Tag Archives: Core 77

MDP + UNICEF partnership honored with Core 77 Design Award

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This Fall, UNICEF’s Innovation Lab in Kampala, Uganda, will embark upon its third year working with graduate students and faculty from Media Design Practices (MDP) at Art Center College of Design. The partnership is integrated into the design program’s unique curriculum, which recently received the prestigious 2014 Core 77 Design Award.

Student work with Ugandan youth was a significant factor in Core 77’s decision to recognize MDP with this honor. Students’ first-hand experience designing technology in a developing world context contributed to what the jury recognized as “…the kind of pure research in education that we believe is the future of education—through [a curriculum] that is not removed from the world because of the way that [it is] embedded in the world.”

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Art Center in the news, August – September 2013

Mego Lin and Jon Jon Augustavo on the set of “Same Love.” Photo by Craig Nisperos.

Art Center students, faculty, alumni and staff have been busy racking up awards, giving interviews and making news. Here is a selection of some recent coverage.

MTV.com, “Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Smash Hip-Hop Competition With VMA Knockout”
Two music videos directed by Art Center alum Jon Jon Agustavo with cinematography by Grad Film student Mego Lin earned some shiny Moonmen awards at the 2013 Video Music Awards.

SciArt in America
October issue featuring ACCD faculty Lita Albuquerque’s Stellar Suspension (from OBSERVE, Williamson Gallery, 2008) on the cover and a 4-page interview with Williamson Gallery director Stephen Nowlin.

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LEAP Symposium kicks off with a line-up of pioneers in design and social innovation

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One hundred thought leaders and educators in design and innovation will converge at Art Center College of Design September 19–21 for the LEAP Symposium, a convening comprised of a series of focused conversations exploring new career pathways for designers in the emerging field of social innovation. For more information about LEAP, including participant photos and bios, please visit the newly launched website.

The weekend-long symposium was conceived and hosted by Mariana Amatullo, Vice President, Designmatters Department with a national braintrust that includes: Allan Chochinov, Chair Products of Design, School of Visual Arts and Partner, Core 77; Lee Davis, Scholar-in-Residence, Center for Social Design, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); William Drenttel, Director, Winterhouse Institute and Edirorial Director, Design Observer and LEAP Symposium Editorial Director; Robert Fabricant, Vice President of Creative, frog; Jocelyn Wyatt, Co-Lead and Executive Director, IDEO.org.

Portions of the event are open to students, faculty, staff and members of the public. Check out the schedule below. And if you can’t attend in person, you can also tune into the livestream of LEAP’s opening session and LunchTime Talks here.

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Design Education and Designing for Change

Vice President and Director of Designmatters Mariana Amatullo has a wonderful piece up at Core 77 about design education and designing for positive social change.

Amatullo writes: “Historically, designers have always strived to create positive social change, and many celebrated efforts—think back to the Bauhaus—started in schools.

Design intervention by Gavin Alaoen as part of a Graphic Design studio, Graduate Media Design

Both of those things remain true today. In fact, design education has a larger role than ever to play in challenging the status quo around the wicked problems of a crowded planet. Despite, and perhaps because of, the world being in such turmoil, this is a very exciting time for design and designers. I firmly believe that with an expanded tool kit, designers can be instrumental contributors to a conversation about the future that it is getting increasingly layered and multidisciplinary. If we are ever to reduce or curtail dire societal ills and achieve sustainable development—by definition, prosperity that is globally shared and environmentally sustainable—responsible design needs to be front and center as part of the equation.”

Check out the article, and view some student-made PSAs, at Core 77: Deserve Your Dream: Design Education and Advocacy

Mariana Amatullo Discusses New Designmatters Concentration

These are pretty exciting times at Art Center: this fall we’re launching a new Designmatters concentration. Core 77 recently caught up with Vice President and Director of Designmatters Mariana Amatullo to discuss this new course of study, offered to undergraduates wishing to focus on the use of art and design for meaningful social impact.

Amatullo says: “For us, it’s a great chance to educate artists and designers to think about becoming involved in local, national and global issues right at the strategic and leadership levels, the beginning of the life-cycle so to speak of an issue, instead of coming at it at the end to simply style or package a cause.

“For our students, it’s a great chance to connect academic practices to design-based explorations of real world issues. They have the opportunity to step into this space while still a student; at the same time, they’re also asked to step up in the way they look at, confront, research and address real world issues.”

Read more: The Designmatters Concentration at Art Center College of Design: Q&A with Mariana Amatullo, and follow Designmatters on Twitter.