“We began as artist and dealer, but it developed into the most important personal relationship I made in my 16 years in the field,” says Chicago gallery director Paul Berlanga of his friend, Art Center alumnus Wayne Forest Miller (Photography ’41). They met in 2001, at an exhibition of Miller’s work at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery. “After a momentary glance at his work on the walls [the Bronzeville series], I knew the Stephen Daiter Gallery needed to represent this man.” Miller, a Chicago native, was 82 years old at the time, with a long and legendary career behind him — World War II photographer in Edward Steichen’s elite U.S. Navy Combat Photo Unit, member of Magnum Photos, and recipient of two consecutive Guggenheim Fellowships for his landmark project documenting the African American community on Chicago’s South Side in the late 1940s. Miller, who lived in the Bay Area with his wife of 70 years, passed away on May 22, 2013. Berlanga gave a eulogy at the California memorial service last fall, and now shares his memories of the photographer — “Wayne always preferred ‘working photographer’ to artist” — with Dotted Line.
Tag Archives: Art Center College of Design
Chatting with the creator and recipient of the Hoffmitz|Kondrup Excellence in Typography Award
Like most dedicated Art Center instructors, Professor Gloria Kondrup (MFA ’93 Graphics/Packaging) is always looking for creative ways to encourage, inspire and support her students. In 2013, she and legendary Graphic Design instructor Professor Leah Hoffmitz Milken established the Hoffmitz|Kondrup Excellence in Typography Award. Created as part of their Legacy Circle membership with a gift from the Lowell Milken Family Foundation, the Award is given once each year to an upper-term Graphic Design student who demonstrates excellence in typography across all media.
We brought Kondrup and first-ever Award recipient Quinton Larson together to chat about the award and their love of typography.
Art Center: Gloria, what was the motivation behind creating the Hoffmitz|Kondrup Excellence in Typography Award?
Gloria Kondrup: Leah and I share a love of type and language. As instructors we regularly saw students struggle financially to stay in school. The Award is a way to celebrate typography while providing meaningful financial support to a top Graphic Design student.
Reflecting on African American History Month’s many shades of meaning to students of art and design
Illustration of Dominican fruit by Medar de la Cruz
“One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
Before coming to Pasadena I rarely thought about how significant the color of my skin was to my everyday life. I was raised in a neighborhood in Miami, Florida where I was part of a majority consisting of residents who were either immigrants, multi-lingual or people of color.
Medar de la Cruz
But when I came to Art Center I realized I no longer fit in as easily. It was here that I was first asked: “Are you black?” This made me realize that race was going to make an impact on my experiences. It’s normal for people to be affected by stereotypes and visual representations. And it’s normal to make assumptions about someone by the color of their skin. So when I was asked this, I responded, “Yes…I mean I’m not white. My parents are Dominican, my ancestors are African, and I was born in America. So technically that makes me African American as well.” I learned that question alone helps me define who I am.
Art Center alumni notes: January 2014
Yves Behar, shot for Vanity Fair by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson
It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever spent time at Art Center that this is not a college that attracts loafers and procrastinators. That creative drive doesn’t slow down after graduation, as evidenced in the following compendium of alumni accomplishments.
News
Yves Béhar PROD 91 was featured in a Vanity Fair story about his work at the nexus of technology, design and Silicon Valley. Vanity Fair
Victor Cass ILLU 89 has been elected president of the San Gabriel Chapter of the National Institute for Mental Illness. NAMI Press Release
URB-E, designed by Art Center faculty member and alum Grant Delgatty ENVL 95, was voted best of CES 2014 by TechCrunch. Best of CES 2014
Student designs the Air Jordans of high performance sailing shoes
IDEA gold medalist Nina Viggi’s One Degree High Performance Dinghy Shoe.
Since its inception in 1965, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) has recognized “positive impact” in design. In 22 years of competition, Art Center students have taken 70 medals in IDSA’s highly competitive International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA).
When IDSA announced the most recent IDEA winners, they included—among Art Center’s eight finalists in the 2013 competition—three medal winners. Graduate Industrial Design student Nina Viggi took home a gold medal for her One Degree High Performance Dinghy Shoe, designed for competitive sailing. Continue reading
Monsters Inc: Art Center Alum Stefan Bucher’s yeti inspires Saks holiday window display
Each December, Saks Fifth Avenue signals the beginning of the season of warmth, joy and supersized spending with the unveiling of its holiday window display. The now iconic dioramas depicting a new take on a winter wonderland each year have become a prime destination for New York’s annual influx of year-end tourists, seeking a high dose of holiday spirit.
This past year, Saks’ holiday display was entirely based on Art Center alum, Stefan Bucher‘s children’s book, The Yeti Story. The luxury department story commissioned him to create a holiday book, centered around a Yeti reputed to live on the roof of the flagship store on Fifth Avenue. Here Bucher (Advertising ’96) takes us behind the scenes to reveal the origin story of his encounter with the furry mythic beasts with an infinitely high cold tolerance.
Art Center in the News: December 2013 and January 2014
NPR’s Sonari Glinton interviews Art Center’s Geoff Wardle. Photo: Teri Bond
Art Center students, faculty, staff and alumni have been making news while making their mark at on the art and design worlds. For those who may have missed a headline or two, we curated this handy highlight reel of our recent media clips:
Party school? Maybe not. But ACCD has “interesting” in the bag.
Art Center may not be the most socially vibrant college environment. And the school’s notorious make-or-die work ethic can make for a very sleep-deprived (sometimes hygenically challenged) student population. But ACCD and its students are nothing if not interesting.
Art Center friends and alums get creative with gifts-in-kind
Monotype’s donation of fonts expands student designers’ toolbox
Not every act of philanthropy to Art Center involves writing a check. It should come as no surprise that friends and alumni of this artistic mecca are naturally predisposed to get creative with their giving. Sometimes gifts come in the form of goods and services. Computer software, fonts and even lighting are some of the in-kind commitments made to the College that are powerfully shaping the Art Center experience.
A recent sizeable gift of 3D design software and training services from Autodesk is providing Art Center students with hands-on experience using the same technology preferred by professionals in industry. The software is currently installed on Art Center’s 500 Macintosh and Windows personal computers and accessible to all undergraduate and graduate students. The donation benefits designers in every program, particularly those in the departments of Environmental Design, Film, Product Design and Transportation Design.
Art Center’s first Myspace occupation concludes. Prepare for phase 2!
We came. We saw. We influenced change as we learned to create.
Beginning last October, we enlisted four Art Center students to lead the charge in a week-long homepage takeover of the recently relaunched Myspace. The first-wave social network had reinvented itself as a community and breeding ground for artists and creative types of all stripes to exchange work, feedback and inspiration in the digital sphere. In other words, Myspace had become a sandbox custom-built for Art Center students and alums. And, as is our way, we came ready to play.