Tag Archives: Fridolin Beisert

Love designed to last: Alum couples share the secret sauce to relationship bliss

Alumni Wakako Takagi (BS 06) and Fridolin “Frido” Beisert (MS 08) say "If you can make it through Art Center together as a couple you are pretty much bonded for the rest of your life." Photo by Max Wanger.

Alumni Wakako Takagi (BS 06) and Fridolin “Frido” Beisert (MS 08) say “If you can make it through Art Center together as a couple you are pretty much bonded for the rest of your life.” Photo by Max Wanger.

Art Center’s reputation as a creative proving ground doesn’t exactly evoke images of artistic ardor, sunset strolls or even longing looks among the library stacks. But, as the saying goes: love is stronger than hate, war…or, in this case, work-weary creative determination. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that Art Center’s bridge has also served a figurative function, fostering deep and durable connections among more than a few alumni who have tied the knot. 

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re taking a closer look at the elements unique to couples who survived three years of Art Center’s intense maker bootcamp of high-standards and brutal crits and successfully applied the iterative process to love.

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Creativity 101: Harnessing the power of students’ imaginations

Photographs by Chris Hatcher, PHOT '05

Photographs by Chris Hatcher, PHOT ’05

In 30 minutes, visualize your creative process and recreate it using an 8-and-a-half-by-11 sheet of paper.

This is the first assignment in Creative Strategies, a popular undergraduate Product Design course taught by instructor Fridolin “Frido” Beisert PROD 98, INDU 08, faculty director of Art Center’s Product Design Department.

All 14 students accept the challenge. Walking to the front of the classroom, they each select a single sheet of colored construction paper and take a seat along the row of bare metal tables. As a digital timer, projected onto the wall, starts ticking, the students immediately start cutting, tearing, folding and drawing.

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Schureman Book Profiled

As you know, Product Design alum and faculty member Frido Beisert has created a beautiful book, To Draw Is to See, of the work of the late Norm Schureman. It’s currently available for purchase online at Blurb, and it’s beautifully done. Beisert has explained that by using the online publisher Blurb (rather than involving a printing company), all proceeds go to Schureman’s two sons.

And even better—Blurb named To Draw Is to See book of the week last week!

From the Blurb blog: “Every once in a while, a book comes along that reminds us how very powerful the act of honoring one’s story by making a book can be. To Draw Is to See is such a book.”

They interview Beisert on Schureman, creativity and how to tell your own story.

Beisert on Norm: “Norm was all about being creative and helping others, and we very much hope that this book will help inspire the artists and designers of the future to start creating. I often tell my students that the difference between a creative and a non-creative person is that the creative one creates. It is that simple. By doing we expose ourselves to learning and by learning we improve automatically.”

It’s a great interview—take a look. Read more: Book of the Week: To Draw Is to See

Students Discuss Future of Design at Summit


Johanna Björk of Goodlifer has written a very nice recap of Art Center’s involvement in the Opportunity Green Business Conference and the Art Center Summit, Projects and Partnerships in Sustainable Design, held September 22 through 24 at L.A. Center Studios in downtown Los Angeles.

Björk says that the most popular panel at the conference appeared to be Sustainability by Design, featuring a panel of five Art Center students who described their work featured in the Taschen book Product Design in the Sustainable Era. The work, also on display as part of an exhibit at the event, was produced in the Design for Sustainability 2 studio led by instructors Heidrun Mumper-Drumm and Fridolin Beisert.

Writes Björk: “The future, seen through the eyes of these students, is certainly bright and filled with innovation. The thing that strikes me about their designs is that they are simply well-done. The sustainability of the products is inherent, not something that was forced into the picture later. Could it be that all truly good ideas are inherently sustainable?”

Enjoy this new set of photos from the event, and read the rest of the article: Green Can, Should and Has to Be Profitable

What a Great Event: The Art Center Summit

We live tweeted yesterday from the Art Center Summit —what a wonderful experience! This year’s Summit, Projects and Partnerships in Sustainable Design, highlighted our association with the Opportunity Green Business Conference, taking place September 22 through 24 at L.A. Center Studios.

Yesterday’s Summit included the workshops Beyond the Peanut: Using Life Cycle Assessment to Develop Goals and Strategies led by Art Center’s Director of Sustainability Initiatives and Associate Professor Heidrun Mumper-Drumm, and Using Cross-Pollination for Business Innovation by Associate Professor Frido Beisert. Main stage presentation Product Design in the Sustainable Era, led by Taschen editor Julius Wiedemann, featured a panel of Art Center students discussing their work that was included in the Taschen book of the same name and that were on display at the event.

A very special thank you to everyone involved in making this year’s Summit happen,including student panelists Daniel Huang, Mark Huang, Sharon Levy, Magdalena Paluch and John Phillips; student exhibit curators Jessie Kawata, Arthur Leung, Brandon Lowry, Christine Nakashiba and Magdalena Paluch; and the many Art Center students who volunteered at the exhibit.

Check out our tweets from the event, and enjoy this slideshow below. Stay tuned to The Dotted Line—we’ll bring you more photos and a recap soon.

Art Center Student Work Featured in New Book


Product Design in the Sustainable Era, a new book published by Taschen, features more than 100 projects by industry leaders including IBM, frog design, IDEO, fuseproject, GE, Electrolux—as well as the work of seven Art Center students, individually featured on double-page spreads!

Congratulations to these students for this recognition of their outstanding work:

  • Leslie Evans, Vespera blow dryer
  • Daniel Huang, Environ iron (pictured)
  • Mark Huang, Vespera cycling helmet
  • Sharon Levy, Moietea water/tea kettle
  • Magdalena Paluch, Spirit car seat
  • John Phillips, Ecodeck skimboard
  • Jason Pi, Leena table fan

The work was produced in the Design for Sustainability 2 studio, led by instructors Heidrun Mumper-Drumm and Fridolin Beisert. In addition, project sketches from Huang and Paluch were used as section dividers. Great work, everyone!

Art Center Tops IDEA Awards List of College Wins

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) has unveiled the winners of the 2010 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition—and Art Center topped this year’s list of college wins with five awards!

A celebration of the year’s most inventive and creative product and product concept designs, this year’s competition received the most entries since its beginnings 30 years ago.

The 2010 IDEA jury, made up of 18 world-renowned designers and design thinkers, spent weeks previewing entries online and two-and-a-half days of face-to-face evaluation and debate. Judging criteria focused on eight areas of industrial design excellence: innovation; benefit to the user; benefit to society and natural ecology; benefit to the client; visual appeal and appropriate aesthetics; usability testing, rigor and reliability for the design research category; and internal factors, methods and implementation for the design strategy category.

Our winners:

Silver IDEA:
1881 “American Red Cross Fashion” Branding Strategy
Koo Ho Shin, GradID
Faculty: Andy Ogden, Steve Montgomery, Katherine Bennett

Bronze IDEA:
Spirit: New-Generation Sustainable Automotive Seat
Magdalena Paluch, GradID
Faculty: Heidrun Mumper-Drumm, Fridolin Beisert

Remax Snowboard Boot
James Yoo, Product Design
Faculty: Fridolin Beisert

Luxy Vespa Helmet
Daniel Shih-Tung Chang, Product Design
Faculty: Fridolin Beisert

Latrine Design
Juan-David Quiñones, Product Design

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Thinking Outside the Dot

The brainstorming group in the SDR.When he first arrived on campus in October 2009, Dr. Lorne M. Buchman said one of his first tasks as Art Center’s new president and chief executive officer would be to listen to students, faculty and staff to hear their thoughts on a future direction for the College.

“We must first come together as a community to envision our opportunities, to imagine new possibilities, and to enter into a bold, habit-breaking conversation about our educational future,” wrote Buchman in December when he announced a comprehensive planning process for the College.

To get the conversation rolling, Buchman invited the entire community to attend two back-to-back events: an evening kick-off panel discussion in the Ahmanson Auditorium featuring provocative national thought leaders (for a recap, see yesterday’s post); and a brainstorming session the following day to tackle key issues derived from Art Center’s mission statement.

On January 14, approximately 300 members of the Art Center community—faculty, staff, students and alumni—gathered in the Student Dining Room for the daylong brainstorm. “I want to encourage you all to imagine without limit,” urged Buchman to the larger-than-expected group. “Imagine without limit what Art Center has always been, or what an art and design college ‘ought to be’.”

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