CCAD President Denny Griffith writes a note on a student’s drawing during the IAPN conference

A boardroom in Hangzhou, China was filled in November with presidents from the top 15 art and design schools from around the world and Denny Griffith, president of Columbus College of Art & Design, was among them.

“It was a little surreal when we got there,” Griffith said. “We all convened in a formal boardroom with interpreters and more than 50 reporters and photographers. It was invigorating for me to sit next to these people from around the world that I admire, and talk on a higher level about some of the philosophical challenges we face, as art and design colleges and universities.”

The leaders gathered as part of the International Art Presidents Network (IAPN), which launched four years ago by Tony Jones from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Xu Jiang from the China Academy of Art, and Pan Gongkai from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts.

The goal of the conference and committee meeting was to foster conversations about global best-practices and the changing nature of art and design students. Discussions circled around how colleges and universities must be nimble in managing change, especially when concerning the roles of media and technology.

“We talked a lot about experimentation as it relates to how we are handling change in our institutions and the pressures that are on our institutions to perform in the digital era,” Griffith said. “The root reason for gathering these presidents and college leaders together is that, from an art and design perspective, we really are a part of a global village. We are living in an age where multi-national corporations are hiring our students and they are looking at us to prepare them for both the cultural and business sectors.”

The 15 schools participating in the conference included California College of the Arts, California Institute of the Arts, China Academy of Art, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts UNSW, Columbus College of Art & Design, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris, The Glasgow School of Art, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Royal Academy of Art in UK, School of Culture and Creative Expressions at Ambedkar University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Tokyo University of the Arts, University of Art and Design Helsinki, and the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg.

CCAD President Denny Griffith writes a note on a student’s drawing during the IAPN conference

Mutual Challenges, Opportunities

Although Griffith notes the similarities between these international institutions, it was also fascinating to him how wildly different the colleges and presidents were. Most of the institutions, outside of the United States, are completely subsidized by their governments. This creates drastically different goals from those who are tuition dependent.

“In some ways we were comparing apples to two-by-fours because of the economics of our institutions,” Griffith said. “Still the challenges and opportunities for us to learn from one another were exceptional. As colleges of art and design, whether we are in Ohio, Beijing, or Hamburg, we have these complicated relationships with the cultures we live in and the responsibilities we have to the students that we bring on board.”

“At this conference we were able to stop all the frantic work we do day after day and think about the nature of experimentation—and how to become the kind of places that nurture the kind of thinking and critical art process that helps generate the next cultural critics and also people who will bring significant contributions to today’s businesses,” Griffith continued.

Provocateur in a Creative Economy

Griffith said CCAD has duel and contrasting roles. On one side CCAD must be a provocateur, and on the other side it must fuel the creative economy and workforce. Both of these roles have to be congruent and work seamlessly together.

“The things CCAD is doing to infuse business education into our curriculum were really of interest to the colleges and other institutions,” Griffith said.

Often Griffith found himself talking to his colleagues about the need to not only have our students dream big dreams and set out and do visionary work, but they also need to spend time cultivating relationships to the students’ parents to help their kids become well-rounded citizens and have high employability.

“It became a real affirmation to me on all the things we, at CCAD, have going on,” Griffith said. “I remember thinking, after a very long day, that we are absolutely on the right track in terms of our focus on developing curriculum and hiring the best faculty. I feel really proud of our school and the people that are helping to progress it.”

To Griffith, simplifying the administrative structure by dividing into a two school format (School of Studio Arts and School of Design Arts) along with having a strong focus on business education will truly drive CCAD to function at a world-class level, and stand on a competitive edge with these schools from around the world.

“We are nimble, we are managing change as a team,” Griffith said. “I am so proud of our people here at the college, from staff to faculty and everyone in between. We have people that recognize that a lively, vital, progressive, powerful institution has to have many voices at the table that will work together and that is the exact culture we have going on here.”

Building the CCAD Network

Griffith was also able to explore museums and galleries during his time in China. He was able to see the Sun Dynasty scroll come to life as a series of animations, he witnessed an old power station become a contemporary art center, and saw mind blowing architecture that we, in Columbus, could only dream of having.

He was accompanied on these excursions by Leah Wong, who has taught at CCAD and is now assisting the college with a teaching exchange with the China Academy of Art. They visited and networked with local China art academies to help strengthen CCAD’s partnership with them and their students; hoping to strengthen the bond between global art and design schools and educational opportunities.

“Even with all the cultural differences and economic difference CCAD was like most everyone there,” Griffith said. “We are concerned about the success of our students and are balancing the ideal of being idea and also market driven. We are both a college and a crusader.”

Students work in animation class at CCAD, photo courtesy of Luke Kramer

CCAD is among the top three Midwest schools for studying animation based on new rankings by Animation Career Review, an online source for aspiring animation, design, and gaming professionals.

The review cites CCAD as having “a compellingly long list of veteran faculty members and an enviable roster of working alumni…Foundational studies set new students on the path to tackle more nuanced approaches as they progress. An emphasis on narrative is a hallmark of CCAD’s animation program with ample coursework in prerequisite writing, literature, and social sciences.”

“CCAD is in good company on this list,” said Admissions Director Densil R. R. Porteous II. “Our Columbus neighbor, Ohio State University, is also on the list, but doesn’t offer a BFA in Animation as we do.”

Joining CCAD in the top 5 are Minneapolis College of Art & Design (1), The Ohio State University (2), Cleveland State University (4), and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (5).

To review the entire list, click here.

Click to see video.

Sound the alarms! The first video is up! What a relief.

After months of editing, making changes, and finishing touches, the Edward Buchanan interview is  live. It was a great learning experience.

The problems we encountered along the way weren’t as extreme as the James Alicia piece (where we recorded over the footage from one camera), but we had our fair share. Storytelling was my biggest concern, and then the editing, and finally the stylizing.

I am excited to share with you the story of his success. He was so fun to interview, and it was truly inspiring. While I am not a fashion major, he gave me hope for my future, and made me appreciate my school a whole lot more. Ed is an exciting person, and after months of working on four minutes of footage, I never got bored of his voice.

Well, I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Expect a couple more videos in the next few months!

I am currently finishing up the editing of the Edward Buchanan interview. It was a long and exciting journey for this one! Many changes have been made, countless hours of swapping this, swapping that, deleting this, adding that.

Soon will you all see what a great person Edward is and how CCAD played a role in his future.

While we’re on the topic of editing, let me tell you a little about it!

Editing is the most important aspect of the video process. If you just post the raw footage, it is terribly boring, uneventful, and long. An editors job is basically the same job as a storyteller (or a magician). He or she needs to cut down the video and make it a proper pace, put nice music to it, put images and video on top of the video to hide the cuts, etc.

The editor of almost every single documentary and interview cuts the video down to a small amount from hours or even DAYS worth of footage. The viewer doesn’t notice this because of the editors skill at hiding it.

The interviewee comes to secretly respect the editor upon viewing the final product. The interviewee might be a stutterer, might say “uhhh” a lot, might cough here and there, or whatever. The editor will take those out, and make him sound like a gentleman and a scholar.

Not to say everyone does those things when they are interviewed, but you’d be surprised as to how many do.

I would bet a whole lot that those interviews with the president on CNN and what not weren’t just ONE take. Sometimes they are, yes, but everyone makes mistakes, and it’s the media editor’s job to hide that.

Do you watch the news and say “wow, that was edited really well”.  Nope.

Do you watch basketball games on tv and say that? Didn’t think so.

I suggest you take a harder look at the editing next time you watch something, it can be really interesting what you’ll catch.

I hope you don’t catch any errors in the Ed interview though. And you won’t, because I edited it.

It's a beautiful thing really. Being able to take hours worth of footage and cut it down to three to five minutes.

I have started the longest part of the process, the editing. While it is the most time consuming, it also my favorite.

It’s a beautiful thing really. Being able to take hours worth of footage and cut it down to three to five minutes. It’s definitely my favorite part. Chad and I decided to stylize the videos and make them artsy and new and fresh. These will be fun to watch.

Edward Buchanan (CCAD '88-'91)

I ‘m excited to release the Ed Buchanan interview within the next couple weeks and show you what an awesome person he is. Before that happens though, I need to present the video to Resource Interactive and see what they think about it.

I love working with them. It’s a great experience. They are the best interactive ad agency in the Midwest, and my brother is there to give advice as part of Resource, so I’ve got that going for me (Caddyshack reference).

Stay tuned! Big things are coming, big, big things.

Like … New York City big.

Now that the trip to NYC is over and our time there is a memory, I have been reflecting on how this whole journey started.

My involvement with this project happened right as I was getting ready to graduate, which made the last three months incredibly crazy. From figuring out subway routes to deciding which color shirt does not make me look like a giant pumpkin on screen, the process has been an interesting one. Never did I think that in my career I would be sent to New York to interview people—Matt Lauer style.

Last time I was in New York, I was a senior in high school, and I went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While doing all the tourist things that you normally do in New York, I started to wish that I could have experienced the city on a more cultural level. That is exactly what I wanted this trip to be for Alex and I, an immersion into the NYC art and design community.

Beautiful Street we came across.

I also hoped to get some time to explore the city. As a photographer, I was excited to get some super-sweet shots and capture the texture and beauty of this awesome metropolis.

Having graduated from CCAD with a major in Advertising & Graphic Design and minors in Photography and Copywriting, this trip is what I have spent the last four years working toward. Check out some of my work at www.lifebulbdesign.com, and you will see the things that inspire me and the work that I have created.

The concept for the project began in early March with the idea of heading to different places throughout the world to find  CCAD alumni. We wanted to capture their journey, find out what makes them tick, how they picked the path they did, and how CCAD set them up for that success. These questions would drive the interviews and be the main focus of the videos we captured.

Working with Resource Interactive (RI)  the CCAD team hatched an idea and figured out a plan. We did some mock interviews and then started to prepare for our interview with 2010 CCAD Fashion Icon Award winner Edward Buchanan, creator of Sansovino 6. While he was in town accepting his award at the 2010 Senior Fashion Show, we got to spend

Times Square

some time with him and find out his journey to the Jay-Oh-Bee.

Edward’s interview went great, and we got some awesome footage. At our last meeting with RI, we reviewed the video that Alex had been spending lots of time editing. It was given a big round of applause and will be the first to be posted in the series.

After this, we began planning for NYC. From the money it takes to get there, to the flights and hotel room, there was a lot of planning that went into making the trip run smoothly. My giant, crazy binder of maps and travel logistics saved us from standing in the middle of Times Square looking like tourists and helped us arrive on time for all of our meetings. The only major problem we had was getting lost in China Town, which was an experience in itself.

When I first started to write these blogs, we were just getting ready to travel. Now, we’re back in Columbus, and the editing process has begun.

Reliving these interviews reminds me of not only the fun we had but also the lessons I learned. Meeting these alumni taught me that in order to get the Jay-Oh-Bee, you have to fail, fail again, but continuously believe that what you are doing has a purpose. This is what makes success.

Today we filmed on a fire escape. We also filmed in a room that looked like something from the set of Mad Men!

The digital lab at BBDO

Our morning started very early when we traveled down to Radio City Music Hall, which is right across the street from BBDO New York. Matter a fact you can see the famous Radio City Marquee from Chris Cole’s office window.

Cole, a 1989 graduate of CCAD and VP at BBDO, sat down with us and gave us the inside scoop into the gears that make a giant advertising firm turn. This is where the Mad Men part come into play. The office spaces of BBDO are littered with famous work that the company has produced—Work for major brands like Hyatt, M&M, Gillette, Mountain Dew, FedEx and much more.

There were multiple floors of creative spaces where hidden gems lay around every corner. From the cozy cool digital lab filled with beanbags and wall graffiti to the amazing gathering space that looks like a flashback of the old central filing room ( think old news clippings hanging on walls and original wooden filing cabinets with the labels still attached), the place rocked. Thanks Roy for the early morning tour.

At home with Majari in Brooklyn

We then traveled to Brooklyn to visit with Manjari Sharma (CCAD class of 2004). We grabbed lunch at a local corner café and then headed to her home. She had just arrived from Review Santa Fe, an event  for which 600 photographers from all over the world apply and only 100 get selected. She had boundless amounts of energy and was still very pumped up about all the amazing contacts she had made.

Manjari made Alex tea and then we climbed out onto the fire escape to get a great view of her neighborhood. After seeing her work and some sneak peeks on what she will be up to next we headed to Prospect Park. This park is right next to the Brooklyn public library and is made up of great walking paths and a giant hilly meadow that was filled with people.

Who's shooting who?

She informed us that many great concerts happen here and then her and Alex started to talk about the music that inspires them. This very deep conversation took us all the way back to her place where we grabbed our bags and headed to the airport.

That is where I write this blog.

Leaving NY

Our flight got delayed and we are hanging out in the airport for five hours. Ugh. It has been kind of nice just to set down though. We have been running ragged for three days and have gotten some great advice and stories from many talented Alumni. I would personally like to thank all the individuals involved in the project our time in NYC as been an exhilarating experience. Thank you.  And, Alex, let’s Fly!

The giant chocolate bunny at Dylan's Candy Bar.

Who else can say they went on a search for a giant chocolate bunny, today?

Any takers?

That’s what I thought.

Well, we did and it was a sweet adventure in uptown NYC that ended with me thinking that my dentist will be disappointed in my sweet tooth.

Why did I go on this delicious journey? It all started this morning when we visited our friend Rosanne Percivalle, winner of the 2010 Alumni Award for Excellence.

Her work, featured throughout the country, may be familiar to you if you have visited Dylan’s Candy Bar and walked up the candy filled resin steps or had your picture taken with the giant chocolate bunny or perhaps visited the Whole Foods Market on Bowery and looked up at the timeline mural she created and designed.

It's alive! (no, not really)

We stopped by her studio/home/office today and she gave us a full tour of her amazing workspace. Her lifelike sculpture of a giant iguana scared me so bad when I first arrived and thought it was real. Finding out it was art, gave my heart a rest.

We then traveled uptown to Central Park and the amazing Apple store that everyone kept telling us about. It was pretty sweet and was a buzz of activity. After our pit stop at the candy bar and filling our souvenirs with all our favorite types of gummy bears we headed to Times Square.

This was Alex’s first experience in the heart of Manhattan. Needless to say I had to pull him out of the street a couple times as he kept trying to get the perfect money shot, before getting hit by a cab.

We then took a jaunt to meet James Alicea a 1992 graduate of CCAD. After traveling on the fastest ear-popping elevator of my life we arrived at Rocawear.

James Alicea at Rocawear

We were taken to the T-Shirt display room, which had an amazing view of downtown and the Statue of Liberty in the distance. The shirt designs on the wall were kickin’. We soon found out that most were the handy work of James and he even shared his sketches with us of some of the original artwork.

It was  very interesting to find out that James finds himself most nights sleeping on his couch. Why is this? Well, he never makes it to bed because he is so busy keeping up with all of the companies he works with & inspired by his passion for drawing, typography and cultural relevance he sees no need to sleep.

By the time this goes live, James, Alex & I will be enjoying some great food from Camaradas & enjoying the lovely weather here in NYC.

Filming with Ming Fay (CCAD '65)

By Chad Hughes

Well, we made it to New York. Even made good time and did not have to have a water landing in the Hudson River. Got all checked in at our beautiful hotel and were even greeted by King Kong hanging out on our beds. Then the real adventure began.

After a quick lunch at Lindy’s (who claims to have the best cheese cake in the world) and an interesting adventure trying to decode the mass transit subway signage and walking a few 30 blocks through China Town. We made it to our first interview and were warmly greeted by Ming Fay.

Buckeye nut on right was inspired by time spent at CCAD.

Ming Fay, a 1965 Columbus College of Art & Design graduate in industrial design, was eager to tell us his journey and gave us lots of good advice for art students.

First we went to the Lesley Heller gallery where there was a solo exhibition of Ming’s work (it was the closing day of the exhibition).

Seeing his work on display is even more thrilling then it is in pictures. The work sucks you in and takes you to a magical jungle of sculptural art. The turning and twisting pieces are made to mimic brush strokes on a blank canvas. Imaginary and factual plants and seeds are scattered throughout the exhibition. There was even a special buckeye nut that was inspired by his time spent in Ohio. The exhibition was great.

Then he took us to his home studio. Can I just say, WOW. His home is filled with his work and his studio is a mass of inspiration. He showed us many projects that he was working on and some that were already on display. He still references the things he learned at CCAD when it comes to building his more industrial art sculptures.

Ming Fay gives us his words of wisdom.

As Alex and I sat eating frozen grapes with him and his wife and sipping green tea. (Yes, this really happened and it was amazing.) He told us that the best thing about CCAD is that it sets you up with a strong work ethic that will last a life time. Our time spent with Ming Fay and his wife was AMAZING and Alex & I will never forget this experience.

The Jay-Oh-Bee project takes us to NYC.

Every journey has a story. One of the most interesting stories that many people have to share is how they ended up finding the right job. From the dream job they imagined has a child. To the path they take to find the right college. Then, the excitement of finding a first job after they have graduated and are entering into the real world.

This process is a journey, for Columbus College of Art & Design graduates this process is exciting. For us this journey is a story that we want to capture. We are working on a project entitled “Journey to the Jay-Oh-Bee” it will end up being a series of video alumni interviews that will be used to help show incoming students that there are some amazing jobs after art school has ended and you have walked or danced (as I did) across the graduation stage.

That is where “we” come in. My friend and fellow CCAD student Alex and I will be in the Big Apple for three days and two nights. What will we be doing? Watch out Matt & Meredith, we are the new news team in town.

First, we will travel to New York City where we will interview, film and experience selected CCAD alumni that have some pretty cool jobs. Then we will return to Columbus where we will edit these interviews into videos that we will share.

Boy, do we have some interesting journeys, to show you. The videos will eventually end up on YouTube and www.ccad.edu so be on the look out.

Having danced across the graduation stage about three weeks ago now, I am on this journey. The process of finding the right job can be exciting and fun, but with that also comes many funny, scary and happy moments and even some big moves to join the creative work force. Finding the right job that will feed your passion is not always easy and many people look for hints and tips to make this process a more smooth adventure. I will make sure I ask these successful CCAD alumni what advice they can give to current students and young professionals that are fresh out of college, like me.

Join us as we set forth on a journey of our own to the Jay-Oh-Bee. Follow our blog posts and tweets as we explore New York through the eyes of five successful artists and designers who have found a Jay-Oh-Bee that ignites their passion. Check our live twitter feed @ 2JayOhBee for our daily adventures into the heart of the Big Apple.