Campus News |
ART CENTER NEWSWIRE - May 15, 2001
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 twice a month. To report news or obtain more information, contact Jan Kingaard, tel. (626) 396-2394, fax (626) 683-9233.
CAMPUS
The Williamson Gallery hosted an opening reception for "Telematic Connections," a hybrid exhibition that is part history, part speculation, partly on-site and partly online. The exhibition was preceded by a panel discussion entitled Art and The Network.
GREAT MINDS
The New York Times
Art Center President Richard Koshalek is working to deepen Art Center's role as an academic research institute. Acknowledging the school's well-deserved and well-known reputation as a leader in producing the world's leading auto designers, he is turning his attention to academia. "We have to open up the intellectual side and raise the level of inquiry to the level of skills. We have to put an equal sign between theory and practice," he says. He says that today's designer must be "transdisciplinary," incorporating several disciplines in order to meet the specialized requirements that business will demand. "Specialization is going to occur within a broader educational experience, in an intersection between the fine arts, science, design, business and writing." To help meet this "transdisciplinary" approach, tentative talks are underway with Cal Tech to initiate collaborative programs.ALUMNI
"Snapshot: New Art From Los Angeles" is an exhibition that features the work of 25 emerging artists in a variety of mediums. Among the 25 are Art Center graduates Christie Frields, Deb Lacusta, Lecia Dole-Recio, Lisa Lapinski, Steve Roden, Won Ju Lim and Yunhee Min. Their work can be seen at UCLA's Hammer Museum.
DESIGN
Pacific Business News
Alum Kurt Osaki loves sports - but not necessarily watching them. His designs for NFL and NHL uniforms have secured his business, Osaki Designs Inc., a position as a million-dollar firm. Martin Fitzpatrick, design director for the NFL, says that Osaki is a "skillful illustrator and typographer." "He works form concept through completion. if we give him a name and a direction, he will provide us with an illustrated solution to the problems we provide him."FILM
Shoot
Bicoastal/international Satellite Films has signed director and alum Pascual Sisto. His work as a freelance visual effects artist and motion graphics animator included clients Toyota, Nissan, Lincoln and Mercury. Additionally, he has done two spec spots for Swatch and Sony Mini-Disc.ADVERTISING
CMYK
The 2000 Clio Awards recently presented 12 statuettes to student winners, including entries from Art Center. When discussing his favorite work, Clio Awards executive director Andrew Jaffe describes a reel by student Jayson Moyer. "I use it to prove that good work can be done on a small budget," he says of the work done for shoe company New Balance. The piece shows a one-legged young Indian who wants his picture taken, but he can't hold still. That is, until the photographer takes off one of his New Balance sneakers and gives it to the young man. Maybe that's why student work often times steals the show at the Clios.
CMYKThough many ad and design programs seem to sprout up overnight, Art Center remains "a towering redwood in communication-arts education." The program incorporates focused study with fresh industry knowledge, producing graduates that are up-to-speed with advertising demands. "There is a clear advantage to hitting the ground running," says Ramone Munoz. "By the time our students find their own creative voices within their chosen fields, students at other schools are just deciding what they want to do."
GRAPHICS
Los Angeles Times
The work of alum Anne Burdick on a dictionary of the idioms of an obscure Austrian social critic named Karl Kraus has earned the title of Most Beautiful Book in the World. The award came from a panel of prestigious German book festival judges. The volume, weighing in at over 15 pounds and containing 1,056 pages, is elegant in its organization and thoughtfulness. According to Burdick, the project with its complexity, codes, legends and logic, was a book designer's dream. "It's just such an insane book. So elaborate. So precise. So arcane," she said. Of the award, she said, "For me, this is a pinnacle. I feel like I can retire now."
The StarThe poster work of 21 students is on display at the Jewish Federation's Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. The students produced 24" x 36" posters that display images reflecting the impressions the students had after visiting the museum. Instructor Leonard Konopelski wanted the class of mostly non-Jews to portray the enormity of the extermination of six million Jews as depicted in the main museum.ILLUSTRATION
Rolling Stone
Linkin Park artists Mike Shinoda and Joseph Hahn started their creative partnership while at Art Center. Though they turned their attention from creating album covers to creating albums, their musical aspirations have led them to a road tour that may extend to August 2002. "We're shooting for the title of hardest-working band in America," says vocalist Chester Bennington.PRODUCT
LA Architect
What makes Art Center an environment that fosters such creative growth? Product chair Marty Smith referenced the hands-on work that is demanded of the students. "It's a very simple process of research, conceptualization, problem-solving, refinement, and model building," he explained. Citing the Boeing sponsored project, which utilized teams comprised of transportation, product and environmental design students, the successful redesigns of the aircraft aided students in their problem-solving training while giving the sponsor inspiration from the fresh ideas. According to president Richard Koshalek, team inspired projects are essential to the success of their students. "We've got to explode the world. I call it widening the circle, we have to constantly widen the circle of our interests, and the students' interests, into different areas, and then they will be truly creative peopleŠ.If you train somebody just to be a car designer or a product designer, that's not enough anymore."
Indiana ContratorPrice Pfister named the top three winners of its "Pfaucet of the Pfuture" contest, conducted as part of its 90th anniversary celebration. Art Center students Silas Beebe and Shane Koo took first and third places respectively. Beebe's design "Water Go" is a bathtub faucet and handle with an organic modernism, meaning every element of the design is derived from nature. Koo's "Chameleon" is a temperature sensitive bathroom faucet that visually notifies the user how hot or cold the water is and provides a cascade of water from a faucet head resembling a waterfall.
TRANSPORTATION
Merced Sun Star
The "family car" has evolved. Station wagons, long recognized as the typical American family car, are back. Though overshadowed in recent years by the bigger-and-bigger SUV's, newly designed station wagons are becoming more common on the showroom floor. "The '70s were square (in design), the late '80s and '90s were the organic stage of round-shaped cars like the Ford Taurus," says Art Center instructor Bumsuk Lim. "Now the major trend is seen with the VW Beetle and Audi TT: A simple geometric shape, with emphasis around wheel arches." These design upgrades have been well received by consumers that are interested in the practicality of a station wagon that also offer better mileage than SUVs.WILLIAMSON GALLERY
Pasadena Star News
Gallery director Stephen Nowlin was part of a panel discussion on "Things to Come: The Future Contact of Art, Music and Science" at Caltech's Baxter Lecture Hall.