:: ( CRIT ) :: DESIGN BLOG ::

Re-examining after the first year

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:53:29 -0500

Last spring, Steven Heller asked me to talk in his office.

"This might be like taking coals to Newcastle," he began. Then he told me that the New York Times was looking for summer interns and asked if I'd like him to recommend me for the program.

I paused for a second, just a second and told him no, but thank you.

In that second, I realized that the MFA Design program at SVA had changed me. I had come to graphic design as a refugee from the neighboring field of journalism. I have a degree in political science and journalism, and I'd spent six years at a major daily newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska, designing section covers and losing quite a lot of the idealism that had come with my journalism degree.

But in that second in Steve's office, I could hear echoes of my 22-year-old self. To that woman, this opportunity would have been a pie-in-the-sky opportunity that would have been impossible to pass up.

But that woman didn't get that opportunity. Instead, I stayed at the Omaha World-Herald for six years until I could design the local cover in my sleep (column one for columnist, five columns at top for lead story, four-column stand alone art, column six for second-most-important story) and I was feeling such a professional inertia that I quit my job to go back to school.

Even after starting at the University of Iowa for my BFA in design, I relied on journalism for my livelihood, taking a part-time job as a copy editor at a small daily. But that daily was owned by Gannett, and a few days after I earned my BFA, I was laid off as part of a 10 percent, across-the-board cut by the company. It was no reflection on my work and my competence, the managing editor told me. It was a situation I'd never pictured myself having to face, a situation I thought was reserved for employees who were lazy or incompetent, and I thought it would be a black mark on my resume. This made it even more amazing to have the possibility of a New York Times internship dangled in front of me.

It wasn't until after I followed my initial instinct to say no and left Steve's office that my cautious side spoke up. How would I make money this summer? (That's right, it was that elusive creature, the paid internship.) What if I didn't find a better internship? Would potential employers see a blank spot on my resume and think I was unemployable?

But those rumblings subsided when I realized that the New York Times wasn't my dream anymore. In fact, I felt exhausted and unhappy at the very thought of going back to a newsroom every day. And, in case you're wondering, I didn't find another internship. I spent the summer sweating in my apartment while dyeing and screen printing small batches of bags for the little business I started to support myself last winter, and enjoying the freedom that business gave me to travel to Italy with the department's study abroad program and to spend a week at a time at home in Iowa with family and friends. It would have been much more difficult to do those things while holding an internship for the whole summer.

I spent last night meeting the incoming 2012 class, and of course the new students want to know what the next year will be like. They're excited at the prospect of taking classes with Stefan Sagmeister and Milton Glaser, but worried about the workload. I'm honest with them, and I tell them it will be a really difficult year. It may have been the toughest year of my life. There were weeks when I had to chose between sleeping and showering. There were times when I wondered if I'd made the right decision. But by the time you get done with the first year, there's a sense that you can take on anything. The workload prepares you for that.

In the end, though, the most extraordinary thing I took away from my first year in the MFAD program was a sense that I control my own destiny. If I can't find a job that works with the grueling MFA schedule, I'll start my own business. If I have an idea, I don't have to run it by a boss or an editor. I can find a way to take it to market, and if the audience doesn't support it, I feel like I now have the resilience to move on to the next thing. I'm not dependent on somebody else.

Pages of History

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:02:30 -0500

After my first week in Venice with the SVA MFAD Masters Workshop in Italy, we moved on to Rome this week, where there's an even broader mix of history. I got the opportunity to view some of this history, in bound form, Tuesday at the Biblioteca Angelica.

It was incredible.

After a brief summary of the history of the Biblioteca Angelica (it was started in 1604, the first public library in the world, with the mission of providing books to anyone, regardless of income or social standing, which was revolutionary for the time) and a walk through the main reading room, we were treated to a selection of books that dated to the invention of the printing press. (A random bit of trivia: The room we were in was one of the locations where the movie "Angels and Demons" was filmed.)

With each new book we saw, our group pressed closer and closer to the display table. We were able to compare a printed volume with a manuscript that was handwritten in humanist script, both of which date to the 15th century. Among the others we saw was a volume titled "Hypnertomachia Poliphili," which was printed in 1499 by Aldus Manutius, one of the most famous Venetian printers of the time.

But the book that garnered the most gasps of excitement from our group of typophiles was a manual on the geometric construction of Latin majuscules. The manual, which was printed around 1509 and was only the second manual on Latin majuscules to be published on the printing press, was intended to teach artisans who chiseled inscriptions on buildings and sculptures. Each letter received its own page with a detailed description of how to produce the letter paired with a beautiful illustration showing the geometric basis of the letter. You can see the "A" page above.

All of the books in the Biblioteca Angelica are available for consultation, with the exception of a few manuscripts that are too fragile to be handled. It's inspiring to see how this organization is continuing to realize its 400-year-old mission.

Taking Charge with Emily Pilloton

Fri, 28 May 2010 16:22:18 -0500

As we finished our first year at the SVA MFA Design program, a number of us have been inspired to seek out that project or idea that may touch another individual or a community. We have sketched out and prototyped up a range of ideas whether for our 3-Dimensional Design class with Allan Chochinov or for Stefan Sagmeister’s Design Can Touch Someone’s Heart, but we are just one step short of rolling these ideas out.

Emily Pilloton’s talk at the Art Director’s Club earlier this month exemplify the reach we can have when we’re passionate about doing good somehow. At a mere 28 years old, Emily has already published a book, started a non-profit and created multiple volunteer projects that have benefited the poorest communities from North Carolina to Uganda. She’s a perfect role model as a young social entrepreneur of our times.

Emily was trained as an architect at UC Berkeley and has a masters in product design from the Art Institute of Chicago. After working commercially in product design for three years, she realized that she didn’t want to continue on the path of creating superfluous consumer goods for the market. She turned to volunteering in Uganda where she taught math to students who couldn’t grasp much of the mathematical concepts in the classroom. She decided to take it out of the classroom and build a playground that would encourage addition and subtraction with a game of used tires. This project became known as Learning Landscapes and is one of the featured projects in her non-profit, Project H, that Emily subsequently founded.

Project H’s mission is to connect the power of design to the people who need it most, and the places where it can make a real and lasting difference. It is made up of a team of designers and builders engaging locally to improve the quality of life for the socially overlooked.

The organization have six main underlying principles:
Design by Action.
Act now. Join Project H and volunteer your services if you are concerned about the world like Emily. It’s about collaboration and working on real projects.

Design Systems, Not Stuff.
Leaving behind a process that can be grown is more important than making a piece that might work for a period of time.

Design with, not for.
It’s about working in the communities that we care about. Being connected at the grassroots level is important and learning from the community is part of the process of problem solving.  

Start locally, scale globally.
It’s about starting things in our backyards, because we know our own communities best. 

Document, Share and Measure.
Allowing others to learn from her organization’s work is part of the process to spread the word and get more people involved. Her project teams never start from grounds up every time.

We Build.
Changing by building is key. Emily recommended Shopclass as a Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford, which stipulates that we have become too much of a knowledge economy where certain trades are not being taught to the next generation. Finding a way to make things to benefit a community is part of the challenge of doing good.

We should not just be inspired, but think about how we can execute the ideas we already have as concerned citizens of our own communities.

Travels Through European Gray in All Colors 2 //// BENOIT LEMOINE

Wed, 05 May 2010 22:03:29 -0500

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Dora and Maja had a solo exhibition under the name "The Rise of The Creative Class" in Brussels and on an extravaganza escapade through Belgium and Netherlands they met the finest Creative Class that those countries could offer. Presenting:

BENOIT LEMOINE

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the Benoit is a French designer based in Brussels. After working for studios in Canada and his home city he founded his own studio, the first works of his that we ran into was Corps Typographique (Typographic Bodies), pictorial manifesto that connects and explains typography through interconnectedness with human body, and Gondryesque Hypersomnia project (in collaboration with Jonathan Preteux) where everyday living space of a person is presented as a horizontal surface and multiplies situations in which the person sleeps. He believes that print will never die, and if it does it will certainly resurrect, so that's probably why his book design is so meticulous and concerned. Benoit also had a hard time explaining to his family what does a designer actually do, so let's hear how he dealt with that.
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DM: We found out on your website that you spent 12 months working for 4 different design studios on two continents before starting on your own. Would you advise design students to try working for some studios before starting on their own and what to look for when searching for a studio?
B: This period spent working in different studios was very enriching! It’s the kind of experience that teaches you what might have taken years to learn. Some of them, like Feed studio for example shared their passion for typography and design with me. All these experiences drove me to know what I want to achieve as graphic designer.

DM: Exercises De Style Lab, Website for research lab in fashion design that you made reference to the eponymous book of Raymond Queneau in which he re-writes the same short news item in 99 different literary styles, and the website functions in the same way, every time you visit the website a different style sheet is loaded. What else influences your design work?
B: In this particular project Lab Exercises de Styles was my main inspiration. I focused on the activities of the Lab in order to find the best way to translate it as a website. We wanted the conceptual aspect to be on the first line as the Lab does.

DM: Apart from having your own studio and doing projects independently you also do a lot of collaborations.
What is the best part about collaborating, and is there someone you would like to collaborate with in the future or even sooner?
B: There are an enormous number of graphic designers whose work I admire and with whom I dream to work with. I feel more and more the need to exchange and share with others. Collaborations are always an opportunity to learn, to be enriched with the knowledge of others, which gives an extra depth. I hope to extend this teamwork, with close friends and people I admire, and in the end, creating something lasting and passionate, personally and professionally. If I were to work either with Salutpublic or with my girlfriend, I’d be happy.

DM: The White Desk, a video which you did in collaboration with Cecile Boche, you dedicated to your mum because she doesn't understand what you do during the day. Is there anything about a designers daily activities that you have decided to hide from her?
B: This animation was created with Cécile Boche, and the message was intended for our mothers, respectively. For my mother, I think I need more than an animation to help her understand what I’m doing with my days. With time and the help of this video, she’s getting it more and more, a thing I liked about this work. It would probably be a good idea to make a second version, because my grandmother now thinks that I’m making comic strips. There’s still work to do! It is already difficult to define our discipline clearly for ourselves, so it’s not surprising that for outsiders it’s even more of a challenge. In a sense it’s a good thing; the limits of our job are not determined, which leaves lots for room for freedom. On the other hand, these unclear borders contribute to the lack of thoughtfulness among graphic designers.

DM: Seems like for the last five years the topic of death of print is really hot! We know that knowledge always finds way to survive. What is your secret weapon in case print find a tragic destiny in a nuclear information war?
B: Books won't completely disappear. There will be always some rare and luxurious books to design for artists.

There is much more on:
Benoit's website

Travels Through European Gray in All Colors 1//// TINKEBELL

Wed, 05 May 2010 21:23:21 -0500

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Dora and Maja had a solo exhibition under the name "The Rise of The Creative Class" in Brussels and on an extravaganza escapade through Belgium and Netherlands they met the finest Creative Class that those countries could offer. Presenting:

TINKEBELL

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Dutch performance artist best known for killing her own cat and making it into a purse. After that scary introduction we discovered the 'softer side' of the lady always dressed in pink; Tinkebell, aka Katinka Simonese who studied at Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam and now lives and works in the Netherlands.
Her first and most controversial project that we already mentioned was followed by a performance series "Her name is,.. " where she dragged three stuffed dogs throughout the streets of Chicago, L.A. and Beijing. The next one was an installation/happening SAVE THE PETS where about a hundred hamsters rolled around in individual plastic balls transforming the exhibition space into a living installation, followed by unsettling Baby Bunnies, a series of manipulated stuffed animals that interrogate our consumption habits, as they seem to convert the living and beloved into yet other throwaway commodities. Of course, all the fan mail that she received during the years was already making her inbox explode and her aura almost black, so she decided to make a book "Dearest TINKEBELL" (in collaboration with Dutch artist and designer Coralie Vogelaar), a collection of hate mails received by TINKEBELL, and, more significantly, a full-fledged web based investigation of those who emitted them. Tinkebell's work revolves around this "consumptive attitude that (post)modern man has taken on in relation to pets," that is, the ways that the pets have been com-modified into the perfect accessory to social life, as well as the hypocrisy within our various relationships with animals including those forged by animal right activism." So let us ask her if her pets prefer Shiba or Whiskas.
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DM: What was the reason in first place for turning your cat into a handbag for a performance titled "My dearest cat Pinkeltje"? And what does Pinkeltje mean?
T: She hated to be home alone, and I was busy working. She got depressed, so killing her and making a purse out of her solved 2 problems (she wasn't depressed anymore, and i could take her with me all the time). Pinkeltje is a common Dutch name for pets and its also a name of a character in a famous dutch children's book.

DM: With Coralie Vogelar you assembled a book "Dearest Tinkebell" (which is apparently sold out now, but can be bought through TORCH Gallery that represents you) that contains various hate-mail you received as a reaction on your performance when you turned your cat into handbag. First rumbling of discontent came from 48-year-old communications consultant and wife of a controversial plastic surgeon from Amsterdam, who apparently objected your cat bag with an email: “Girl, You don’t often see a freak as disturbed as you are. You think you can do this to the animals. I’m going to personally make sure that you’ll stop what you’re doing. You’ll regret this.” The book also includes personal information (photos, blogs, addresses) from those who have sent the hate mails. All this information was taken from the web. Have you noticed that there is a certain other pattern such as gender, age or occupation among hate mailers that contacted you?
View image
T: Hmm. Most of them are female, a lot are teenagers, but actually, everything (age, gender, education) comes back in the writers. Most of them didn't react to the publishing of the book, cause we didn't tell them they are going to be featured. The book is made in closecollaboration with Dutch artist Coralie Vogelaar, who researched the origins of the mail. All this information was taken from the web. The majority of the hate mail (approximately 80%) comes from America, other countries include The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Russia, UK and Brazil. Actually 95% came from Brazil, but most of them aren't in the book, cause they wrote me indirectly via 'orkut': a social network site (like facebook) which is extremely popular in Brazil. In the book I only published emails who appeared directly in my private inbox.

DM: The performance "My dearest cat Pinkeltje" you did while you where still an art student on Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. The broad range of hate mailers is quite unbelievable, how did they get introduced to your performance in the first place?
T: I did the performance during 'The Biggest Visual Power Show' (an intellectual show about next nature with short lectures and performances) in 'Paradiso' in the centre of Amsterdam. There were about 2000 people and some people in the audience posted my story on blogs, and that's how it went all over the world.

DM: Your work explores hypocrisy and blind spots in society. What else are you interested in?
T: The ones you mentioned, as well as 'normalities' in western society. We grow up thinking that all animals are happy, like happy kissing dolphins and happy cute pandas brushing the teeth with bamboo. The "Baby Bunnies" series provides an analysis of the consumptive attitude towards pets that are developing from 'man's best friend' into a completely com modified article of consumption.

DM: Do you think it's cute when animals imitate human behavior?
T: I don't think animals imitate human behaviors. Animals are just animals. Everything else is (our!) projection.

DM: And what is the perfect pet going to grow into?
T: I don't believe in such thing as a perfect pet. Although, there are of course examples of pets where people tried to make animals more perfect as a pet, like the hypoallergenic cat.

And there is More:
Tinkebell
Coralie Vogelar
Sandberg Institute
video posted by animal rights activist on Tinkebell's work
SAVE THE PETS project by Tinkebell
TORCH Gallery

The Main Event

Wed, 05 May 2010 12:43:45 -0500

The Unleashed Thesis Launch opening on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, at the SVA Visual Arts Gallery marked the finale of the Class of 2010 thesis year. A culmination of five months of work and planning, the Unleashed Thesis Launch is a celebration of the projects we lived and breathed for over the past year.

When the exhibition opened, the main gallery space was filled with MFAD students, faculty, alumni and many friends and family members.

Upon arrival, visitors picked up thesis give-aways like promotional buttons, booklets, postcards and business cards.

The graduating students mingled with guests while answering questions, giving brief descriptions of their work, and granting photo ops.

Visitors were able to sit down on the benches and watch the videos.

Additionally, there were three computer stations where visitors could learn more about each project.

For me, this final show felt satisfying and cathartic. The most satisfying part of the exhibition was showing the final product, and the hard work that went into it, to the public. I hope you’ll see it before it closes on May 15th.

Were you there? What did you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Unleashed Thesis Launch
April 30–May 15, 2010
Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26th St 15th Floor
New York, NY 10010

Unleashing Critical Mass

Mon, 03 May 2010 01:56:41 -0500

The Unleashed Thesis Launch is the final exhibition of print, motion and interactive work of the 2010 MFA Design graduating class.

This year, the final exhibition is evolving into a new model of forgoing objects and presenting work as a series of looping 30-sec videos. MFA Design Co-Chair Steven Heller said that the reasons for going all-video was that “the old exhibit paradigm is stale,” and while the products are wonderful on an individual level, “together, they run the risk of looking like a science fair.”

Taking on the new challenge of presenting the work of 21 students that showcases both the individuality of each thesis and the spirit as a whole, was the Unleashed Exhibition Curator, Ada Whitney, co-founder and creative director of Beehive. “Ada's experience and incredible willingness to take students in a new direction was a gift to MFAD. She has been tireless and generous we couldn't have asked for more,” said MFA Design Co-Chair Lita Talarico.

With a multimedia artist background, Whitney was the ideal candidate to spearhead the new exhibition format.

The 15-week preparation leading up to the final show, opening this Tuesday, May 4th, had its ups and downs. For many students, including myself, the idea of filming, editing, and learning Final Cut was daunting. Luckily, technical workshops lead by Sunita Prasad, Technical Assistant and Exhibition Coordinator, clarified and eased the transition.

Ada Whitney and Sunita Prasad spoke with CRIT about the new format of the Unleashed Thesis Launch.

CRIT: This is the first year the SVA MFA Design Thesis Launch features an all-video installation. How did you approach the curatorial process to put the show together?

Ada Whitney (AW):
When [Steven Heller and Lita Talarico] brought me in to expand the scope of this year's thesis projects through the use of video, it was a daunting task at first, but it came together quite fluidly. After reviewing the students’ work, and considering the entrepreneurial focus of the SVA MFA Design program, I directed the students to create [30 to 60 seconds] spots that would play in the gallery now, and later be used to promote the projects beyond the exhibition's 4 walls—on their websites, and in promotional kits or portfolios.

I explored the gallery environment to determine the most effective way to captivate the audience, and give them a full sense of the thesis work. Considering the space, I decided to use the size to our advantage by projecting multiple large-scale videos on the walls; and then adding a group of computer screens to house a website containing detailed information and pictures of each student's work for an in-depth exploration of projects.

The packaging of the exhibition became an integral part of the show. Its job was to organize 21 projects and help the viewer navigate the work. It not only wraps the gallery space and website, it provides the videos a cohesive visual framework for titling and space for each piece to shine on it's own.

CRIT: What was your biggest challenge?

AW:
In terms of the installation the biggest challenge was how to show 21 videos and give them individual focus, and provide a showcase for projects to be viewed in depth.

The biggest challenge in terms of the students was moving a majority of them from a place of fear to inspiration. Working with sound, motion and a temporal image was something foreign to many. They needed to believe that they could successfully translate the essence of their thesis into a timed-based medium, and that they could master the skills needed to do that. We provided production classes, critiques and technical workshops to support them.

Sunita Prasad (SP):
The biggest challenge is definitely the incorporation of 21 distinct sets of ideas into one show. All of the students are immensely creative, have worked really hard, and they each deserve to be recognized individually. At the same time, they are a part of this unique community called MFA Designer as Author. The challenge was to come up with an impactful way to represent the community that is greater than the sum of its parts as well as the individual projects, which are each so well resolved in their own rights.

CRIT: What can visitors expect?

AW:
Visitors should expect an accomplished, inspirational and challenging set of works. [The videos] are housed in 3 large video wall projections that generate a communal experience and 3 small computer screens that invite intimate individual interaction. Together they inform the viewer as an audience and engage them as participants.

SP:
Visitors can expect to find themselves in a very unique atmosphere, awash in image and sound via three large scale simul-cast video projections that will give them an overview of the ideas, concerns, visions, and whimsies that this group of creative individuals have brought to bear in their time in the department.

They will [also] have the opportunity to engage with each of these ideas one-on-one through the interactive web-site component that will be available on computers right in the gallery.

The whole show is held together by a strong graphics package and topped off with a set of portraits of each of the MFA Designers that gives a distinct sense of this group's furiously fun character.

CRIT: In previous years, the final thesis exhibition featured actual products on display. Now, going to an all-video installation, what are your thoughts on why the program incorporated this new direction?

AW:
I think creating video and digital based media for the exhibition was a brilliant idea. It's a move into the crossover world we live in, where design boundaries have shattered and print, photography, architecture, packaging, type, illustration and video merge.

Not only does it embrace the current state of communication arts, it creates a focused gallery viewing experience for 21 individual projects. In addition, the medium provides added reach. After leaving the gallery the work can cross the globe freely via YouTube, Vimeo and individual websites.

For the graduating Class of 2010, the video Thesis Launch defines the expanding role of the designers in the industry, and charters new possibilities for creative expression afforded by emerging technologies. “We believe that the critical mass of ideas and fabrication, combined with the unique ways they are promoted through Forum, Launch and the web presence will propel the best notions into the marketplace,” says Heller.

Come check out all 21 videos at the Unleashed Thesis Launch. To find more information about each thesis, read our previous post.

The opening reception with the graduating class will take place on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 6pm–8pm at the SVA Visual Arts Gallery.

The Visual Arts Gallery is free and open to the public. Hours are Monday-Saturday 10am–6pm. The Unleashed Thesis Launch video exhibition will be up until May 15th.

Unleashed Thesis Launch
April 30–May 15, 2010
Opening Reception: May 4, 6–8pm
Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26th St 15th Floor
New York, NY 10010

2010 Unleashed Thesis Forum

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:17:13 -0500

Come see and hear all the 21 MFA Designer as Author graduating students as they present their final thesis projects on the big stage at the 2010 Unleashed Thesis Forum held at the SVA Theatre. Featuring a keynote by Paola Antonelli (Curator of architecture and design at New York's Museum of Modern Art) and endnote by John Carlin (co-founder and CEO of Funny Garbage).

The Forum will be moderated by Scott Stowell (proprietor of Open, an independent, New York–based design studio), and Allan Chochinov (partner and the editor-in-chief of Core77.com, strategist for Coroflot.com and DesignDirectory.com).

The goal of the Designer as Author Thesis is to enable MFA students to redress commercial, social, and cultural needs by developing ideas that matter which are then turned into viable products. The purpose of the year-long research and development process is to invent something that has not been created before or improve upon what is essential but flawed. Each student delves into personal histories in order to identify a concept that has broader appeal. Their products are not just "stuff for stuff's sake" or unnecessary additions to the real and metaphoric landfill, but things of value that in numerous ways add to the greater welfare.

Here’s a preview of the schedule:

Welcome by Steve Heller & Lita Talarico

Keynote by Paola Antonelli

Moderator One: Scott Stowell

SPOONFUL by Carli Pierce is a magazine that inspires New Yorkers to cook with local food and enrich the experience.

GETBUSY by Grace Marie Amico is a combination of innovation and education that actuates urban and suburban dog owners to dispose their dog’s waste in the municipal sewer system.

SPEAK OF LOVE by Matthew Stipano is a performance piece of monologues and discourses from pop culture that swap character’s gender in order to shed light on same-sex relationships and equality.

POÉTIQ by Dohun Park is a series of everyday objects to reframe the meanings of everyday objects with poetic messages to give people reflective experiences and insightful thoughts.

I’M A DESIGNER AND I CAN’T DRAW by Mariana De Andrada Uchoa Santa Cruz is a book about visualizing ideas. Can a good designer be a bad illustrator?

STAND SMALL by Celine Bouchez is a celebratory movement of rethinking “small” by embracing “smaller everything.”

X–HEIGHT by Seungjoo Lee is a website for the Korean students who want to continue their design studies overseas.

TEDI GALLI By Ekta Daryanani is smart phone application designed to connect local commuters in the city of Mumbai, enabling them to share everyday traffic and alternate route information.

ONE WORD DICTIONARY by Bronson Stamp is a model for the exploration of word concept and meaning.

MOSA by Giho Lee is a virtual Museum of Sound and Art to be used by designers and musicians to offer inspiration through the integration of these two art forms.

Moderator Two: Allan Chochinov

TABLE AND CHAIR; PEN AND PAPER; TEXT AND TIME by Helga Schmid is an exploration of handwriting.

FIRST PERSON AMERICAN by Irina Lee is a content-driven website that explores personal stories of people who come to America through storytelling, visual documentation and interactive media.

TWO WINGS by Matthew Heckart is a creative campaign produced by an international team of animators, designers and musicians, to advocate for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.

SENTIMENTALYST by Marlyn Dantes is a web application that shows you HOW and HOW MUCH every news story is reported around the world.

TOUCHING YELLOW by Meital Gueta is an exhibit that focuses on the sighted community’s understanding of how the visually impaired perceive the world.

TIME / PLACE by Tonya Douraghy is a book that explores the political history of modern border conflicts through personal narratives.

SPAGHETTI WITH MILK by Ifaat Qureshi is a book that explores how food memories shape our personal and cultural identities.

LAZY GREEN by James Yang is an iPhone game application that helps lazy environmentalists save energy by raising animals in their phones.

ISM by Jackie Lay is a series of motion graphic animations that introduce philosophical ideas in thirty seconds.

THE AH PROJECT by Ashley Stevens is a community targeted to 18-25 year-olds who are close to someone with a severe mental illness.

ILLUMINATED ATHEIST by Matthew Luckhurst is a website of personal stories and a new visual library for Atheism and reform the perception of it in the public’s mind.

Closing remarks: John Carlin

2010 Unleashed MFA Design Thesis Forum
April 20th
Doors Open: 10:15am
Presentations: 11am to 7 pm

SVA Theatre
333 West 23 Street
New York NY 10011
RSVP here

Letters to a Young Presenter

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:23:27 -0500

The big day is almost here. Time to put your entire year’s worth of work, personal story and inspiration on the stage. Every time I think about the Thesis Forum, I oscillate from excitement to nausea.

The Thesis Forum is still a new and developing format. Held at the SVA Theatre, each student is given 10 minutes to present and 5 minutes for Q&A. In previous years, the final culmination of the thesis defense was a presentation at the studio to the co-chairs and thesis advisors.

However, last year, for the first time in the program's 10-year history, the class of 2009 presented their thesis on stage at the inaugural Potential Energy Thesis Forum. Having a year to reflect upon the Forum presentation, alumni Gustavo Garcia, David Ricart, Nick Acemoglu, and Steve Haslip share their experience and advice with students following their footsteps.

What was your experience presenting at the Forum?

Gustavo Garcia:
It was an amazing experience. Being on that stage, presenting my work that I've put all my energy into for a year to a big crowd was a very defining moment in my life.

David Ricart:
It was as exciting as the first class with Milton Glaser.

Nick Acemoglu:
The school year and moments leading up to the Forum were filled with constant self-loathing and self-doubt. At one point, I had forgotten that I was only in school. After my presentation, it was so incredibly empowering to remember that I'm actually good at what I do.

Steve Haslip:
It was a successful event, and a great showcase for the whole class.

What did you like? What do you wish was improved?

Gustavo: The whole set up was perfect and very professional. I feel like I gave a good presentation. Stick with what happened. Mistakes are also part of the good memories I have from that day.

David: I loved the help from the first years. I wish the day were shorter. Partying at the end is awesome.

Nick: I loved the Questions and Answers section. I wish there could have been more time for that portion.

Steve: The venue was great, but the format was too long. I think that it's too much to ask the attendees to give up a whole day. It's also a shame if they only see a portion of the presentations. In my opinion, a shorter format would benefit all by allowing attendees to see the whole class as opposed to two or three students.

Did the Thesis Forum presentation prepare you for post-MFA life?

Gustavo: Definitely. I'm 100% sure about that.

David: Absolutely. It was a major confidence booster once accomplished.

Nick: Are you kidding? Of course! My level of confidence in presenting work skyrocketed. The rationale I developed from the thesis process LITERALLY forced me to quit smoking. Upon graduating, my class walked into a shit job market… although it wasn't easy at first, I knew that when given the opportunity I could slay any job interview.

Steve: I think the theater environment provides some students the strongest platform to showcase their work. It is good preparation for what lies ahead.

Was the Forum was the culmination of your thesis, or the beginning of something new?

Gustavo: I guess I can say both. It's the end of an intense and super stressful creative process, but at the same time it feels like the birth of your child, you know? It's your idea coming to life. On that very specific moment you project is alive and ready to take over the world!

Nick: Definitely the beginning. After the Forum, I reacquired all the self-doubt in order to make my project better. I went back to formula and redid ALL the steps. I will probably never be 100% happy, but hopefully I can soon 'unleash' my 'potential energy' into the real world.

Steve: I think it's inevitable that the thesis forum feels like the end of a journey, given that it takes place at the end of the course. However, it prepared me to take my thesis to the next level.

Advice on overcoming nerves?

Gustavo: Sleep well. Remember to breathe in AND out. You can't see a single face on the audience because of the light.

David: Do a lot of breathing exercises before jumping on stage. Own it!

Nick: Backstage, Esther told a handful of us "you have to remember, you're in school". Drink lots of water. Rehearse your thesis to anyone who will listen.

Steve: Practice, practice, practice. Know your shit!

Parting words of advice?

Gustavo: Don't worry about it. Really. You know EVERYTHING about YOUR project, so there's no chance you're gonna do it wrong. Good luck and kick some ass! Or as we say here in Brazil: Boa sorte e quebra tudo!

David: Manage your water intake and your bathroom breaks well. And above all: Confidence!

Nick: Be supportive of each other and don't talk shit.

The Thesis Forum is open to the public.

SVA MFA Design 2010 UNLEASHED Thesis Forum
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Click here to register

A culinary solution to the design triangle

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:38:26 -0500

If you're familiar with the design triangle, you know you can't get things good, fast and cheap. At best, you're going to get two of the three.

Our class learned last semester that the design triangle applies to food, too. We would emerge from our night classes famished and needing something quick before we got back to work. Do you go cheap or good?

On one of those nights last winter, Alexej Steinhardt and I went out for pizza, and Alexej ran an idea by me: He wanted get a group of people together, and each would be responsible for a home-cooked meal one night a week, but everyone would be fed for the whole week. Did I think anyone would be interested?

I knew I would. After winter break, Alexej found three other people who were interested in participating, bringing the total to five, enough to cover one meal each weekday. And the food co-op (we gave up trying to find a more clever name for it) has been a success.

It works like this: Each of us chose a regular day when we bring in food (mine, for example, is Friday). If that day doesn't work some week, for whatever reason, I'm responsible for finding someone to switch with me, and the co-op members are pretty flexible. We've even opened up guest chef spots for classmates who don't want to commit to the whole semester, but would like to participate for a week.

Although we've had vegetarian guest chefs, no one in the core group is a vegetarian, so meat is allowed most weeks. We've outlined some food preferences: I hate peppers and raw tomatoes, Jinah Min won't eat cucumbers, and there's a strong dislike of mayonnaise among most of the group. But for the most part, the co-op keeps an open mind about what's served. We try to prepare food that's relatively healthful. The variety of food has been amazing, and we've only had a few repeats.

And although there's no expectation that we have to eat as a group, the social aspect has been a bonus. And occasionally we do something that is more fun as a group, such as sushi or cheese night. Last week, after a few days of beautiful warm weather, I had an unstoppable craving for ice cream. So I found a recipe I'd been saving for a few years, and we made ice cream from scratch in plastic bags full of salty ice water (which you can see to the left). I wasn't sure it would work, but after 10 minutes of shaking freezing Ziploc bags, everybody got to eat fresh vanilla ice cream.

There have been a few breakdowns during weeks when our workload is higher, but they've been rare. Usually, someone is far enough ahead of the game to cover for someone else who's struggling with an assignment that week. And even though we spend a little more time shopping and cooking one day of the week, the payoff is more than worth it when we don't have worry at all about the other four days.

Maira Kalman's Theory of Creativity

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:57:42 -0500

As I get close to graduating, I'm thankful for the range of assignments and classes that varied from methodical and deliberate to playful and fun. The range of work, which seems to be the undercurrent for this Master's program, strengthened my design thinking, opened my mind, built my confidence, and allowed me to discover my own path through play. Paul Rand said that the play instinct is the most important quality because “without play, there’s no experimentation, and experimentation is ultimately the quest for answers.”

For me, the class that exemplifies this 'play instinct' was Maira Kalman's New York Stories. Held at Maira's lovely home, (complete with apple cider, cookies and lemon pound cake) this class is a short 6-session seminar to “stimulate off-center thinking,” says MFA Design co-chair Steven Heller, “whatever the result—and it is usually up to the students—they would never have done it before if not for this class.”

When I had the class last year, our group planned an outdoor opera inspired by the 3:30 pm Immanuel Kant walks. Sadly, the weather didn’t cooperate and the performance didn’t happen. Fortunately, the weather won't deter this year's projects. The first-year class chose to read Einstein’s Dreams—a 1992 novel by Alan Lightman, fictionalizing Albert Einstein as a young scientist who is troubled by dreams as he works on his Theory of Relativity in 1905—and create individual short-films based on a specific chapter. “The idea of a movie came up and a kind of 'exquisite corpse' developed,” says instructor Maira Kalman.

Einstein’s Dreams consists of 30 chapters, each exploring one dream about time that Einstein had during this period. The lack of plot makes Einstein’s Dreams read more like an ethereal and meditative collection of poetry, rather than a novel. “The structure of the book [was] perfect for episodic treatment,” says Kalman, “it is philosophical and lyrical,” lending it for a perfect inspiration for the students’ short-film interpretations. Students Christopher Seabrooks and Karin Soukup, saw this as an opportunity to play, improvise and experiment. They spoke to CRIT about their experience:

Christopher Seabrooks on his short-film, "Dream Five: Where Elevation Slows Tme"

I wanted to show a funny aspect to Einstein's dreams—something that could stand on its own and not rely on the text to carry it. What I learned form this project is I worried too much. If you worry about the time limit or the deadline, the project becomes much more stressful. I just tried to make a video that I was happy with.

Karin Soukup on her short-film, "Dream Eleven: Where Time is a Sense"

Rather than storyboard before filming, I chose a specific camera style, a day, and a subject, [and] then shot various scenes impromptu while wandering around New York City. My chapter of Einstein's Dreams was based on time and the senses, so I would scan the city for objects and moments that reminded me of our perceptions of taste (i.e. cotton candy), touch (i.e. a dog), sound, etc., and shoot short clips as potential content. Then, I repeated this process with another subject on a different day, and left the final narrative to a degree of chance.

What I learned from this project was that waiting for the Super 8 film to process lent itself an element of surprise, as did the opportunity to weave together a tale based on the visuals that resonated from the film. The story really created itself during the editing process as I started to select my favorite "scenes" and use the structure of the music as a framework to build around. Watching a narrative slowly come to life was really engaging.

The screening of 11 TIMES will feature 11 short-films. The audience can expect “a great emotional roller coaster of films, each standing on their own as great work,” says Seabrooks—but Maira puts it best, “it will be FUN!”

Featured short-films:

Dream One, Where the future is fixed
By Rosina Bosco

Dream Two, Caught in time
By Christina Vasquez

Dream Three, Where each day is without memory
By Jennifer Glaser

Dream Four, Where time repeats
By Alexej Steinhardt

Dream Five, Where elevation slows time
By Christopher Seabrooks

Dream Six, Where lives are infinite
By Lydia Reynolds

Dream Seven, Where the past shifts
By Samantha Katz

Dream Eight, Where choices alter time
By Jinah Min

Dream Nine, Where time brings order
By Dora Budor

Dream Ten, Where time has gaps
By Nicole Pivirotto

Dream Eleven, Where time is a sense
By Karin Soukup

11 TIMES: A Series of Short Films Based on Einstein's Dreams
for Maria's Kalman's 'New York Stories' class

FRIDAY, APRIL 9TH 7:00–9:00 PM
SVA Social Documentary Theater
136 West 21st Street, 1st Floor
New York, NY 10011

Seating limited. First come, first serve.

Designing Currency

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:20:19 -0500

I’m in awe of this beautiful and simple stop-motion video. Produced by Giant Ant Media, the team created this brilliant animation using a money counter to promote the upcoming 2010 Icograda Design Week in Vancouver, and to get people thinking about how design can change the world around them.

The theme of the conference is "Defining the Value of Design". To play off the themes of currency and value, the team designed and printed 2218 custom bills and fed them through a money counting machine to create the motion. It was all captured in camera in 1 night!

Check out amazing process photos, like the ones featured below, on the DesignCurrency 2010 flickr pool.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/designcurrency2010/

SAVE THE DATE: MFAD THESIS FORUM, APRIL 20, 2010

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:08:10 -0500

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, April 20 (28 days away, but who's counting?) for the SVA MFA DESIGN THESIS FORUM which will be held at the SVA Theatre.

21 talented SVA Masters Degree candidates will present and defend their thesis projects to an industry-filled audience.

Join us for UNLEASHED when the MFA candidates for 2010 each present their unique concepts in ten minutes followed by five minutes for audience feedback and questions. Every year, MFAD candidates’ work reflects the leading-edge quality of the school and its graduates. You will be inspired, surprised, and motivated by the ideas of our future design leaders.

SVA MFA Designer as Author
THESIS FORUM
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
SVA Theater
333 West 23rd Street
New York, New York 10011

The “SVA MFA Designer As Author” program is predicated on the growing need for content providers throughout visual media. Building on students’ fluency with the graphic design language of type and image, the MFA Design program is the first in the United States developed exclusively to encourage authorship and entrepreneurship across a broad range of media. As a result of this ground-breaking curriculum, students envision, develop and present real concepts and products designed to enter the marketplace and serve a specific audience.

Spring's Finally Sprung

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:45:55 -0500

Welcome back from spring break -- only 8 more weeks until the end of the semester. I was lucky to escape to Madrid last week for some serious museum immersion. Got to the Thyssen-Bornemisza (a private collection made public in 1992), the Reina Sofia (home to Picasso's Guernica) and of course the Prado (home to Las Meninas by Velazquez). Outside the Prado for two months are sculpture works by artist Xavier Mascaro...a perfect way to welcome in the new season.

Jackie + Mattie Go to the Armory Show

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:21:32 -0500

There were many, many more. But here are some favorites from our recent visit to the 2010 Armory Show which closed its doors yesterday.