as our role has become increasingly more vital in relation to recruiting, retention, student services, alumni relations, corporate partnerships and curriculum development,” said Karry. “I have always respected Art Center’s reputation as a progressive institution, so the opportunity to grow this department is a challenge I welcome.”

Karry previously held the position of Director of Career Services and Educational Partnerships at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI, where she lead a team focused on global recruiting, strategic relationships with industry leaders for student employment and sponsorship opportunities, as well as student internships. She oversaw professional development events including portfolio reviews, roundtable discussions and industry panels. She brings a wealth of knowledge about our students’ specific career trajectories, and is acquainted with many Art Center alumni who recruit and hire graduates. Her arrival coincides with an increased commitment by Art Center to better serve all of our undergraduate and graduate students with a more expansive program of career counseling, industry outreach, and networking strategies.

Karry is a member of AIGA, IDSA and the National Association of Colleges and Employers. She has a Bachelors of Science Degree in Psychology from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI.

Sparking Passion for Cars and Design

Art Center for Kids students in Jeffrey Leon's "Designing Cars" class.

Car enthusiasts come in all shapes, sizes—and ages.

Recognizing this, and aiming to inspire the next generation of auto lovers, the Collectors Foundation awards scholarships and grants to organizations that are committed to both hands-on education and making a difference in the lives of young people through the appeal of historic vehicles and vessels.

An Art Center partner since 2005, the Foundation supports undergraduate scholarships in Art Center’s Transportation Design program, as well as scholarships for students interested in transportation classes in Art Center’s Public Programs, Saturday High for students in grades 9-12 and Art Center for Kids for students in grades 4-8.

Eunice Han, age 16, of Rowland Heights, Calif., received a Collectors Foundation scholarship in 2011 to cover the cost of an Introduction to Transportation Design class in Saturday High. “The opportunities given through this scholarship helped set my path by revealing to me the incredible role of art and design in our community,” says Eunice. “I realized that without a doubt I had to be a part of it.”

The class also opened Eunice’s eyes to the wide range of design careers available to her. She is now considering a career in industrial design. “I enjoy being able to create solutions,” she explains, “whether that be of a product or even a graphic representation.”

From an early age, Greg Bagdasaryan of Glendale, Calif., had dreamed of designing “killer” cars. He began Art Center for Kids classes at age 12 and received a Collectors Foundation scholarship at 18, which enabled him to take a Saturday High beginning transportation class.

“The class changed my perspective by showing me how to sketch simple shapes and use them to express my ideas for cars and other things,” says Greg. “It was a great first step in learning what design really was and how to think about ideas and show what can and cannot work.”

Now a student at Pasadena City College, Greg is working hard to improve his design skills as he builds a portfolio that he hopes will gain him admission to Art Center. “It takes a great work ethic,” he adds. “I’ve learned that if you aim for the top, you can succeed. All it takes is that spark of passion.”

The power of cars to inspire the creative spirit is something that the Collectors Foundation understands well. While not every student who receives a Collectors Foundation scholarship sets his or her sights on designing the automobile classics of the future, many describe developing a greater appreciation for design in the auto industry and beyond.

Legendary Automotive Illustrator Art Fitzpatrick Visits Campus

Art Fitzpatrick at Art Center College of Design. Photo by Chuck Spangler.

Art Fitzpatrick at Art Center College of Design. Photo: Chuck Spangler

Considered an icon in the milieu of automotive painting and design, Art Fitzpatrick, recently visited Art Center to share his life work and lessons with students. With a career that stretched over seven decades, Fitzpatrick, is best known for his more than 700 auto advertisements. His 1959-71 “Wide Track” campaign for Pontiac is considered by many to be the most recognizable, successful and influential auto ad artwork of all time.

Transportation Design faculty member Richard Pietruska is currently working with Fitzpatrick and arranged for him to visit with students.

“He is an amazing illustrator who has influenced many of us in the automotive design world from the 60′s and 70′s up to the present,” said Pietruska. “His work captures the true essence of what the cars of that era represented and his passion and skill comes across in his brilliant technique.”

Fitzpatrick continues to produce paintings of his favorite cars today but now works mainly on the computer at his home in Carlsbad, California. He is also an honorary member of the Automotive Fine Arts Society who exhibit at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Find out much more and see his beautiful work at www.fitz-art.com

Pasadena City Buses To Get the Ultimate Detailing

Bus riders soon will notice a new look, a new name, and find a fresh mobile phone app for travel around the City of Pasadena. Art Center students are creating a new identity for the Pasadena ARTS transit system that will guide riders throughout the region.

City officials are now choosing which proposed design to implement. Contrary to what you might guess, the ARTS bus is not merely a way to hit the city’s multiple arts and cultural venues. ARTS stands for the Area Rapid Transit System, which transports locals and visitors alike to various spots around town. To address the confusion around the moniker, the design brief also encouraged students to come up with a new name for the transit agency.

In the spirit of local engagement, Art Center’s Dean of Special Programs and Chair of the Graphic Design Department, Nik Hafermaas, suggested that the college’s Educational Partnerships team coordinate the project through an Identity Systems course taught by Gloria Kondrup.

“Our goal is to demonstrate that well conceived design can significantly improve our communities, said Hafermaas. “This is a wonderful chance for our students to make a positive contribution to our own neighborhood.”

In the class, each student developed a new brand name and a design standards manual to guide the implementation of the new identity through its various applications. The manual addressed the use of color, typography and image across many touch points. This includes new bus graphics, signage, bus shelters, the agency’s website and its forthcoming smartphone app.

In April, Mayor Bill Bogaard joined a team of city executives to review final presentations. Once a choice is made, the new brand will be implemented across all city marketing materials.

Three Boys from Pasadena Return Home to Art Center

UPDATE: You’re invited to the closing party Thursday, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m.
Last chance to see exhibition honoring Helmut Newton

Join the photographers, models and friends for a celebration of this critically praised exhibition featuring the photography of three Art Center alumni who were mentored by Helmut Newton. Please RSVP to suzanne.valles@artcenter.edu or call 626.396.2368 for more information.

On June 14, a packed house celebrated the Williamson Gallery’s opening reception for Three Boys from Pasadena, an exhibition of work by Art Center photography alums Mark Arbeit, George Holz, and Just Loomis. The exhibit is accompanied by a tribute to famed fashion photographer Helmut Newton, with whom Mark, George, and Just each maintained a close and lifelong friendship after working for him early in their careers. In June 2010, Three Boys from Pasadena premiered at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. The companion book, with a foreword by June Newton, was published in France and is available in the Art Center student store. The Williamson Gallery exhibit is an expanded version of the original show, featuring an additional seventy prints, and will continue through August 26, 2012.

This exhibition is a homecoming, arriving back at the site of the first meeting between the Boys and Helmut. The exhibit consists of each photographer’s individual work, as well as several vitrines of memorabilia, consisting of snapshots, handwritten notes, journal pages, contact sheets, and other souvenirs. In the sensual, striking fashion editorial and portraiture by Mark, George and Just, a direct line of influence can be traced from Newton to his apprentices, while at the same time each of the three photographers’ body of work shows a departure from Newton’s strong influence and the development of a unique and independent voice.

Listen to the 3 Boys from Pasadena panel discussion

Art Center College of Design’s “Designmatters” Vice President Honored with Dell Social Innovation Education Award

Designmatters' Mariana Amatullo

Mariana Amatullo, vice president at Art Center College of Design and co-founder of Designmatters, the College’s social impact initiative, has won the inaugural Dell Social Innovation Education Award. The honor recognizes outstanding leadership in teaching and supporting student social innovators.

Designmatters engages students, faculty and alumni from across disciplines in an ongoing exploration of the role of art and design in effecting large-scale sustainable change through innovative partnerships locally and around the world. It is through the impressive outcomes generated by Designmatters that the College became the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status.

“Art Center aspires to redefine and expand the role of the artist and designer into one who is a catalyst for social change and innovation, ” said Lorne M. Buchman, president, Art Center College of Design. “Designmatters allows us to harness the power of creative imagination to effect that change.

“I’m very proud of what Mariana has created over the last decade and we congratulate her, “ Buchman continued. “We consider this award an endorsement as renewed encouragement to continue our commitment to contribute to, and learn from, our engagement in the social innovation space.”

“I am deeply honored to be selected as the inaugural recipient of this award,” said Amatullo. It has been my personal privilege and joy to be in a position of mobilizing the collective energy and creative talent of the Art Center community with an educational agenda for social impact through Designmatters.

“This award serves as a wonderful tribute to the body of work by our students, faculty, and staff during the last decade, and more broadly speaks of the growing recognition of the value of art and design in effecting consequential societal change,” she explained.

“We had many outstanding nominees for the Social Innovation Education Award,” said Dell Challenge Executive Director Suzi Sosa, “however, Mariana stood out because of her ability to inspire institutional support for applying design solutions to social problems.”

Amatullo was chosen for her exemplary leadership and holistic approach in building new modes of engagement for art and design education with social impact, promoting broad collaboration through cross-sector partnerships with non-profit organizations, development agencies and industry. The award-winning and social innovation outcomes of Designmatters during the past decade are providing a key foundation for the framework of Media Design Matters, a new course of study in the Graduate Media Design Program at Art Center. Amatullo is co-leading Media Design Matters, which focuses on communication design at the intersection of new technology and social engagement.

She will be honored during the global awards ceremony on June 12^th in Austin, Texas.

As part of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, several Art Center student projects from the award-winning Safe Agua initiative, a Designmatters partnership with the Innovation Center of Un Techo Para Mi Pais, were named semi-finalists. The projects focused on innovative design products and systems to overcome water poverty with families of slum-dwellers in Lima, Peru.

About Art Center College of Design

Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, Art Center College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. Art Center offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide variety of art and design disciplines, as well as public programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for its ties to industry and professional rigor, Art Center is recognized as a United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), providing students with opportunities to create design-based solutions for humanitarian and nonprofit agencies around the world. During the College’s 80-year history, Art Center’s alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live, and important issues in our society.

To learn more

facebook.com/dellsocialinnovation

twitter.com/dellsocialinnov

artcenter.edu/designmatters

Space Stories Attracts Full House of Final Frontier Fans

Local Scientists Reveal Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of the Universe

At Art Center, being sandwiched geographically between the experimental and exploratory resources of innovative places like Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory has its advantages – particularly for an ongoing series of exhibitions superimposing the domains of art and science at the college’s Williamson Gallery.

On Tuesday evening, May 1, one of those exhibitions, the Williamson’s landmark The History of Space Photography, took advantage of Art Center’s strong relationship with its nearby neighbors. Lured from their star-studded light year calculations, exoplanet forays, and search for life-out-there, five space mission veterans interacted with an enthusiastic sold-out audience for SPACE STORIES, an informal meandering walk-around laced with spontaneous anecdotes, hidden facts, behind-the-scenes observations, and insider secrets on the history and future of the Final Frontier.

Introduced to the audience by Art Center Vice President and Williamson Gallery director Stephen Nowlin, were exhibition curator Jay Belloli; Dr. Randall Friedl, Deputy Director for Research, Engineering and Science Directorate, JPL; Dr. Robert Hurt, Spitzer Space Telescope Visualization Specialist, JPL/Caltech; David Doody, Realtime Flight Operations Lead Engineer, Cassini Mission, JPL; Jurrie van der Woude, Image Coordinator, Public Affairs Office, JPL (retired); and Dr. Randii Wessen, Science Systems Engineer and Deputy Manager, Project Formulation, JPL.

From the scientists’ outer-space to the gallery’s 4,600 square-foot inner-space where 150 spectacular photographs are on display, the spirit of exploration and discovery was present throughout as an abundance of tidbits and insights consumed the five roaming islands of rapt questioners and story-tellers. It was a truly memorable evening, just what one might expect at the intersection of these three renowned art/science institutions in Pasadena.

The History of Space Photography’s premiere engagement began at the Williamson Gallery continues through May 6. The exhibition is presently scheduled to travel to Florida, New York, and India.

User Experience Pioneer Maggie Hendrie Joins Art Center as Inaugural Chair of New Interaction Design Program

Provost Fred Fehlau announced the selection of user experience pioneer Maggie Hendrie to lead Art Center’s new Interaction Design program. Formally launching in Fall 2012, Art Center will be the first school in Southern California to offer an undergraduate degree in Interaction Design.

“Both as a teacher and founder of multiple User Experience and Interaction Design departments in industry, Maggie has a proven track record for weaving cross-departmental, multidisciplinary programs that leverage human-centered design,” Mr. Fehlau said. “We’re confident in her ability to drive the complex institutional, technical and design factors needed to deliver those skills and vision to our students.”

Ms. Hendrie said, “Interaction Designers must be prepared not only for multidisciplinary projects and work environments but for a medium that can range from gestural sensor driven networks to gameplay and wired cities. As new platforms supporting interactive mediums emerge, others become obsolete. What would the world look like without the screen? We need to develop core, transferrable skills, processes and a creative vision at the undergraduate level. I am thrilled at the opportunity to join a world leader like Art Center to educate the next generation of visionaries in this new field.”

She is the Principal of Maggie Hendrie Design, a cross-channel business and service solution firm providing iPhoneapps, social media campaigns, and consumer-facing online tools and marketingfor such Fortune 500 companies as Allstate, PepsiCo, Sears, Mattel and Toyota Motor Company.

In 2004, Ms. Hendrie founded Sony Pictures Entertainment’s User Experience Competency Center and as Director was responsible for working with Sony divisions worldwide to integrate usability, information architecture and interaction into all Sony-produced devices and cross-platform projects. Prior to that she was Creative Director for User Experience at WhittmanHart/MarchFIRST, Inc., Director for User Experience at Caresoft, and Senior User Interface Designer at Cybermedia.

As a Senior Lecturer at Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Art and Design, she played an integral role coordinating and teaching curriculum in Strategic Design and Entrepreneurial Studies between the Graphic Design department at Otis and the Business Studies department at Loyola Marymount.

She received her MA in Liberal Artsfrom Edinburgh University, her MS in Communication+Information Sciences fromthe Nouvelle Sorbonne University, and her Diplôme D’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) from the Paris VII University in Multimedia Design and Communication.

Ms. Hendrie comes to Art Center as a result of an extensive international search conducted this year by a committee of faculty, alumni, students and staff.

Interaction Design is one of several innovative new programs being launched by Art Center in response to the College’s strategic plan, Create Change, which lays the groundwork for Art Center not only to retain its competitive edge, but also to become the foremost art and design college of the 21st century.

Hendrie’s appointment was covered by a number of media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Variety, and the Chicago Tribune.

Los Angeles Times’ Art Critic Christopher Knight Raves About History of Space Photography Exhibition

An infrared photograph of Helix Nebula in deep space, part of "The History of Space Photography" at Art Center College. (Art Center College of Design / September 21, 2011)

May 1 “Space Stories” Reception and Tour Open to Public

“Spectacular” is how Los Angeles Times’ Art Critic Christopher Knight describes some of the pictures in the Williamson Gallery exhibition “The History of Space Photography” on campus through May 6.

To create the dazzling collection of images, guest curator Jay Belloli worked with several consultants from the nearby Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), founded at Caltech and affiliated with NASA. The exhibit features 150 noteworthy images, most from the last 50 years of space exploration plus video projections of various celestial animations.

“The sheer grandeur of these scientific images, the awe inspiring beauty of them, is what reminds us of art,” says Williamson Gallery Director Stephen Nowlin who is featured in an NBC TV news story about the show. Also featured in the piece is Dr. Randii Wessen, a JPL space scientist and an advisor to Belloli who will also be available at the May 1 event.

williamsongallery.net

Photography Alumnus Retrospective “Pedro E. Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life” Now Open

Self portrait, Manhattan studio, 1950. (c) Pedro E. Guerrero

Pedro E. Geurrero: Photographs of Modern Life, on view now through April 25 at Woodbury University Hollywood Space, is the first extensive exhibition on the West Coast of Pedro E. Guerrero’s PHOT 40 career as one of the most prolific architectural photographers of the 20th Century.

The exhibition, curated by Emily Bills and Anthony Fontenot, highlights the diversity of Guerrero’s subjects taken over seven decades, which included the architecture of Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, Edward Durell Stone and Eero Saarinen, and ranged from portraits of architects to to commercial work for House & Garden, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine and Architectural Record.

He is perhaps best known for his close relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, for whom he served as the architect’s photographer and friend for 20 years. The exhibition will feature Guerrero’s illuminating portraits of the architect, including 12 photographs of Wright’s hands demonstrating the difference between organic and conventional architecture at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Pedro E. Geurrero: Photographs of Modern Life
Woodbury University Hollywood Space (WUHO)
6518 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028.
Gallery hours: Monday through Thursday, 1-8 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, 1-6 p.m.

ArtCenter News

ArtCenter College of Design