Another Awesome Class Show

Though students in all of our classes create stunning work each quarter, the folks in our Master Photography Series always seem to hit it out of the park. Eleonora Ghioldi just concluded her master class (which focuses on portraiture), and sent me some pictures from the final show they had in the gallery at the 1010 Westwood Center.

The images are beautiful, and the presentation is great too! Congratulations to the class on their hard work and the fantastic results.

Cream, Sugar, and an External Flash

Aaaaahhhhh, look at this Canon lens travel mug!


Is this the perfect gift for the photography nerd in your life, or one of those things that seems really cute but then languishes in the cupboard for all eternity? They are currently sold out (boo!), so I guess some questions will have to be left unanswered.



Via Laughingsquid

Designing Sausage

Since Sunday was An Historic Evening in America, Paul and I participated in the momentous occasion by watching it on CNN.

First of all, Wolf Blitzer and the entire CCN crew must be so limber from all the stretching they do. And by stretching, I mean "Absolutely nothing is happening right now, so let's spend 20 minutes exploring how many numerals can be evenly divided into 216. Do we have a chart of that? Let's go to the basic math chart."

Seriously, there was more filler than a Botox convention. If Wolf Blitzer was a president, he would be Millard Fillmore.

Anyway, I found the whole thing interesting because you got to see all the weird stuff that happened on the floor of the House. Like, before the vote took place, this representative stood up and was like "I appeal to the speaker on the grounds of Blah vs. Bhloo circa 1978 to request a vote by roll call, pursuant to article K statute 32" and the other guy who was in charge was like "In reference to Bleeb vs. Blob, please indicate approval of request with Yay or Nay" and then some people shouted Yay and some people shouted Nay and I was like "WHAT IS HAPPENING." Honestly this completely incomprehensible exchange took 10 minutes, and at the end something was rejected, I think. Or pizza had been ordered.

Once that happened, I was like Oh, this is why people say "Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made." We were seeing the law sausage being made!

That phrase also describes this video, except for "law sausage" read "design sausage." A designer from Orbit books, a science fiction and fantasy publisher, had screen capture on while she put together a cover for their latest title. It's pretty awsome, but it definitely exposes some of the drudgery of design (also a reliance on stock photography, and two little friends called Cut and Paste). My favorite part is when she has to erase the Eiffel Tower because it didn't exist when the book takes place. Good catch!

Observe the fastest Pen Tool in the West do her work:



Via Boingboing

L.A. Is Full of Great Designers

Luckily, we have a class coming up in the Spring to help you discover them. Led by Michael Dooley, Exploring LA Design meets once a week on Saturdays to visit various design firms and studios, and speak with the design stars who run them.

Students have been calling to ask where exactly the class will be going on these trips. Thought we don't know the details of every trip at this point, here are some of the potential visits to be made over the six weeks (please note that these are possible visits, and not the official itinierary of the class).

Coop
Entertainment industry poster designer, painter, and co-founder of CoopStuff product merchandising.

Maureen Erbe
Principal of Erbe Design, a 30-year-old marketing communications firm and graphic design studio.

Jens Gehlhaar
Font designer and creative director of Brand New School, a bicoastal motion graphics directing collective.

David Mayes
Representative for Typecraft Wood & Jones, an offset lithography and state-of-the-art digital printing company.

Mike Salisbury
Principal of Mike Salisbury: Legendary Branding, designing for music, magazine, film, and fashion industries.

Clive Piercy
Founder, owner, and creative director of Air Conditioned, a West Side design office with a British sensibility.

Yo Santosa
Principal and creative director of FerroConcrete, a multiple-media design and brand development company.

Petrula Vrontikis
Educator and principal of Vrontikis Design Office, which provides design and production of branding and identity material.

Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd
Editorial illustrators and publication writers/designers as well as fine artists, operating under the FunChicken banner.

Fastest. Class. Ever.

Instructor Josh Sanseri made this great time-lapse video of a lighting demo in his class last weekend. Stick with it, the end is totally worth it!

Jewelry By Student Hannah Kaufman

Hannah Kaufman, a student in Coleen Gee's Handmade Jewelry class, sent me some images of a beautiful piece she did as part of a project.




I asked Hannah for a bit of background, and here's what she had to say:

"I have been making beaded jewelry my whole life, since I was 4 years old. I have been in the diamond business for 15 years, designing high-end jewelry for a store (JR's Diamonds & Jewelry) in Sherman Oaks. I have always wanted to be able to actually create the metal work I was sketching and finally decided it was the right time after finding Coleen's class at UCLA Extension.

The inspiration for the butterfly came from a close friend of mind who calls herself "Butterfly Dreamer." The assignment called for a spider on a web....I decided to alter that image a little into something more "beautiful." :) The whole thing came together quite serendipitously, with Coleen encouraging me to push myself every step of the way.

This is my first time creating a hand-sawed piece and soldering and making a pin back!

I'm truly excited for the future of my collection as I have been given amazing confidence in this class and know that it will only get better from here!"

You can see more of Hannah's work on her website, hannahmade.com. Her tag line is "Every Woman Is A Muse"©. I like it!

Thanks to Hannah for sharing her piece - I have to say, for the first time sawing and soldering, this is amazing work.