Retrospective ...

I will post some old works from time to time, just to keep this place colorful ...

Black & White photography by David James Williams

Great photo made by David James Williams and discovered on Flickr.

From flickr.com

Mercedes S-Class #3

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Mercedes S-Class #2

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Mercedes S-Class #1

Heres some recent work. Looks like Im going to do a Daimler sponsored project from September, so I thought I do some warm-up. This is my first go at Mercedes actually ...

It is official: Art Center Pasadena looking for a new president.

This blog followed with a lot of interest the Art Center controversy and today is ready to give you the good news: the school is looking for a new president!

The Board of Trustees of Art Center represented by John Puerner made an official statement announcing future programs for the school including the search for a new president.

Here a part of it:

Statement from John Puerner

June 24, 2008

On behalf of the College’s Board of Trustees, I want to bring you up to date on some important matters at Art Center. Over the last few weeks, the Board received considerable input in the form of letters, petitions and emails voicing concern and comment on various subjects. First and foremost, the Board and administration remain firmly committed to continuing the high quality of education that Art Center is known for worldwide. It has always been our most important priority. As trustees, our primary responsibilities are to provide governance and oversight as we work closely with the administration in charting a course for the future. A key role of governance is to provide for the proper leadership and organizational structure to best lead the College. Over the last nine years, Richard Koshalek has exhibited dynamic and original leadership of Art Center, and we look forward to and support his continuing leadership. His efforts have been of great value to the College, the communities it serves, and we are very thankful for his contributions, which include the following: * Increasing the College’s scholarship endowment from $16 million in 1999 to $43 million, resulting in $7 million in scholarships in 2008; * Opening South Campus as the home of Public Programs and Graduate Education, with recognition as the first LEED-certified green building in the City of Pasadena; * Expanding Graduate Education with new advances in technology for Graduate Media Design studios at South Campus; * Launching the Art Center Design Conferences and Designmatters, positioning Art Center as an advocate for the importance of design and the value of creative contributions to various fields. Importantly, leadership must continue to evolve to meet future challenges. Therefore, the Board has decided to start the search for a new president...

To this statement follows another from Richard Koshalek, too.

Source: Art Center Forum

LiMe

This was an idea for the Local Motors's Miami Competition ... obviously not a serious attempt, but I had a lot of fun rendering these funky shapes ... You can find my entry here. I couldnt finish it properly, but the project is still on and once Im done, I post it here.

Art Center College of Design final act? (Maybe yes).

It looks like that after several months and weeks of civil protest by Art Center students and some members of faculty and staff against the ACCD President strategic plan about school's future something is shaking!

The on-line petition gained untill today 1455 l signatures with a lots of interesting and serious comments from all over the world.

The american local and national press started to look closely to this affair and wrote interesting articles with very precise analysis and details about what was happening untill the latest article published by the "Pasadena Starnews" entitled:

"Contract of High-profile president of Art Center won't be renewed" written by Janette Williams.

Here for you some lines of this article that explains what is happening now up in the hills of pasadena to save the school future and honor.

"PASADENA — Richard Koshalek, the high-profile, hard-driving president of Art Center College of Design since 1999, will not have his contract renewed when it expires in 18 months.
John Puerner, chairman of the college's 16-member Board of Trustees, speaking from his home in Santa Fe on Saturday, said the college was in the process of "crafting a communication to deliver to the Art Center community" in the next few days.
"We will provide communication ... using a new forum created by Art Center, a new on-line forum created to speak to students and faculty," Puerner said while declining to comment until Art Center staff and students are informed of the board's action.
Puerner later said he was not confirming Koshalek's contract would not be renewed."

Please continue reading at: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/rds_search/ci_9661295

Russian designers are coming

Hi friends, this young designer Arseny Kostromin comes from the Design school MAMI International in Moscow. It is a good example of how talented are russian design students and how good is this school.

Soon I'll make a post dedicated to the visit I made to MAMI International school.

Check out his blog to look at more work, here is the link:

http://senjadesignwork.blogspot.com/

Art Center controversy: some interesting details.

LA Weekly published a complete article about Art Center controversy giving new details about the problem that school management and students are currently living.

Here a small part of it:

Nathan Cooke* isn’t a miscreant. He isn’t a troublemaker or a misguided teen. He is a 26-year-old industrial design major in his final two trimesters at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Cooke’s a good student too — a rare Art Center scholarship recipient and an active force on campus. He’s the president of the EcoCouncil, a student organization designed to promote environmental responsibility on campus and beyond.

It started with Styrofoam.

Despite branding itself as a world leader in sustainability education, Art Center’s cafeteria uses disposable Styrofoam dishware. For nearly two years, Cooke says, EcoCouncil, fellow students and even some faculty lobbied Art Center’s administration to ditch the Styrofoam in favor of something more environmentally friendly. Some recycling bins around campus wouldn’t hurt, either, they argued.

“But, we were consistently told there wasn’t enough money,” Cooke says.

One day after Cooke’s post, Art Center’s Chief Academic Officer Nate Young resigned under curious circumstances — with Koshalek hinting it was due to Young’s handling of a $1.1 million educational budget deficit. A short time later, Young’s assistant, Rachel Tiede, fresh off maternity leave, was fired after speaking up for her former boss at a student government meeting.

Please read the rest at:
http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/art/
is-art-center-gehry-rigged-richard-koshalek-says-no/
19093/?page=1

http://futureofartcenter.blogspot.com/

LA Times writes about Art Center controversy

I think it is important to come back on the Art Center issue after what is happening on-line with the petition, the LA Times wrote an excellent article that explaines really well what happened and what students are asking for.

So for those that are interested and did not read here a small part of it:

Dissension at Art Center College of Design

Some students and alumni want money to go toward education and scholarships, not new buildings.

By Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 11, 2008

Concerned that Art Center College of Design is putting too much money and energy into expanding its campus and promoting itself to outsiders -- and not enough into scholarships and instruction -- hundreds of students and alumni of the elite private college in Pasadena are petitioning its trustees to suspend plans for a $50-million building by Frank Gehry.

Art Center graduates have been weighing in over the Internet from as far away as France and South Korea, adding their names and comments to the "Education First!" petition that some students posted on the Web.

Art Center Petition: Education First

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/educationfirst

The rest of article you will find here:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-artcenter11-2008jun11,0,7266639.story

New article today 12 June: http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/arts-news/controversy-surrounds-yet-anot/

New article toda 12 June: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_9546872

BMW Gina Concept presented by Chris Bangle

Education first! Art Center controversy part 2

Hi friends,

several times I have written about Design schools and how to choose for a good one. Many times I wrote about Art Center in Pasadena - California as one of the best Design school on earth.

Actually there is a controversy going on at this school and it looks like a lot of people are mad about latest management strategy. In a few words , really few people understand and support the strategy applied to school's future vision.

Another element that is creating friction between the school management and students / alumni is Nathan Young's resignation (ex N°2 in school).

At the end the debate is : better big business or first education?

I met Nathan Young about 20 years ago and since then we had the chance to meet sometime and talk about Design, Education and naturally Art Center.
I know this guy well enough to say that he is probably the best and only resource today for such important school in order to get it back on track and produce again quality work and quality young designers.

Education first! Yes, it is all about good education at a competitive tuition fee. It is about spending the money on strategic projects with the right people on the boat like Nathan. It is about raising money to lower tution especially for those students that do not have a lot of money but that deserve a chance to make it.

Now I do not know if the resignation has been already accepted, I only hope that there will be a way to reconsider all this with a happy end in the main interest of students' education and school image.

This is my hope as Art Center Alumni!

If you want to sign the on-line petition click here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/educationfirst

The story is on the body, Art and Photography by Marco and Yasmina

Marco Guerra takes artistic photos of naked bodies representing their elegance and Yasmina Alaoui , on those photos, puts her color and texture artistic touch.
It is about an art project done by four hands and that starting the 5th of June will be exposed at the Opera Gallery in N.Y. USA.

For more info: Opera Gallery .com

MIROSLAV DIMITROV Rendering technique

Miroslav is a 23 year old designer with a BA in Automotive Design from Coventry University. His strong passion for design has led to running his own business as a freelancer in...check out the complete article with all images to learn...Enjoy!

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