Campus News |
ART CENTER NEWSWIRE - May 15, 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.
ADVANCEMENT
Pasadena Star-News
Whittier Daily News
San Gabriel Valley Daily Tribune
Los Angeles County's 6,470 public charities stand to lose millions of dollars incorporate donations as local companies continue to disappear through acquisitions and mergers. It's bad news for Southland nonprofit groups that operate on $19.2 billion in annual contributions, with 5.1 percent or about $1billion coming from local corporations. Art Center's President Richard Koshalek is beginning to leverage his own network, including Caltech President David Baltimore, USC President Steven Sample and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Koshalek has quietly commissioned a blue-ribbon group called the "Think Group," which includes about 20 affluent and well-connected power elite who have been tasked with finding new ways to raise funds for the college. Bill Gross, president of Pasadena-based idealab!, is heading the group that includes world-renown architect Frank Gehry and Kathleen Brown, California's former treasurer. "They have an eye on the future," Koshalek said. "This is where our future funding will come."
Classrooms of the Future
Art Center is launching a new classroom prototyping initiative for the 21st century. Faculty and students will explore new educational methods and cutting-edge technologies in an experimental, highly flexible space. The project's goals are to empower teacher/student dialogue, stimulate faculty to rethink all aspects of how they teach, and address the rapidly changing world of art and design education. Art Center envisions the prototyping project as research and development that will benefit both its future campus as well as the design field at large. The project is being led by Environmental Design Chair Patricia Oliver and the Los Angeles architectural firm Hodgetts + Fung.
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
The American Academy in Rome
Instructor Lisa Krohn was one of 27 Americans awarded the Rome Prize. Beginning in September, she will study Roman baths and fountains for their design, use of mythology, engineering and their reception in the culture. Krohn will put together a photographic and video record of the baths and fountains in their current state, describe their reception in their heyday, compare this water culture with that of other parts of the world, ultimately developing an illustrated report and conceptual design proposal for a modern day version of the remarkable Roman water culture.
Earnshaw's Infants
Girls & Boyswear Review
Little sizes translate into big business for clothing retailers with the strong buying power in the children's apparel market. The onset of the new millennium has many people longing for a revival of decades gone by, according to faculty member Krystina Castella. "Young trendy people, grandmothers and middle-age people are all attracted to vintage," she says. "These designs have a wide appeal because they are authentic." She searches through classic magazines for inspiration. Her line of infant and toddler gift wear features 48 signature infant and toddler pieces.
FILM
Award winners
Maja Zimmermann's film "12 x 12" has won the Audience Award at the Sonoma Valley, California Film Festival; Festival Pick at the Sonoma, Arizona International Film Festival; the Jury Award at the New Haven, Connecticut International Film Festival; and was a finalist in the Worldfest, Houston, Texas. Puntip Limrungroj's film, "Body and Soul" was selected one of six Regional Finalists in the Narrative category of the 2000 Student Academy Awards Competition.GRAPHIC DESIGN
Critique
In 1955, Beatrice Warde, designer and typographer for the Monotype Corporation, published a series of essays in which she defined good typography as a crystal goblet-transparent, but as crucial to carrying meaning as the goblet is to carrying wine. The best practitioners of any pursuit often make the toil of their profession invisible to their audience. So it is with many of the twentieth century's finest lettering artists, among whom Doyald Young could be reasonably said to have the stature of a Michael Jordan or a Itzhak Perlman-except that they're better known. Doyald Young's most recent book, Fonts & Logos, is the bible, the map, and the Rosetta stone for those who would carry this low-profile high art into the twenty-first century. The book takes one's breath away. The thoroughness of its treatment of the subject is awesome and its design is exquisite, the printing, flawless, according to reviewer, John Langdon, author of Wordplay, and professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Type Directors ClubGerard Huerta, a phenomenal creative spirit and Art Center alumnus, reviewed Doyald Young's book published by Delphi Press, on the organization's Web site. Fonts and Logos is a follow-up to Logotypes and Letterforms. The talk about logos and typefaces has been transformed over the last couple of decades from esoteric discussions by craftsmen in large, heavy equipment-laden rooms to everyday vernacular in every computerized office and home. This democratization has placed much pressure on logo designers and font developers to maintain standards formerly controlled by the skilled few, but now is accessed by anyone. Finally, we have a manual to understand not only the complexities of their design, but the creative process as well. Good drawing skills are the basis of all logotypes and fonts and that is elegantly displayed in this rich and complete volume to be enjoyed by novices as well as professionals. The Type Directors Club was founded in 1946 and involved all contemporary areas of typography and design and professional graphic designers, art directors, editors, multimedia professionals, students and entrepreneurs in advertising, communications, education, marketing and publishing.
ILLUSTRATION
American Artist
New Mexico native Charles "Bud" Edmondson spent his childhood on a ranch and later served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. After graduating from Art Center, he had a successful career as an illustrator in Chicago, where he taught classes in watercolor and illustration. Currently, he lives, paints and teaches in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He exhibits widely, has work in private and corporate collections, and has won many major awards. Emondson attributes his dedicated work habits and master of his craft to his training at Art Center as well as from the demands of a career in commercial illustration.LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES
Store Equipment and Design
Faculty member Eddie Effron is also specification marketing consultant at Philips Lighting's Southern California offices and a member of IESNA. Although it may be difficult to get consensus in the lighting industry, designers should start using a more sensible approach to rate how a light source makes colors look. While the Color Rendering Index, or CRI, has been tolerated for 50 years, Color Rendering Vectors may be a better way to go. This system, unlike CRI, offers a great deal of information about a light source. CRI will simply fade away, a relic of the 20th century, as the utility of the alternate method becomes obvious.NEW MEDIA DESIGN
In Your Face Too!
The new media design book by Daniel Donnelly features Art Center projects Beyond Glory, Synthesis, Dynamic Typography Symposium Flashpoint, and INERTIA.PRODUCT DESIGN
Studebaker Museum
Alumnus and former instructor Tom Kellogg was in South Bend, Indiana at the opening of an exhibit that featured some of his drawings and designs. He was the last designer of the Studebaker, from 1962-63, and was the designer of the Avanti. Studebaker was the only company to span the time from settlers' wagons to high performance automobiles. This historic collection provides unique into out country's transportation history, spanning 114 years of Studebaker's legacy.TRANSPORTATION DESIGN
Chicago Tribune
Art students find it's what's inside that counts. Forget cup holders and vanity mirrors. As the needs of motorists grow and evolve, the next generation of auto designers is seeking new ways to make car interiors more comfortable, functional and ergonomic. They're also looking to ratchet up usability for demographic groups such as retirees and low-income motorists. Art Center students pushed the boundaries of design while relying on business processes. According to Eric Toth, director of industrial design interiors for North America at Johnson Controls, students redefined ideas about transportation and car interiors, while representatives of the Milwaukee-based company, found themselves exposed to new ideas. "Our aim is to help students become better designers who understand the process and bring a high level of responsibility to the industry," said Toth, who works with more than 20 original equipment manufacturers (OEMS) to design, develop and build car interiors.
Street RodderWhen a reader wrote in to columnist Ron Covell about studying transportation design, "Professor Hammer" told him that many "big names" in the street rodding profession got their start here, including Chip Foose, Thom Taylor, and Dick Dean, to name just a few. Art Center has a worldwide reputation for design excellence, and a good record for placing their top graduates in very prestigious positions. All this comes at a cost, however, since their tuition is quite high, and they demand a tremendous commitment from their students. Many students find they don't have the drive or talent required to compete in this cream-of-the-crop environment, but those who graduate from the program will find many doors open to them. Most students find their personal work ethic is strengthened by the discipline required to complete this rigorous program.