From out of the destruction of Hiroshima rose the singular career of Product Design alumnus Kenji Ekuan, whose iconic designs include the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle, Yamaha's first motorcyle, and the Komachi bullet train.
American Godsproduction designer Patti Podesta on bone orchards, doors of heaven, andteaching at ArtCenter She styled the Ambassador Hotel setting where Robert F. Kennedy was shot for bio-pic Bobby, designed CIA offices for Emmy-winning Homeland and most recently built a full-sized Viking ship in T...
Storyboard: Albert Soto Shipyard to Shipshape: I Was Never Alone Before I ever heard about ArtCenter, I was studying mechanical engineering at community college. I spent three years there, but it felt like longer. I began taking ArtCenter at Night clases in the spring of 2012. It was an invigorat...
The Earth From Space: JT Reager CuratorJay Belloli interviewsJT Reager, Research Scientist, Surface Hydrology Group, Earth Sciences Section, NASA, JPL, Caltech. Jay Belloli: How you become interested in studying hydrology and the earth's water cycle?JT Reager: I was trained as an engineer, and I d...
It All Ads Up: Meet Creative Director/Artist Robert Birkenes ArtCenter: What was it like attending ArtCenter in the 1960s?Robert Birkenes (Advertising 67) painter/art director: While I was attending ArtCenter, Saul Bass was one of the most respected graphic designers in L.A. Every designer or art d...
Storyboard: Hannah Bon The purest form of self-expression I came to ArtCenter with an unwavering love for film and a talent for production design. Production design was a way to collaborate and form friendships with other students, but what I really wanted to do was direct. The film department at ...
From Risk To Rihanna: Meet Fashion Illustrator Alum Bijou Karman ArtCenter: What are you working on right now? Bijou Karman (BFA 14 Illustration), Artist and illustrator: Im working on paintings for an upcoming solo show at Nucleus Portland. Dont worry about finding your style while in sch...
Storyboard: Julian Ryder Coming full circle Ive heard that in life people can have one of three things: they can have a job, they can have a career or they can have a calling. Im very fortunate to have had all three. The journey has been long. The calling came late. It all started in high school ...
Storyboard: Phil Hettema How to Graduate from Disneyland to Art School I'm a native Southern Californian, born in Pasadena, who was born right around the time that Walt Disney introduced his pet project, something called a "theme park", to the world (... yes, it was a long time ago!). I was a shy ...
TRANSPORTATION DESIGN ALUM WEI CHENG CHOU CONCEPTUALIZES EMORA BRACELET How does a transportation designer go from conceptualizing cars to conceptualizing a high tech fashion bracelet that taps into users emotions? For alumnus Wei Cheng Chou (BS 2015 Transportation Design), both involve thinking a...
Born in Spain, Abraham Meneu's lifelong passion for animation began in 1989 under his brother's guidance. In the '90s, he immersed himself in 3D animation. In 1999, he joined Anibyte in England, honing his skills in game cinematics and PlayStation games. Abraham's feature film journey started with ...
Zen And The Art of Handcrafted Notebooks: Meet Product Designer Mike Abelson ArtCenter: How do you define success? Mike Abelson(BS 97 Product Design),Postalco: Aligning what you say you are doing, and what you are actually doing. AC: Of all the items youve designed, what is your favorite? MA:The...
Storyboard: Sarah Ellis Out of the Foxhole and Into the Fire My mom was an ArtCenter illustration major who graduated in 1978. She took me to see the student galleries as early as when I was a year and a half old. By the time I was six, ArtCenter became a place I understood to be important in her ...
Storyboard: Gary Meyer Frightening Blankness, Failure and the Larger Tapestry of History Nothing is more daunting to a designer than a blank canvas. Why does this image fill creatives with such dread? Because it represents the beginning. Whats more is that the blank canvas represents questions: q...
Storyboard: Victor Lee Brown A Father-Son Bond, Forged by Creativity One of the first gifts I ever gave my son Ryan was a book called Diggers. Its a fairly rudimentary book about construction which, given the young mans budding interest in toy trucks, I figured to be an appropriate enough token. ...
Storyboard: Richard Holbrook How I went from being practically unemployable to being my business I would be the first to tell you that my path to ArtCenter wasnt exactly well-considered. I grew up in a blue-collar family in Orange County. True to my SoCal roots, surfing, motorcycles and cars were...
Storyboard: Scott Yu Leaving the world brighter than you found it As far back as I can remember I always wanted to draw cars. Years later, that very same compulsion would turn into a full-on devotion to sustainable design thinking. I came from a typical immigrant family. My father was a dentist w...
Storyboard: Mari Nakano Two streams I was raised in a fairly traditional Asian-American family. As far as a career, I believed I had two options: become a doctor or a lawyer. A creative career was out of the question. I mean, where was the stability in that? Part of being a true creative means br...
Storyboard: Ini Archibong A language without language As a kid growing up in Pasadena, I would frequently ride my bike to ArtCenter. I thought of it as the place where people designed cool cars. Many years later, I decided to leave the USC Marshall School of Business and start my first term at Art...
Merle Mullin Philanthropist and Director, Mullin Automotive Museum Merle Mullin enjoys showing, driving and racing Vintage cars along with her husband Peter. She is a co-founder/co-organizer of a biennial vintage car rally for women only. Its All About the Girls! is an exciting, much publicized ev...
My executive and entrepreneurial experience in design and brand creation and development gives me a unique insight into brand-driven companies, their customers and consumers. This experience drives my teaching and work as the director of wearables and soft goods design in the Product Design Departme...
Storyboard: Nathan Cooke Cheese, idealism and the ripple effect The other night, I experienced a weird epiphany while watching an episode of one of my favorite shows, s Table. In the episode, an earthquake strikes a small village in Northern Italy. The audience is told that a warehouse full of del...
Californians Abroad: Testlab Berlin Expands Students Creative Horizons The California Dream is alive and well in the global cultural capital of Berlin. Not only because 22 ArtCenter students were immersed in two Study Away studios this past summer, but because itself is a coveted idea, an enduring...
BRAVE AND THE BOLD: SURVIOS AND HEARTSMINDS LEADERS TO DISCUSS SECRETS OF CONNECTING In an increasingly noisy world of advertising and marketingfull of hashtags, sponsored lenses and, yes, good old-fashioned word of mouthhow do creatives find the audiences they need to build their brand? Thats one ...