Gx | Thursday 24 February 2011 | 7-9pm
Hillside Campus | Los Angeles Time Media Center
3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time, and Behavior
Featuring Brad Bartlett, Dan Goods, and Aaron Koblin
Aaron Koblin, http://www.aaronkoblin.com
Dan Goods, http://directedplay.com/
Brad Bartlett, www.bradbartlettdesign.com
Event Description
Each term Art Center’s graphic design department brings together three design professionals to discuss a particular topic.
Featuring
Aaron Koblin is an artist specializing in data visualization. His work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Aaron is Technology Lead of Goggle’s Creative Lab in San Francisco, and continues to show work at international exhibitions and galleries.
Dan Goods is a Visual Strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he has drilled a hole into a grain of sand, created installations out of aerogel, and is currently trying to put an object on a spacecraft going to Jupiter. In the evening he works on commissions such as eCloud.
Brad Bartlett earned his Masters Degree in Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work at Cranbrook, exploring the relationship of media and culture, was presented at MIT and Fabrica of Benetton in Italy. He was selected as New Visual Artist by Print Magazine before establishing a small, multidisciplinary design studio in Los Angeles in 1999. In Art Center’s Graphic Design (Gx) program he teaches the wildly successful Typography 4: Transmedia studio.
Lecture Recap:
Brad Bartlett
At Art Center, Bartlett teaches Type 4: Transmedia, a class that delves into the visual space of typography across multiple platforms. This is not only his educational passion, it is his professional passion as well. During his lecture, he spoke to a recent rebranding project that he did for the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada. Bartlett spent over a year working with the museum to understand its influence amongst the art community, its cultural influence, and its visual relationship to its surroundings. He aimed to create a strong visual language that referenced the local surroundings and looks to the future of technology. When creating the logo for the museum he asked himself many questions: does it have to be a fixed mark? Can it act as a gallery space? Can it respond to the local climate and temperature? The solo “N” represents the Nevada Museum of Art as a whole and references the neon signs of the local casinos of Reno, Nevada, and the angle of the mountainous landscape surrounding the museum. Te visual language of the “N” is constantly changing as it interacts and reflects through color the ambient temperature outside the museum. The project as a whole visually and dynamically referenced the surrounding history and current climate while technologically looking towards the future of transmedia design.
Dan Goods
A graduate from Art Center College of Design in 2002, he travelled shortly down the road to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), where he created his own job as Chief Visual Strategist. Working with the most groundbreaking advances in science and technology, he finds ways to visually communicate the advancements of his colleagues at JPL. Outside of JPL, he recently worked on a project at the San Jose airport in association with Nik Hafermaas, an educator at Art Center College of Design and founder of UeBERSEE , and Aaron Koblin who is the leader of the Data Arts Team in Google’s Creative Labs. The project, entitled eCloud, is a visual representation of climate and weather throughout the world using lcd screens in the form of a cloud to represent data visually.
Aaron Koblin
An MFA graduate from the DesignMedia Arts program at UCLA, Aaron was the Abramowitz Artist in Residence at MIT, and currently leads the Data Arts Team at Google’s Creative Lab. Aaron works to visualize large amounts of data, finding unique ways for users to understand, connect, and become the data. An interesting idea was presented that, “The 19th century was defined by the novel, the 20th by cinema, the culture of the 21st century will be defined by the interface.” Working with the common interface of the computer to disseminate and gather information, Koblin spoke to his work of interpreting and visually communication the data of SMS traffic in Amsterdam and the visual chaos of air traffic throughout the United States. His most recent work revolves around the wisdom of crowds and the idea of dynamically crowd sourcing ideas, projects, and even part of projects to create unique results. See Ten Thousand Cents , The Johnny Cash Project , and The Wilderness Downtown for examples of his work.
Q/A Session with Brad Bartlett, Dan Goods, Aaron Koblin, and Nik Hafermaas
These are summaries to the answers provided during the Q/A session.
Do you have any advice to designers who want to achieve without the feeling of intimidation?
Aaron: Collaboration and access to others
Brad: It’s ok to fail. I learn more from failing than I do from what succeeds.
Nik: the current technology is way too good to leave to others. Take irreverance from ignorance, and flip the notions of what technology can do upside down.
Define Transmedia.
Brad: It is best to break it into parts. Typography is changing. We must look to the future. One type of media can inform another. Anticipating change, and willingly forging into territory that has not been designed.
Advice for future Transmedia designers?
Nik: Learn Type. There is an untapped potential at Art Center, a potential for collaboration between majors.
Brad: Have a good idea. Experiment.
Aaron: Misuse technology, and get your hands dirty.
If you could design your own job, what would your perfect job be?
Aaron: I love working with the Data Arts Team at Google. I like working with chrome experiments, redefining technology and fusing the fields of our live in unique ways.
Brad: Teaching. Sharing the design space with students. Right here right now.
Nik: I have my ideal job. Seeing the future through students. It is gratifying and terrifying. I love to see it when people blow the walls off and idea.
What have you seen recently that inspires you?
Aaron: Too much. Crowd sourcing people drawing a line. The use of Processing by Casey Reas at UCLA.
Brad: Processing is an amazing tool. “Its like drawing with a pencil on an algorithmic steroid.”
Dan: Scientists. Viewing lens flares of galaxies.
Nik: My standard time screensaver. It is the act of building time as a re-appropriation of technology.
Where do you get your raw data?
Aaron: There is a lot of public data available. Most times, someone high up just makes it happen.
What technologies on the edge inspire you?
Aaron: WebGl. Its like cramming a PS3 into your web browser.
Nik: Augmented Reality.
What is your overall design philosophy?
Aaron: We are on the crux of no longer delivering static content
Nik: technology is developing regardless. Conquering new technology. Brining emotional relevance. Humanity and human expression.
Dan: Process by doing. Thinking beyond myself.
Brad: Finding meaning in the work you do. Take risks. Enjoy the process. You are defined by the people you choose to work with. You have to follow your passion. It has to get you excited.
Speak to a failure that has brought you to where you are today?
Aaron: My of my work was considered a failure. I failed calculus, and that is why I came to realize computer science is not for me. Many of my failures have turned into projects.
Brad: I am a culmination of many failures. I have a lot of self doubt. A project may appear to be successful but is a failure in my mind. The self doubt only compels me to work harder. Failure is important, it drives creatives to innovate.
Dan: I knew I did not want a normal graphic design job. I was nearly about to run out of money when I received my first paycheck from JPL for the job that I created. I can’t guarantee that will work for everyone. I live every day as if it were my last.
Nik: Learning tennis. My work on the Frankfurt Motor Show for Mercedes Benz. I gave a year of my life to it, and it completely failed; they wanted to fire me but they couldn’t. It led me to ask myself “how much to I want to be a whore?” I want to work with cultural experiences. I’ll let others fail.
Closing Remarks
Look around the room, you will see your future collaborators. Tonight was about opportunities and collaboration.
Check back soon for a video of the 3×3: Transmedia lecture.
Excellent recap, Trevor!