IDC in Guatemala: In the Press!

 

We are delighted that today's NY Daily News ran an article about the work we have been doing in Guatemala with Ajkem'a Loy'a.  Click on the image to read further.

Information Session for the Guatemala project!

IDC Director: Incoming & Outgoing

After 3 1/2 years of directing IDC, I have stepped down to join our full-time faculty and focus on my teaching, research, digital arts practice, and this blog!

We are happy to welcome Nadia Elrokhsy (pictured on the right) as the new Director of IDC. Nadia is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Interior Design and, until joining IDC, was the Associate Chair of the AAS Department.

A practicing architect and interior designer for over seventeen years, Nadia completed a Masters degree in Environmental Design in Architecture at The Martin Center for Architectural and Urban Studies, Cambridge University, UK. Her work has been widely published.

In 2007, Nadia completed Al Gore’s Climate Project Training and has given twelve, regionally specific, presentations on the climate crisis within the year since completing her training. She is currently working on the environmental design for a house in upstate New York.

Nadia’s work spans the arts, communication design, fashion and media. She is also an environmental and housing advocate. Her research subjects explore Sustainable Development across scales and disciplines, and the relationship between affordable housing and predatory lending - policies and practices that affect quality of life in many communities.

In AAS, Nadia developed and taught a course in Design Analysis, Environmental Design for Interior Designers. She also worked closely with all four AAS degree programs and General Studio (Fashion Studies, Fashion Marketing, Graphic Design and Interior Design) to incorporate environmental issues into the coursework, and support new programs and events that address the complexities of sustainability in today’s consumer-driven economy. The first event, a film showing of An Inconvenient Truth, was followed by a panel discussion comprised of faculty and students from across the University. Other events were supported under the umbrella of Rethinking Design – Sustainability and Innovation, which began with the Rethinking Fashion series 1-3. This series, started by the AAS Fashion Marketing Director and full-time faculty, included topics on fashion, marketing, merchandising, textile, accessories, home furnishings, retail and web design.

Beyond Parsons, Nadia is often engaged in work across The New School. Last year she presented at the New School’s 2008 Focus The Nation teach-in, she has lectured at The Eugene Lang College in the area of Interdisciplinary Science, and continues to play a role in the development of Urban and Environmental curriculum at the New School.

In addition to directing IDC, Nadia will be a member of the Academic Committee for Professional Studies and will support and develop cross-disciplinary work in the AAS programs, along with Pam Klein and the Directors of the four programs, in the advancement of the AAS degree programs into MPS/MS degree programs and extensions.

Death by Drone

Two of our IDC alumni from the Class of 2008, Deborah Kaplan & Tiffany Ang have continued their thesis project "Death by Drone." Check out the press they have just received on their work. To the left a detail from their design titled "A Moldy Brain Begets a Moldy Tea Cup." Stay tuned to hear more about their work & successes at http://www.deathbydrone.com/.

Alumni Profile: Arley-Rose Torsone (IDC '04)

New York lost and Rhode Island gained a talented artist, designer, and musician, when Arley (pictured right at the print shop of AS220) moved to Providence soon after graduating. Quoting an article about an exhibition with all the winners who received fellowship grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (Arley won in the design category!) "Good fellows: The RISCA showcase; plus, Jon Laustsen" by Greg Cook,

"The highlight is terrific graphic design by AS220 communications director Arley-Rose Torsone. Her pieces range from a punky AS220 flier to the supreme suave elegance of her marketing package for the Dreyfus. Her screenprinted poster for November’s AS220 “Design Providence” event features a loose brushy outline of a cloud and outlined hand-o-God that shine a yellow ray of light on the text at bottom: “And then AS220 had a design studio.” Torsone mixes several different typefaces — blocky carnival or cowboy lettering, elegant type, some script, streamlined sans serif type — for a crisp jaunty effect that somehow avoids muddle. Her work recalls midcentury retro-modern design by Paul Rand, Push Pin Studios, and George Maciunas’s Fluxus stuff. There are many reasons why AS220 is cool, but Torsone is a key reason why the joint and its projects look — and thus feel — so immediately cool."

New York City still gets some glimpses of Arley's talent. On Friday March 14 at 7pm Arley and other members of "The Dirt Palace" will be performing a "play" with their set that is created out of gingerbread and frosting and hauled down in a broken down dirty white Dodge Ram pickup truck. IDC hits PS1! Come represent!

Alumni Profile: Gary Robbins (IDC '04)

Below is an exciting update from Gary (and to the left a picture of Gary in his studio)!

"Since graduating, I have been struggling to do work that I believe is good for the world. For me, that is book design, a sub-discipline which I love and which fulfills me. I say struggle because it can sometimes be hard to turn down high paying jobs at advertising firms and the like, but for me its kind of a no-brainer.

I worked a stint at Workman Publishing in New York, while building a nice network of freelance clients. As a freelancer, I've designed books on many interesting topics and worked with many passionate authors, photographers, and illustrators. Freelancing also allows me some mobility, and I relocated to Portland, Oregon three years ago. I just finished up a month-long artist residency at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island where I taught bookbinding classes and worked on some non-client projects. I'm also starting a line of hand-printed wallpaper, getting a magazine off the ground with a few collaborators in Portland, and starting a publishing company which hopefully someday will be my primary vocation."

See Gary's new website with all of his latest work - http://www.garyrobbins.net/

New Year's Resolution - Say NO to plastic bags!

Who will join me in a New Year's resolution to say "NO" to plastic bags? I just read "Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags" in the New York Times, and I really don't understand what New York and the United States are waiting for. Yes, we now have a law that requires stores to collect bags to reuse, but how about charging users in the first place!

So...who's in?

(This image is from the great Chris Jordan.)

Alumni Profile: Erich Nagler (IDC '04)

This is our inaugural Alumni Profile, about Erich Nagler, a graduate from IDC's first class, in 2004.

Erich is a writer and designer based in New York City. He works in the fields of art direction, graphic design, illustration, and typography. He is co-publisher with Moriah Norris-Hale and Benjamin Yanes of Red Line Blues, a pocket-size journal. He is currently at work on an illustrated novel, and is spending the first few months of 2008 in Helsinki, Finland, to apply a design-research grant (that's Erich, at work in Helsinki!)

Originally from Dallas, Texas, after graduating from IDC, he cut his teeth in publishing as Assistant Designer at Nest Magazine—winner of National Magazine Awards for General Excellence in 2000 and Outstanding Design in 2001—where Erich also worked on a team to redesign Editor-in-Chief Joseph Holtzman’s residence in Ghent, New York. After Nest closed in 2004, Erich became the Assistant Art Director of Metropolis Magazine, finalist for the 2007 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Erich recently stepped down from his post at Metropolis to work independently on writing and design projects.

See Erich's website, Design Means, for examples of his work and to stay tuned.

Bring bad design to justice

Have you ever wanted to pull out your sharpie to correct someone else's poor design decisions? Now you can! Find some adhesive paper to print on, click here, pick your template, and you are ready to walk around policing bad graphic design.

Not sure who developed this project, but as someone who often sees others' typos, I love it!

NOTE: See the widows created by the poor alignment on this post? We're looking for alternatives to blogger for some better blog design!