Tag Archives: Art Center at Night

Inspired Designs: Meet Saturday High Instructor Jeffrey Jones

Jones at Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Jeffrey Jones, a senior designer for Samsung Design America’s mobile unit, spends his days designing smartphones like the Galaxy Mini and the Corby II, but on Saturdays he teaches Introduction to Product Design at Saturday High, Art Center College of Design’s program for high school students (grades 9 through 12).

Jones—who studied at Art Center at Night and went on to earn a B.S. in Product Design at the College in 2007—was first turned on to the field of Product Design at Pasadena City College, where he took a class taught by Art Center instructor and alumnus Stan Kong PROD ‘83. While at Art Center, Jones interned at Vans, where he designed skateboarding equipment for the Vans Equipment Group, under the leadership of Art Center alumnus, Safir Bellali TRANS ‘01.

Before being hired by Samsung, Jones freelanced for Boombang, a creative think tank led by another Art Center alumnus, Tylor Garland PROD ‘94, where he worked on the design of two video game accessories—a fishing rod for The Strike and a rifle for The Hunt—for outdoor retailer Bass Pro Shops.

We recently caught up with Jones to learn more about his Saturday High class.

Dotted Line: Tell me about Introduction to Product Design.
Jeffrey Jones: Last term was the first time I taught the class, so I’m still fine-tuning it, but essentially it’s a 10-week course that I’ve broken up into three phases: the research phase, where students figure out what kind of product to design and for whom they’re designing; the ideation phase, where students develop their ideas, push the envelope, and select their very best concepts; and the refinement phase, where they further develop their best idea and present to the class exactly what their product is and how it works. I invited Joonsuh “Justin” Kim, the director of Samsung Design America to attend the final, and he sat in as a guest crit.

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Exploring Vinyl Cover Art with Graham Moore

Don’t miss Friday’s opening of Remix, featuring work by Saturday High and Art Center at Night faculty member Graham Moore.

A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song made from an original version—but the term also is used for any alterations of media. A remix in literature, for example, is an alternative version of a text. William Burroughs used the cut-up technique to remix language in the ’60s.

Using glue, scissors and collage-style techniques, Moore’s body of work embodies the love for the technique of collage and vinyl cover art. The rhythm, movement, and the vibrant use of color, shape, texture, imagery and typography serves as a tribute to graphic designers and artists from a bygone era.

A portion of all sales will support scholarships for Art Center’s Public Programs.

The exhibit, which is on display through Sept. 27, is sponsored by Archetype Press and Archetype Press Director and professor Gloria Kondrup.

For more information, email gloria.kondrup@artcenter.edu.

Remix: Work by Graham Moore
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 16, 7-10 p.m.
Art Center South Campus

Tony Luna: Making Change Happen

Change naturally occurs as careers evolve. Sometimes change is forced upon us; other times we have to make it happen.

Based on the principles laid out in his book, How to Grow as a Photographer: Reinventing Your Career, creative consultant, artist and educator Tony Luna created Crafting a Meaningful Career, a series of Art Center at Night courses aimed at helping mid-career professionals revitalize their career perspectives.

Luna

We recently took a much-needed break our day-to-day assignments to talk to Luna about these courses.

Dotted Line: Tell us about Crafting a Meaningful Career.
Tony Luna: The course is loosely based on my own personal life. Looking back at my career, I realized that every five to seven years there was some change that had to take place. Sometimes it was caused by the economy, sometimes it was caused by technology, and sometimes it was caused by boredom. I started talking to other people, and virtually everyone I spoke with experienced the same challenges. The basic tenet of the course is that we have to change and we have to grow, so the Crafting a Meaningful Career courses are about taking control and creating a new path for yourself. It could be a small change, or it could be a large one. I advocate that people take a serious, mature look at what they’ve accomplished, give themselves credit for all they’ve been able to achieve, and then plot out a plan for where they’d like to take their career.

Dotted Line: Do people commonly feel like they need to start all over, and that all they’ve done up to this point is useless?
Luna: People acquire skills along the way that they don’t even recognize. They pick up organizational or communication skills, learn new languages or become computer savvy. And they think that’s just what they had to do. We often float through life and not recognizing the impact our personal experiences can have in expanding our business opportunities. I have a class assignment called “asset matching,” in which I ask students to examine their personal skill sets, experiences, interests and influences. They write down what they have going for them, and then as a group we try to find new options for how they can turn their career into something that makes them excited about starting each day. That’s the “meaningful” part.

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Making It Happen: A Conversation with Art Center at Night’s Dana L. Walker

Open House 2010, Photo by Lara Warren

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you need to add a valuable skill to your art and design practice? Or perhaps you’re interested in applying to Art Center College of Design’s full-time degree program and need to build a portfolio? Stop dreaming about the possibilities and make it happen with Art Center at Night (ACN).

Managing Director of Public Programs and Director of Art Center at Night Dana L. Walker took a break from preparing for tomorrow’s Open House to talk to us more about the program and its offerings for fall.

Dotted Line: What is the value of a continuing studies program like Art Center at Night?
Dana L. Walker: There are no single career paths in today’s world. Jobs are taking on more and more skills and responsibilities due to consolidated workforces, increased freelance opportunities versus staff positions, and a variety of other reasons. Art Center at Night (ACN) helps those trying to add to their design skill set, as well as those wanting to take their careers into a different direction. For instance, technology might have changed since you began your design career, and now you need to get up to speed quickly. There are ACN classes for that.

But I also find that there are a number of people who started out in digital careers coming to ACN get the full range of design foundation that they may have missed in their studies. They want to understand everything that came before digital—use of typography, color theory, visual communication and such. Sometimes they want a tactile experience where they’re not designing on a computer monitor. We’re seeing a growing desire for these sorts of experiences, making things by hand.

Dotted Line: How does a program like ACN adapt to the changing economic climate?
Walker: We’ve developed smaller, shorter‑term classes as well as some online and weekend intensives. A full term is 14 weeks, but we are offering many 7-week courses and one-day seminars. These can be easier for many students because it’s less of a commitment, in both time and money.

Dotted Line: What type of student attends ACN?
Walker: The program is for anyone age 18 or over—students looking to develop their portfolios for acceptance into Art Center’s degree programs, working professionals, retirees—and everyone in-between searching for a way to explore their creative side. We have classes tailored for all of these people.

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Designer Sami Hayek on Art Center at Night

Hayek

With registration for the Fall Term of Art Center at Night (ACN) beginning Monday, August 15, you may find yourself wondering who exactly enrolls in Art Center’s continuing studies program.

ACN offers hundreds of courses that attract everybody from art and design professionals looking to enhance their skills, to mid-career professionals looking for a creative challenge, to individuals preparing a portfolio for admission to one of Art Center’s full-time degree programs.

Over the years, many students have made the leap from taking an ACN course to being a full-time Art Center student.

We recently spoke to Art Center alumnus Sami Hayek, whose new Espacio Sami Hayek line debuted last May at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. Hayek credits ACN for helping him assemble a portfolio that lead to his admission into Art Center’s Environmental Design program.

Here’s what he had to say:

“I was studying business administration when, one day, I realized that I was going to have a boring life ahead of me if I continued this pursuit. At first I was leaning more towards architecture, but after researching the field I realized I wanted something more diverse, which led me to environmental design.

“I knew Art Center had the best Environmental Design program out there, but I didn’t know how tough it was going to be for someone like me—coming from business with practically no design skills—to get admitted into the program. When I visited Patricia Oliver, chair of the department at the time, she asked if I had a portfolio. When I said no, she suggested I attend Art Center at Night (ACN) in order to build one.”

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Art Center at Night Instructor on New Book, Film

Art Center at Night instructor Robert Mehnert recently completed the cinematography of Jinn, a supernatural thriller written and directed by Art Center Film alum Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad.

Jinn is based on the Middle/Far East myth of the Jinn, a race of beings that occupied the earth long before mankind evolved. The problem is that some of them want the world back for themselves. The story follows Shawn, the one man who can save humankind, on his quest to save mankind from a terrible fate.

The planned release date is this Halloween. Mehnert and Ahmad have worked together on three other films.

In a departure from the world of motion pictures, Mehnert has written a series of books, the first of which, Looking Down at the Sky, is now available on Kindle from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com. An adventure in time and alternate reality, the story tells the story of a brilliant mathematician lost in a mysterious earthquake—only to wake in her own bed, discovering that seven years have passed.

Visit Mehnert’s website at bobmehnert.com.

Art Center at Night Students Explore Brave New Worlds

Plotting a new trajectory is never a simple task. Just ask Dave Doody, a senior engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

A recent image of the Sun, captured by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. (Photo courtesy of NASA.)

Doody is the lead flight engineer of NASA’s Cassini Solstice Mission, a mission in which the Cassini spacecraft is gathering and sending back information on the planet Saturn, its rings, moons and magnetosphere. Once a year, he also teaches Basics of Interplanetary Flight at Art Center at Night (ACN), a course in which curious students from all walks of life explore what it takes to navigate spacecraft across the solar system.

We recently trekked across the arroyo to JPL to ask Doody about his class.

Dotted Line: What do you explore in Basics of Interplanetary Flight?
Doody: We look at results from NASA’s probes, whether it’s from Voyager, the Mars Exploration Rovers, Cassini or the others. In each session we touch on a few other topics as well. We ask a lot of questions like: What is the spacecraft all about? How does it work? What are all its pieces and what do they do? How do you design it? How does it travel?

We also explore the environment that it has to operate in, whether it’s the vacuum in space or plasma from the sun. Can the spacecraft go straight to its destination in the solar system or does it have to follow certain pathways?

And we cover the up-and-coming spacecraft and anything that’s happening right now, like a launch or a landing. We also touch on some historical information.

Doody.

Doody.

Dotted Line: What kind of students do you get in the class?
Doody: Of course we get some students from Art Center, both undergraduates and graduates.

We also get filmmakers and transportation designers. But the class is not just limited to artists and designers. It’s wide open to the public, so we get everyone from surgeons to secretaries. Anybody can take the class.

We don’t depend on any previous experience or knowledge. We just need people who are interested in the fact that today we’re looking at new worlds. And we’re looking at them with robots that have new senses on them. These robots can see not only in visual light but also in infrared and ultraviolet. And they also have expanded sensory regions, so they can analyze magnetic fields and high-energy particles.

Dotted Line: In class you discuss the different types of sensors found on spacecraft?
Doody: Yes, but we’re not just discussing. This course takes place after dinner after all! We get into all sorts of activities where the students are experimenting and seeing how different sensors work. I try to keep it interesting and informative and get everybody working together and talking to one another.

Dotted Line: Give me an example of the type of activity you do in class.
Doody: Well, once you leave the Earth, you’re outside the magnetic bubble that protects us from the Sun, which is constantly shedding protons and electrons, which we call the solar wind. In fact, if the magnetic field on Earth were to vanish, the Sun’s solar wind would blow off the atmosphere, dry off the oceans and there’d be little hope for life.

It’s not the easiest concept to grasp, so I bring some plasma, which are highly charged particles, into the classroom. And the students take a very strong magnet and they can actually see how magnetic fields interact with plasma. It’s real simple and helps illustrate this environmental concept. And that’s what I try to do with the course in general. I try to take something abstract, put it right in your face and let you play with it.

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It’s Here: Week 14

© Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

Art Center, we’re already halfway through Week 14, and you know what that means—tons of events culminating in Graduation on Saturday.

Rest up and prepare for:

  • Wednesday, April 20, 6-10 pm: 4 Hours Solid (South Campus)
  • Wednesday, April 20, 7-9 pm: Experience Art Center at Night (South Campus)
  • Thursday, April  21, 6 pm: Graduation Show Preview and Alumni Reception (invitation only)
  • Saturday, April 23, 2:30 pm: Faculty Reception (faculty, special guests and College leadership)
  • Saturday, April 23, 4 pm: Spring Term Graduation (Hillside Campus, and webcast live)
  • Saturday, April 23, 4-10 pm: MFA Open Studios (South Campus)
  • Saturday, April 23, 6 pm: Graduation Show (Hillside Campus)

It’s a jam-packed few days. But don’t worry—there’s still time to sneak in a nap before the fun begins!

Swing By Art Center at Night’s Open House

Photo by Lara Warren

Have you ever wondered about Art Center at Night (ACN), the College’s continuing studies program? Then check out Experience Art Center at Night, underway at South Campus through Wednesday.

A variety of classes are open to the public tonight and tomorrow night from 7 to 9 p.m. Stop by a class, sit in on critiques and student presentations, view student work, take a self-guided tour of South Campus, ask questions and register for Summer Term classes.

ACN offers a variety of courses, short workshops and seminars to help you update your skills, polish your portfolio or recharge your creative energy.

New ACN courses include The Ultimate Photo-Shoot Guide for Photographers and Designers; Create and Publish Content for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone; and Transpor-Tainment. “Summer-only” offerings include Manufacturing Techniques; Shoes: Fact and Fantasy; Neoimpressionism: Painting the Landscape; and Animal Sketching.

Courses begin May 16, and registration is now open. Check it out—there is something for everyone at ACN.