Tag Archives: Advertising

Artfully disrupting LA’s ad space: Q&A with The Billboard Creative contest-winner Photography student Shannon Rose

Current Photography student Shannon Rose's Billboard Creative contest-winning image

Current Photography student Shannon Rose’s Billboard Creative contest-winning image

As screen-dwelling denizens of the Digital Age, our visual landscape has become increasingly cluttered with advertisements. Big and small, overt and implicit, our world online and off is increasingly filled with various forms of marketing—obvious and imperceptible, implicit and explicit, loud and quiet, artful and otherwise. And living in LA, home to Sunset Boulevard and some of the most iconic billboards in the world, raises the ad-saturation level significantly. But relief is in sight, both literally and figuratively, thanks to current Photography student Shannon Rose, whose image was chosen for one of thirty-three coveted slots in Billboard Creative’s contest calling for artists to submit work to occupy LA’s abandoned billboards.

The Dotted Line recently caught up with Rose, who took time out from the fourteen-hour days she’s been putting in on another freelance assignment to answer a few questions about her creative process and thoughts on the role of public art can play as an antidote to advertising overload.

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Advertising alum Anthony Cardenas’ Penn and Teller Mazda spot lands Super Bowl slot

Mazda CX-5 : Penn and Teller 30 second spot from Anthony Cardenas on Vimeo.

Anthony Cardenas came to Art Center’s Advertising program equipped with equal quantities of talent and doubt. He doubted whether it was wise to spend several years pursuing his second undergraduate degree. (He had recently received his B.A. in Marketing from CSU Northridge). He had questions about how he’d finance his degree. He also wondered whether it made any sense for him to focus on copywriting at an art and design college.

But eventually his anxieties lifted once he discovered that his unconventional choices — aka his differentiating qualities — were fueling his success. “Everyone I was in school with wanted to be an art director, so why not be a copywriter?” Cardenas remembers wondering. “I enjoyed it, my peers seemed to enjoy my writing and found it funny (or they were really good at pretending to laugh), and I thoroughly enjoyed doing that more than sitting on a computer comping all day. So, I made it known to all of my friends and teachers that I wanted to become a copywriter, and I was the only one at that time really.”

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The Ahh-inspiring evolution of Art Center’s Advertising program

It was a David and Goliath story. For real. At the El Segundo creative agency named for the ancient adversaries—with heavyweight clients including Kia, Vizio and the California Lottery—interns Abe Chuang and Sef Chang found out how fierce a deadline can be. After the two Art Center Advertising majors presented the chief creative officer (CCO) with what they thought were their best ideas for a 30-second TV spot for a new client, he sent them back to the drawing board. What they didn’t realize until later was that the CCO expected the team’s improved, round-two ideas before their next meeting that same day—giving them just 45 minutes’ notice.

It may have been by the seat of their pants, but Chuang and Chang managed to generate a proposal that David&Goliath chose to present to its client. “Nothing motivates like last-minute panic,” says Chuang. “Nowhere is that truer than in advertising.” He has no doubt his Art Center training is what prepared him to succeed in this impatient industry.

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View from the Bridge: The President’s attitude of gratitude for the Fall term’s vast riches

Incoming students during Fall 2014 Orientation Week.

Incoming students during Fall 2014 Orientation Week.

Thanksgiving, that wonderful holiday in which we as a nation give thanks for all our blessings, is just around the corner. In the spirit of that tradition, I’d like to take a moment to pause and reflect on what I have to be thankful for here at Art Center.

First of all, I’m thankful for all the newest members of the Art Center family. This Fall term we welcomed a record-breaking entering class of 432 new students, a number which reflects the continuing strength and enormous appeal of both our undergraduate and graduate programs. These students come to us from a total of 37 states across the nation and 31 countries around the globe, for a total of 47 countries represented across our truly international student body.

You may also be interested to know that the average age of the entering class is 21 and that, of our incoming undergraduates, 52% are female. As always, all of our incoming students demonstrated their considerable merit through their portfolios, academic records and personal statements, and each underwent a rigorous review to gain admission.

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An insider’s view of Art Center’s creative process with our latest round of Student/Space videos

 

Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 4.10.04 PMArt Center has a reputation for putting students through their paces, challenging them to meet and exceed their wildest creative dreams. The work ethic instilled here is legendary as are the results of all that toiling, ideating, imagining and making.

But the journey from inspiration to finished creation has always been somewhat mysterious. So beginning last Fall, we set out to illuminate students’ creative process with the series of videos we’ve recently renamed Student Space. Now it’s become a bonafide ‘thing.’ Here’s how it’s done: We identify three students from different disciplines who are in the process of completing an ambitious project. Over the course of the term we work with them to create three videos capturing the launch, obstacles and completion of their finished work of art and/or design. At the end of the term, each student’s trio of episodes constitutes an intimate take on the agony and ecstasy of bringing an idea to life. The results have been fascinating, dramatic and nothing short of spectacular. Need proof? Check out this playlist on our YouTube page.

We’re particularly excited to introduce you to the newest group of Student Space participants with this latest round of videos. Pearlyn Lii is a Graphic Design student working on a Brian Eno book. Environmental Design student, Connie Bakshi is sending dispatches from Tokyo, where she’s participating in a collaboration with TAMA University. And Advertising student Rosie Geozalian is tackling a little subject known as human connection in her current campaign.

Join us in watching these works unfold over the remaining weeks of the term. Check this space for subsequent installments on November 22 and December 19.

Advertising adds to its deep bench of heavy hitting faculty

Jason Nitti

Jason Nitti

Let’s start the fall by congratulating all of our 2014 award winners. We had a stated mission to win in the major award shows this year, and we did.  Most importantly, we’re beginning to do better work overall. And that, in the long run, will only lead to more awards, better internships, first jobs and more successful careers.

Below is a link to a full list of all of our winners and the awards they’ve won. And again congratulations. It’s a great start. But I’m a greedy guy. And I won’t be happy until we run the table.  That will require more and better entries in more shows, which will lead to more finalists and, ultimately, more hardware.

Here’s to next year.

To that end, we’re adding even more new instructors. They have not only been there and done that; but they’re still doing it every day. They’ve all done plenty of award-winning work at great agencies, and for the clients we admire most: Apple, Nike, Converse, Pepsi, Lexus, Target, Levi’s and more.

Combined with the strong group of teachers we already have, I think it’s safe to say that we have the finest staff the department has ever had, and one that is unmatched at the schools with which we compete.

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Illustration alumnus creates scholarship to give students foundational skills

Watercolor by Illustration alumnus, Frank Lanza

Watercolor by Illustration alumnus, Frank Lanza

Frank L. Lanza (BFA ’57 Illustration) has had his finger on the pulse of advertising illustration for nearly 60 years. Working almost exclusively as a freelancer, he survived the new dominance of photography in print in the 1960s, experienced the pungent impact of the Magic Marker on storyboarding, and witnessed the revolutionary impact of computers on layout and design. His wide-ranging career has included packaging design for Crown Zellerbach and book illustration for Sunset Magazine and the first Del Monte Kitchens Cook Book. He also storyboarded for commercials and TV shows.

Frank Lanza

Frank Lanza

Lanza credits the solid fundamental toolkit he acquired at Art Center with laying the groundwork for his creative versatility and professional durability. “I was able to last as a freelancer thanks to the strong foundation of drawing skills I received at Art Center,” he says. He now hopes to return the favor to future artists with a gift of $1 million to the College to establish the Frank L. Lanza Scholarship Endowment, providing them the same lifelong artistic foundation. The endowment supports students of exceptional talent in the Illustration and Fine Art departments.

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I’m with the brand: A scholarship recipient reaches Brandcamp’s high intensity half-way point

Brandcamp branding copy

Brandcamp branding copy

Going from high school to Art Center’s highly intense undergraduate degree program can be a challenge for even the most ambitious student. Recent high school graduate Sydney Li is bridging that transition by participating in Brandcamp, Saturday High’s four-week Summer Intensive focusing on Advertising and Graphic Design.

Thanks to scholarship support from the Richard and Jean Coyne Family Foundation, Sydney is able to pursue her classes without financial concern. She agreed to check in with us before, during and after Brandcamp to share her experience. This is our second conversation with her.

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Ayzenberg Group embeds its social media sharp shooters within Art Center’s Advertising classes

 ayzenberg-art-center-rThe following post, originally featured on InnovatePasadena.org, offers a window into the process and results of the creative partnerships Art Center fosters with the corporate community. These alliances have always been fundamental to the College’s educational philosophy, grounded in an empirical hands-on to empowering students to transform their ideas into professional quality works of creative ingenuity.

The Art Center alumni community has been instrumental in sustaining this tradition. In this case, Eric Ayzenberg (Adv), founder of Pasadena’s Ayzenberg Group, lead that charge, enabling current Advertising students to experience the inner workings of a full-service agency’s approach to a social media campaign.

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Change Makers: Alumni Q&A with Ad Man Sean Ohlenkamp on thinking differently and defying definition

tv2

As a teenager, Sean Ohlenkamp had already set his sights on a career in advertising.

“I was watching the Super Bowl with some friends and laughing my butt off that people actually get to make these commercials for a living,” recalls Ohlenkamp (BFA 03), Digital Creative Director at Leo Burnett Toronto. “I thought it sounded amazing, a kind of mix of comedy, art and creativity. So I pretty much knew from the age of 16 or so that it was something I wanted to pursue.”

Today, Ohlenkamp works across digital, film, photography, print, illustration, design and product design platforms. His independent viral stop motion video The Joy of Books for Type Books has drawn upwards of 4 million views on YouTube, and his interactive online ads for the ALS Society of Canada and print ads for Nissan have earned high praise for their arresting originality.

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