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Issue 011

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Magazine

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Spotlight

Words from the Wise

Art Center students get career guidance from successful professionals in

the College’s new alumni mentor program.

Getting the Message Out

A Graphic Design class explores bold new ways to promote Art Center’s

75th year to the world outside our walls.

Galleries Exhibit New Life

Student work enjoys a higher profile in the College’s repurposed

art galleries.

Talking Heads

Creativity never sounded so good: the Toyota Lecture Series, now in its

19th year, continues to bring cultural icons to Art Center.

Profile

Bruce Sterling: Visionary-in-Residence

The cyberpunk legend and radical futurist brings his unique perspective

on design, entropy and the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Art Center community.

Features

How to Succeed in Business: The Corporate World Embraces Creativity

Graduate education at Art Center is meeting—and creating—an increasing

demand for new perspectives in the boardroom.

Healing Through Art and Design: Art Center Helps 9/11 Families Find New Hope

Art Center puts design to use in a humanitarian context at a unique

mountain retreat.

Meet the Chairs 2

Want to know where your undergraduate department is heading?

The Chairs spell out their educational vision in part two of our series.

Portfolio A survey of new student work.

The Last Word Four fearless opinions on the biggest challenges designers will face

in the future.

Found DOT The familiar orange circle that represents Art Center turns up in the

most unexpected places on campus (opposite). If you see one, call our

editorial office at 626.396.2385.

Cover: Detail, “The Red Baron.” Fabian Gurrola, Illustration, eighth term.

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Table of Contents

DOT magazine is published biannually by

the Department of Marketing and Communications

Art Center College of Design

1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103

Chairman of the Board: Judy C. Webb

President: Richard Koshalek

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications: Iris Gelt

Creative Direction and Design: Takaaki Matsumoto,

Matsumoto Incorporated, NY

Editor in Chief: Dean Brierly

Senior Writer: Alex Carswell

Photographers: Stephen A. Heller, Vahé Alaverdian

Senior Production Manager: Ellie Eisner

© 2005 Art Center College of DesignTM All rights reserved.

Art Center, Art Center College of Design, designmatters @ ArtCenter,

and DOT are trademarks of Art Center College of Design.

Student works reproduced or referenced in this publication are for

educational purposes only. No part of this publication may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information

storage or retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

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Spotlight

Advertising student Renee Smith taps the real world experience of advertising alum

Mel Abert, who finds mentoring a fulfilling way to give back to Art Center.

If there’s one thing any Art Center student can benefit from,it’s the wisdom of someone who’s walked the same path,carried the same heavy load, and not just survived, but goneon to achieve career success. That’s the premise behind theCollege’s new alumni mentor program.

The program, directed by the Office of Career Services incollaboration with Alumni Relations, numbers approximately30 student-mentor teams, and plans for expansion are underway. Interested students attend an informational meeting at the beginning of a term and then apply for participationthrough Career Services. Once accepted, they attend a kick-off meeting where they are introduced to the well-suitedmentor selected for them.

The type and frequency of interaction over the eight-weekprogram period is determined by each pairing, based on theirunique interests and attributes. With a network of successfulLos Angeles-based alumni working in all creative fields, theprogram has a tremendous well of resources to draw upon.

Mel Abert (Advertising ’66) a principal in the HermosaBeach firm Abert/Poindexter and a past president of theAlumni Association, was recently teamed with Renee Smith,then a sixth-term advertising major. Abert’s decades of expe-rience proved just the encouragement that Smith, an aspiringart director, was looking for.

“It was inspiring to hear about everything he’s gonethrough in his career—because he’s really run the gamutfrom small to large firms—before ending up with his ownagency,” says Smith.

Abert feels the benefit of the program goes both ways.“This gives me a chance to give back to the College in aunique, and I think important, way.”

For more information, contact Jean Mitsunaga at CareerServices, 626.396.2321.

Kites and trains are among the unique communication models students developed to

mark Art Center’s 75th year in a special Graphic Design class.

In addition to inspiring a raft of socially responsible educa-tional advances, Art Center’s 75th year is giving rise to newways of communicating these innovations. One such out-come was a recent collaboration between Marketing andCommunications Senior Vice President Iris Gelt and GraphicDesign Chair Nikolaus Hafermaas. The result: “Next Era,” a Graphic Design class that gives students a tangible way to contribute to the College’s overall communication strategy.

“We were certain the students would come up withunique ways to communicate Art Center’s educational mis-sion while raising awareness about using design solutions to enhance perception of the urban environment,”says Gelt.The students created their messages from the wealth of Art Center’s heritage and chose from a variety of possiblemedia to communicate those messages.

“The ideation process was paramount,” adds Hafermaas.“The students successfully challenged established communi-cation strategies and learned that great ideas can be furtherimproved by the quality of their execution.”

Among the student projects:• David Seung Lee (Graphic Design, sixth term) created

“Aerial Fragments,” pictured above, a visual representa-tion of growth, unity and celebration utilizing kites createdby Art Center for Kids students.

• Deniz Orhun (Graphic Design, sixth term), pictured above,targeted people waiting to board Metro Rail trains, whowould be exposed to messages about the power of designvisible through special filters on the sides of train cars.

• Lina Seo (Graphic Design, sixth term) conceived a structur-al installation incorporating a kaleidoscope through whichpeople could learn about Art Center by viewing new andunexpected forms made from ordinary objects.

The Williamson Gallery will continue to exhibit cutting-edge work like “ear(th),”

an installation that explored how sound supports scientific investigation of our planet.

The student work on display at Art Center has alwaysimpressed visitors and been a driving force behind enroll-ment. Equally inspiring to current and prospective students is the allure of effecting change and addressing real worldissues through art and design. This attribute of Art Center’scurriculum has motivated a new programming approach for all of our gallery spaces.

The cornerstone of Art Center’s repurposed exhibit spaces is the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery. To date, theWilliamson Gallery has focused on exhibitions of “outside”work by noted artists, photographers, architects and designers.Moving forward, the emphasis shifts to “inside” work—cen-tering on creative involvement with students and curriculuminitiatives. This approach is being jointly coordinated byStephen Nowlin, director of the Williamson Gallery, and NateYoung, executive vice president and chief academic officer.

The first such exhibit will present an innovative collabora-tion by pioneering media artist Michael Naimark andstudents from the Graduate Media Design program. Theinstallation period for the exhibition will serve as a “workingstudio” in the gallery, developing works of art with the students. Following the exhibition of student projects, additional work by Naimark will be installed.

The main Student Gallery, with a new process in place to curate and catalog student work, will continue to show-case exemplary projects in art and design. At the SouthCampus, the new Public Programs Gallery will provide a permanent space for community members enrolled in Art Center for Kids, Saturday High and Art Center at Nightcourses, while the Wind Tunnel exhibition hall will continueto host solo, group and collaborative exhibitions, as well as performances and lectures.

British architect David Adjaye and economics writer Virginia Postrel are among the

many noted art and design figures who have participated in the Toyota Lecture Series.

Graphic design legend Paul Rand has done it. So has avant-garde artist Robert Morris. Musician Brian Eno did it, as didfuturist Andrew Zolli, sculptor Maria Nordman, industrialdesigner Yves Behar and many, many others.

In fact, since 1986, literally hundreds of creative innova-tors have graced the dais of the Toyota Lecture Series at ArtCenter, where these cultural icons have waxed eloquent on the historic, political and social currents that have helpeddefine creativity in the 21st century. The series hasenhanced the learning experience for students, enriched theworld outside our walls and created added value for theCollege’s education, admission, advancement and interna-tional initiatives programs.

Despite the amazing range and depth of this program, the brain trust behind it hasn’t given in to complacency—the2005 calendar boasts the most expansive lineup yet. MarkBreitenberg, series director and dean of undergraduate edu-cation, explains: “In the last two years, the Toyota LectureSeries has become one of the most important destinations in Los Angeles for creative and intellectual exchange.Internally, the speakers energize and provoke our studentsand faculty; externally, they bring the Los Angeles creativecommunity to Art Center.”

The lineup for 2005 includes Bruce Sterling, science-fiction writer, leader of the Viridian online discussion community and Art Center’s new visionary-in-residence(August 4 and December 11); Adrian Piper, conceptual artistwhose work focuses on issues arising from xenophobia andracism (May 26); and UN Emergency Program CoordinatorMackay Wolff (October 27). The lectures take placeThursdays at 7:30 pm in Art Center’s Los Angeles TimesMedia Center. For a full list of speakers, contact Jered Goldat 626.396.2251.

Talking HeadsGalleries Exhibit New LifeGetting the Message OutWords from the Wise

Profile

BRUCE STERLING: VISIONARY–IN–RESIDENCE

the (hard) science fiction of designinterview by Scott Nazarian (Media Design ‘04)

“radical, hard SF seeing signs that something new is imminent–new fiction from the bounty of new technology. /// Theperspectives opened up by contemporary science fight back,using guerrilla tactics, new information systems f/a/s/h/i/o/nthat new science fiction for the ‘electronic age’”

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This editorial by Bruce Sterling, published in the zineCheap Truth circa 1984, is widely considered the open-ing shot of the cyberpunk genre of science fiction.Cyberpunk became a definitive meme, infiltrating everycorner of the culture at large, from cinema to businesstelecommunications. Science fiction, unjustly labeled aliterary runt in the great Western canon, is a powerfulgenerator of memes, those ever-shifting units of culturaltransmission. But memes do not simply pop magically tomind—they must have a source. The author must beable to observe and absorb, transmuting and synthesiz-ing the phenomena of culture, in order to bring newmodes of being into existence. In a way, the author rein-vents our perception of reality. And if the meme is strongenough, this reinvention may transcend mere perceptionand become a reality. Such certainly seems to be thecase with cyberpunk, which helped define how we thinkabout and engage with information technologies.

Countless short stories and several novels later,Sterling continues to stalk the formless wavefront of con-temporary culture—in his own words,“the thin, crumblyedge” of the now—trying to put words to the ideas that

float in a kind of free radical state there. He has beenon the cover of Wired. He is an accomplished prosestylist. He is an environmental activist. He was largelyresponsible for the new directions that American sciencefiction took in the last quarter of the 20th century. Andnow, in conjunction with Art Center’s 75th year, he ishere as our first visionary-in-residence.

That’s “visionary,” not “artist” in residence. The dif-ference is subtle, perhaps, if one imagines a seer’smedium to be the very stuff of enlightenment, an onto-logical palette, a Borgesian flight through all possibletomorrows. The visionary is primarily concerned withthe nature of time. And Bruce is all about time—ecolog-ical time, planetary time. The artist makes an interven-tion in space, affecting material; the visionary makes amaterial out of time. For three terms at Art Center, thespace of invention—the invention of new form throughthe involution of time, a singularity, and an event hori-zon out of which culture anneals—is given over toBruce to expand and evolve as he will. And it augurswell for the crop of designers who will share that spaceof invention with him.

DOT: What’s the designer’s role in the vision process?

BRUCE STERLING: To be absolutely specific about yourfuture vision. And to understand that the future is simplythe present at a different time. It’s not an entirely newworld that’s just been busted out of the shrink-wrap. It’simportant to understand that the future has a future. It’snot a place where you go and say, “Well, here we arein the future.” When you get to the future, it’s the present.You’ve got a legacy, you’ve got stuff that’s already beenaround for a while, you’ve got classics, you’ve got inno-vation. It’s 2005 A.D. Look around. Does this look likethe 1930’s version of 2005 or the 1984 version of2005? You need to think of time better if you want toreinvent the future in a way that doesn’t look like a stale,old future. You need to have a better grasp of the natureof the passage of time.

DOT: How can designers design things that have a morehonest engagement with the passage of time?

BS: Job one is to understand obsolescence. There havebeen reams of books written about progress, but very lit-tle about entropy and decay. In a capitalist society, peo-ple are interested in objects only as long as they bring areturn on investment. As soon as they become a net loss,people retreat from them as if scalded. Literally. Theyhave a graveyard terror of an obsolescent object. Andan obsolescent object is still exactly the same mass ener-gy, set of physical resources, that it was before you uni-laterally declared it to be junk. But job number one is tounderstand junk. And understanding junk means that youhave to understand that time is on junk’s side. Entropyrequires no maintenance.

DOT: If you connect the passage of time and entropywith the idea of 3D objects being produced by people,what do you call that kind of design awareness?

BS: Planned evanescence. The key to a mature under-standing of design is realizing that things don’t go awaymerely because you throw them away. That’s likea three-year-old who imagines that things vanishbecause he’s closed his eyes. So what we end up withis a cradle-to-cradle industrial system, where the outflowbecomes the raw material. And there really isn’t anyother way, because unless you deal with the junk, thejunk continues to pile up. We can’t turn the entire plan-et’s crust into junk. Sooner or later, this stuff has to getfolded back. So you need to design it so that it fallsapart naturally and just gets sucked into the biosphere,or else you need to keep track of it, so you can go outand fetch it back when you’re done playing with it. You

need to be able to put away your dead toys. This issomething our society has never mastered, and wepretty well have to do it. And it is doable. And it can beprofitable.

DOT: What might be the impact of technology that hasvirtually no physical presence but rather an overtly virtualpresence? In fields such as industrial design where thegizmo reigns, what is “post-gizmo?”

BS: Well, spime is post-gizmo. Spime is an object that istrackable throughout its lifespan through radio frequencyID tags [RFID] and Wi-Fi, precisely located in space andtime. It’s smart garbage. I think over the next 30 yearswe’re going to see a tidal wave of radio frequencyidentities built into all manufactured objects. And you’regonna find people data-mining the movement of objectswith much more precision than ever before.

The problem from a designer’s point of view is thatthe objects they create don’t often have a direct conduitto the designer. They do offer a direct conduit to the guywho put his brand name on it and spent millions of dol-lars yelling the identity off the surface of the object. Butyou can’t find the bottle maker, the guy who made thelid, the graphic artist and so forth. They’re all anony-mous craftsmen. But if these things had an RFID chip, itwouldn’t be hard to Google all that up. You’d just haveto type in the ID and the thing would pop you right intothe production process. It would tell you where the rawmaterials came from, who did the label, where every-t h ing came f rom. User awareness regard ingthese objects would create a kind of instantaneous,developmental feedback loop.

DOT: Do you think that designers or consumers areinterested in that level of accountability?

BS: It’s a fallacy to think that everybody has to careabout it. What’s necessary is that you be able to find outwhat you care about. You have to have a line of accessin order to be able to leverage your passion aboutthat object. Imagine an RFID reader in your home thatcatalogs the movement of every RFID-tagged object.At Christmas it might send you an email: “Did you knowthat you haven’t touched your lava lamp in a year? Didyou also know that if I put it on eBay it might be worth$75? Would you like me to sell this thing that youhaven’t touched?” At this point, your relationship to phys-ical objects collapses. It’s transformed into something wedon’t know about yet.

DOT: Do you agree that technology is never neutral inand of itself?

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BS: Yes, and I think that’s why it’s possible to write litera-ture about technology. If it didn’t have these valuesystems, if it didn’t have systems of meaning and sensi-bility absolutely and irrevocably tied into it, you wouldnot be able to write fiction about it. All you would beable to write would be engineering documentation.But in point of fact, the architectural is political. Andevery designed object is good for some things and hasdrawbacks in other areas. And every silver lining has itscloud. Not only that, but every single technical solutionis time-bound to a specific set of social circumstancesand a social surround.

DOT: With the power to elicit reactive behavior seem-ingly within the designer’s purview, how do you takeinto account elements of human nature, such as evil?

BS: It’s a definite problem. Why don’t we have nuclear-powered cars like those pictured in Popular Mechanicsin the 1950s? Well, if we had nuclear-powered cars,the guy running the junkyard could have a portablenuclear weapon. He could just sit there and collect fuelrods for a year until he had enough to blow up the city.Somebody didn’t think that through when they proposedthe nuclear-powered car. They didn’t think through ahead-on collision between two nuclear cars thatbecomes an instant mini Three Mile Island. That’s one ofthe reasons that nuclear-powered cars never got anytraction. There’s no consumer application for them.

But evil exists, and I don’t think it ought to be elidedin the design world. I don’t think it’s proper design tosimply push technologies to their ultimate performanceend, without any thought of the social consequences.Designers are actually better off studying the failures,learning the historical record. It’s about learning from themistakes and drawbacks of your ancestors. But you canask yourself certain things. Suppose every handgun van-ished tomorrow. Would we really come to much harm?If they all vanished, that wouldn’t mean we were sud-denly in a police state. These are just enterprises thatwe’d likely be better off without. We’ve done a lot ofstuff that should cease to be.

DOT: How might designers begin to think aboutreally vast stretches of time with relation to the objectsthey design?

BS: The problem with trying to make something that lastsfor, say, 20,000 years, is that you can’t time it. You justhave to make something you think is physically capableof lasting that long and then abandon it. You know, theDead Sea Scroll method. Get a Rodium stainless steel-plated disk and install, say, the entire Latin/Greek

Concordance and the 1912 Britannica Encyclopediaon it in microscopic letters and drop it off the side of aship. Make 20,000 of them and just throw them awayin the world’s unlikeliest places—bottoms of hot springs,salt mines, anyplace you’d store nuclear waste. That’sthe secret. Just put your stuff in a durable thing and forgetabout it. Quit trying to dominate time and just let it goand happen on its own.

DOT: Do you have any inspiring thoughts for theArt Center community?

BS: Follow your bliss. To succeed at something, youhave to be more interested in it than any amount of merefinancial payoff. You have to be so into it that you’rewilling to devote more energy to it than you get back.You have to have some fun. And it has to get to you onsome deep level of your personality. If it doesn’t, andyou’re just doing it because you expect some reward,you’re not going to be able to keep it up. You will burnout. You won’t make money. And you won’t have anyfun. And you will need to get out of that line of workand find one where you can perform. The world is full ofinteresting, useful things to do. Like my residence here atArt Center. But I promise not to stay more than a year.I’m just here to pick up some memes and truck ’em rightover the horizon.

Sterling StrategyDuring his three-term residence, Bruce Sterling will:• Work with Graphic Design Chair Nikolaus

Hafermaas on an INDEX Future Scenarios studio.Students from all majors at Art Center join a groupof seven design schools from around the world tocollaboratively conceive an international designexhibition. The INDEX Future Scenarios Exhibition is a project by the Danish Ministry of Economic &Business Affairs and the City of Copenhagen.

• Participate in a series of “Visionary Lunches,” inwhich students and faculty/staff can dine with himfor informal discussion periods

• Collaborate with Media Design Program instructorPeter Lunenfeld to create the next Mediawork pamphlet

• Work on a new novel of “design fiction”• Participate in the Toyota Lecture Series• Deliver the April graduation speech• Invent his own “Visionary-in-Residence” T-shirt

(which he is busy doing at viridiandesign.org)• Brandish a solar-powered backpack• Continue to blog his head off at http://blog.

wired.com/sterling

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Tomorrow Now, 2003

The Hacker Crackdown, 1992 Distraction, 1999

Heavy Weather, 1994

Holy Fire, 1997 The Zenith Angle, 2004

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How to Succeed in BusinessThe Corporate World Embraces Creativity

By Alex Carswell

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Research By DesignCreativity is also blazing new trails in an important areathat was once the exclusive domain of the MBA: research.Brenda Laurel, chair of the Graduate Media DesignProgram at Art Center, recently edited the first textbookon the emerging discipline, Design Research, which she usesin her program’s class of the same name. The class addressesthe challenge of representing research findings “in action-able and stimulating ways.”

“Typically,” says Laurel, “research find-ings get represented in boring media likepie charts and bar graphs and statistics.While that may inform a client aboutmarket opportunities or creativity spaces,it’s not very stimulating, and you lose anawful lot of information when you pushsomething down to a numerical or evena pictographic representation.”

Frank Nuovo agrees. “We’ve takendata-mining and statistics to about thehighest level we can. We need researchthat tells us where people might want togo based on emotional aspects that aretied more to the heart than the head.”

Amy Sheppard, a first-term GraduateMedia Design student, has been inspiredby this new application of her abilities.“Anytime there’s a shift that allowsdesigners to apply our unique talentsand have an impact in a new field, itreinforces the broad possibilities creativepeople have in the world and the valueof a strong design education, particularlyat the graduate level.”

“We can make an intervention in thisarea of design,” says Laurel. “We canlearn to do research and present it in a provocative way thatresults in clients making a creative leap, that stimulatesthem to go someplace they hadn’t foreseen.”

Among other things, design research explores newinterview techniques uniquely tailored to the subjectgroup—and the presentation of findings can take manyforms. “Opportunity Maps” are highly designed graphi-cal explorations of a particular group, activity or productcategory. “Personas” are, on a basic level, a visual repre-

sentation of a research subject or type. But Laurel’s stu-dents have gone beyond that basic presentation to createthree-dimensional artifacts for the subjects, deeplyimmersing the researchers—and the client—into the lifeand lifestyle of the subject. These are just a few exam-ples in an ever-broadening creative field, and corporateclients are champing at the bit.

“Companies like Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, withwhom we just completed the firstGraduate FEP (Funded EducationalProject ) , rea l ly want to use thi sapproach,” says Laurel, “and they don’tknow how to do it themselves.”

The New MBA?This time last year, in no less august apublication than the Harvard BusinessReview, the writer Daniel Pink positedthat “The MFA is the New MBA.”That may be as foolhardy as declaringpink the new white—or anything thenew anything else—but the assertionearned the number-nine spot in theReview’s 20 “Breakthrough Ideas for2004” and is clearly reflective of a trendvaluing creativity.

Andy Ogden (Transportation Design’83), chair of Graduate Industr ialDesign at Art Center, sees Asia as onesignificant influence behind the trendelevating creative thought to a higherstratum of the corporate world—albeitas a double-edged sword.

“Companies used to design a productand contract with a factory in, say,China to have it manufactured,” says

Ogden. “Today, those factories will not only tool up andmanufacture for you, they’ll actually offer design services.And the quality of design can be pretty good.”

While that would seem to diminish the designer’s impacthere at home, the flip side of this shift is in forcing design-ers to reassess and redefine their roles within a company.

“The value of design,” says Ogden, whose departmentoffers a master of science degree, “has moved further upthe process continuum, to the customer—to understand-

Art Center’s Graduate Media Design Program is pioneering new techniques in the emerging field of design research.

In the 1980s, a master’s degree in business administrationwas practically a write-your-own-ticket career booster.Today, businesses are awash in employees with the linear,analytical, fact-based skills taught at Wharton and Kelloggand Harvard Business School, and the once-revered degreeis no longer a guarantee of anything. In this century, MBAsare as likely to start in the mailroom as in a company’smanagement training program.

So what does it take to climb the corporate food chainthese days? The emerging answer seems to be creativity.

On a playing field that has been leveled by ubiquitousbusiness administration skills, and ina global market full of indistin-guishable products and services,companies desperately need tostand out. And the task of differen-tiation, of developing an identitythat makes customers connect witha product or a company, is falling tocreative thinkers unencumbered bythe academic chains of pure-datamethodologies. Or perhaps weshould say, “rising.”

More than ever, the graduateacademic credentials generatinginterest in the business world areindicators of advanced right-brainthinking.

“The MBA curriculum teachesskills critical to business success,such as finance and marketing,” saysNate Young, chief academic officerat Art Center. “But it ignoresequally crucial aspects of thoughtand perception, the creative and visual literacy that allowscreative thinkers to approach problems and ideas in aunique way. And these are attributes that are becomingindispensable for successful businesses in the new century.”

A Vision ThingFrank Nuovo (Product Design ’86), the versatile designerwho has guided the evolution of the cell phone from brickto beauty, chuckles at the historically narrow vision of somany corporate captains.

“There was a time when people believed that the ability

to chart and graph past trends would clearly lead to—orpreclude—future trends, including the success of mobilephones,” says Nuovo, vice president and chief designer atNokia. “In my case, people would ask, ‘Well, how manypeople really need a mobile phone?’

“The people saying these things lacked a broader visionas to less predictable, more emotional measures that driveus just as much as the fixed, rational measures. So thatability of the creative individual to step out of the rationaland into the emotional is a clear advantage, and an impor-tant part of the equation today.”

Now, with cell phones perpetual-ly in hand, corporate leaders aroundthe world are looking for ways toinfuse creative perspectives intotheir rational business plans.

Sometimes, as in the case of theautomaker Nissan, the solution is asobvious as turning a set of corporatekeys over to a visionary designer.When Shiro Nakamura (Transpor-tation Design ’81) was namedNissan’s senior vice president anddesign director in 1999, it was a tacitadmission that the company madeinternationally famous by the stylish240 Z had neglected the emotionalappeal of its product. That oversighthad brought a precipitous decline ofthe company’s fortunes in a marketfilled with high-design product.

“I always wondered why the sen-ior management of the companydidn’t recognize that design has such

a strong power, particularly in this industry,” says Nakamura.Then came Carlos Goshn who, as CEO, elevated

Nakamura and design to unprecedented levels of corporateconsideration. Goshn also used plenty of business-schoolbasics to rescue Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy, butthe emphasis on creativity and design was critical—and atipping point for Japanese corporate culture.

“We proved how a designer can contribute to the com-pany,” says Nakamura. “And after that, several othercompanies followed suit and gave designers higher posi-tions and more responsibility.”

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Corporate innovation and success is driven by design at Vertu (top), where Frank Nuovo is creative director,and Nissan, where Shiro Nakamura is senior vice president and design director.

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ing the customer and understanding what the productis going to be. Designers are becoming critical at the con-cept level.”

A graduate arts degree, then, evidencing the practice ofdesign or any of the creative arts at the ultimate educationallevel, may indeed be a career-booster, and might one daygenerate the cachet once held by the MBA. But part ofthat perceived value will have to be in the knowledge thatthe degree holders aren’t anti-corporate types with aninherent disregard of the realities of managing a commer-cial enterprise. On the contrary, theassumption must be that an effectivegraduate education curriculum willinclude a business component.

“Designers need to learn that thepalette they have to create from is notsimply form, material, texture, color,”says Ogden. “It’s inventory supplychains, it’s marketing channels, it’sunderstanding organizational structure.We can design with those elements,too.”

Art Center’s ultimate vision is todesign a new form of graduate educa-tion: a hybrid MFA-MBA program.A precursor to this long-term goal canbe found in the College’s new relation-ship with INSEAD, the prestigiousbusiness school with campuses inFrance and Singapore.

In the first-ever formal exchangebetween a business school and a schoolof art and design, product and envi-ronmental design students from ArtCenter are spending the 14-weekSpr ing 2005 term in residence atINSEAD’s Fontainebleau campus.This exchange will be followed bya reciprocal visit of INSEAD faculty and students toArt Center.

Although this historic program moves Art Centertoward the hybrid-degree goalpost, indispensable businesstools have long been part of the graduate curriculum atthe College.

“In the ID program, we try to teach leadership,” saysOgden, “which means learning how to create teams thatwork well together; it means understanding groupdynamics; it means understanding organizational hierar-chies in companies and how they affect your productbeing developed. We think learning these skills in concertwith specific design skills ends up building a career thatcan culminate in a leadership role in a corporation.”

Laurel is convinced that design research is also a viableentry point for future corporate leaders.

“For a designer who’s looking for aprofessional career,” she says, “this skill isa real value-add. It’s a discipline thatmight get a designer into a managementrole; it might even get a designer into theboardroom. That’s what we want to havehappen.”

Nuovo, who is also the creative direc-tor of Vertu, his current joint venturewith Nokia, is one designer who hasmade it to the boardroom.

“You learn a great deal, and actuallydesign better when you understand thedynamics of a whole business. It startsto point to good design not just from acreative standpoint, but from a businessstandpoint that will allow you to besuccessful.

“Designing a company—how it oper-ates, how it presents itself, the missionstatement and company values—is just asexciting and has just as much creativeenergy at its core as creating or designinga product itself.

“It’s not for everyone,” warns Nuovo,“but there’s nothing quite like being onthe ground floor and in the boardroom tomake sure that things don’t fall away from

the original vision.”So while perhaps not amounting to “the new MBA,”

the growing emphasis on graduate education in creativefields, and the new shape it is taking, is giving artists anddesigners the tools and the opportunity to play critical rolesin reshaping the face of 21st century business.

The boundary-pushing creative exploration common at Art Center (left), coupled with the professional presentation skills students exhibit inFunded Educational Projects (above), help account for the expanded role designers play in corporate planning.

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Healing ThroughArt and DesignArt Center helps 9/11 families find new hope.

Art Center’s mission to put design at the service of society recently found tangible expression ata unique retreat for families affected by the events of September 11, 2001. “Finding New Hope,”which was held December 3–5, 2004, at Lake Arrowhead, California, was the latest in a series ofretreats sponsored by the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation (FAF), a non-governmentalorganization (NGO) affiliated with the United Nations. For the first time, the retreat includedtherapeutic design workshops on its activities roster—courtesy of Art Center, also an NGO.This innovation arose from FAF head Patrick Sciarratta’s admiration for the many UN-relatedprojects already implemented by the designmatters @ ArtCenter humanitarian initiative.

David Walker, dean of Public Programs, and Paula Goodman, director of K–12 Programs,helped organize a puppet workshop led by John Chambers, a faculty member who teaches inseveral disciplines, and an arts and crafts zines workshop conducted by Mike Kelley, a notedartist and teacher in the Art Center for Kids program. These design-based components werecore elements of the retreat’s programming, and served to raise the spirits and engage the imag-inations of the participating families.

The Art Center contingent at the retreat also included five volunteers from the College’sstaff who served as liaisons between the families and program organizers. Art Center studentsLluvia Higuera (Photography and Imaging, seventh term) and Kaile Hart (Photography andImaging, first term) documented the event for the FAF and the participating families under thesupervision of Photography and Imaging instructor Tony Di Zinno. Their photographs appearon these pages, along with written impressions from the Art Center volunteers.

[For more information on designmatters, go to: http://www2.artcenter.edu/designmatters]Photographs by Kaile Hart (pages 14–18) and Lluvia Higuera (page 19).

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People really responded to the arts and crafts zines session with MikeKelley. He had a ton of fun materials to play with, and many of the adultscouldn’t get enough of the gluing and stamping and the opportunity to becreative. It gave them the chance to create something personal that theycould take away from the event with them.Jessica Pokaski, Advancement Officer, Art Center College of Design

I went to the retreat unsure if I could be sensitive enough to the partici-pants’ needs and still get the portraits I sought. But taking part in theworkshops allowed me to get to know everyone intimately. Meeting individ-uals who exhibited such honesty and courage taught me that no problem istoo small or too large and that there is always a way to relate to anotherperson’s pain or joy.Lluvia Higuera, Photography and Imaging, seventh term

The retreat represented a singular platform for our faculty and students tocontribute their creative expertise and to lend their committed and com-passionate leadership. Participating in a project of such magnitude andhumanitarian purpose takes on a significant dimension in light of ArtCenter’s commitment to pioneer the use of design as a catalyst for changeon a broad social scale.Mariana Amatullo, Program Director, International Initiatives; co-director, designmatters @ ArtCenter

Whenever we can create an opportunity for our students to exercise theirtechnique, stretch their conceptual skills and engage their conscience, weare creating the optimum conditions for a more complete education. TheLake Arrowhead retreat offered a memorable personal experience for ourstudents and a lesson of extraordinary preparedness for their careers.Dennis Keeley, Chair, Photography and Imaging

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Emotionally, the retreat provided a way for Art Center to connect and offersupport to people who were affected by September 11, which resonatedwith me in a humanitarian and historical way. It was a privilege and honorto effect some small change in the aftermath of what was a marked histori-cal event.Elisa Ruffino, Assistant Director, International Initiatives, designmatters@ArtCenter

The Finding New Hope retreat was life changing. I went as a photographerbecause I believe in the medium’s ability to tell stories visually that bring uscloser as human beings. I met women without husbands and children with-out fathers. I expected anger, but all I saw was love and an appreciation forlife. I found myself holding back tears brought on by the beauty that radiat-ed from these people.Kaile Hart, Photography and Imaging, seventh term

When our students experience both theory and application, it makes for amuch deeper understanding of their vocation than can ever be acquired ina classroom setting alone. Photography students Kaile Hart and LluviaHiguera had an extraordinary experience in putting their practice to a testin a very special, real-world work circumstance.Tony Di Zinno, Photography and Imaging Instructor, Art Center College of Design

A personal high point was watching a group of children perform the HokeyPokey with string puppets they built from a pattern I created especially forthis retreat. The way they responded to what was an untested method ofpuppet building also taught me the importance of not being afraid to trysomething new.John Chambers, Faculty Member, Art Center College of Design

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T H E

C H A

I R S

Laurence Dreiband Fine Art MediaBio: Laurence Dreiband was the youngest department Chair in Art Center’s history,becoming head of the Fine Art Department at age 27. He has been crucial to Art Center’s expansion from a preeminent college of design and applied art to aprominent center for the broader study of art in all contexts. Dreiband’s own artblurs boundaries and thrives on contradictions—his relationship to painting hasalways been conditioned by other media, a philosophy that informs his approachto education.Department Direction: “Teaching art at the beginning of the 21st century is particular-ly challenging because we live in an age of uncertainty, technological turnover,image glut and information overload. The challenge for art students today is toconfront the unfamiliar and embrace ambiguity, to slow down and discover mean-ing. Artists today are particularly concerned with issues of identity and place,consumerism and spirituality. Our task as educators is to revise their path to excel-lence. To teach them to be profoundly curious but skeptical, read widely and havean open mind. To alert them to be wary of trendy concepts and fashionable solu-tions, and to consider work that may not even be recognizable as art at all.

“The Fine Art Media Department confronts these challenges with enthusiasm.Our faculty of accomplished artists and scholars engage students in demandingstudio workshops and intense critical dialogue. The aim is to foster independentthinking in a rigorous program of competing values, emphasizing introspection and creative risk taking. A sequence of innovative core courses, transdisciplinarystudios, visiting artist workshops and critical seminars offer stimulating lecturesand provide opportunities for individual and group critiques. The process deepensstudents’ understanding of who they are and who they might become while providing the wherewithal to accomplish their goals and dreams. Ultimately, our task as educators is to enable students to see in a way that they have neverseen before.”

Meet the Chairs 2

Our last issue of DOT introduced four new Chairs to the ArtCenter community, and shared their strategies for elevating theirprograms to the next level. In this issue, we present a mix ofnew and familiar faces who are leading the balance of the

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David Mocarski Environmental DesignBio: David Mocarski has been on the faculty of Art Center since 1977. In 1982, he founded Arkkit Forms Design, an interdisciplinary design studio that hasexplored a range of diverse projects: packaging design, corporate identity develop-ment, entertainment graphics, furniture collections, plus residential and interiorarchitectural projects. His unique professional background helped lead to hisbecoming Chair of Environmental Design in 2004. Department Direction: “In light of how design currently influences business, this is a perfect time to create a hybrid program with a broad design base that worksopenly across categories. Environmental Design at Art Center is a multifaceteddepartment with a primary focus on space and experience design. Students workon projects that flow easily between Industrial Design, Transportation and Graphics,along with our own Environmental Design studios.

“Space, Object, Image and Experience are our bywords. We are interested indesigning everything inside the box, as well as redefining where and what the box is. Another unique aspect of our program is how it looks at projects in theirentirety, exploring a sense of design totality. Our students tackle a project fromnumerous points of view and decide what is the most effective total experience.Successful problem solvers look at the complete context with an understanding of the interconnectivity of ideas and design paradigms.

“With this richness of project development, I am looking to guide this depart-ment to address the total branded experience, whether that is exploring new retail, hospitality, contract and residential design or changing scales and designinghome product or environmental graphics. Students should have a strong grasp of history, an astute awareness of the present and a steady gaze at the future. By blending technology with our humanity and potential, we can contribute to the way in which design interfaces, supports and drives culture.”

C. Martin Smith Product Design Bio: Born in New York and educated in Ohio, Martin Smith has been Chair of the Product Design department at Art Center since 1991. He began teaching at the College in 1985, and was associate chair of the Industrial Design departmentfrom 1987–1991. Prior to beginning his “second” career, he held various designpositions in different industries around the country.Department Direction: “The Product Design program at Art Center has a rich legacy of producing graduates with the ability to create products that combine commer-cial viability with social responsibility. They are taught that good design can improvepeople’s lives through a seamless blend of functionality, attractiveness and relevance.

“Businesses have increasingly been tuned in to this dynamic and are makingdesign—and designers—a vital part of their strategy and planning. While our coremission remains the education and preparation of designers for a professionalcareer in design, we are now enlarging our focus on getting our students to under-stand design issues in a business environment and alerting these future businessleaders to the value of design thinking. One example of how we’re doing this is the study abroad program at INSEAD, Europe’s premier business school, where aselect group of Art Center students is collaborating with MBA candidates to developproducts and services.

“Along with this heightened business focus, entrepreneurship is an emergingcomponent of our curriculum that will better prepare graduates to assume leader-ship roles in an increasingly design-friendly business environment. By understandingthe “back side” of the design process—that which interfaces more directly withbusiness—and by fostering a spirit of innovation and risk, our students gain a betterunderstanding of business plans and how to write them, what venture capitalists are looking for, how to create a product line that sustains a business, constraintsand opportunities in the retail environment and many other ‘nondesign’ issues.”

Mikio Osaki AdvertisingBio: Upon graduating from Art Center in 1961, Mikio Osaki served as executive creative director of Batey Ads USA, the North American office of a global communications group based in Singapore. He was also a principal and foundingpartner of Poindexter/Osaki/Nissman. He has been Chair of the Advertising department since 1995.Department Direction: “At no time in recent history has a single industry been morechallenged than the advertising industry as it moves through the 21st century. The information superhighway and the sophistication of the global audience haveforever changed the landscape of mass communication. In order to plan for thefuture, we must first start by revisiting our past. We must consider new, more flexible models to educate advertising creatives to prepare them for the excitingopportunities that await them.

“In the past, advertising students were trained to be technically expert in artdirection to meet the competitive and demanding needs of the industry. As the craft of advertising evolved and art directors and writers started working together,the educational emphasis shifted to more conceptually based solutions, executedwith the highest degree of design. This emphasis is still relevant, although the toolshave changed and the media choices have expanded.

“The advertising department at Art Center today distinguishes itself from otherdepartments at the College by educating students who become society’s pop-culture sociologists. In order to create advertising that disrupts or acts as a catalystin the world of mass communication, our students will understand the culture’s values and trends at any given moment. In communicating with the masses, ourstudents will continue to find provocative, believable, memorable and sociallyresponsible ways of relating to the individual. To that end, our curriculum stressesconceptual problem solving, i.e., the ability to redefine the ordinary, synthesize andpresent information in a novel fashion and execute the work as artfully as possible.”

Robert W. Peterson FilmBio: Bob Peterson spent his first 18 years growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota,before moving to California. His studies at Art Center made possible a rapid progression to a professional filmmaking career in television commercials, musicvideos, documentaries, public service announcements and educational films. He has been Chair of the Film department since 1990. Department Direction: “The initial concept driving the start of Art Center’s film program in 1973 was specialization in television commercials. I was one of sixstudents who proposed the new idea. We theorized that our dream of doingmovies might be possible through a successful career directing television com-mercials, and in the late 1970s a few of us began working on exciting projectscalled ‘musically oriented theatrical shorts.’

“Then, in 1981, MTV happened. Music videos offered commercial directors the opportunity to be edgy, controversial, even dangerous. With our expertise ininterpretive visual design, it appeared that our concept of finding a back door tothe entertainment industry might be realized. But our new visual language did not easily influence Hollywood producers. They believed that storytellers werethe ‘real’ filmmakers and that short-form visual artists could not hold an audi-ence’s attention for more than a few minutes.

“Things are different today. The final step needed to make our dream cometrue was the inclusion of narrative studies into the program in 1990. For the past15 years, screenwriting and directing have become the primary focus of our program and give our graduates the skills to excel in any area of the industry they choose. At Art Center, writer/directors are prioritized. Our film students have complete creative control and own the portfolio projects they create at Art Center. They are breaking through barriers and succeeding in every area ofthe entertainment industry.”

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“Prior to attending Art Center, I was enlisted in the Navy. This design was based uponmy experience using the gear on a Navy carrier I was stationed on. I discoveredproblems with the gear, so I tried finding solutions.”opposite: Gabriel Ortega, Product Design, seventh term. Navy Carrier Flight Deck Gear. Instructors: Norm Schureman, Fridolin Beisert

“Oriental and Western, form and function, nature and industry, conflict and harmony.”above left: Johnny Liao, Product Design, third term. “Bamboo.” Instructors: Fridolin Beisert, Karen Hofmann

“Since no single word fully describes TASCHEN, my bookstore concept had to beequally complex and multidimensional. I tried to achieve this by creating a uniquespace that not only functions as a bookstore but can be transformed into amultifunctional venue for entertainment, readings, special events and book signings.”above right, two views: John Niero, Environmental Design, third term. TASCHEN Bookstore. Instructor: Gloria Fowler

Portfolio

“There are few things I find in this world that are black or white; however,I’m not surprised to discover many shades of gray in what people say.”above: Jordan Stark, Graphic Design, fifth term. “Errata.” Instructor: Gloria Kondrup

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“Visitors to ‘Quinine’ move through a sculpture-studded maze of shredded newspaper,haunted by a windlike sound. Movement alters this language-based soundscape,triggering synthesized rhythms and tones that can be molded by visitors into a word-based music.”above left: Nina Waisman, Fine Art Media, seventh term. “Quinine.” Instructor: Philip Van Allen

“This piece is a continuation on a running theme.”above right: Sarah Cromarty, Fine Art Media, seventh term. “For the Mattas.” Instructor: John Knight

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“Thanks to David Ewen and [Advertising Chair] Mikio Osaki, I was surprised to see howsuch a simple single-image concept arose from such a complex process.”top left: Jason Low, Advertising, third term. Kawasaki Jet Ski ad. Instructor: David Ewen

“Automobile and computer elements combine to convey the appeal of the online car-auction experience.”bottom left: Takuya Ozaki, Advertising, seventh term. Ebay Motors ad. Instructor: Vincent Aamodt

“Since this product is a relative newcomer to the market, it faced heavy competitionfrom established bandage products. My goal was to establish this brand as a heavy-duty, waterproof, extremely durable alternative designed for today’s active adult. I alsotried to make the artwork stand out by using an edgy graphic approach.”above right: Francisco De La Torre-Rocha, Advertising, second term. Nexcare Waterproof Bandage ad. Instructor: Rick Bursky

“My most successful pieces show a side of my personality that people usually don’t geta chance to see.”top left: Fabian Gurrola, Illustration, eighth term. “The Red Baron.” Instructor: Jeffrey Smith

“In Jeff’s class we were encouraged to use text and design in an intuitive, committedway. When I drew Charles Bukowski, I tried to echo his life and his work—a little rawand rough around the edges. That’s also how I came up with the name ‘Paper Pirate,’which would be an appropriate title for Bukowski’s autobiography.”top right: Karyn Raz, Illustration, eighth term. “Paper Pirate.” Instructor: Jeffrey Smith

“This piece was done during a time when I was traveling a lot between L.A. and Seattle.I tried to convey the mood or experience I felt at the airports in between destinations.”bottom: Josh Cochran, Illustration, seventh term. “White Courtesy Telephone.” Instructor: Anthony Zepeda

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“This was a collaborative effort—I was fortunate to get a lot of extremely talentedpeople on board, making it possible to bring the original concept off paper and intoreality. I learned that L.A. is full of folks willing to help if you take the time to firstprepare and then ask. I also learned that lobsters aren’t cheap.”top: David Neham, Film, fifth term. “Lobster,” Mini Cooper ad. Instructor: Craig Joiner

“To have the opportunity to work on an important topic such as women’s rights for theUnited Nations was tremendous. Everyone who contributed to this project, from thecrew to the actors, knew that the (unpaid) hard work paid off in the end because wewere making a difference.”bottom: Mandy Siu, Film, fifth term. “Always Second,” United Nations Population Fund PSA. Instructors: Earl Rath, Roland Young

“This is part of a series that was inspired by America’s vision of the future back in the 1950s and ’60s.”above left: Corey Seeholzer, Photography and Imaging, sixth term. “Untitled.” Instructor: Bob Engle

“My intention in my process is to blur the lines between the intended reality of aphotograph and the invented reality of illustration, and in the end bring it back to a photograph.”above right: Claire Harlan, Photography and Imaging, seventh term. “Dragonfly.” Instructor: Sean Dungan

The Last Word

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“My objective: expand the Porsche brand line by focusing on the sports car aspect. I designed this to be a car not for running errands, but for pure, unadulterated drivingpleasure. It is a minimalist, uncompromised approach that focuses on core Porschetraditions.”above: Alberto Echazabal, Transportation Design, eighth term. 2009 Porsche 999 Gear. Instructors: Jae Min, Dave Hackett

As part of DOT’s ongoing evolution, we’ve created a new forum in which an Art Centerstudent, faculty member and alumnus, plus an independent design authority, speakout on critical art and/or design-related topics. This issue’s question is:

“What are some of the biggest challenges facing designers over the next five to 10 years?”

The Last Word

“It comes down to this: How do we replace all of the dead trees? I’m not talking aboutthe environmental challenge of replacing old growth timber or even about recycling.I’m talking about moving from the printed page—dead trees—to the page that is digi-tal, moving, interactive, breathing, whatever. Technology has given consumers realpower in the marketing process. They can click us on. They can click us off. So thegame has now become one of media: how to reach a consumer who is no longerpassive. Our canvas is changing from the double-truck magazine ad to embeddedguerrilla messaging on the Web. Sometimes, I think it would be easier living with allof the dead trees. But where is the challenge in that?”

Tracy Wong (Advertising ’84), Chairman/Creative Director, WONGDOODY

“The challenges facing designers in the next 10 years will not be that different fromwhat they confront now. To wit, more than in any other profession, designers mustcreate the design of the design. They are charged with cultivating conditions wherethey can deploy the full force of their creativity, their powers of invention and theirability to problem solve within the context of a complex team. The need for highlydistributed skills across an interconnected team is only going to increase as projectsand problems become increasingly technological and more global. It’s about findingjust the right balance between inspired individuality and team collaboration.”

Chee Pearlman, Journalist and Guest Program Director, Art Center Design Conference

“By designers championing officially sanctioned style, hipness and other forms of pos-turing, design as a discipline may have forgotten its backbone in favor of its skin. I’mnot just talking about clean lines with brushed aluminum, birch ply and glass walls.The designs I’m referring to chase the faster, smaller, multifunctioning, info-flotsammarket. You can see them brilliantly showcased in Maxim magazine alongside moreclassic forms of objectified consumer lust. But the true test for the new guard ofdesigners will be to employ these new toys and technologies in ways that are rele-vant to people’s lives. We need poignant responses to new design dilemmas, andshould take the opportunity to engender poetic experiences in contemporary life byreflecting on and dealing with real issues through the things we design.”

Chris Adamick, Environmental Design, Fourth term

“From our vantage point in 2005, the easiest to predict design/world issue of the nextfive to 10 years is the promise of a massive national deficit, which will likely affectthis country’s economy well beyond the projected time span of the above question.In times of severe financial stress, money for design is one of the first casualties.Another possible issue: Nanotechnology may well bring scientists into the public’sperception of who is allowed to be called a designer. It’s possible that nanotechnolo-gy could alter our concept of what constitutes design itself, since it (nanotechnology)is invisible, and most everything else we consider to be design is highly visual.”

Richard Keyes, Graphic Design Instructor

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