Art Center students win top honors in Disney competition

Art Center College of Design's winning team of the 2013 ImagiNations Competition with their project “Disney’s Ukaipo Resort at Auckland, New Zealand.” Pictured (L-R) are Sophie McNally, Angela Li, Jennifer Cho and Sunmin Inn. © Disney. Photographer : Gary Krueger

Art Center students Jennifer Cho, Sunmin Inn, Angela Li and Sophie McNally were awarded first place and best in show in the Walt Disney Imagineering ImagiNations Design Competition.

Their project, “Disney’s Ukaipo Resort at Auckland, New Zealand ” is an iconic resort modeled after a Kauri, one of New Zealand’s most ancient and magnificent trees, enabling guests to experience Auckland from high up in trees, enjoying breathtaking views of the land while relaxing in this all-inclusive vacation experience.

Art Center student Jane Liu joined with Carnegie Mellon University students on the second place project, “Legenda Emas at Jakarta, Indonesia,” this interactive boat ride, based on an Indonesian legend, follows a betrothed prince and princess, and a jealous witch who wishes to keep them apart.

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Art Center celebrates dedicated employees

Provost Fred Fehlau congratulates Errol Gerson on his 40 years with Art Center

Every year Art Center celebrates employees who have reached significant milestones in their careers.

The College recently celebrated faculty members who reached milestones in 2011.

On Jan. 24, 50 individuals were recognized for having work anniversaries of 10 or more years, with faculty member Errol Gerson, who teaches classes in entrepreneurialism, topping the list at 40 years of service to the College.

The occasion was commemorated with a formal luncheon and presentation of the service awards hosted by the Human Resources Department.

“Art Center students are supported by dedicated staff and faculty who do everything they can, directly in the classroom or indirectly behind the scenes, to help students achieve their goals to become professional artists and designers,” said Nancy Duggan, Executive Director, Human Resources. “It is our pleasure to honor these individuals.”

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Art Center to host student-only film festival

On March 16, Art Center will host the first annual Dot Independent Film Festival, which will screen and award student projects from around the world.

“There’s no other film festival that only caters to students,” says Kevin Wansa, a film student who coordinated the event along with fellow film student Mike Reyes and faculty member Andrew Harlow.

DIFF will award films in several different categories including narrative short, documentary, music video, and commercial and PSA. The festival is also about forming collaborative relationships across schools and communities.

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Graphic Design grad wins Student Leadership Award

“Art Center’s legacy rests in its community,” said Graphic Design graduate Adam Lopez, recipient of Art Center’s Student Leadership Award for the Fall 2012 term. “We learn and grow together. And when the time comes for us to move on, our ties to each other grow more important.”

Each term, Art Center presents the Student Leadership Award to a deserving student from the College. The award is a distinguished honor granted to a graduating student who exemplifies leadership qualities and accomplishments that stand out above their peers.

For Lopez, leadership boiled down to helping his peers and working together towards a higher goal. As a member of EcoCouncil, he grew the College’s community by helping bring the Art Center Food Garden to fruition. As founder of the Food Group, he organized fundraisers and cultivated friendships among strangers over shared meals.

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Trustee-produced ‘Red Tails’ wins motion picture prize at NAACP’s Image Awards

The action-adventure World War II film “Red Tails” won the prize for best motion picture at the NAACP’s Image Awards.

The high-flying feature, produced by George Lucas and Art Center Trustee Charles Floyd Johnson, was inspired by the heroics of America’s first all African-American aerial unit.

“Look, I beat Quentin Tarantino,” joked the Star Wars creator upon accepting the award (Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” was also up for the honor).

Lucas choked up while thanking the Tuskeegee Airmen, whose story is chronicled in the film.

The 44th NAACP Image Awards, hosted by talk show host Steve Harvey, were held Friday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

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Sponsored Projects kick off new term, students take up new challenges

Cloud 9's Enric Ruiz-Geli. Credit: Chuck Spangler

Creative engines were revving as Art Center’s Spring 2013 Educational Partnerships kicked off Jan. 17–24.

Corporate partners are sponsoring five different projects this term, focused on retail packaging, consumer market analysis, architectural design and, from a transportation perspective, the future of car buying and the future of “reward.”

Projects are a win-win for students and sponsors alike. Undergraduate and graduate students gain valuable experience tackling real-world challenges with business and design professionals at the top of their fields; meanwhile sponsors have an opportunity to step out of the corporate environment and take in fresh perspectives.

Cloud 9, an award-winning Barcelona-based firm known for its dynamic, cutting-edge architecture, is collaborating with students from multiple disciplines — Environmental Design, Product Design, Grad Industrial Design and Graphics — led by Environmental Design faculty members James Meraz, Jason Pilarski and Kenneth Cameron.

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How ’90s dreams gave way to interaction design

Today is the last day of the Interaction Design Conference (IxD13) in Toronto, the sixth annual conference organized by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), an international network dedicated to the professional practice of interaction design.

Earlier today, Jason Brush, executive vice president of creative at the Emmy and IDEA award-winning interactive marketing agency POSSIBLE, and the newest faculty member of Art Center’s recently created Interaction Design Department, gave a presentation at the conference titled The Dream of the 90s is Alive.

In the presentation, Brush reminded the audience that the early ’90s — “a time when Mark Zuckerberg was still in grade school, Steve Jobs had yet to return to Apple, and computers still had floppy drives” — was a time in which artists, filmmakers, authors and philosophers made the first technological forays into applications that drive global culture and communication today.

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Photographer Mona Kuhn reveals her body of work

Brazilian-born photographer Mona Kuhn’s disarming nude portraits aim to redefine ways of looking at the body.

“It’s the idea of totally disrobing your status symbols, where by being naked you’re just like the other person,” she recently told New York Magazine. “You don’t have a watch to compare, you don’t have the latest trendy jeans, and you don’t have the latest shoes.”

Kuhn will discuss her past and current work during a lecture Friday at 7 p.m. at Hillside’s L.A. Times Auditorium. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a book signing.

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Art Center student wins Pasadena Armenian genocide memorial competition

Catherine Menard

Catherine Menard. Credit: Image courtesy Art Center College of Design/Alex Aristei

Art Center College of Design and the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee (PASAGMC) on Tuesday jointly announced the winning design concept for a new memorial whose planned dedication in 2015 will coincide with 100th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian Genocide. The concept by Art Center Environmental Design student Catherine Menard was developed in 2012 as part of the College’s social impact design program, Designmatters. The proposed site for the public artwork is Memorial Park in the City of Pasadena.

Menard’s concept was one of 17 submissions the committee received, and one of three finalists chosen by an independent panel of judges in December. The three-judge panel included Stefanos Polyzoides, a principal of Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists; Ruben Amirian, an architect/artist who has served on the design review board and historic commission in Glendale; and Neshan Peroomian, a contractor and prominent Armenian-American community leader.

In all, six Environmental Design students at Art Center developed memorial proposals last fall during an intensive Design Topic Studio class and submitted them to the competition. Two of the students — Menard and her classmate J.D. Clark — were selected as finalists, a particularly impressive achievement in a field of competitors that included many seasoned professionals.

Earlier this month, Board members of PASAGMC voted unanimously to move forward with Menard’s proposal.

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Font support for Art Center students, from Arcadia to Zeitgeist

As any graphic design student will tell you, the cost of quality fonts can really add up during the course of one’s studies. But thanks to a recent forward-looking gift from Monotype, Art Center students will soon be relieved of this major expense. Beginning this year the global provider of typeface solutions is providing all full- and part-time students enrolled at the College with free access to and use of 58 desktop fonts in a “Student Font Pack” as well as the company’s complete slate of web fonts — from Arcadia to Zeitgeist.

The commitment, valued at approximately $3.7 million, is the second largest in-kind gift in the College’s history.

According to Nik Hafermaas, Graphic Design department chair, the gift will have a significant impact on Art Center student work. “Using quality fonts is a key to successful graphic design,” he explains. “Their expense can limit creative exploration. On behalf of the Graphic Design department I’m extremely grateful to Monotype providing this opportunity to Art Center’s next generation of artists and designers.”

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