Spring break design field trip

Junior, Tom Morse-Brown gives us some highlights of the Colorado Spring break trip. Read Tom's review and his photos below:

"Sixteen of us from the Graphic Design department went on a four day trip to Boulder and Denver, Colorado to visit CP&B, Vermillion, Moxie Sozo, Ink Lounge and Matter plus a cooperative critique with 7 students and faculty from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. It was an inspirational and fun visit. Here are a few snaps:

First stop - Crispin Porter and Bogusky, a design firm whose employees work around the clock all the time - work is very much a lifestyle for them. They are very creative and have a wonderful space. They grew from 50 employees to 600 in just two years! They do work for many major brands such as Burger King, Coke Zero and Microsoft.

Their space is basically a huge boring looking warehouse on the outside, in the middle of an industrial estate, but on the inside, very cool. Lots of different spaces to be inspired in.

Vermillion was our next stop. A much much smaller firm in Boulder, about 15 employees. One of their managers who spoke to us used to work in the big firms, Pentagram for example and have as many as 100 people under her. Vermillion is now sort of the end of the line for her, a quiet design firm, still doing very solid work of course. They do a lot of the advertising for Izze so, free drinks all round!

Moxie Sozo is about the same size as Vermillion. Quality work, small business, very creative people, quite brilliant I think at what they do.

Some of the crew: from left to right - Dmitri Kozlov, Luke Babb, Andrea Morris, Sean Shockley, Lance Flores and Abby Gallagher.

Ninety percent of Ink Lounge's work is run of the mill design for small businesses around the Denver area. More importantly is the ten percent they keep under wraps: some amazing screen printing of very individual design work.

We spent a few hours with some RMCAD students in the loft of Michael McCoy in downtown Denver. It was good to give and hear feedback in a place other than our own studio. It was also good to be around Michael and his work and work by the other students too. This is Sean presenting his environmental type project.

The last place we saw was Matter. A very cool letterpress studio in Denver. The manager Rick is hilarious. He is a very learned man. Has an amazing library and extensive knowledge in print. He's also from England which makes him even cooler!"

6 week summer intensive at SVA

Impact! Design for Social Change is a six-week summer intensive co-chaired by Steven Heller and Mark Randall. The program at the School of Visual Arts in New York will introduce educators, professionals and "college seniors who wish to focus in the area of social change" to the growing field of design for social advocacy. To learn more visit here.

You must have completed at minimum your junior year to apply. Completion of the program will give you 6 undergraduate credits.

application deadline april 30th

Matt's in the news

Check out this Pitch article about senior Matt Urlaub's on-going design project. It's a nice overview highlighting the guerrilla design he's been doing throughout the year. Way to put yourself out there!

printervention poster exhibit

i wanted to share that i have been invited to participate in “printervention”, a poster exhibit in chicago that raises awareness of social and political issues of our day. it will take place on the streets and storefronts of chicago, as well as a more formal exhibit at the chicago cultural center’s tourism building. extra posters will then be sent to the u.s. social forum in detroit, where they will be distributed to activists and educators there.

my poster is in production now and is meant, in a small way, to address issues of homelessness on a personal level. it is an 18" x 24" 2-color silkscreen that perforates into four pieces,with the "spread love" cut out as a stencil.

i'm going to plan a postering session sometime in the near future, so let me know if you are interested in helping me get these out on the street where they belong.

in the news: MOMA acquires the @

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has acquired the @ symbol into its collection.

@

Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change by Victor Papanek—1985

Adobe Design Awards

Adobe Design Achievement Awards Call for Entries now open. Now is a good time to review your work from the most recent terms and select your best pieces to enter! There are twelve categories to pick from and you can submit work in more than one category.

Project Projects lecture.

Project Projects speaking at Hallmark Design symposium.

Project Projects is a design studio focusing on print, identity, exhibition, and interactive work with clients in art and architecture.

Mon 3/22
6-8pm
Wescoe Hall, KU
Lawrence

COLABORATORY internship in portland

the portland ad federation is now accepting applications for their national-level internship program. see details below.

• Ten students will be chosen after an extensive application process
• Each student will spend two weeks in three different agencies; internship is six weeks in duration
• Two teams of five will compete to develop a campaign pitch for Tillamook Cheese
• Students with interests in writing, design, interactive, multimedia, production, strategy and account planning, public relations, and account management are encouraged to apply

APPLICATION PERIOD OPENS FEBRUARY 5, 2010 AND ENDS APRIL 15, 2010.
register online here.
Those accepted into the program will be notified by APRIL 30, 2010.

INTERNSHIP PERIOD RUNS JULY 2-AUG 13, 2010

a sampling of the portland studios involved:

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !

josh lambert's aura brand identity from our design systems class is showcased on motion graphics served: a site dedicated to fresh works from leading design professionals. some great work—love you josh!

Design a tote for your favorite charity

Design really can make a difference: For PRINT magazine's June issue, 12 leading visual artists, including Ed Fella, Christoph Niemann, and büro destruct, are creating a design for tote bags that will be sold on MyDesignShop.com, and one hundred percent of the profits from these bags will go to causes chosen by the artists.


Now you can join these top designers—choose a cause you'd like to support, and create a design for it that can be printed on a tote bag. One winner will have his or her creation turned into a real bag—and will also get to take home one of the designer-made totes in the issue. Do good design—and do good!

GET SPECS AND ENTER HERE
Deadline March 15

off to berlin in April

Hey, I wanted to share that I've been selected to present at the 5th Centre for Learning & Teaching in Art & Design (cltad) International Conference, Challenging the curriculum: exploring discipline boundaries in art, design and media in Novatel, Tiergarten, BERLIN.

The name of my presentation (co-authored with Assistant Professor Lane, Kent State Ohio) is “How Are Design Educators Responding to a Collaborative Culture?” and will show the third project I teach in the junior Visual Language studio as one of the case studies. Here are the other presenters.

lecture Monday March 8: Scott Thares, Wink

Founded by Richard Boynton and Scott Thares in January of 2000, Wink is a multi-disciplinary design firm that aspires to not only impact commerce, but culture. To date, the Minneapolis-based firm has done work for clients such as Target, Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's), Nike, American Eagle Outfitters, Turner Classic Movies, Toys "R" Us, Chronicle Books, The Limited, Daub & Bauble and The New York Times. Their work has received recognition from publications such as Communication Arts, Print, Graphis, ID, HOW, Step Inside Design, the AIGA, New York Art Directors Club, and The Type Directors Club, among various others.

March 8
Free and open to the public.
at 3139 Wescoe, KU
6:00pm – 8:00 pm

Poster clash

The AIGA Blue Ridge Poster clash has 64 Finalists, 5 of which are KCAI students. Congrats to Bethany Ediger, Brandon Lyon, Keaton Reeder, Vi Pham and Taylor Pruitt.

Voting is Open! Vote Now.

paper typography

beautiful paper typography from Yulia Brodskaya

AIGA studio tour + studio tour

Don't miss out on two upcoming studio tours!

1. Willoughby Design, Wed 3/3. Studio tour starts @ 3pm at their office. 602 Westport Road.
2. Valhalla Studio, Wed 3/10. Studio tour starts @ 3pm at their office. 2111 Washington St.

Talk to Morgan Allen for details.

livestrong

Congratulations to Luke Babb on his recent volunteer and design opportunity for the LIVESTRONG Army of Kansas City. He'll be working with designers at the award winning KC agency, Muller, Bressler, + Brown. You can read about his experiences on his blog.

The rich world of K

Not Kafka, black!
Great informative article on black in print and web.
http://www.andrewkelsall.com/the-professional-designers-guide-to-using-black/

summer internship at VML

VML is looking to hire Design interns for the 2010 summer program. It’s a 10-week program in either the New York or Kansas City offices – both of which are pretty rockin’ places. Wear jeans, hang out in a creative environment and get your foot in the door of a top-rated digital agency with a pretty stellar list of clients. And don’t expect your hard work to go unrewarded – you'll be payed for your time.

You’ll get extra bonus points for having design skills in Flash, so make sure to let them know your level of expertise.

To get the ball rolling, submit your resume, cover letter and work samples to Farrah McGuire (fmcguire@vml.com), Talent Manager, by March 19th. An online portfolio is ideal, but they’ll look at work samples or your entire portfolio PDF through email, too.

Talk to Jamie or Michael if you have questions.

folly accolades

I'm happy to announce that the Folly Theater wants to continue the poster design project with KCAI for the 2010-2011 seasons.

This ongoing relationship is certainly a testament to the excellent work the juniors did last fall.

I also heard that ticket sales went up 20% since using the posters and many patrons asked about purchasing posters. Now, that's a testament to the power of design.

website accolades

The KC Ad Club awarded a Gold Addy to VML for the www.KCAI.edu website.

Hmmmm... but no kcai student award winners? That's because you have to enter to win things.

kcai designers win national awards

seniors ramzy masri and logan smith have been awarded grants from Design Ignites Change for their social change projects from "visual advocacy" class last term. ramzy received a second place designation for "A Book by its Cover: Reading Stereotypes" and logan recieved a third place designation for "Freewall: Making Space for Diversity". the grants they received will allow them to actually implement their projects in the kansas city community, moving them beyond the classroom to make a real change for real people.

three kcai graphic design students also received honorable mentions -- morgan allen (view project), laura berglund (view project), and ian tirone (view project). kcai students numbered five out of a total of eight projects recognized for excellence in this national level grant competition.

check out the press release on the DIC website here. 

the Design Ignites Change Implementation Award is granted twice a year to student initiatives that exhibit a powerful and provocative solution to a pressing social problem. Design Ignites Change engages high school and college students in multidisciplinary design and architecture projects that address pressing social issues. participants are encouraged to apply design thinking—the combination of unleashed creativity and executable actions—to problems that exist in their own communities.

a huge congratulations to everyone for making our department shine!

summer internship at BR

download the application form and get more info here. deadline feb 19th.

go to http://www.digitas.com/careers/internships for all the details on applying to the program:

what's in it for the interns: positions available across capabilities; a chance to work and live in one of our 6 US locations including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Connecticut, Detroit, and New York; a 10-week program commitment starting June 7–August 13; 100% dedicated to their capability supporting real client work; a fun day/outing to give them an opportunity to get intimate with their new city and peers; a summer project which is their chance to pitch their work to us; and, finally, weekly training sessions to give them exposure to other capabilities

overcoming creative block

interviews with artists and designers on where they get ideas.

A few of my favorites are

Nicolas Feltron says: "In odd-numbered years (eg, 2009) I travel more and concentrate on personal projects and initiatives, while in even-numbered years (eg, 2008), I try to do more work and make more of a profit."

Mark Weaver says: "To achieve full creative potential I must sit in the woods, watch Mad Men, and listen to Boards of Canada simultaneously."

international platform for students in design...

more info here: www.open-output.org
any questions please email: info@open-output.org

freelance opportunity

"I am a small business owner and am interested in working with a student on logo/branding (business card, letterhead, postcard, brochure) for my video production/photography business."

If you are interested pursuing a freelance opportunity contact:
Antisha Gaitan
Bluvision Media
816.774.1BLU

tyler's in the news

Tonight, turn on channel 41 for the 10pm news.

Our very own tyler galloway will be interviewed about the billboard project from his 2008 visual advocacy class.

submit to the adobe achievement awards

more info at: ADAA.ADOBE.COM

kc job posting

Design Ranch is hiring a junior level designer for packaging and web design. http://www.aigadesignjobs.org/public/job_details.asp?job_id=25154

kyle huber's advocacy project receives more press

graphic design senior kyle huber has received more local press for his aids awareness project "spread the truth, not the disease" that he began in visual advocacy class. he was interviewed saturday feb 6 as part of the kkfi 90.1 radio show "tenth voice, a program that addresses LGBT issues. check out the mp3 from the program below, and tell kyle congrats when you see him. way to go, kyle! keep up the good work.

Kyle Huber Interview - Spread the Truth Not the Disease Feb06-2010 by tgalloway

haiti poster project

brought to you by Moxie Sozo (a design firm in boulder CO)

going to NY soon?

check out the new typography exhibit at the moma.

union station design internship

The design team for Union Station is looking for interns. The have both print and interactive possibilities, openings during the school or summer.

If you're interested come see me for the internship application form.

design week challenge winners

Congrats to Josh Eithun and his team. Last night, the team (composed of all student graphic designers, architects and planners from around KC) won the first annual KC design week challenge. Here is what Josh had to say about the concept:









The challenge was to design a more efficient storage system for Harvesters extra barrels. We asked the question, why do they have so many extra barrels in the first place? The best way to save space in their warehouse, we thought, was for the barrels to be out of harvesters and in the world collecting food.

so we designed an event, Take Away the Hunger. This is a social event in a warehouse or some open space that is filled with empty Harvesters barrels. Local corporations, organizations, retailers, grocery stores, ext are invited to mingle among these empty barrels that symbolize empty bellies in KC and are expected to take a barrel with them when they leave.

These empty barrels are not just randomly placed in the space, but they spell out the word "hunger." Throughout the night there is a camera filming the event from the ceiling and as the guests take away their barrels the camera captures "hunger" being taken away as well. This video can later be used for promotional purposes to symbolize how Harvesters is helping to take away hunger in KC by filling their barrels, one at at time.

a question

what do peter max, kcai and the kc auto show have in common? hmmmmm, perhaps our own jessica abigail lyew-ayee can answer? congratulations jessica on your BIG project—a mural for the kc auto show in march. yes!

you can't win if you don't enter

Win an Exclusive Eames House Sunset Tour

Date: March 11, 2010 
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The 3 winners will be notified by Feb. 23 2010. Contest does not include travel costs to the Eames House in Pacific Palisades.

AIGA Hallmark Tour

Register for a student tour of Hallmark (or what Kidwell calls "the card factory"). Space is limited so register soon!

three-week study program at London College of Communication in London, England.

May 19th -June 4th, 2010
Eastern Michigan University’s Art Department, in cooperation with the Office of Academic Programs Abroad, is pleased to offer a three-week study program at London College of Communication in London, England.

The intent of the program is to provide students from EMU and other institutions an opportunity to learn more about British and European graphic design and typographic practices. This is delivered through interaction with current London College of Communication faculty and students and British design professionals, studio, office and museum visits, studio projects, and a lecture program in order to contextualize the contemporary cultural and social landscape.

Eligibility
All participants must be at least 18 years of age and must enroll at Eastern Michigan University as regular or guest students. Students from other institutions and professionals may easily register by contacting EMU Academic Programs Abroad.

Program fee
Approximately $2,559 (+ approx. $1,014 tuition= $3,573)

Registration
Applications are due Feb. 15, 2010.
Download non-EMU application at: www.emich.edu/abroad/graphicdesign/

Student Portfolio Workshop

It's coming up!!

And you can register now– the sooner the better, because there is a limit to the number of students who can attend!

It will be held here at KCAI once again, on February 27th, from 8:45 am-4:00 pm.

The cost:

$15 AIGA Student Members

$20 Student Non-Members

This is a great opportunity for all of us to get one-on-one professional feedback about our design portfolios, and learn about relevant topics in design from the breakout sessions. This year, it is framed around the 'portfolio in progress', so you don't need anything finished or refined in order to go. Just bring what you have!

Be sure to register as soon as you can, as this event always sells out fast.

design week comes to kcai

yes, it's show time! mark your calendar and plan on attending this presentation given by steve frykholm on friday the 5th. the fun starts at 11:45 in the epperson. more info on steve is here.

Design Week, Branding Obama

Identity designer, Sol Sender of VSA Partners in Chicago will discuss experiences in developing this historical political brand.

Event February 2, 2010

Event Schedule:
6:00-6:30 Registration and reception
6:30-8:00 Presentation

FREE

Location:
Plaza Branch, Kansas City Public Library
4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64112

Free Parking in Plaza Library Garage

Register at kcdesignweek.org

interaction design lectures

Here you can see video lectures from SVA's MFA in Interaction Design program.

Monina interviewed

Neenah Paper recently featured Monina on their blog, Against the Grain. Here is the story:
Command X Champ Velarde Resolves to Delight.

(Also congrats to Monina for her new design gig at Critical Mass in Chicago.)

Redesign Valentine's Day

via FastCompany

"Yes, it's chintzy, it's commercialized, it's childish. So Studio 360 is launching another of its now-famous redesign challenges--remember X.mas and the gay flag redesign?--and they need your help, designers! What about Valentine's Day would you change? Submit your Valentine redesigns by uploading your entries to Flickr, and adding them to the Be My Valentine: A Studio 360 Design Challenge pool. And on Valentine's Day weekend, Kurt, the husband-and-wife design team at UnderConsideration, and some surprise guests will be reviewing the best submissions on the air"

the bubble project

Ji Lee talks about his "bubble project", sharing creativity and designing platforms for others to be creative within.

website inspiration

Browse 1,443 websites by style, theme, and type, or view a random selection. You can also see the very best at www.siteinspire.net. Even submit your own or other site.

Or here's a collection of minimalist design sites.

this is a rolodex.

Where are you planning to intern this summer?

Pick your city and start applying! For example, I just got a notice from R/GA that they have summer internships in NY for Interaction Design and Visual Design. More info & applications here.

poster design competition

Poster Clash 2010
Deadline for Entries is Feb 24th! Enter Now

submit to output

:output is the biggest international competition for students in design and architecture. The works selected by the jury will be published in the yearbook :output.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ :output Grand Prix: 3.000 Euro

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ Deadline for submissions: February 15 2010

Design Donations for Haiti at CafePress

By donating your designs to the Haiti Relief Effort shop you agree that you will not receive any commissions from the sale of products with your design made through the Haiti Relief Effort shop and you grant CafePress a limited license to create and sell products with your design solely through the Haiti Relief Effort shop.


http://announcements.cafepress.com/?p=266

in the news:

Cooper-Hewitt Picks Director, First Designer in Job (from New York Times)
"Bill Moggridge, a founder of the design firm IDEO, has been named director of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York."

Ease the Stress of Crit!

http://www.critbuns.com

Pentagram's "What Typeface Are You?"

For all of us typography lovers, now we can see what typeface represents our personality with Pentagram's new quiz, given by a dapper old psychiatrist. (Use the password 'Character' to login).

What Type Are You?

Here's my results below: Plastica!

experience design

KC DESIGN WEEK is a series of events that celebrate the value of design and highlights its impacts on our society. This inaugural collaborative event offers the community ways to interact with all areas of design including architecture, graphics, interiors, products, fashion and urban environments. details here.

design some notecards

Hey designers, submit a notecard design to CardsInk. Just like threadless, users rate the cards and the winning cards get printed (and paid $100).