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.
Transportation Design alumna Michele Christensen inside the 2010 Acura ZDX she designed.
Yes, transportation design is still an industry dominated by males. But things are changing and these days female designers, while still a minority, are no longer a rarity.
One of the more dramatic success stories of recent memory is Transportation Design alumna Michelle Christensen, who graduated from Art Center in 2005. While still a student at the College, Christensen began working on a groundbreaking design that caught the attention of Acura recruiters. Immediately after graduating, she was hired at Acura and became that company’s first female exterior car designer.
She spent the next several years transforming her class project into what eventually became the groundbreaking 2010 Acura ZDX crossover vehicle. “We’ve worked on almost nothing else for three years,” she told The New York Times of the process of bringing the ZDX to life, just as it was preparing to make its debut at the 2009 New York Auto Show. “You have to fight for, and justify, every element.”
What made Christensen interested in designing cars? “Growing up, my interests ranged from sketching prom dresses for friends to wanting to work in a pit crew for a racing team,” Christensen told Marie Claire in 2010. “In junior high I learned about exterior car design; it was the perfect melding of my interests in design, cars, and working with my hands.”
Later that same year, in an episode of the online show Moto-Man that focused exclusively on the ZDX, Christensen told host George Notaras that she first became aware of Art Center and car design as a profession when her dad, at a Bay Area car show, pointed out Art Center alumnus Chip Foose TRAN ’90 in the crowd.
“I asked him who Chip Foose was and he said, ‘He’s a car designer,” said Christensen. ‘And I thought, whoa, pump the brakes, he’s a what? I want to do that!”
As you know, there’s always something going on when it comes to Art Center alumni, students and faculty. Some of the latest:
Did you know that the “Godfather of Paparazzi,” Ron Galella, is an alum? the {warehouse} magazine
Illustration alumnus Tavis Coburn created a series of incredibly cool posters for last week’s BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards. (Pictured) /Film
The New York Times takes at look at the 2010 Acura ZDX, created by Transportation Design alum Michelle Christensen four years ago, while she was still a student here. Also integral to the project were several alums: project leader Damon Schell TRAN ’99, interior designer Michael Wiedeman TRAN ’97 and color and trim designer Kimberly Marte ENVL ’99.New York Times
More on the upcoming Williamson Gallery DreamWorlds exhibit. Pasadena Star-News
Illustration alum Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad recently unveiled the FireBreather, a custom 2010 Camaro created for the upcoming supernatural thriller Jinn, which Zaheer is directing. AutoBlog
Photographer, alumnus and faculty member David Sotelo braves downtown L.A.’s shuttered El Dorado Hotel. GOOD
Faculty member Annette Weisser’s latest exhibit, The End of the World, opens Friday at Reception Gallery in Berlin. reception-berlin.de
Three years ago, Transportation Design alumna Michelle Christensen was a new graduate working for Honda, making sketches for a blue-sky vehicle. The Honda brass were so impressed with her sketches, they turned them into a real vehicle—the Acura ZDK.
Read more about this exciting story on USA Today’s Drive On Blog.