Campus News |
ART CENTER NEWSWIRE - Ferbuary 7, 2000
PASADENA, CA, USA | To keep abreast of the exciting and innovative ideas, people and projects at Art Center College of Design, the media and general public can subscribe to Art Center's news digest by sending a blank email to: newswire-on@lists.artcenter.edu. We highlight some of the newsmakers in our Art Center community on the first and third Monday every month. To report news or obtain more information, contact Jan Kingaard, tel. 626-396-2394, fax 626-683-9233.
ADVERTISING
Frederick R. Weisman Museum
Over the past two decades, the paintings of Art Center alumnus John Register have become increasingly valued for their penetrating beauty and crystalline realistic forms. The Museum is hosting a major exhibition of Register's paintings, including 55 pieces completed between 1973 and 1996, the year of his death. The exhibition has been on a two-year tour throughout the United States, and is a revealing and fitting tribute to the late Malibu artist whose style critics have often compared to that of Edward Hopper. However, Register's widow, Cathy, maintains that her husband's artistic vision was singularly his own, a pure, clear interpretation of his surroundings. The couple met while students at Art Center; Cathy is a photographer and a painter. Register became well known for his seductive and haunting imagery and his creation of realistic paintings with pristine hues of light and dark. He focused on everyday environs as a mirror of his judgement and interpretation of our society.
FINE ART & ILLUSTRATION
Oregon Coast
As you walk around the gallery filled with original paintings, you notice the incredible detail in each piece and the definite marine influence in the subject matter: small wooden boats at the dock, working boats on the water, tugboats towing larger ships, the New Carissa burning, and bridges, lighthouses, and other coastal scenes. A few of the paintings are done in a classic watercolor style, but all of the others have a richness of color more common to acrylics and oils. Mostert works in a range of mediums: watercolors, oil, acrylic, pen and ink, and pencil. He likes the versatility of being able to do anything from loose washes to tight dry-brush renderings. Some of the most vivid colors and some of the darkest colors can be created with watercolors through the dry-brush technique and layering. It's the layering of color that is so time consuming. Mostert learned the concept and technique when taking art classes at Art Center. Mostert has been a full-time artist since 1978.
GREAT MINDS
Professor Ahn Sang-Soo, graphic designer, spoke to students and faculty about his ground-breaking work with hangul, a phonetic alphabet that was invented in Korea in the fifteenth century. He described the process of developing a new concept for a hangul font; showed how it can be used in posters, logotypes, magazines, and books; and shared his "type dreams" for the future. He is Chair of the Department of Graphic Design at Hong-Ik University, Seoul Korea, and a professor in the department of visual communication design. He began his career as an advertising art director, but soon began to explore other areas, such as magazine design, founding his own firm, Ahn Graphics, in 1985. He has published numerous books on design and typography and has been the recipient of many awards and honors, both within Korea and internationally.
Logos permeate our lives. In the morning newspaper, on billboards, in magazines, on TV; they proliferate on the Web. Logos are everywhere. So are fonts. They are the intimate friends of computer users who now must be typographers. An understanding of fonts and restraint in their use is vital for clear communication of image and meaning, according to Doyald Young. Young was hosted recently by Library Director Betsy Galloway and Foundation Chair Ramone Munoz at a book signing party to celebrate the publication of his latest book, Fonts & Logos. The font designer has taught lettering, logotype design, and the fundamentals of typography at Art Center for 25 years. Professionally, Young has designed fonts and logos for an array of international clients including: The Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, The Grammy Awards, National Broadcasting Company, The Tony Awards, k.d. lang, Bette Midler, Nestle, Hilton Hotels, Shu Uemura Cosmetics, Bushnell, Prince, Vidal Sassoon and University of California at Los Angeles.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Alumnus Chuck Pelly, a 40-year veteran of the design industry, has named Henrik Fisker President and CEO of Designworks/USA overseeing all design and marketing activities for Designworks/USA globally. Pelly, graduated from Art Center and taught industrial design at the college. His students included BMW AG Chief of Design Chris Bangle, Ford Vice President of Design J Mays, and Vice President of Design Strategy Freeman Thomas, at DaimlerChrysler. Fisker, a native of Denmark, is a 10-year veteran of the BMW Group and has been director of automotive design in the United States for two years. The Art Center graduate's design talent and international background is expected to continue to develop BMW's multicultural design team and grow the business globally.
PHOTOGRAPHY
The Rangefinder
As one of the pioneers of computer technology applications to photography, Dallas photographer J.W. Burkey has lost none of the enthusiasm which has long been a hallmark of his innovative approach to imaging. In fact, at a time when many other photographers are bemoaning the erosion of fees and rights and cursing other perceived industry ailments, the Art Center alumnus exuberantly proclaims: "It's an exciting time to be a photographer." Perhaps the key to his success lies in a blending of traditional business principles with a never-ending quest for exciting imagery. His studio's stated objectives, which epitomize the Burkey approach, are simple and comprehensive. On service: give the client more than he pays for. On innovation: find ways to do things better. And on fun: enjoy our work and the people we work with. "The computer is changing photography as the camera changed painting," Burkey stated. "Photography is not dead, but it will never be the same again." Burkey is making the mostof digital technology, for image manipulation, delivery, and on occasion, original capture. If he were to describe his style, Burkey said, "beyond reality" would be apt. This is a description incorporating a photographic look as opposed to hand-tinted illustration, but producing imagery that is beyond the traditional appearance of the subject in front of the lens. When it comes to manipulation, the power of computer technology-in the right hands and controlled by those with creativity and technical skills-comes into its own. As he has shown over so many years, J.W. Burkey, a pioneer in his field, is harnessing its potential in his Dallas-based D2 Studios. The eight-person operation has provided visual solutions for an array of corporate and high-tech clients such as Pepsi, American Express, Apple Computer, A.T.&T., General Electric, Texas Instruments, IBM, American Airlines, Motorola, NEC, and Holiday Inns.
TRANSPORTATION DESIGN
Automotive News
Say goodbye to retro cars, and say hello to technologically advanced vehicles that will blow the wheels off of anything on the roads today. That's the turn-of-the-century vision of Marc Brownlow, a 26-year-old transportation design student at Art Center College of Design. Brownlow, who hopes to be a player in 21st century vehicle design, believes car buyers will tire of "heritage designs," such as the upcoming Chrysler PT Cruiser or Ford Thunderbird. Instead, the public will clamor for high-tech vehicles that use the latest materials technology and provide the latest information technologies. Brownlow's own designs have used radical materials such as the transparent aluminum found in the visors of military helmets. Plus, the new century's vehicle has to offer "That little element of surprise," Brownlow says. "All good car designs have that in them, something a bit irrational." Brownlow, from Santa Rosa, California, will intern with Porsche Engineering Services Inc.'s new design studio in Huntington Beach California, beginning in January. He hopes to work for Porsche after he graduates in 2001.
Robb ReportTwo of the industry's leading stylists prepare to shape the futureWillie G Davidson, vice president of styling for Harley-Davidson, and David Robb, director of motorcycle design for BMW. It is perhaps not surprising that both Davidson and Robb found themselvesat different timespursuing their dreams at Art Center College of Design. This prestigious school provided the perfect environment for students desiring to hone their skills in transportation design. Davidson read about the college through a magazine article. At the time, he had already completed three years at the University of Wisconsin. "The art degree I was working on really wasn't getting me into the area of transportation design," says Davidson. "When I saw Art Center, I knew I'd found the place that could take me where I wanted to be." When Robb graduated from Art Center many years after Willie G. passed through, the institute was so renowned for producing talented designers that manufacturers vied for fresh graduates for their design teams. Robb chose Chrysler, where he had interned during school. He later went to Audi, and eventually with BMW. As with Davidson's team at Harley-Davidson, Robb's design team at BMW finds ways to translate a passion for riding into exceptional machines. They also manage to fabricate new expressions of that passion while retaining the qualities we love and identify with their respective marques.
Trailer LifeFormer National Geographic editor David Robinson, and a group of creative students at Art Center give readers a bird's-eye-view of life in the fast lane. Sponsored by Honda R&D Americas Inc., the U.S. Research and Development arm of the Japanese company, the students were asked to explore the concepts of "mobile" and "home" as they might apply to the year 2015. Student designs included such far-out concepts as an RV propelled by "legs" instead of wheels; a NASA-engineered motor home with a kitchen that cleans dishes with ultra-sound instead of water; and a towable that folds down into a flat shape only inches high. The actual designs for new vehicles, new campgrounds and new equipment may not be quite as revolutionary as those described above, but they will definitely be on the cutting edge, according to forward-thinking industry figures.
Los Angeles Times, Daily News, Daily Breeze, Sacramento Bee General Motor's new California studio will be run by Oak Park resident Frank Saucedo, the former chief designer at VW America's studio in Simi Valley. Saucedo is a 1984 graduate of Art Center, and worked on the Batmobile used in the movie "Batman Forever." The designer got his start at the company's Opel unit in Germany in the 1980s and was chief designer at the GM advanced design center in the Ventura County community of Newbury Park when it was closed. While at GM, Saucedo worked on numerous vehicles, including the 1994 Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird twins and the current-generation Chevy Corvette sports car and C/K pickups. Transportation Design Chair Ron Hill, a former top designer for several GM brands, said Saucedo's training with Opel also steeped him in a European styling tradition that should help fashion a fresh look for designs coming out of the new studio. GM is retooling a former Orowheat bakery in North Hollywood into a design studio, where it will cook up Southern California-flavored cars and trucks. The new campus-style complex in the 5300 block of Biloxi Street, initially planned to house about 30 designers, is in a corner of the San Fernando Valley where cult cars like the "Batmobile," the "Munster Koach" and the Clampett family's jalopy materialized at famed designer George Barris' shop on Riverside Drive. The studio is purposefully situated in the middle of "Valleywood," the East Valley neighborhoods that provide a lot of the sizzle to Hollywood's movies, television shows and online ventures. "We wanted to be (here) both because of the infrastructure that's set up around the design teams...as well as the electronics industry and the entertainment industry, said Wayne Cherry, GM's vice president of global design, and an Art Center alumnus.
WILLIAMSON GALLERY
Los Angeles Times
One of the most notable new developments on the Los Angeles art scene is a growing number of exhibitions organized as cooperative ventures instead of as separate endeavors. Museums and galleries find sharing the cultural wealth in multi-venue exhibitions helps audiences see the big picture, according to art writer Suzanne Muchnic. What's new, or at least increasingly frequent, is that museums are forming collegial partnerships to present exhibitions and auxiliary events at two or more venues. Conversations with museum curators and administrators suggest that collaboration is here to stay. "If we think of our audience as the city and all the people who come to Los Angeles, rather than as a group of members, there's no point in being competitive," said Michael S. Roth, associate director of the Getty Research Institute. Unusual as they are, these collaborations aren't exactly unprecedented. Jay Belloli, director of gallery programs at the Armory Center for the Arts may have inadvertently kick-started the trend last spring with "Radical Past: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974," which probed a chapter of local history in exhibitions and concerts at Art Center College of Design, the Armory, the Norton Simon Museum, the New Pasadena gallery, and the Colburn School of Performing Arts. All these changes break down traditional boundaries, andto some degreeparallel the ongoing revolution in information technology," said Stephanie Barron, the L.A. County Museum of Art's senior curator of 20th century art and vice president of education and public programs. "Just as the World Wide Web encourages participation from everyone and occupies no particular space, museums are developing new, relatively fluid models of teamwork."
Pasadena Culture NetCollaborations among several Pasadena arts institutions over the past two years have lead to the formation of Pasadena Culture Net. According to Stephen Nowlin, director of Art Center's Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, "Pasadena Culture Net has been created to give voice to the many wonderful and varied cultural activities taking place in this community. From simple house concerts to symphony extravaganzas, street performances to major museum exhibitions, this electronic community will be a place where anyone can come to broadcast and receive information about what is going on." Hosted by Art Center College of Design's Williamson Gallery, Pasadena Culture Net currently exists as an email-based information network. Area artists, musicians, performers, writers, arts professionals, and the general public are all welcome to participate in the forum and announce upcoming events: everything from grass-roots house concerts and exhibits to programs at major institutions. (30)