AIGA USC + Helvetica

The Helvetica / AIGA USC Portfolio Day was great! More than 350 people turned out for the 2-day event. Incredible list of reviewers, matched with some equally impressive design students.

FRIDAY began with the West Coast premiere of Helvetica - A Documentary by Gary Hustwit and Birthday Bash at Davis Auditorium. The entire group of AIGA USC officers turned out to volunteer. They brought along a boatload of signed limited edition designer Helvetica buttons. See the AIGA USC blog for the collection. AND there was an incredible Helvetica shaped cake during the 2 screenings. Yummy Helveticake made by the extraordinaire bakery - Violet's Cake (Pasadena).

Photos to come.

THEN back to USC again bright and early SATURDAY for the Helvetica panel / interview with Gary H. and the illustrious type designer – Matthew Carter. The panel was introduced by USC Roski’s very own, Dean Ruth Weisberg and AIGA LA's president, Agustin Garza - an exciting moment for all.

Lunch was freshly grilled carnitas, al pastor and pollo tacos courteous of Tacos Fernandez (aka the taco truck.)

Fantastic turn out of reviewers, here’s a partial list –
Kemper Bates (Fox), Chris Berdine (American Apparel), Archie Boston (CSULB), Margaret Black (CSULB), Milka Broukhim, Stefan G. Bucher (344 Design), Sharon Cardinal, Yee-Ping Cho (Yee-Ping Cho Design), Spencer Cross (Tokyo Farm), Jonathan Maxwell Deiss (Tribal), Volker Durre (AdamsMorioka, Inc.), Ann Enkoji, Amir Fallah (Beautiful Decay), Steve Fenton (Shook Kelley), Todd Gallapo (Meat and Potatoes), Chalalai Haema (88Phases), Zelda Harrison, Eric Junker (Wagner/Junker Agency), Keith Knueven, Daniel Ko, Ulrich Lange (The Designory), Michael Lejeune (LA Metro Design Studio), David Lippman (Sisu Media), Joseph Loveria (Drissi), Amy Low, Buff Monster, Kali Nikitas (Otis), Carol Newsom, Agnete Oernsholt, Vesna Petrovic, Pash (CINQ Group), Shirin Raban (Wingz design), Christian Rocha (Polychrome Studio, Inc.), Louise Sandhaus (Cal Arts), Yolanda Santosa (Ferroconcrete), Peter Scherrer (Studio Mousetrap), Ron Thompson (Hello Design), representatives from Motion Theory and Max Erdenberger and Megan McGinley (Brand New School). We are particularly proud of USC art alumni – Chris Berdine, Aurora Robles, and Buff Monster.

The student volunteers came from several LA colleges. Thanks to our own - Yuji, Tina, Karen, Amy, Tsz, Sarah K, Sara L, Hajimi, Daniel, Candice, and Laura B. This has been the most amazing group of AIGA officers. Also a special thanks to – Harout (CSULA), Margarita (CSUN), Joanna (CSUN), and Christina (UCLA Extension) for their volunteer efforts. And lastly all of the faculty volunteers from all of the different programs that joined in – Scott Hutchinson, Sherin Guirgus, Paula DiMarco Jimmy Moss, Steve Child, Ewa Woijak, Tom Schorer, and all of the faculty reviewers listed above.

Helvetica Screening: Killing Time

Ogilvy LA

Yesterday, I went with my marketing class to Ogilvy and Mather, the LA branch. It's located in an industrial area of culver city. I wasn't too excited about it having already been to the New York office, but the LA office is a 180 degree switch from the NY office. The layout is very open space, minimalist with lots of wood beams and concrete and steel, as opposed to the marble and red carpet in NY. We sat in this very open glass conference room, they gave us free snacks and had about 10 employees from all the different areas (creative, account management, production, etc) come and have a panel discussion with us for about forty minutes. Most of them were dressed in jeans. Then they broke down into the creative and account planning teams and we got to talk to them more one on one and get advice. They were all really nice and willing to offer their own experiences and advice. I talked to one of the guys in charge of creative afterwards and he said he'd be happy to meet with me for an informational meeting/informal portfolio review. I left having a much better impression of Ogilvy as an agency. I wish you all could have visited too because, for me, it really defined the differences between east and west coast design


End result: I LOVE LA!

Workin' it

PROJECTS???

scanning stuff after stuff after stufffffgoeuwerwejraLDFSDfadfsdE%@#%@5

This project is totally OWNING me.

but i'm having a BLAST laughing at all the crazy photos that we took OUTLOUD.



Look at sherin glaring at me, "DO YOUR PROJECT!!! DON'T YOU DARE PROCRASTINATE!!!"




STRAIGHT UP FOSHO



Here, have some brownies <3

...or, rather, have the whole thing. booyah.

NY through food (aka the longest post ever)

Hamburger in a bag and overdue Milanos, courtesy of Continental Airlines.


1st meal in NY at Menchanko Tei. The hakata ramen was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture before I devoured the whole bowl!


Where I didn't buy food. The area surrounding the cart smelled like old hot dog water.


A hearty breakfast at Tick Tock Diner.


OMG. Cafe 2. THE. BEST. RASPBERRY-MANGO. TART. EVER. (You know it's good when I didn't take a "before" pic)


Baked milk and rice pudding at Ali Baba. Hokey name, great food.


Shrimp bisque at Hale. Surprisingly filling.


At Choux factory (not shoe). Again, I forgot to take a "before" pic. Yep, it was that good. Beard Papa better watch out.


Sorry, no "before" pic! Shrimps alla Francais (shrimps fried in an egg batter, then bathe in a lemon butter and wine sauce) at Benito's II. It was almost too good...


My 1st time having bagels with cream cheese. Goodtimes.


Tiramisu at Danielle's Trattoria. Candice: Is your cake wet? Me: Yep, cause it's a tiramisu... hehehe.


A banquet of desserts at Kyotofu. All I remembered was the long wait. Ok, the food was pretty.


Zen Palate, my 1st healthy (and vegetarian) meal in NY. It was delicious (that's saying a lot, coming from a meat lover). Fyi: they're opening in Pasadena soon!!


A random nouveau Korean meal experience in Tribeca.


We ran across town to Babycakes and it was so worth it.


It's sugar, diary, gluten and egg free... makes me wonder what it's made out of.


Free lunch provided by Siegal + Gale. Thanks beaucoup!


Who knew the Cooper Hewitt's cafe serve such delicious mushroom bisque?


Aww, too full for dessert.


This is what $2.50 gets you at Gray's Papaya.


And they serve breakfast for $1.50!


While we're on the subject of cheap eats. They serve 99 cents pizza here, and they're 100x better than CPK!


$1 falafels at Mamoun's. Fried herby goodness... mmm.


I found the CH's bisque at Macy's! I can drink this like water...


Stranded in the Newark airport. Time for some fried corn dogs at AW.


This was worst than Continental's burger-in-a-bag.


Really good clam chowder at Bon du Pain.

New LA Blog

Hey Everyone,

Tsz, Sarah K., Candice and I have created a blog to document our LA adventures. Here is the link:

http://lauraspider.blogspot.com/

If you want to become an author just let me know!

Cheers,

Laura S.

Psst! Pass It On

Tsz and I got the chance, while in NY, to check out this cool motion graphics event, with a bunch of NY motion graphic designers and animators submitting impressive short films. I don't know how many of you are interested in motion design, but I think something like this should be introduced in LA! We talk a lot in our classes about the tight-knit design community and collaboration between artists and I thought this was a good real life example.

About:

The mission of PSST is to produce original short films through the collaboration of different teams of designers, directors, and animators. Each film is comprised of three sections produced by three different teams. This process is the whole idea behind PSST! – a technique derived from the Dadaist game of Exquisite Corpse and the children’s game Telephone and applied to the arts of motion graphics, animation and film-making.

Here's the link where they have all the films we watched online so you should check it out when you get a chance!

http://psstpassiton.com/



Emmett, the USC alum we met with, designed this one. yay SC!

American Institute of Graphic Arts National Headquarters

Thanks David Hall!


Here's one of the highlights of our trip. A visit to the AIGA National headquarters. The students really were in awe of the incredible resource library.


AIGA USC Officers

The best play on Broadway

The sun is shining
It's a lovely day
A perfect morning
For the kids to play
But you've got lots of bills to pay
What can you do?

You work real hard
And the pay's real low
And every hour goes oh so slow
And at the end of the day
There's nowhere to go
But home to Avenue Q
You live on Avenue Q!
Your friends do too
You are twenty-two
And you live on Avenue Q