Calling All Eccentric Types: Andrew Byrom, Gloria Kondrup and Heather van Haaften to Speak at 3×3

"Letter-Box-Kite" by Andrew Byrom.

Each term, Art Center’s Graphic Design department hosts a 3×3, an event in which three local professionals speak on a particular topic.

Tomorrow night’s 3×3, “Eccentric Types,” brings graphic designer Andrew Byrom, Archetype Press director Gloria Kondrup, and creative director Heather van Haaften to the LA Times Auditorium for a stimulating discussion on the wild possibilites of typefaces.

Here’s everything you need to know:

3×3: Eccentric Types

Thursday, June 28th, 7:30pm
Los Angeles Times Media Center (LAT)
Art Center College of Design, Hillside Campus
1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103

Andrew Byrom, Graphic Designer, Typeface Designer and Professor
Andrew Byrom is a UK born graphic designer and typeface designer, based in LA. His clients include The New York Times, Penguin Books, The Architecture and Design Museum and Sagmeister Inc. His experimental typography has been featured in numerous design publications including Print Magazine +81, and Creative Review, and has been honored by the AIGA and the TDC.

Byrom is also a Professor at CSULB and has taught at UCLA Extension, Northern Illinois University, as well as Luton University and Central Saint Matrins in the UK. He has given presentations about his approach to design throughout Europe, Asia and the US – including the AIGA Y-Conference, ATypI, TypeCon, The Type Directors Club, Kuala Lumpur Design Week, and TEDx UCLA.

Gloria Kondrup, Archetype Press Director and Professor
Gloria Kondrup has a BA in Fine Art and Art History, and an MFA in Design. Her design interests straddle both 15th and 21st-century technologies and includes an expertise in branding, packaging, and letterpress printing. She currently has the best job in the world. Since 2003, Professor Kondrup has been the Director of Archetype Press at Art Center College of Design, where students enhance their ability to understand the relationship of language and typography, and to explore the creative benefits of an analog technology in the digital landscape. She maintains a consultancy in branding and pursues an interest in language and limited edition fine art books. Her work is in private and institutional collections including AIGA, The Sackner Archives of Concrete and Visual Poetry, The Getty and The Smithsonian.

Heather van Haaften, Creative Director
Heather van Haaften traveled continents in search of unusual typefaces, discontinued letterforms, and illegible ligatures. Her Midwest family printing business served reason to escape the realm of computerized typesetting and discovered the world’s first printed book, the Gutenberg Bible, set in Blackletter metal type. She has worked for Capitol Records and Paramount Television, and resided six years in Germany redesigning three European TV networks before returning to America to redesign HSN, an American cable network. Most recently as Interactive Creative Director, she lead award winning creative teams who delivered 1,500 custom online retail strategies to Fortune 100 companies and connected the brands with the world’s biggest online retailers, Walmart.com, Dell.com, CVS.com to name a few. Her areas of expertise include creative and interactive development, digital content, broadcast design, video production and entertainment graphics.

Heather holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Design from Otis Parsons School of Design. Not a widow, nor an orphan, she eloped in 1995 to Sedona Arizona with Nikolaus Kraemer, a German movie producer. A mother of two bilingual cats, she loves licorice, yoga and Breaking Bad.

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Art Center on Scene at Dwell on Design

Art Center was an official partner of the West Coast’s largest design event, Dwell on Design, which boasted three days of the best and brightest products, services and thought leaders in modern design. Dwell on Design was held last weekend at the L.A. Convention Center.

As the only educational institution named a Silver Sponsor, Art Center made a significant impact during the event. The College occupied 1,000 square feet of exhibition space showing representative student and alumni work in Product and Environmental Design; led a series of creative design activities on the show floor; and showcased student, faculty and alumni presentations on three separate stages at the event.

Here are some images from the show.

David Mocarski, Jenn Kuca, Cora Neil and Mariana Amatullo talking about Designing for Social Impact

Art Center's booth at Dwell

Learning about Designmatters' Safe Agua Project

David Mocarski discussing Art Center's Environmental Design programs

The Product Design display

Art Center's activity space on the showroom floor

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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

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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.

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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

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Student Cinematographer Nominated for Prestigious Industry Award [Update: He Wins!]

[UPDATE: And the winner is… Art Center filmmaker Ryan McDonald who won the top prize at the ASC award ceremony over the weekend. Congratulations! He’s currently shooting a project with Art Center alum Domenic Moen documenting the work of Inclusion Films, an organization that teaches filming to young adults with developmental disabilities.]

Art Center filmmaker Ryan McDonald was nominated for the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Andrew Laszlo Student Heritage Award.

A still from Aexis

Recognized by the organization as an emerging talent with the vision and skillset to use lighting and composition to convey moods, McDonald is nominated in the fiction category for his cinematography on fellow film student Eric Chang’s directing project Aexis.

“My work is typically in the context of rushed schedules, limited crew, and a Subaru’s worth of equipment – so I guess you could say my specialty at the moment is doing a lot with a little; this film was no exception, said McDonald, an undergraduate.

“I enjoyed shooting Aexis because Eric gave me near total freedom in crafting the look for the film and finding the shots that worked best for the scenes. There are so many hard working DP’s out there who do great work, so I’m honored to be recognized by the ASC; even if it means I have to go out of my way to buy some business attire for the ceremony.”

Watch a trailer for Aexis.

Check out McDonald’s demo reel.

Visit his website.

Read the official announcement from the ASC website:

ASC Names 2012 Student Heritage Awards Nominees

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has chosen seven student filmmakers from six U.S. film schools as nominees in the 2012 ASC Andrew Laszlo Student Heritage Awards. A ceremony announcing the winners in each category will be held June 16. The awards are designed to showcase the artistic abilities of the next generation of filmmakers, with a focus on their cinematography skills.

The nominees are (listed alphabetically by film title in each category):

Graduate

Josephine and the Roach by Damian Horan, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
Narcocorrido by Benjamin Kitchens, American Film Institute
The Bullet Catcher by John Walstad MacDonald, Chapman University

Undergraduate

Aexis by H.R. McDonald, Art Center College of Design
The Drop by Nicholas Wiesnet, Chapman University
Reclamation by Adam Lee, Loyola Marymount University
Language of the Unheard by Travis LaBella, Northwestern University*

(*one nominee chosen; also winner for the category)

Each year, the ASC Heritage Award is rededicated in memory of an individual who advanced the art and craft of cinematography. A Hungarian native, Andrew Laszlo, ASC was a talented cinematographer whose film and television career spanned 50-plus years, amassing such credits as You¹re a Big Boy Now, The Night They Raided Minsky¹s, The Out of Towners, The Owl and the Pussycat, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, First Blood, Streets of Fire, Innerspace, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He earned Emmy nominations for his work on Shogun and The Man Without a Country. Laszlo dedicated many years to teaching future directors of photography at workshops, seminars and schools around the world, and authored several books, including It’s A Wrap, a compilation of his experiences on movie sets around the world.

To reach this stage, professors at film schools recommended one student for each category from their school, who then submitted their film for judging. A Blue Ribbon panel of ASC members judged the 40-plus entries and narrowed it to this field. That same panel will select the winners.

The ASC Heritage Award was inaugurated for the purpose of encouraging filmmakers to pursue careers in cinematography.

“It’s a competitive industry but these emerging talents have shown they have the vision and skillset to use lighting and composition to convey moods,” says Isidore Mankofsky, ASC, chairman of the ASC Education Committee. “We hope this recognition encourages them to follow their dreams.”

Past ASC Heritage Award winners have gone on to prolific careers, such as Lisa Marie Wiegand (Necessary Roughness, Dollhouse, Adventures of Power), Lukas Ettlin (The Lincoln Lawyer, Battle Los Angeles), Masanobu Takayanagi (Warrior, The Grey), and Nelson Cragg (Homeland, CSI), among many others.

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Thought Leaders Gather at Art Center to Discuss Design for Social Impact

As part of Design Week 2012, Art Center and Dwell Magazine will jointly host a dialogue on how innovative design can influence social change. The event will begin with a keynote address by John Peterson, Founder and President of Public Architecture. A panel discussion, moderated by Michael Sylvester, Managing Director, Dwell on Design, will follow. Panelists include Frances Anderton, Host, DnA: Design and Architecture on KCRW and L.A. Editor, Dwell Magazine; Mariana Amatullo, Vice President, Designmatters and recipient of the 2012 Dell Outstanding Leadership in Social Innovation Education Award and David Mocarski, Chair, Environmental Design.

The event will be held Saturday, June 16 from 6-8 pm at Art Center’s Hillside Campus. Seating is limited; please contact events@artcenter.edu if you are interested in attending.

Art Center is proud to be an official partner of the West Coast’s largest design event, Dwell on Design, which boasts three days of the best and brightest products, services and thought leaders in modern design. Dwell on Design will be held from June 22 – 24 at the L.A. Convention Center.

As the only educational institution named a Silver Sponsor, Art Center will make a significant impact during the event. The College will occupy 1,000 square feet of exhibition space showing representative student and alumni work in Product and Environmental Design; lead a series of creative design activities on the show floor; and showcase student, faculty and alumni presentations on three separate stages at the event.

Dwell on Design runs from June 22- June 24 at the LA Convention Center. Students can register for free.

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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

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Environmental Design and Product Design Students Showcase at New York Design Week

A short nap in Melissa Lee's "Lulla" provides an experience akin to being rocked in your parents arms.

Art Center was in full force at New York City’s 24th annual New York Design Week.

Students and alumni from the College were featured at both the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and the WantedDesignNYC Design Challenge.

Seven Environmental Design students—Sue Chung, Steve Oh, Melissa Lee, Minh Nguyen, Evan Liao, Brandon Kim and Me Young Kim—had their furniture and lighting projects on exhibition at this year’s ICFF.

Brandon Kim's "Harbor" outdoor poolside chaise is fabricated from polyepoxide powder-coated 5052 aluminum.

The exhibit of student work illustrated the “total spatial experience” philosophy of environmental design at Art Center—a philosophy in which the designer takes into consideration every detail from the first moment of encounter to the last moment of interaction. Each piece was designed based on the power of the story content and context that it defines, the interaction it creates and the emotional interface that it accomplishes.

Sunlight filtering through Me Young Kim's "Aureole" creates shadows of endless patterns and shapes.

Making a seamless transition from the classroom into the marketplace, these pieces immediately translate into the type of professional, marketable furniture that Art Center students are well-known for creating. By studying with working professionals, Art Center designers learn to create dynamic pieces as well as how to showcase their designs.

Art Center was also represented at ICFF by six alumni who were selected for ICFF Studio.

Both pieces of Sue Chung's "Ease" are made of wood. The top piece is spray painted; the bottom is left as raw finish.

Also, as part of New York Design Week, four students representing both Environmental Design—Jonathan Kim and Ji A You and Product Design—Ryan Oenning and Jacques Perrault—participated in the WantedDesignNYC Design Challenge.

Students were asked to use one material, one conceptual tool (e.g. computer software) and one fabrication tool (e.g. a laser cutting machine) to design and construct a lighting design of their own invention.

The Dotted Line tweetted live from ICFF using Art Center’s @art_center Twitter account and the #ICFF hashtag.

Additional information on Art Center students and alumni participating in New York Design Week events can be found here.

And if you know of any other New York Design Week events that the Art Center community should know about, please leave us a note in the comments below.

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Meet Art Center at Night Student Arotin Hartounian

ACN student Arotin Hartounian.

Sometimes pursuing your passion isn’t the easiest decision to make.

Just ask Art Center at Night (ACN) student Arotin Hartounian, who last term completed Illustration Techniques with Robert Pastrana.

We sat down recently with Hartounian, and here’s what he told us:

“I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, but I moved to Glendale when I was 10 years old. It’s been a real blessing. As a kid, I was always drawing and experimenting with images, but the thought of pursuing art as a career never crossed my mind. That would have been unimaginable. Those opportunities just don’t exist in Iran.

“I began to see things differently once I entered high school. I started taking more art classes and, with the guidance of my art teachers, I began to realize that there were real opportunities out here to be an artist. When I first told my parents that I wanted to be an artist they didn’t take it seriously because they weren’t aware of the possibilities either. Over the years, I’ve had to prove to myself and them that I’m serious and that there are a lot of well-paid, well-respected fields out there for creative individuals.

Continue reading →

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ArtCenter News

ArtCenter College of Design

Calling All Eccentric Types: Andrew Byrom, Gloria Kondrup and Heather van Haaften to Speak at 3×3

Art Center on Scene at Dwell on Design

Legendary Automotive Illustrator Art Fitzpatrick Visits Campus

Pasadena City Buses To Get the Ultimate Detailing

Three Boys from Pasadena Return Home to Art Center

Student Cinematographer Nominated for Prestigious Industry Award [Update: He Wins!]

Thought Leaders Gather at Art Center to Discuss Design for Social Impact

Environmental Design and Product Design Students Showcase at New York Design Week

Meet Art Center at Night Student Arotin Hartounian