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.

GREAT MINDS

The Toyota Motor Corporation Endowed Lecture Series presented legendary media activist Geert Lovink to share his thoughts about the intersection of art ideas, and technology. Based in Amsterdam, Lovink is credited with helping to patch Eastern Europe back into the mixing boards after the end of communism, co-founded the essential mailing list www.nettime.org, which is the central organ for the net's international intelligentsia. In 1997 he organized the Hybrid Workshop of media artists and activists during Documenta 10 in Germany. Lovink has traveled the world coordinating events and creating linkages with artists, activists, and deep thinkers using new communications technologies while often decrying those very technologies.

Chosen as one of San Francisco Magazine's pick of 10 people who will shape how we see the future, Amy Franceschini visited Art Center to open a dialogue about digital design. Franceschini founded Futurefarmers in 1995 and the studio has evolved into a new media construct specializing in data visualization via 3D animation, Web design, interface design, print, games, motion graphics and environmental design. Among its distinctive print electronic assignments, major clients include The New York Times, G-Shock, Levi's, Autodesk, Nike, NEC and MSNBC.

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DIGITAL MEDIA

Artist Natalie Bookchin spoke to students and faculty as part of the Digital Dialogue Series about her work in, around, and through the Internet and other new media. She pushes the boundaries of how new art is being made with emerging technologies, and through speakers series like at MOCA, how we talk about these phenomena.

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

ExhibitorThree of the four design experts to judge entries in Exhibitor magazine's 14th Annual Exhibit Design Awards competition were educated at Art Center. Environmental Design alumnus and instructor Rob Ball is a Los Angeles-based industrial consultant interested in story-driven concept and education-based sensory experiences. His museum and retail projects include "The Last Best Hope on Earth," the largest collection of Lincoln manuscripts ever assembled for the Huntington Library, and Port Discovery children's museum in Baltimore for Walt Disney Imagineering. Recent retail projects include concept stores for MGM Studios, No Fear clothing company, and nostalgia toy store Sparky's for Universal Studios as City Walk. Graphics alumnus David Takeuchi directs interior, architectural and graphic designers at Addison Branding and Communication's Retail studio. His clients include Chevron USA's "Extra Mile Market," Wells Fargo, Domino's Pizza, AAA, PG&E, and Ipiranga. Product graduate Tyler Garland is the managing director for product development at frogdesign San Francisco, where he integrates traditional product development with brand strategy and digital new media.

GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

CMYK Magazine"Gwyneth Paltrow" and "Flying Rhinos" by illustration students Tamara F. Guion," and David Barneda, respectively, were showcased. The work was judged by Kinuko Y. Craft, one of today's most profound Renaissance painters and frequent lecturer, exhibitor and award winner. Design Judge Primo Angeli, selected graphic student Eric Aamoth's Boler Brewing Company beer packaging as notable in the Design category.

PHOTOGRAPHY

As a guest speaker for the digitalDesigners@work series, landscape photographer Stephen Johnson presented his recent project "With A New Eye," noting how he pushes his own vision of how we see and record light in the natural world. The digital photographic survey of selected American National Parks from 1994-1998 illustrates how he applied traditional processes and skills to the emerging technologies and aesthetics of digital photography.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Footwear NewsArt Center alumnus Mark Smith, a former senior designer for the special projects group at Nike, Inc., is the new vice president of design for Vans Inc. Smith now oversees the design direction and development of footwear for the youth lifestyle brand.

School to Work NewsUnder the sponsorship of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc. and the Los Angles Kings, Art Center students conducted market research,developed storyboards and created prototypes of new ice resurfacing machines that are state-of-the-art advertising and entertainment vehicles. Richard Zamboni, company president, remarked, "The students came up with several fascinating ideas. In some instances they markedly improved on the form and function."

TRANSPORTATION DESIGN

Automotive NewsGM has publicly stated a goal to make half of its future products innovative. Frank Saucedo's North Hollywood studio is charged with developing some of the new types of vehicles and architectures that will make it a reality. He believes that a couple of decades of conservative design have forfeited GM's styling leadership, and he intends to change that. "My goal is to be presenting a (concept) vehicle internally within a year," said the Art Center graduate and director of GM's new Southern California design center.

InnovationMcKinley Thompson, the auto industry's first African-American designer, fell in love with cars when he spotted a brand-new silver Chrysler Airflow when he was 12 years-old. He entered and won a national competition sponsored by Motor Trend magazine that included a full scholarship to Art Center. His career spanned 28 years in Ford's Advanced Studio. Thompson's influence has been seen in several notable truck and automobile designs such as Ford's Worldwide Tractor and Thunderbird's tonneau cover. "Scientists and engineers are constantly expanding the technology envelope, thereby advancing the opportunities for humankind," Thompson said. "Designers bear a heavy social responsibility because the world depends on them to show what the future will look like and to point the way to a brilliant tomorrow." He credits much of his success to Art Center instructors: renowned automobile model maker Joseph Thompson and former GM designers Strother McMinn and George Jergenson.