Tag Archives: Alumni

Wendee Lee: Celebrating Life Through Sunday’s 5K

When Product Design alumna and faculty member Wendee Lee decided to get back into running last fall, and began training for the Rose Bowl 5K, she found that it wasn’t as easy as it used to be.

Lee

“It’s not like I’ve been a jock or very athletic for all my life,” Lee explains, “and it’s been hard this time around. Training has been a test not only of my legs and lungs, but of my will as well.”

Yet she found a deep and unwavering inspiration from an unexpected source: Lee is running to celebrate and honor the memory of fellow alumnus and faculty member Norm Schureman.

“I found a great deal of strength from the idea of running to honor Norm’s legacy and to help spread word about his memorial scholarship,” she said. Because of this, she wanted to run a race specifically in Pasadena, and the Rose Bowl 5K fit the bill and time frame.

Lee’s asking supporters to donate to Schureman’s Memorial Scholarship fund as a way to both celebrate his life, and help ensure that his legacy continues.

She’s seen first-hand the power of scholarships to change lives. As a faculty member, she’s seen students struggle to find the financial means to continue their education, and when Lee was a student herself at Art Center she had to take a leave for a year for financial reasons.

“The Norm Schureman Memorial scholarship is particularly important to me as a Product Design alum and faculty member,” Lee explains. “I had Norm as an instructor, and was lucky enough to have him as a colleague as well. It means so much to know this scholarship will help future Product Design students.”

Lee supported by many across the College. “The Product Design Department is extremely proud of Wendee, and grateful for her commitment to raising scholarship for the Norm Schureman Memorial Scholarship,” says Karen Hofmann. “We wish her the very best on her run this weekend, and ask that our Art Center community helps support Wendee through contributing to the scholarship fund.”

The Rose Bowl 5K is this Sunday, Feb. 6. Here’s how you can support Lee: Visit Art Center’s donation page, scroll to “Area of Support / Degree Program Scholarships,” and select the Norman Schureman Memorial Scholarship. All donations will help. At the very bottom, under “Confirmation,” add words of encouragement in the “Additional Comments’” section for Lee (such as, “In support of runner Wendee Lee!”), so that she can acknowledge your support of both her run and of the scholarship.

Besides raising money for the scholarship, what are Lee’s personal goals for Saturday’s race?

“I just want to finish strong and enjoy the race and being at and in the Rose Bowl,” she says. “I’ve already regained my joy of running—so really, the rest is all gravy.”

Donate to the Norm Schureman Memorial Scholarship online today.

Or, mail your donation.

Going Pro: Lara Rossignol Tests the D-Lux 5

Photography and Imaging alumna Lara Rossignol recently had the opportunity to text out the D-Lux 5 and write up a review for the Leica Camera blog.

Xmas Easy © Lara Rossignol

She writes: “I began shooting professionally in Los Angeles after I graduated from Art Center College of Design in the late ’80s. Less than two years later I moved to NYC and over the next 14 years worked with clients ranging from Rolling Stone to Vogue to Max Factor.

“In late 2002 I moved south to Atlanta and have expanded my repertoire to include food & lifestyle. In April of 2009 I launched my photo blog, Piewacket, incorporating an editorial approach by creating original content on a range of subjects I find interesting. It has gained a loyal following with over 230,000 unique visitors in the first 18 months.

“I started working with Leica last year when I got a chance to try out the amazing M9 for a couple of weeks. I am always on the lookout for a great point & shoot since it is just not feasible to bring your pro gear with you where ever you go. It is an especially invaluable tool for blogging, so I was very excited to try out the D-Lux 5.”

What did Rossignol think of the camera? Read more and find out: Going Pro: Lara Rossignol Tests the D-Lux 5

How I Made It: Trans Alum Frank Saucedo

The L.A. Times has a nice profile on 1984 Transportation Design alumnus Frank Saucedo, who is director of General Motors Co.’s Advanced Design Studio in North Hollywood.

As director of the studio, 5350 Industrial Concepts, Saucedo oversees a staff of 30 designers, sculptors, analysts and engineers. Since opening, the studio has created several noteworthy projects, most notably the 2001 Chevrolet Borrego and the Pontiac Solstice. (We spoke with Saucedo about his work for a past issue of Outer Circle.)

From the L.A. Times article: “Saucedo didn’t realize auto design was a career option until he visited Art Center College of Design in Pasadena at the urging of his teacher at San Gabriel High School. ‘I walked into the big presentation room in Art Center and these guys were doing full-size drawings of cars, and I said, I want to do that.’

“After high school he took as many classes as he could, day and night, at Pasadena City College, East Los Angeles College and Art Center, while also working at auto parts stores.”

Art Center Dialogues in Portland

Calling all Portland alumni: Art Center’s Alumni Relations Office invites you to join fellow area alumni in celebrating Art Center’s 80th anniversary with the latest Art Center Dialogues with College President Lorne Buchman.

Join the conversation about the College’s future, and learn more about where we’re headed as we finalize our five-year strategic plan.

RSVP by Feb. 4 to alumni@artcenter.edu or 626.396.2305.

Art Center at 80: Dialogues with President Buchman
Feb. 9, 7-9:30 p.m.
Bluehour
250 NW 13th Avenue (at Everett)
Portland, Ore.

Reflecting Back at 80: Alumni Faculty Look Back on 80 Years

Eighty years ago, Edward “Tink” Adams had a revolutionary idea for a school that would teach real-world skills to artists and designers. Even more radical: classes would be taught by working professionals, at the top of their respective fields.

Third Street campus, 1950

In 1930 the Art Center School opened its doors at West Seventh Street in Los Angeles, with just 12 instructors and eight students. Adams, a former advertising executive from Chicago, served as director. Since then, Art Center has changed its name, moved twice (to Third Street in 1947 and to Pasadena in 1976), maintained a satellite campus in Switzerland for 10 years and opened a second campus in downtown Pasadena in 2004. Today, the College boasts a student body of 1,500 and nearly 600 full- and part-time faculty members.

Over the decades, Art Center has been home to world-renown faculty including automotive designer Strother MacMinn TRAN ’35, illustrator Phil Hays ILLU ’55, lettering and logo designer Doyald Young ADVT ’55 and illustrator Barron Storey ILLU ’61.

As we celebrate our 80th anniversary, who better to ask about Art Center’s history than our faculty—in particular those who were students here before becoming instructors? What are their favorite memories of the College?

Read more: Looking Back on 80 Years

Catching Up With Syd Mead

As the buzz around Tron: Legacy reaches a fever pitch leading up to its opening this weekend, our thoughts naturally turn to the original Tron and our beloved alumnus Syd Mead, whose designs are synonymous with the groundbreaking film.

A 1959 Transportation Design graduate, Mead is best known for his work on Tron, Bladerunner and Aliens, as well as for the creation of the V’Ger for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Mead

We caught up with Mead this week to find out what he’s been up to, and his thoughts on the new Tron.

Dotted Line: You’ve been busy. Tell us about your latest projects.
Syd Mead: My latest complete project was two food service designs and installations in New York City. FoodParc at ground level off Sixth Avenue and Bar Basque, the second level lounge and restaurant. My designs started, literally, on 8.5” x 11” sketch paper on the way back from New York after the first meeting with the architects, Philip Koether, Architects. The designs were faithfully reproduced by Koether’s expert team. Concept moves to completion through a complex symphony of cooperative expertise.

In the movie field, I’ve just completed pre-production contract designs for a young, recognized director for a movie title that is in progress. It is not my position to tell what it is.

Dotted Line: What have been the most enjoyable aspects of these projects?
Mead: They’ve all been enjoyable because you learn from each cooperative venture. The surprises come as the project moves from concept to idea to design. Adaptation to end format protocols, unwelcome shifts in focus by either capital sources for the project or intrusion into the process by those unfamiliar with the project intent yet given authority to “change.”

Dotted Line: Tell us about your current work in your new book, Sentury II. Has your focus changed over the years?
Mead: As a follow-up to Sentury, Sentury II covers the last 10 years of professional enterprise. My focus? It’s not changed for more than 50 years. The tools that accomplish the various desired results change; the methodology does not. The mistake I see in current rush to the computer is that the tool becomes more important than either the idea or the technique. This is disastrous.

Dotted Line: What interests you these days?
Mead: I have been interested in the development of a tool. We now have semi-intuitive “helper” software that anticipates habitual use of various software features. The hazard is that you come to depend on those “conveniences” to the detriment of genuine creative use of the exotic software being used. And, with many software applications, you aren’t given specific “turn off” directions. Another fascinating drift is the increasing insistence that since work is being done on a computer, the professional fee structure should be downgraded to a time/result formula rather than a realization that the computer implementation is a tool function, not a creative front-end function. Financial vectors in most professional account sources simply don’t recognize the difference between the two.

1982 poster for Tron

Dotted Line: With the buzz surrounding Tron: Legacy, our thoughts naturally return to the 1982 Tron that you worked on. Can you share with us what that job was like?
Mead: For the original Tron I designed the tank, the aircraft carrier (Sark’s command ship), the interior control set for the recognizer, the light cycles, of course, the release graphics of the movie title, the rotating CPU, the CPU approach field, the game arenas, the holding cells for the players, Sark’s command camp pit, Sark’s command pedestal and backup and several set drawings used to create the story environment including Yori’s apartment and the scenery design for the tank chase.

I was invited for lunch on the Disney lot by producers Steven Lisberger and Don Kushner and received a book of stuff that Steven already had with him. I started after about two or three weeks after contract matters had been agreed to by Disney.

I worked on Tron from my home studio, as I have with all the movies I’ve worked on. I always have several projects going through the corporation and being sequestered in an “on lot” cubicle doesn’t work. My function is meta-staff working one-to-one with the director and his immediate authority, the production designer.

Continue reading →

Art Center Honors Doyald Young

This is turning out to be quite a week for Doyald Young.

Tomorrow night he’ll be honored at a special Art Center reception (RSVPs required) with a screening of Doyald Young, Logotype Designer, a new documentary about Young by lynda.com.

Photo by Louise Sandhaus

At Saturday’s commencement ceremony, he will receive Art Center’s Alumnus of the Year Award for his dedicated work as an educator and lifetime of legendary work in typography, logotypes and alphabets. At Saturday’s commencement, he’ll receive an honorary degree from Art Center, where he studied Advertising in the ’50s, and where he has taught lettering and logotype design in the Graphic Design Department for decades.

We caught up with Young this week to talk to him about Art Center, his thoughts on teaching and those things computers can’t do.

Dotted Line: Congratulations on the alumni award and honorary degree.
Doyald Young: Thank you! I’m honored and thankful for such honors. I am an amalgam of the people I’ve known whose ideas have permeated my being. I’m blessed—so many people have kindly befriended me. I often wonder, “How do I repay them?”

I believe that teaching and writing books about what I do is a form of payback. Both of which I continue to do, and will, as long as I am able. A priori, how could I not be deeply touched with the awards I’ve received? I’m humbled that Art Center has allowed me to teach these many years, and blessed that I receive support from my fellow teachers and staff.

Dotted Line: What has Art Center meant to you?
Young: Art Center has been one of the great forces of my life. I learned, most importantly, that our first efforts are just that. They need refinement. A good job is done over and over, and oftentimes is changed again and again when marketing forces or creative directors change their minds. Final art does not emerge full-blown. I make my living making changes.

At Art Center, I learned professionalism, punctuality, and above all, how to continue my skills and burnish my talent. And a mentor of mine, Henry Dreyfuss, taught me the value of a thank-you note.

Dotted Line: You’ve said that you are an educator first, and a designer second.
Young: It’s true. When I was a student in Mort Leach’s class, he noticed fellow students coming to me for help on their projects. They came to me voluntarily, and I found that I enjoyed helping them. Mort later asked me to become his teaching assistant.

Teaching requires patience. I firmly believe that if you have the gift of teaching, you must pass it on. As Woodrow Wilson said, “You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

Continue reading →

Awards Honor Exceptional Alumni

Each December, the College and Office of Alumni Relations present the Art Center Alumni Awards to three outstanding alumni.

The winners, chosen by the Art Center community, are recognized during the Fall Term graduation ceremony.

Photo by Lara Warren

We are honored to announce the following Art Center Alumni Award winners at Saturday’s commencement:

Doyald Young ADVT ’55, awarded the Lifetime Achievement Alumnus Award in recognition of his dedicated work as an educator and lifetime of legendary work in typography, logotypes and alphabets.
Stephanie Sigg GRAD ID ’98, awarded the Outstanding Service Alumni Award in honor of her humanitarian design impact through her work with various NGOs, nonprofits and cause-related campaigns.
Geetika Agrawal GRAD ID ’05, awarded the Young Alumni Innovator Award in recognition of her passion and accomplishments in social media, digital culture, physical interactive art and new technologies.

Congratulations to our alumni for these well-deserved marks of distinction!

Three Boys From Pasadena Opening Tonight in NYC

Tonight is the New York opening of Three Boys From Pasadena: A Tribute to Helmut Newton, featuring the photographs of Art Center alumni Mark Arbeit, Just Loomis and George Holz. The exhibit will run through Jan. 30 at Clic Gallery in New York.

Helmut Newton (1920-2004), a native of Berlin, was known for his provocative and erotically charged black-and-white photography, especially of female nudes. His shocking and later much-imitated style was a constant in the pages of US Vogue and Vogue Paris.

Arbeit, Holz and Loomis first met Newton in 1979 while students at Art Center. Eventually all three became Newton’s assistants during one of the most exciting and prolific times in his career. For 30 years, they kept in touch, sharing their personal work with Newton and his wife, June.

In June of this year, Three Boys from Pasadena, curated by June Newton, premiered at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. The exhibit consists of each photographer’s individual work, as well as several memorabilia panels consisting of never-before-seen snapshots, handwritten notes, journal pages, contact sheets and other souvenirs of Newton’s life. Three Boys from Pasadena is an exceptional memorial to one of the 20th century’s most iconic photographers, and an unusually revealing look at personal and professional relationships among artists and protégés.

The accompanying book, published by Factory/LeJoker, is available as well. There will be a book signing at tonight’s event.

Three Boys from Pasadena: A Tribute to Helmut Newton
Dec. 7, 6 to 8 p.m.
Clic Gallery, New York

ArtCenter News

ArtCenter College of Design