ARTCENTER DOT MAGAZINE—FALL 2015 FALL 2015—Artcenter.Edu/Dot PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 1
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ARTCENTER DOT MAGAZINE—FALL 2015 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 1 I live my life in widening circles that 1 reach out across the world. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ArtCenter’s 85th anniversary I may not complete this last one, but I give myself to it. — Rainer Maria Rilke 2 LEGACY Remembering Kenji Ekuan As part of ArtCenter’s 85th anniversary, this special issue of Dot celebrates our creative community in three broad fields to which graduates through the decades have dedicated themselves with powerful results: art and 4 visual storytelling; business; and education. Their stories highlight the PEOPLE circles of influence—intergenerational and interdisciplinary—that can Dan Santat ignite an idea, shape a career, define one’s lasting mark on the world. Some alumni are legendary, like the late Kenji Ekuan, while others are achieving notable success still early in their careers, from the intrepid entrepreneurs building small businesses in three distinct Los Angeles 6 neighborhoods, to the first-time independent filmmaker whose animated FEATURE HQ:LA — Three thriving entrepreneurs short garnered an Oscar nomination. make the City of Angels their headquarters In terms of professional recognition, 2015 has been a year of superlatives for our alumni. Children’s book author and illustrator Dan Santat earned his field’s highest honor, the Caldecott Medal; Diana Thater’s midcareer retrospective at LACMA opening November 22 is the largest exhibition 13 by a woman artist in the museum’s 75-year history; and the founders of 4x4 GALLERY lynda.com, a radical innovation in teaching developed at ArtCenter in the Four alumni, four passionate projects COVER ARTIST 1980s, saw their company acquired by LinkedIn in its biggest deal ever. By turns whimsical and philosophical, the work of New York Times best- Our next issue of Dot (Spring 2016) will serve as a companion to this Vol. 1 selling illustrator and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton (BFA 99 Fine Art) anniversary edition. In Vol. 2, we’ll meet leaders in fields such as product, is grounded in direct, empathetic ob- 22 servation. Her illustration on our cover, transportation, interaction, graphic and environmental design, and we’ll PEOPLE originally for The Times, reimagines look at transformative examples of design for social impact. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Her book, Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin / Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City Chris Do & Jose Caballer in its Own Words (Chronicle, 2014), We are proud to bring you these stories and those of all our alumni across began as an online series of “illustrated documentaries” about her beloved a suite of platforms including Untold Stories, a new online showcase for city for The Rumpus. She received ArtCenter’s Outstanding Alumni Award alumni projects and ideas. To fully capture the ever-widening circles of in 2011 and inspired the creation of ArtCenter’s influence, we want to add your voice and images to the mix. the Spring 2015 Designmatters studio, 24 Illustrated Journalism, in which she So please be in touch by email, on social media, in person here on campus also served as guest speaker. FEATURE Cover: New Hierarchy of Needs by Wendy or at an upcoming alumni event in your area, and allow us to celebrate Diana Thater’s Sympathetic Imagination MacNaughton, The New York Times (August 8, 2013). Back cover: The artist’s you—even if you’re not yet 85. There is no time like the present. self-portrait commissioned by The Atlantic for Sarah Yager’s article, “Meanwhile in San Francisco” (July/August 2014). Images courtesy of the artist. At Left: Kenji Ekuan’s Lotus Flowers in a Pond, 30 photo © Yoshiteru Baba. Silver Lake neigh- Lorne M. Buchman PEOPLE borhood, photo: Stella Kalinina. Diana Thater: gorillagorillagorilla at Kunsthaus Graz, photo: president Robert Kondo and Saman Kesh Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner artcenter college of design Fields of Influence, Vol. 1 Vol. of Influence, Fields 2 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot LEGACY 3 1 & 2 Kenji Ekuan’s retrospective exhibition Soaring High in the Sky included the Remembering installation works Lotus Flowers in a Pond and Alighted Heavenly Maiden. © Yoshiteru Baba 3 Kenji Ekuan Rarely seen renderings by Ekuan include his design of the very first Yamaha motorcycle, YA-1. 4 writer Sylvia Sukop His enduring 1961 design of the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle, an object in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, embodies Ekuan’s signature graceful blend of beauty and functionality. 5 He believed everyone, not just the wealthy, deserved beautiful things, and much of his work occupied public space. Here, his sketch for the Komachi bullet train, which began running in 1997 as part of Japan’s rail system. This page: Photos courtesy of GK Design Group Inc. Facing page: Photo © 2005 Ahn Sang-Soo, used with permission 1 “Thoughts soaring high in the sky, a single blossom.” — Kenji Ekuan (1929–2015) Kenji Ekuan’s singular career began with a singular Hiroshima. Although Ekuan endured the city’s destruc- event—the destruction of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. tion and Japan’s subsequent occupation by United A teenager away at a naval academy when an American States armed forces, he never spoke bitterly about B-29 dropped the atomic bomb on his hometown, either event, says Kerechuk. “He only spoke about his Ekuan survived, but he witnessed the aftermath first- inspiration to help his country recover and restore 2 hand. His sister was killed in the blast and, a year on, normal life for the people.” his father died of radiation sickness. A pioneer throughout the formative years of the The devastating sight of “nothing”—the literal loss industrial design profession, and its tireless global of every “thing”—changed Ekuan forever. He decided ambassador, Ekuan’s legacy includes 13 design offices then to become a maker of things. And throughout his in four countries, a family of companies known as GK long and influential career, the things he made became Design Group; a multitude of design awards including icons of contemporary design. the prestigious International Compasso d’Oro (2014); “Mr. Ekuan simply loved design,” says Norman and scores of published books and articles. He Kerechuk (BS 85 Transportation Design), president of remained active in ArtCenter’s alumni network till the GK Design International Inc. “He believed design had end of his life. no limit in its ability to solve human problems, and he Among Ekuan’s final projects: taking his retrospec- made design his sole mission in life.” Kerechuk joined tive exhibition Soaring High in the Sky to Hiroshima Ekuan’s company in 1987, and has spearheaded an in 2014. Closing just two months before his death, it ArtCenter scholarship in honor of his longtime friend showcased many of his renowned products of utility, and mentor. spanning six decades. But it also featured some of his Before coming to ArtCenter, graduating in 1957 more metaphysical creations, Ekuan’s vision of utopia, among its first group of Japanese students, Ekuan for example: A minimalist golden carriage carries a had trained to become a Buddhist monk, following in “heavenly maiden” amid a fragrant sea of blue lotus the footsteps of his father who oversaw a temple in flowers, resting in the eternal flow of time. 3 4 5 4 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot PEOPLE 5 authors over the years, but has long desired to get 1 Beekle author Dan Santat with his Dan Santat more of his own stories out into the world. sons, Kyle (left) and Alek. “It’s been a pretty definitive part of my life,” Santat 2 & 3 told Dot. Cover and artwork from Dan Caldecott Medal-winner “makes the Santat’s Caldecott-winning unimaginable, imaginable.” As an example, he recalled working on The The Adventures of Beekle: The Replacements, an animated Disney Channel show Unimaginary Friend. based on his one of his first books. “There were moments working on that show writer Mike Winder where I thought, ‘Even though the show says Created photographer Jennie Warren by Dan Santat, it doesn’t feel like it,’” he said. “Every story note I submitted would get shot down by an executive. I was in this weird spot where I felt like I wasn’t very good at writing stories anymore,” he added. But just like Beekle, who does the unimaginable by deciding to find his own child rather than wait to be discovered, Santat, with encouragement from It’s been quite a year for Illustration alumnus Dan his agent, overcame his creative insecurity and dove Santat (BFA 01). headfirst into his freelance work. Back in February, he was awoken at 4:30 a.m. by “I wanted to know how far I could go as a chil- a call from the American Library Association (ALA) with dren’s author and illustrator,” he said. “I knew I had the news that his children’s book The Adventures of ideas. I knew they were valid. I knew they could prob- Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend had won the Caldecott ably be something special if I really just focused my Medal, the nation’s most prestigious award for children’s attention on them.” literature. At one point he turned down a lucrative job offer And in May, DreamWorks Animation announced at Google working for the tech giant’s Doodle team, that Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of because it wouldn’t afford him the time to work on his Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air, would personal projects. be adapting and directing Beekle for the silver screen. “When I said no to Google I gave myself this “I was book shopping with my daughter, when a condition, something that my instructor Rob Clayton little tooth-shaped character wearing a paper crown (BFA 88 Illustration) advised his students to do at stole our hearts,” said Reitman in a press release ArtCenter,” Santat said.