Visual Arts Briefs

Using the Shepard Fairey/Barack Obama photo controversy as a premise, MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller poses a question to the design community and the public this week on the Glass House Conversations Web site. Heller asks, “What are the legal and ethical lines in the sand with regard to intellectual property and images? In your experience, what is appropriate appropriation?” Visit glasshouseconversations.org to comment or to read the responses.

The Web site for the Glass House Conversations was put together by six students from the MFA Interaction Design Department earlier this summer, together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Philip Johnson Glass House. The Web site that extends a series of  invitationals held at the Glass House during 2008 and 2009 with cultural, business and educational leaders.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead’s famous dictum is alive and well for an international group of designers taking part in a new SVA summer program dedicated to the growing field of design for social advocacy. Over six weeks the participants in Impact! Design for Social Change worked with community groups around New York City to improve the quality of life for Americans whose voice may not always be heard. On Friday, August 20, from 9:30am – 12noon they’ll present their final proposals in a public forum at 133/141 West 21st Street; from 3 – 5pm they’ll put forward their own ideas to change the world for the better.

“We asked students to roll up their sleeves, taking the program out of the realm of theoretical thinking and extending it into the real world,” explains Mark Randall, a principal at Worldstudio who co-founded Impact! with Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA Design Department. Along with Randall and Heller, students heard from designer and SVA Acting Chairman Milton Glaser; LOT-EK architects Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla; and Edwin Schlossberg, founder and principal designer at ESI Design; among others. To match students up with appropriate clients, SVA partnered with DesigNYC, a newly-formed collective of designers and design advocates with the mission of helping nonprofit and community groups in need of design services connect with professional, pro bono design resources. Among the groups to benefit from Impact! are Enterprise Community Partners, which promotes decent, affordable housing for low-income individuals, and the independent, award-winning news program Democracy Now!

For a glimpse of students’ experience leading up to Friday’s presentations, visit the Impact! blog.

The Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives has announced the launch of its Design Study Collection (DSC), a series of acquisitions focusing on important designers and illustrators working in the field today. The first DSC holdings come from MFA Design Department faculty member Stefan Sagmeister, whose instantly recognizable visual style has appeared on CD packaging for David Byrne and Lou Reed; in the books Made You Look (Thames & Hudson, 2001) and Things I have learned in my life so far (Abrams, 2008); and on the cover of the 1994 SVA Division of Continuing Education fall bulletin.

According to Archivist Beth Kleber and Archives Assistant Zachary Sachs, Sagmeister’s collection is the first of many to come in the DSC series. In the meantime, they also recently completed processing a collection of work by illustrator James McMullan, who is best known for his book covers, magazine illustrations and theater posters for productions at Lincoln Center. More information on McMullan and his collection at the Archive can be found here.

Image: Stefan Sagmeister, Division of Continuing Education Bulletin, 2004; ©Visual Arts Press, Ltd.

With a cover designed by longtime BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department faculty member James Victore, the August 2010 issue of Print magazine features a variety of contributions by and profiles of SVA faculty members. MPS Branding Department Chair Debbie Millman contributed an essay and illustrations about leadership skills in graphic design, highlighting the importance of preparation and honesty. Discussing Typekit and recent developments in Internet typography, Jason Santa Maria, a faculty member in the MFA Interaction Design Department, was interviewed by Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA Design Department. Art History and BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department faculty member Paul Shaw penned an appreciation of Jovica Veljovic’s typeface designs. Another member of the MFA Interaction Design Department faculty, Khoi Vinh, wrote an article about how smartphone apps are changing the way Web designers work. Finally, Heller and BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department faculty member Michael Ian Kaye provide social and design commentary in the magazine’s Rants + Raves section.

MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller recently spoke with two European publications about his work, which includes authoring and editing over 100 books, writing at daily blog for Print magazine and teaching at SVA.

Heller discusses the value of design criticism with the French art and culture Web site Étapes:

And he defines graphic design for a video blog, in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition “Graphic Design Worlds” at the Trienniale Design Museum in Milan:

• Paper Foldables is a new venture from alumnus Bryan Green (BFA 2000 Cartooning) that offers distinctive papercraft toys. Green has been creating customized foldable promotional items for companies such as CAPCOM (maker of the Street Fighter video-game series [.zip]), FREEwilliamsburg.com, the Independent Film Channel and more. Visitors to paperfoldables.com can also download and print out free folding action toys from the Thorium Wars video game.
• MFA Design Department faculty member Maira Kalman has partnered with Target and the Baby Buggy charity group to design an exclusive line of baby clothes and accessories. Available on a limited basis through Saturday, October 16, Target will donate 10% of all purchases of Kalman-designed items to families in need.
• Never Forget, Never Forgive: The new self-published graphic novel by alumnus Rami Efal (BFA 2005 Cartooning) follows in the footsteps of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa by using samurai characters and a feudal-Japan setting to tell a story inspired by Efal’s upbringing in Israel and Holocaust-survivor parents. The artist spoke at length about the book in an interview on Newsarama.com. Never Forget, Never Forgive is available from Efal through neverforgetneverforgive.info.

Image: Bryan Green, Pearl Harbor Foldables, 2010.

As part of the Arts Abroad masters workshop Design History, Theory and Practice in Venice and Rome, MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller has taken students to Tipoteca, a museum in Cornuda, Italy, devoted to the history of letterpress printing and typefaces. Heller describes the museum, its collections and how it acquires its type and presses in a post for T: The New York Times Style Magazine blog. This year’s workshop in Italy took place May 30 – June 12.

Fueled by a market interested in products that are both chic and rustic, designer and alumnus Peter Buchanan-Smith (MFA 2000 Design) began making sturdy, colorful axes that have been popular sellers, sought after by consumers ranging from woodsmen to the Saatchi Gallery in London. Inspired by his own difficulty finding a well-designed ax in Manhattan,  Buchanan-Smith started Best Made Company, which began with the ax and now specializes in all sorts of well-designed tools.

In a profile in the Thursday, July 1, issue of The New York Times, Buchanan-Smith says, “With the ax, I wanted to do something simple and sweet. It was like an invitation to this world I wanted to create. The world of making things where notions of courage and fortitude are associated with it, but also playfulness and levity.”

The Times also interviewed Maira Kalman and Paola Antonelli, two of Buchanan-Smith’s former instructors in the MFA Design Department at SVA, about the axes. Click here to see a slide show of images from Buchanan-Smith’s studio.

Image: Axes designed by Peter Buchanan-Smith/Best Made Company.

Conceived by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum the National Design Awards honor the best in American design. Several SVA faculty members were designated as winners and finalists for the awards this year, including MFA Design Criticism Department faculty member Ralph Caplan, the winner in the Design Mind category.  The MFA Design Department had an impressive showing in the Communication Design category, with faculty members Stephen Doyle and Maira Kalman designated as winner and finalist, respectively. BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department guest lecturer John Jay was also named a finalist in this category.

Two design studios with MFA Interaction Design Department faculty members at their helms were designated as finalists: Local Projects, whose founder and principal is Jake Barton, was a finalist in the interaction design category and frog design, whose vice president of creative is Robert Fabricant, is a finalist in the product design category.

The awards and winners were featured in articles in Bustler and artdaily.org.

The latest in AIGA’s ongoing Members Series events is My Dog and Pony: Fresh Blood!, in which recent graduates from design programs around the Northeast get five minutes to present their thesis projects. MFA Design Department alumnus Irina Lee (2010) is among those selected for the event—taking place Tuesday, June 15, 6:30pm, at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn—and she will be showing First Person American, a video-driven Web site designed to invites both immigrants to the U.S. and native-born citizens of all backgrounds to share stories and engender a dialogue about what it means to be an American.

The My Dog and Pony event will be moderated by MFA Design Department faculty member Scott Stowell. Admission is $13 for AIGA members, $23 for the general public; for more information about registering for the event, visit the AIGA site.