Tag Archives: Environmental Design

‘Insights’ highlights: 108 high-intensity doses of creative inspiration in 130 characters or less

Alum Lynne Aldrich leads a tour of her sculpture exhibit in the Williamson Gallery

Alum Lynne Aldrich leads a tour of her sculpture exhibit in the Williamson Gallery

While Car Classic dominated last weekend’s headlines, with its lineup of head-turning, high-revving art-imitates-life works of automotive aesthetics and ingenuity. Sunday’s auto design showcase wasn’t even the only audacious display of Art Center’s creative assets on view last weekend. On Saturday, the College hosted a curated selection of seminars and workshops known as Art Center Insights. The invitation-only event offers donors and trustees an opportunity to experience what it’s like to be Art Center student for an afternoon (minus the mountain of pressure to complete competing creative projects). 

After a lunch in the student dining room with President Lorne M. Buchman, participants chose from the following Session 1 presentations: 3D Printing: A Revolution in 3D, Environmental Design: The Safe Aqua Project and Interaction Design: Evolving User Experience. Then came the second and final round of workshops: Transportation Design/Sustainability: Nature, The Mobility Innovator, Photography: Portraiture Unplugged and Fine Art: Lynn Aldrich: Un/Common Objects.

Because Insights reaches only a small slice of the population who might benefit from it; we embedded reporters in each of the workshops and live-tweeted the entire event. Taken together, these concise dispatches offer a cohesive (if not comprehensive) narrative of what it was like to experience Insights and the inspiring ideas and tools exchanged over the course of all six workshops.

Some people dream of being king for a day. But Insights makes a good case for the rewards that go along with being a student, for a day or a lifetime. Hopefully the chronicle below will conjure some of that mind-expanding thrill vicariously.

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Pasadena green-lights Art Center student’s design for Armenian genocide memorial

Catherine Menard’s design for the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial.

This week the Pasadena City Council unanimously approved the memorial designed by Art Center Environmental Design student Catherine Menard. The Los Angeles Times reported that more than 150 supporters attended the Sept. 9 meeting, including members of Pasadena’s large Armenian community.

Menard’s design concept was selected by the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee (PASAGMC) in January, at the conclusion of a two-phase competition. The monument will be built at a proposed site in Pasadena’s Memorial Park once PASAGMC completes its fundraising campaign. Dedication of the public artwork is set for April 2015, coinciding with 100th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian Genocide.

Related:

Art Center student wins Pasadena Armenian genocide memorial competition

Art Center Partners with Dwell on Design Conference

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This student creation is on display in the Goodwill’s first boutique store in Tustin. The vinyl rockabilly outfit was part of a 2012 Designmatters project for Goodwill of Orange County focused on upcycling.

Art Center College of Design will be the only school recognized as an educational partner of Dwell on Design, “America’s Largest Design Event,” taking place Friday, June 21 through Sunday, June 23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The three-day exhibition and conference will feature world-class speakers, product demonstrations, continuing education classes for design professionals and seminars for consumers.

As an educational partner, Art Center is the only design school to have an exhibition space on the showroom floor featuring the work of Environmental Design and Product Design students.

Additionally, Art Center will host a special presentation on the Demo Stage Saturday, June 22 at 2:30 p.m. Environmental Design faculty will present the concept of upcycling, or the process of converting used goods, waste material, and “useless” items into new materials or products of better quality to improve their value and reduce the overall impact on our environment, as explored in Art Center’s sponsored projects and transdisciplinary studios.

Members of the Art Center community can receive a $5.00 discount off regular prices with Promo Code EDU13. To register for tickets, visit dwellondesign.com/edu13.

 

Related: Goodwill and Art Center embrace the upcycle lifestyle

 

 

Getty “Overdrive” Exhibition Designed in Collaboration With Environmental Design Students

getty-overdrive

The exhibition “Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990,” organized by the Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum and on view through July 21, 2013, is the first major examination of the innovation and influence of Los Angeles architectural history. As Los Angeles in the second half of the 20th century grew rapidly into an industrial and creative capital, its architecture transformed the city’s landscape.

Designing the installation of “Overdrive” was a collaborative project between Art Center and the Getty. To develop the spatial and graphic design of the exhibition, the museum’s curatorial and design teams worked closely with a Transdisciplinary Studio class of 20 Art Center students in Environmental Design and Graphic Design, led by Art Center Environmental Design faculty member and alumnus Rob Ball, with the additional participation of Environmental Design instructor Dewi Schoenbeck.

Related:

Environmental Design Students Take Top Prize in 2013 LAIAC Competition

 

 

Art Center Takes Manhattan During 25th Annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair

As design industry professionals converge in New York this week, Art Center College of Design is prominently featured as part of the 25th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), taking place May 18–21. Attracting more than 26,000 professionals from the worlds of interior design, architecture, retail, manufacturing, distribution and development, ICFF is considered North America’s premier showcase for contemporary design.

Leading the College’s presence at this influential summit is David Mocarski, chair of graduate and undergraduate Environmental Design.

Art Center’s Booth 3016 at the show’s main venue, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, features an exhibition of work by eight students in the College’s Environmental Design program, and presents visitors an opportunity to mingle with the design community and learn more about the undergraduate and graduate programs.

Alumnus Brandon Kim and his work, Solace, will be featured in Booth 1073 at ICFF this year.

Alumnus Brandon Kim and his work, Solace, will be featured in Booth 1073 at ICFF this year.

Additionally, several alumni are represented in the prestigious ICFF Studio, which serves as a platform to match selected designers and their products with potential manufacturers.

It all takes place during NYCxDesign, a city-wide design celebration continuing through May 21 and packed with events and showcases.

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Environmental Design Students Take Top Prize in 2013 LAIAC Competition

Connie Bakshi and John Clark propose design ideas for a new space in the tunnel beneath historic Union Station in Los Angeles

Art Center Environmental Design students Connie Bakshi and John Clark emerged victorious in the Los Angeles Interior Architecture Committee (LAIAC) 21st Annual 1:2 Student Competition, winning accolades, a $10,000 scholarship and valuable exposure in their field.

The high-intensity, industry-juried, one-day charette provides an opportunity for undergraduate students, in teams of two selected by their instructors, from 12 Southern California design schools to have their design ideas critiqued by leading industry professionals and compete for a total of $23,000 in scholarship prizes.

Art Center students Connie Bakshi and John Clark at the LAIAC 21st Annual 1:2 Student Competition.

This year students were asked to design the “Linear Gateway.” Their assignment: Imagine a new space for the 600-foot long tunnel that passes underneath the rail lines at historic Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Transform the existing plain tunnel into a new space that is functional, informative and forward-looking for the city.

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Art Center on Scene at Dwell on Design

Art Center was an official partner of the West Coast’s largest design event, Dwell on Design, which boasted three days of the best and brightest products, services and thought leaders in modern design. Dwell on Design was held last weekend at the L.A. Convention Center.

As the only educational institution named a Silver Sponsor, Art Center made a significant impact during the event. The College occupied 1,000 square feet of exhibition space showing representative student and alumni work in Product and Environmental Design; led a series of creative design activities on the show floor; and showcased student, faculty and alumni presentations on three separate stages at the event.

Here are some images from the show.

David Mocarski, Jenn Kuca, Cora Neil and Mariana Amatullo talking about Designing for Social Impact

Art Center's booth at Dwell

Learning about Designmatters' Safe Agua Project

David Mocarski discussing Art Center's Environmental Design programs

The Product Design display

Art Center's activity space on the showroom floor

Gloria Fowler’s AMMO-nition

The cover of the new Edward Weston monograph, published by AMMO Books.

On campus, Gloria Fowler ‘87 may be best known as a beloved Environmental Design instructor who has taught at the College for the last 20 years, helping students explore their creative potential. But equally impressive is her work off-campus, where she runs the thriving boutique art-house publishing company AMMO Books with her photographer-turned-publisher husband, Steve Crist, and business partner Paul Norton.

Launching a specialty book business is a risky venture, even more so in today’s age of declining book sales. But AMMO, which is based in Pasadena and Santa Barbara, Calif., has succeeded where others haven’t, publishing a number of coveted titles including the limited edition monographs Gonzo and Charley Harper, mid-priced options like Locals Only and Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing and a children’s line of board books, puzzles and more. Enviable press coverage and robust sales have followed.

The Dotted Line recently sat down with Fowler to discuss several new AMMO releases just in time for the holidays, as well as her experience running AMMO and working with emerging talent straight from the studios of Art Center.

Is there a story behind the name, AMMO?

When Steve and I decided to break out on our own and launch a new publishing house [he previously worked as a photo editor at Taschen], we realized that there weren’t that many visual-arts publishers based in the U.S. We also wanted to celebrate American artists and designers. So we came up with AMMO, which is short for American Modern Books. But we do publish international artists/designers as well.

What’s new at AMMO this holiday season?

We recently published a limited edition, coffee-table size monograph on the photographer Edward Weston in celebration of his 125th birthday. Weston is a hero of Steve’s and one of the most important photographers of the 20th century. Steve worked with the Center for Creative Photography in Arizona, which manages Weston’s archive, to choose 125 of Weston’s most iconic photographs. The book was beautifully printed in Italy and comes in an exquisite European gold cloth slipcase. Then we have Alexander Girard, edited by Todd Oldham. Girard was a seminal and prolific midcentury designer who produced work in so many disciplines—textiles, typography, graphics, illustration, furniture and architecture. He was a contemporary of Eames who, for whatever reason, hasn’t received the same recognition. We hope this book will change that. It’s massive—672 pages and 15 lbs(!)—and it’s at the level of Charley Harper in that the book is a very comprehensive overview of Girard.  And in conjunction, we’ve released some children’s products featuring Girard’s designs—a memory game, giant floor puzzles, a board book and more on the way.

Catch a glimpse of the new Girard book here:


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