Tag Archives: TEDx

Seeing stars with Dan Goods: NASA’s resident wizard of wonderment and REALSPACE exhibitioning artist

Dan Goods and David Delgado Refraction, 2014 on view in REALSPACE. Courtesy of the artists.

Dan Goods and David Delgado, Refraction, 2014; on view in the Williamson Gallery’s REALSPACE show. Courtesy of the artists.

What are you doing with your special moment in time today? This pointed challenge culminates an inspiring TEDx Talk by Graphic Design alumnus Dan Goods, who works as a visual strategist (aka resident artist) at NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Here’s how Goods answers his own question: “I’m creating experiences for people that give them a moment of awe and wonder about the universe we live in.”

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Why is it so hard to finish a passion project?

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“Our time at Art Center is all about pushing limits and taking chances, but a lot of us lose that creative fire when our personal visions butt up against professional realities. In many ways our book RE:INVENT was a reclamation of the risk-taking spirit we had when we were back in school. Art Center alum,” says Derick Tsai (Transportation and Entertainment Design, ’05), who found his own unique creative voice (and heaps of critical and professional success) by thrusting himself out of the security of his thriving design studio and into the wilds of his own imagination. Here he tells the story of how he forged his path to personal and professional fulfillment.

Between the time demands of paying the bills and spending time with our friends and family, it seems like our passion projects never get off the ground. And this is a shame because it’s those passion projects that are often the truest expression of our personal vision and have the potential to elevate us to the next level. It’s pretty easy to get started but at a certain point, questions and doubts inevitably creep into our minds.

”What’s going to become of this?”

“Will anyone care?”

“Will this be worth anything?”

That last one’s the killer.

That thought has stopped me in my tracks more times than I’d like to admit. And I’m guessing it has stopped many of you as well. So I want to share with you how a personal project of mine eventually developed into a critically and financially successful book, lucrative client work and a TEDx Talk for Livestream audience of over 30,000 people.

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TEDxYouth at Caltech: Brain Food

TEDxYouth served up generous helpings of Brain Food at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Among the cooks in the kitchen: Art Center Trustee Bill Gross; Professor and Director of Sustainability Initiatives Heidrun Mumper-Drumm; and Product Design alumna Mariana Prieto, who completed the Designmatters Concentration in Art and Design for Social Impact.

The day-long event took place January 19, 2013, and 8-minute videos of the talks were recently made available online. If you have an appetite for fresh ideas, watch!

A Perfect Storm of Opportunity: Bill Gross at TEDxYouth@Caltech

Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur who has been starting companies since he was 12 years old. He has personally started more than 100 companies in the last 42 years, of which more than 40 have gone public or been acquired. Gross is the Founder and CEO of Idealab, a “company factory” based in Pasadena, which he started in 1996. Gross is credited with starting the first online business directory company with CitySearch, the first online car retailed with CarsDirect, the first paid search engine with Goto.com/Overture, and the longest-running technology incubator where he has been the creator of all these companies. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, Gross currently serves on its Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of the Art Center College of Design, and more than 20 technology companies in California.

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Filling in the Blank: Students Bringing TEDx to Campus

Class shot of the TEDx Art Center College of Design Studio. Photo: June Korea.

Orange will mix with red this summer when the student-driven TEDx Art Center College of Design conference takes over the Hillside Campus on Saturday, June 9 to explore the event’s theme: “Design a ________ for Social Impact.” The “blank” in that title is a call-to-action designed to inspire conference attendees to come up with their own idea for how to effect positive change in the world.

Also on hand to inspire attendees will be an impressive lineup of speakers, including Doug Powell, national president of AIGA and the individual spearheading that association’s Design for Good initiative; and Cameron Tonkinwise, chair of Design Thinking and Sustainability at Parsons The New School School for Design, whose current research is exploring design-enabled sharing of resources. And for something completely different, Art Center Product Design alumnus and KILLSPENCER founder Spencer Nikosey has been tapped to provide the day’s musical entertainment.

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Alum Faculty on the Future of Painting

Transportation Design alumnus and Illustration Department faculty member Nick Pugh recently gave a wonderful talk at TEDx in Long Beach on the future of painting. Pugh’s work in the entertainment industry focuses on the development and realization of new projects, created in collaboration with producers, directors and studios. Since graduating from Art Center College in 1990, Pugh has also worked closely with visual effects studio Rhythm and Hues on numerous feature films, commercials and video games. He teaches Originality in Design and Digital Landscape Painting at Art Center, and will launch a new class in the fall on developing and pitching movie ideas.

Check out Pugh’s talk below.