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ART CENTER NEWSWIRE - December 2001

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 email to requests@lists.artcenter.edu and in the body of the mail type "subscribe newswire" (without quotes). We highlight some of the newsmakers in our Art Center community monthly.

To report news or obtain more information, contact Jan Kingaard,
(626) 396-2394; fax (626) 683-9233.


ADVERTISING

AdweekFor John Staffen, 40, has reached a professional turning point after an 18-year career spent almost entirely at DDB's New York headquarters. (He's done short stints at then-Chiat/Day, new York, and Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto.) Staffen's work stays true to the agency brand, says Bob Kuperman, DDB New York chairman. His reel ranges from what he calls a "lovely and sentimental" McDonald's spot involving a coming-of-age story to a hilarious Bud Light ad "We have to know when to give the rah-rah speech when to make you laugh or cryand when to sue the Jerky Boys," says Staffen, who credits his "form follows function" approach to his years at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., where an occasional instructor was non other than Kuperman. Three years after DDB lost the New York State Lottery account, DDB's veteran art director with the near-permanent smile led the pitch that brought back the $60 million account and the original tagline. In October, Staffen was promoted to executive creative director, running DDB's 32-person creative department. That same month, he helped the agency win the Yankees Entertainment Network business.

AdweekToday, over 50 in advertising is considered old, slow and expensive. Younger is cheaper, except for a few creative stars. And it is cheaper still to raid the competition for those few than to train your own future creative managers. Let somebody else pay for development, says Tom Cammarata of Coyote Hill Creative.

The Idaho Business ReviewBoise partners in the interactive marketing agency Wirestone see strong growth for the coming year, despite aggressive competition and a flagging economy. Wirestone has 11 locations in the U.S., with its corporate office in Emeryville, California. The Boise, Idaho, management team includes Brad Mitchell, an Art Center alumnus, who is vice president of Wirestone and creative director for the Boise offices. Pre-Wirestone, he worked with an advertising agency as senior art director before joining partner Tony Schlangen at Digital Effects as creative director. "Our largest client is Hewlett Packard," said Mitchell, "and we've done everything from channel driven CD-ROMs and websites to marketing of those products, direct-mail pieces and high-end data bases for image repositories. Everything from strategy and marketing to design to backend data bases." With the acquisition of five other companies and organic growth within our own organizations, we're at about $22 million," Mitchell said, noting that the company has a couple more acquisitions in the pipeline with a lot of growth opportunity with current clients.


ART CENTER AT NIGHT

New York"Your brand is what they say about you after you've left the room," according to Andy Spade, Kate Spade CEO and creative director. Andy Spade will teach "Brand Strategy" for Art Center's program in New York. The adult class will explore the impact of brand strategy on the success and perceived value of a company in 10 weeks . Spade is one of the "hottest" creative directors in the U.S. He recently developed and launched new Jack Spade line of accessories for men. He has worked with advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, and TBWA/Chiat/Day. Clients included Coca-Cola, Evian, Reebok, Lexus, and Coach. Numerous awards include One Show, Communication Arts, D&AD, and "1996 Best East Coast Copywriter" by Adweek.


AWARDS

Mary Pickford AwardFilm Department Chair Bob Peterson recently named the quintessential "studio director" Vincent Sherman as the recipient of this year's Mary Pickford Award. Oliver Stone referred to the 95-year-old as "one of the great craftsmen from the old studio system. " The annual award is given to an extraordinary individual in the areas of theater, film and television. Sherman is one of the few directors left who worked in the "Golden Age" of the Hollywood studios, directing more than 30 feature films and stars such as Joan Crawford, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogard, Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. Sherman recently had a special screening and discussion of adventure classic, "The Adventures of Don Juan" at the College, led by his son Eric Sherman, who is a film instructor at Art Center. "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford, starred on stage and screen for 26 years during the early 1900s, winning the Academy Award for best actress in her first talking film. When she retired from public life, Pickford directed her considerable energy and business savvy toward philanthropic causes. Art Center has been a beneficiary since 1985. Film instructor Francine Parker holds the distinction of being Art Center's Mary Pickford Professor, an honor established by the Foundation to support the college's talented young filmmakers.

Best TeacherThe graduating class of December 2001 acknowledged and thanked 12 exceptional instructors for their inspiration, professionalism and friendship: James Wojtowicz (Advertising), Tracy Stone (Environmental), Michael Gottlieb (Film), Tony Zepeda (Fine Arts), Carla Figueroa (Graphics), Gary Meyer (Illustration), Paul Jasmin (Photo), Daniel Packman (Product), Seung-Jae Min (Transportation), Shou Zhi Wang (Liberal Arts), John Chambers (Computer Graphics), Roland Young (Foundation).

American Institute of ArchitectsEnvironmental Design faculty Annie Chu's firm Chu+Gooding Architects have received a merit award from the LA/AIA for the design of "The Architecture of R. M. Schindler" exhibit at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art).

National Association of Art CriticsEnvironmental Design faculty Annie Chu's firm Chu+Gooding Architects have received a first place award for architecture/design exhibition for the design of "The Architecture of R. M. Schindler" exhibit at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art).

Ozzie AwardFine Art graduate Bob Ott won a Silver Medal at the Folio Show for "Best Design, New Magazine in 2001" for Stormwater magazine.

National Science Foundation GrantThree students from Art Center were among nine selected by the Foundation for an NSF grant to participate in the Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program. Daniel Schenck, Matthew Carroll and Joey Jones will work on four projects with nine California Institute of Technology students. His is the first time that Art Center has been awarded an NSF grant, and it is the first time that Caltech has partnered with an art and design school. It is part of the overall strategy of the Office of Design Transfer to find ways of involving the two institutions in common projects involving research, studies and curricula. The students will be exploring the development of: a novel digital display technology for information display; real-time motion synthesis software to enable easier and faster creation of computer animation and games for the entertainment and Internet industries; an Internet communication system for forming "trust networks" for the rapidly growing knowledge management industry; and economic algorithms that will make the collection of small sums of money over the Internet extremely efficient.


CAMPUS

Los Angeles TimesArt Center College of Design has selected a 10-acre site in Pasadena that includes a shuttered landmark electrical generating plant [Glenarm Power Plant on Fair Oaks Avenue and Glenarm Street] and a former Douglas Aircraft testing facility. Art Center is in escrow on a five-acre site directly northeast of the power plant that contains an 87,000-square-foot building built by Douglas Aircraft during World War II and most recently occupied by Dacor. Escrow on the roughly $5-million purchase is scheduled to close in April. The college hired Santa Monica architectural firm Daly Genik to master-plan the Dacor site. Art Center plans to start moving public art education programs down from the hilltop campus into the former aircraft building by mid-2003. The building also will provide temporary housing for programs displaced on the Linda Vista campus when construction starts in 2005. Art Center will retain its hilltop campus off Linda Vista, which is being expanded to include a new technical skills center designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza and a new library designed by Santa Monica architect Frank Gehry. The elite, influential school, which produces many of the nation's automotive and industrial designers, needs more room for studios, exhibitions and design classes. The site decision is significant for the city, which lobbied vigorously to keep Art Center in Pasadena.


COMMUNITY OUTREACH/COLLABORATION

L.A. NowArchitectural historian Dana Hutt announced the completion of the book, L.A. Now, Vol. 1, to be distributed by the University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London in the spring. This is the first of two books conceived by Art Center President Richard Koshalek as part of his collaborative design initiative to focus creativity on downtown Los Angeles and provide the foundation for its future development. L.A. Now brings together the work of Art Center film and photographapy students, UCLA architecture students under the direction of studio leader Thom Mayne (Morphosis), CalArts Graphic Design students, and others. Volume one offers a virtual snapshot of Los Angeles at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A rich amalgamation of recent data, text, graphic design, and photography, this book documents the city's radical heterogeneity, hybridity, and fragmentation in four sections: Los Angeles, habitat, people, and money. The second volume, Shaping a New Vision for Downtown Los Angeles, features the results of the design initiativesseven architectural proposals to meet the future needs of downtown Los Angelesas well as a record of the critical process. Funding for the initiative was provided by The Seaver Institute, ARCO Foundation, California Statewide, Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, Broad Art Foundation, Catellus Development Corporation, Thomas Properties Group, Edward P. Roski, Jr./Majestic Realty Co., Urban Partners LLC, and Cushman Wakefield Inc.

L.A. WeeklyProvost Ron Jones moderated a panel and slide show in the Armory Center for the Arts, "Public Art: What It is, Isn't, and Should Be."

California Institute of TechnologyThe Graduate Media Design Program recently presented its summer 2001 Super Studio project, Code23, at Caltech. Code 23 is a transmedia public information campaign designed to inform teens about the consequences of genetic engineering and the Human Genome Project. Code23 at Caltech is the first presentation of the LectureDemo Exchange Series, an interscholastic idea exchange project between Art Center and Caltech's Moore Laboratory, sponsored by Art Center's Office of Design Transfer.

The Starbright FoundationThe Digital Media Department announced a special project course for Spring. "Creating Expressive Technologies for Seriously Ill Children" project will be a collaborative effort between Art Center and The Starbright Foundation, a national non-profit organization chaired by Steven Spielberg. Starbright is dedicated to the creation of media and technology-based programs that empower children to cope with the psychological and social; challenges that accompany illness. This interdisciplinary course will be co-taught by Roland young and Phil van Allen. The Classroom experience will provide students to use the tools of design to develop new strategies to help improve the quality of life for children and adolescents living with a serious illness. Students of all majors, fifth term and above, including graduate students will participate.

City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs DivisionArt Center and four Pasadena museums presented The Pasadena Art night participants were: Norton Simon Museum, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena Historical Museum, and Armory Center for the Arts.


ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

NeoCon WestEnvironmental Design Department Chair Peter Di Sabatino and student, Kendell Carter joined Annie Chu, principal of Chu+Gooding Architects in a panel discussion on "The Future of Environmental Design," at the Los Angeles Convention Center (11/29/01).

INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES

The International Initiatives Department hosted the new Korean Consul General, Ambassador Jung Kyung Sung, and his deputy, Consul Kim.

During her visit, HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden attended a special program showcasing Art Center, as well as a presentation by Volvo Vice President Lars-Erik Lundin and other representatives from Volvo. Swedish Consul General Andreas Ekman joined the guests.


EXHIBITIONS

Palos Verdes Art CenterPhotography staff member John Richardson is exhibiting his large format platinum photographs of Italy and Ireland through January 6, 2001.

3 DecemberThis year's Alias/Wavefront celebration of 3D graphics was held at Track 16 gallery in Santa Monica, California.


FINE ART

Los Angeles TimesArt Center graduate Jorge Pardo ws commissioned to design a tile floor for Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Mapa, Caliornia's kitchen. This permanent installation features a striped design in off white and graduated blues and greens.


GRAPHICS

The New York TimesAlumnus Rafael Esquer will be featured in a cover article in a January edition of the Sunday magazine. The article will highlight his work with Eiko Ishioka (costume designer for the films "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "The Cell") on Winter Olympic uniforms for Japan, Canada, Switzerland, and a fourth nation's teams. Esquer is currently working with Bjork on the packaging for her upcoming CD singles.

Communication ArtsVictoria Anscheidt and Derek Jenkins are featured in the interactive design annual for their collaborative work on the Volkswagen Microbus show car. Anscheidt studied Graphics and Packaging at Art Center College of Design; Jenkins is a Transportation graduate of the College.


GREAT MINDS

BiennalePatricia Belton Oliver was a guest speaker and panelist at the week-long event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In her talk, "Building the Future: Architecture and Pedagogy," Art Center's director of programming and planning period of adjustment and discomfort, Churchill "Space designs us," and how Gehry and Siza are working together on the hillside and urban campuses, showing photographs of the Ellwood building, Lida campus, site plans and shots of the models. "Architects need to go out far enough and challenge what is known model Experiments in architectronics, infrastructures, media, cultural phenomena, and their impact on decision-making and the development of cities.

Toyota Motor Endowed Lecture SeriesKen Goldberg, associate professor of engineering at UC Berkeley, addressed students and faculty on the relationships between distance, authenticity, and the snowy things we call knowledge. Goldberg described a series of Internet-based tele-reality experiments including a new system that explores the dynamics of group behavior. He led the team that developed the first root on the Internet in 1994, and is editor of The Robot in the garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet.


OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Los Angeles TimesAn international competition for a new $171-million Caltrans headquarters building in downtown Los Angeles was won by Morphosis. The selection committee was co-chaired by Maria Contreras-Sweet, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency which oversees Caltrans, and Art Center College of Design president Richard Koshalek. Clearly the product of a higher design intelligence, Morphosis' proposal has a conceptual clarity that is rarely seen in government buildings, according to Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. With the completion of such projects as the Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, Morphosis has emerged as one of America's creative powerhouses.

NewsweekPresident Koshalek was interviewed by Suzanne Alexander on two subjects for a trends series of stories. The Japanese International edition will showcase how Art Center is preparing designers to be managers, and the how designers create user-friendly interface products.