Issue 013 DO T Magazine 13

013 Issue DOT Magazine 13 1700 Lida Street Pasadena, CA 91103 Return Service Requested Table of Contents Spotlight 2 Illustration Legend Continues to Inspire Creativity at Art Center After changing the face of illustration, the late Phil Hays set to work on Art Center. His legacy still resounds. Partnering with Technology Art Center’s collaborations with leading-edge companies are transforming art and design education. Film Grad Makes Award-Winning Rock-Doc Improvisational lessons learned in the College’s film program helped Greg Whiteley rock the documentary with the award-winning New York Doll. Q&A 4 Humanitarian Design Design historian Victor Margolin talks about taking socially conscious design from concept to reality. Features 8 Malfunction: A Theory for Design Who is Dmitri Siegel? And how can the concept of “unworking” unlock your creativity? 14 Bridging Generations Inspiring students for 30 years: the Bridge at Hillside Campus is reinterpreted for a new millennium. 18 Across the Pond A look at how Art Center—and Art Center alumni—are helping to shape Europe’s contemporary art and design scene. DOT magazine is published biannually by the Department of Marketing and Communications Art Center College of Design 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103 24 Portfolio New student work. It’s all good. Chairman of the Board: Judy C. Webb President: Richard Koshalek Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications: Iris Gelt 33 The Last Word What problems are crying out for design solutions? Our guest panel Creative Direction and Design: Takaaki Matsumoto, Amy Wilkins, Hisami Aoki; Matsumoto Incorporated, NY weighs in. Director, Design Office: Stephen Sieler Editor in Chief: Dean Brierly Senior Writer: Alex Carswell Contributors: Adam Mefford, Product Design, fifth term: “Partnering Found Dot with Technology,” page 3. Monica Nakamine: “Film Grad Makes The familiar orange sphere (opposite page) turns an everyday classroom Award-Winning Rock-Doc,” page 3. Dmitri Siegel, 2005 faculty member, Graduate Studies Criticism and Theory program: setting into impromptu art. “Malfunction: A Theory for Design,” page 8. Photographers: Stephen A. Heller, Vahé Alaverdian. Senior Production Manager: Ellie Eisner Cover: Detail, “Book/Timeline of the Mapping and Organization of Car © 2006 Art Center College of Design. All rights reserved. DOT, Art Center and Art Center College of Design are trademarks of Art Center College of Design. Color.” Aaron Kapor, Graphic Design, fifth term. For full image, see page 26. 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. c2 D OT 1 2 Spotlight Illustration Legend Continues to Inspire Creativity at Art Center Partnering with Technology Film Grad Makes Award-Winning Rock-Doc way that, as an illustrator, he helped change the very nature of his profession. In the mid-1950s, when the primary pur- pose of editorial illustration was still to literally reflect the text it accompanied, Hays was among a number of illustrators bent on making their work more interpretive. Although it amounted to a nameless movement—including artists such as David Levine, Jim McMullan, Robert Andrew Parker, Jack Potter (Illustration ’51) and Robert Weaver—it was a powerful one that ushered in an era of illustrators with ideas of their own. Hays taught his students to embrace their own ideas through perennial assignments such as “Fortune Cookie,” which required them to crack open a cookie and create an Former Illustration Chair Phil Hays as seen through the perspectives of his friend Andy illustration based on the fortune it contained. This type of Large, high-definition monitors loaned by Apple Computer played a key role in the Lessons learned in Art Center’s film program helped Greg Whiteley (above left) make Warhol and longtime College photographer Steven A. Heller. exercise reflected Hays’ ability to make students think rather “ACTION: Art Center and the United Nations” multimedia exhibition. one of the most inspiring documentaries of 2005. than just render, and moved the entire Illustration depart- When Phil Hays (Illustration ’55) died in October at age 74, ment, as Brown describes it, “from wrist to brain.”That One of the ways Art Center stays ahead of the educational When Greg Whiteley (Graduate Film ’99) met Arthur “Killer” the loss was felt across the Art Center community and commitment to taking illustration in new directions contin- curve is through partnerships with leading technology compa- Kane at a Mormon church in West Los Angeles fiveyears throughout the world of illustration. Known as much for his ues to resonate at Art Center. nies that expose students to new equipment and techniques. ago, he had no idea that it would eventually lead to an influence as an educator as for his pioneering work in trans- “Phil obliterated the narrow, traditional definition of Michael Berman, Art Center’s Chief Technology Officer, con- award-winning documentary film. Whiteley initially thought forming the discipline of editorial illustration, Hays leaves a Illustration and created a new era,” says Ann Field, who stantly scouts for new collaborative opportunities that will fur- it nothing more than an interesting piece of trivia that Kane legacy of devoted and highly successful former students, succeeded Hays as department chair at Art Center. “His ther the educational mission of each educational department. had been the bassist for the influential ’70s glam band the many of whom—including Lawrence Carroll (Illustration ’80) vision reached for and identified the raw, the courageous • Over the past decade the traditional array of saws and New York Dolls. and Matt Mahurin (Illustration ’82)—are among the brightest and the uniquely American primitive, whose emergence mills in the Technical Skill Center has been augmented by the But as he learned of Kane’s odyssey—from a life of sex, stars in today’s art and illustration universe. dominated the 1990s and continues to be a powerful influ- introduction of laser cutters, digital mills and 3D printers. In drugs and rock ’n roll to a job as an office worker and con- “If you wonder what Phil’s legacy was to the College,” says ence to this day.” 2005 Axis Machine Corporation donated a large flatbed mill verted Mormon to a reunion with his old band mates— Jon Conrad (Illustration ’82), “just look at some of the faculty Under Field, the Illustration Department recently launched used for slicing flat shapes from sheets of plywood. Student Whiteley realized he’d found the perfect story for the docu- we have today: David Mocarski, Christian and Robert Clayton, two new minors: Entertainment Design centers on design feedback inspired Axis to adjust its technology to allow for mentary talents he learned at Art Center. The resulting film, Jason Holley, Alex Gross, Jeff Smith and many others. process—such as hand-drawn designs for vehicles, props fluid cutting in three dimensions. Art Center is looking forward New York Doll, earned him a nomination for Best Film at the They’re all here because Phil put Art Center—and the West and backgrounds that serve as blueprints for computer ren- to receiving the improved mill in 2006. 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It also won the Grand Jury Coast—on the map as a place where, for teachers and stu- ditions; and Entertainment Arts, which focuses on creating • Transportation Design students make computer models of Prize at the Raindance Film Festival in London. dents, illustration as a discipline became infused with and illustrating characters and developing environments for their projects using Alias 3D CAD software. New independent “To me, it was a matter of recklessly throwing myself at creativity and individuality.” film and computer game storylines. Both embody the kind rendering packages then translate the cold data into richly the story so that I could do something visually and graphically Many were surprised when Hays left behind a blooming of creative risk-taking that Hays helped instill in Art Center’s textured animated renderings. Realtime Technologies (RTT) unique,” said Whiteley. “At Art Center, I was surrounded by career in the center of the illustration universe (and the Illustration program. Adds Field, “Students who enter this and Bunkspeed are among the companies that have brought people much more creatively mature and riskier than I was— department chair at the School of Visual Arts in NewYork) field of entertainment are contributing to the cultural experi- their technology and teams of experts to the College to they forced me to develop that.” to come back to Pasadena. “He’d had a great teacher or ence in a bigger way.Their artwork is part of a broader collaborate with the upper-term studios. Whiteley, who received a bachelor’s degree in theater and two who helped him profoundly to find his voice as an artist, picture, not just the end result.” • In 2005, Apple Computer loaned several G5 workstations film at Brigham Young University, came to Art Center with and I think he loved to do that for others more than being an Scott Robertson, who played an instrumental role in the and 30-inch, high-definition digital monitors to support the aspiration of making feature films. But in shooting New artist himself,” suggests David Brown, president of Art Center development of the Entertainment Design curriculum, says “ACTION: Art Center and the United Nations.” This exhibition York Doll, he realized that the documentary skills he learned from 1985–99. “I also think he wanted to come back to these new minors offered by Art Center are one of a kind. highlighted design projects produced in partnership between here gave him the artistic license to use the imperfections of provincial, parochial Art Center—where he’d been a rebel “This curriculum doesn’t exist at other schools.

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