Blossoming Talent
Most student design work is for an imaginary client, but this wide-reaching project shows the power of real world collaboration. The challenge: Convince underserved Latinas in Los Angeles to go for their annual pap tests. Students chose the yearly blooming of the jacaranda tree as a reminder to schedule your appointment. Then they created a campaign around this symbol called “Es Tiempo” (It’s Time) that proposes a range of awareness drivers and incentives to help break down the barriers to care. The bright purple blooms quickly drew judges to this project, but it was the breadth and depth of the effort that kept them looking. “It’s a model for what students should be doing,” says judge Manuel Miranda. “Immersing themselves in the real world instead of re-doing an existing logo.” He and fellow judge, Niklas Gustafsson, admired the multi-disciplinary approach—the student team spanned advertising, art, design and more—and comprehensive solution.
Project website: http://www.designmatters.artcenter.edu/index.php/projects/es-tiempo/es-tiempo.html
Description: Students were challenged to create communications to persuade Latinas in Los Angeles’ underserved communities to comply with clinical guidelines for cervical-cancer screening.
School: Art Center College of Design – Designmatters Department
Designer’s website: http://www.designmatters.artcenter.edu
Illustration: Phillip An
Graphic design: Mark Brinn, Tracy Hung, Chris Lack
Motion design: HaeLee Kang
Photography: Lucia Loiso
Fine art: Camille Onteveros
Lead faculty, advertising: Elena Salij
Adjunct faculty, advertising and graphic design: Maria Moon
Vice president and director, Designmatters: Mariana Amatullo
Senior associate director, producer, Designmatters: Elisa Ruffino
Client: University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
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“As it gets older, it gets better. I think that’s a good approach to product design.” –Judge Manuel Miranda
Description: Designing beautiful, fun and smart-aging products with 3D solid pattern that evokes constant change of surface pattern by natural abrasion throughout usage period.
Designer: Hyun Jung Lee
School: KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Advisor: Professor Woohun Lee (Dept. of Industrial Design, KAIST)
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“This is just fun. If you’re going to be in a heavy traffic jam caused by road work it would put a smile on your face. I want to see a lot of different shapes. I want to see an expansion.” –Judge Niklas Gustafsson
Description: Goose Cones are traffic cones that echo the form of our most stubbornly territorial and aggressive urban dweller--the goose--as a means to reclaim pedestrian walks and re-emphasize construction zones.
Designer: Michael Savona
Website: www.michaelsavona.com
School: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Special thanks to: faculty Bruce Tharp and Brian McCutcheon
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“It shows that with a very simple set of materials—and without changing them much—you can create this playful, optimistic situation.” –Judge Manuel Miranda
Description: With the aim of creating an interdisciplinary space, we developed a flexible framework that allows the space to react to influences and allows it to change over time.
Designer: FAGERSTRÖM & ABRAHAMSSON, Kristoffer Fagerström & Marcus Abrahamsson
Website:www.fagerabraham.se
School: Konstfack, University College of Art, Crafts & Design
Thanks to: Felix, Jimmy, our photographer LillyMay, and our sponsors: Södra Timber, Tibnor SALS and Ferex
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“It highlights the technology in a visual way. It’s high tech to low tech.” –Judge Niklas Gustafsson
Website: http://workbyday.net/project.php?id=37
Description: Project Roger was created to transform digital presence into physical presence within the atrium of the Paul Rand Center for Graphic Design at the Yale University School of Art.
Designer: Caspar Lam
Website: www.workbyday.net
School: Yale University School of Art
Critics: Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger of Antenna Design
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“I love all these geometric forms in contrast to the organic pattern. There’s a really strong language going on here.” –Judge Niklas Gustafsson
Description: Mosaique is a new treatment of blue decorations. It uses old Chinese decorations, the onion pattern, the daisy pattern and a decoration used widely on cheap porcelains from China, and re-arranges the traditional decorations to create its own fabulous world. This makes reference to the long history of mutual copying and imitation of blue decorations in Asia and Europe.
Designer: Laura Strasser
Website: www.laura-strasser.de
School: Bauhaus-University-Weimar, Germany
Advising professor and tutors for master thesis: Prof. Gerrit Babtist, Dr. Silke Opitz, Jaime Hayon
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“It’s very well executed. I just like the fact that you’re rocking to get the light to read.” –Judge Niklas Gustafsson
Description: A rocking chair that generates electricity from the rocking motion using upcoming technologies.
Designer: Rochus Jacob
Website: http://cargocollective.com/rochusjacob
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“There’s an open-endedness to it that’s nice. It’s very individual.” –Judge Manuel Miranda
Description: These ceramic vessels are cast by combining an alphabet of mold parts in various configurations, each time producing unique results.
Designer: Orapun (Im) Schafer
Website: www.studiomake.com
School: Cranbrook Academy of Art
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Description: An organically formed plywood chair that employs relief cuts for functional and aesthetic purposes.
Designer: James Van Den Heuvel
School: Art Center College of Design
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Description: At Zero is a short documentary that uses imagery, interviews and typography to reveal the life of immigrants in New York and their struggle to navigate the city without a common language.
Designer and filmmaker: Zoe Pappenheimer
Website: www.zoedesignworks.com
School: Pratt Institute
Thesis advisor: Alex Liebergesell
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Description: The concept addresses the needs of a target group that rarely cooks but still demands a full kitchen setup in a limited space.
Designer: Jonas Buck
Website: www.jonas-buck.com
School: Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal – Germany
Project overseen by: Prof. Oliver Grabes & Prof. Norbert Thomas
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Project website: http://jfinkle.com/extincttoys.php
Description: Handcrafted wooden toys of recently extinct animals meant to incite wonder and interest in creatures that existed only a short while ago.
Designer: Josh Finkle
Website: http://jfinkle.com
School: Carnegie Mellon University
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Description: Investigation on the relationship between privacy and technology.
Designer: Namoo Kim
School: RISD
Photography: Hyun Min Lee
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Project website: http://rheajeong.com/index.php?/2009/hello-haptic/
Description: Hello Haptic is a flash card kit for blind children to learn various haptical experiences about nature.
Designers: Rhea Jeong, Young-soo Hong, Saehee Lee, Sunmin Lee
Designers’ websites: rheajeong.com; youngsoohong.com; saeheesays.com
Schools: Samsung Design Membership, Hongik, Hanyang and Ewha
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Instructor: Simon Johnston
Class: Information Graphics
Student: Kenneth Kegley
School: Art Center College of Design
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Description: Solar/wind-powered hybrid streetlight that gives cities a greater incentive to switch to long-lasting, energy-efficient LED technology.
Designer: Hoan Pham
Website: www.hoanpham.com
School: San Jose State University
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Description: In a gesture similar to inserting a bookmark, magazines are hung on their own weight, reducing the act of displaying magazines to the object itself and string.
Designer: Isaac Yu Chen
Website: www.isaac-chen.com
School: Cranbrook Academy of Art
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Project context: Bachelor thesis
Description: NXT is a family of modular input devices, each offering specific advantages, e.g. usage of the numeric keyboard with the left & right hand for a more ergonomic input situation.
Designer: Manuel Perez Prada
Website: www.perezprada.com
School: University of Applied Sciences Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany
School website: www.hfg-gmuend.de
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Project website: http://brendanravenhill.com/index.php?/concepts/patina-iphone-app/
Description: An iPhone application that tracks which buttons you touch and reflects usage by a gradual loss of pixel resolution.
Designer: Brendan Ravenhill
Website: www.brendanravenhill.com
School: Rhode Island School of Design
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Description: An LED filled bar fastens to the bottom of a door to create the illusion of activity within a room.
Designer: Ian Jamieson
Website:www.ianjamieson.info
School: Yale University
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Description: The project is twofold: 1) A complete, digital typeface and 2) An installation of the typeface in black tape. The tape installation is an exploration between the representations of the digital and analog.
Designer: YuJune Park
Website: www.yujunepark.com
School: Yale University
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Description: Switch Alarm Clock has an intuitive and elegant form that comes from emphasizing one of the primary functional essences of the alarm clock--the switch.
Designer: Dzuy Doan
Website: www.dzuydoan.com
School: Design Academy Eindhoven
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Project website: www.vidarbha-project.com
Description: The Vidarbha Project is a documentation of the unsustainable practices in the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) cotton in central India, and their effects on the local community. The product is a book that lays bare the whole situation by capturing everyone affected: the widows, the dead farmers, the fields and cotton mills.
Designers: Verena Hanschke, Floriana Gavriel
Websites:www.verenahanschke.com; www.florianagavriel.com
School: Royal College of Art London, Communication Art and Design
Tutors: Visiting Professor Nick Bell, Professor Jeff Willis
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Description: Undercover keeps the iconic silhouette of the plunger and accentuates the products underneath without revealing the eyesore.
Designer: Michael Liu
Website: michaelliudesign.com
School: Pratt Institute
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