Marquee at 134th spring commencement

Nearly 250 Columbus College of Art & Design students graced the stage of the historic Ohio Theatre to receive their diplomas on Saturday, May 11, 2013.

The 134^th annual commencement in downtown Columbus included an address by nationally renowned artist Mel Chin, who was also awarded an honorary degree by the college.

James E. Kunk, vice chair of CCAD’s board of trustees; Dennison W. Griffith, CCAD president; Kevin J. Conlon, vice president for academic affairs; and director of graduate studies and professor Ric Petry conferred the nine master of fine arts degrees and the bachelor of fine arts.

Student government president and Advertising & Graphic Design major Cailyn Driscoll addressed the audience of peers and family, followed by recognition of the nine outstanding seniors:

• Lillie Templeton, Advertising & Graphic Design
• Tyler Crowley, Animation
• Patrick Kain, Cinematic Arts
• Katharine Hire, Fashion Design
• Stefanie Cook, Fine Arts
• Wesley Talbott, Illustration
• Justin Brown, Industrial Design
• Katelyn Venia, Interior Design
• Kayla Holdgreve, Photography

President Griffith introduced the 2013 class valedictorian, Advertising & Graphic Design major Lillie Templeton.

Following the valedictorian’s address, Griffith spoke to the graduating class. He offered them a heartfelt farewell and encouraged them to spread their talent and the message of love across the world.

Class of 2013 valedictorian Lillie Templeton

Columbus College of Art & Design is proud to present the valedictorian for the class of 2013, Lillie Templeton. The Advertising & Graphic Design major will be honored during the commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11, at the Ohio Theatre.

Templeton was also honored as an outstanding senior for Advertising & Graphic Design. Each year faculty select one outstanding senior to represent each undergraduate major.

In addition to Templeton’s exemplary grades, she has distinguished herself outside the classroom. Templeton was president of CCAD’s honors council for two years and helped lead their group project, a one-day pop-up store on campus in December, which had a second life at Easton Town Center this spring.

Templeton’s work received recognition at this year’s ADDY’s, where she took home a Best of Show and a Gold award.

She has already secured a job as a graphic designer at SBC Advertising in Columbus, OH. She is currently part of their Bed Bath & Beyond team and will begin working full time upon graduation.

Check out our CCAD news blog for more highlights from Templeton’s time here.

Templeton is from Wadesboro, NC, and was home schooled.

CCAD Outstanding Senior Kayla Holdgreve, wearing her “signature” sunglasses

At the end of the academic year, CCAD deans names the faculty-selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major. Today, in part nine of our nine-part series, meet Photography outstanding senior Kayla Holdgreve.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

This last semester. I figured out what I wanted to do, and I created a really strong body of work that represents me as a person, as an artist, and the direction I want to go. The work is a three-part series that deals with the personal journey one takes within time and space. I used a lot of different photo processes and mixed digital and film.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

Just managing everything. It is such a heavy workload here, and you have to balance that with jobs, internships, personal work, and hanging out with friends.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

Developing my own work, and I would like to travel. I am going to wait a couple years, but then I will start applying to grad schools.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

My ultimate dream job would be to look at old photographs all the time, and travel, and get paid to do that.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

It is necessary to keep things going and growing. We have to ensure that students have access to what we did and even more.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

There was a moment when I was in the darkroom and I was experimenting with these negatives and trying to come up with something I have never tried before. I was in there for two hours, and finally when I was hovering over the chemicals the image came out, and I just thought “thank you, this is it.”

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

The fix and the photo chemicals.

Q: What will you miss the most?

The connections and the closeness of the students and the faculty here. We were able to have constant feedback, stay up late working with peers, and chat with the faculty on our work. Also, the equipment we had available to us.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

Bittersweet. It is exciting to move on, but there are a lot of things that will be missed.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

Poetry with Lesley Jenike, feminism in art with Susanne Myers, and my materials study class with Helen Hoffelt. Those three factored so much into who I am and the work that I am about.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

Read, that is one thing that I have been enjoying. I’m currently reading 1984.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

Just hanging out with everyone in the labs; I practically lived there.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

Focus more and take advantage of everything offered here, from the equipment to the visiting artists’ lectures.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Utilize all of the space, equipment, workshops, and visiting artists’ talks, just everything that is offered on campus.

Holdgreve is from Lima, OH, and attended Lima Senior High School.

CCAD Outstanding Senior Katelyn Venia

At the end of the academic year, CCAD names the faculty-selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major. Today, in part eight of our nine-part series, meet Interior Design outstanding senior Katelyn Venia.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

Being able to start up the ASID [American Society of Interior Designers] chapter again. The co-president and I worked really hard to get it off the ground and bring back that networking and professional spirit to CCAD and our major.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

The amount of work and deadlines. This program is really tough, and we are always under a lot of stress, but it really does prepare you for the outside world.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I want to stay in Columbus, and I have been applying for a lot of stuff. I am really interested in higher education in Interior Design.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

Just designing, honestly. I have thought about opening my own firm, but just being able to design for a large amount of people and having those people experience that is really important to me.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

Especially in Interior Design, the insight you can get from people who have been through this before is really helpful. It not only clears up questions you may have, but it gives you contacts as you enter the professional world.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

This year has been a good year for me, and those moments have happened a lot. In particular, last semester we did a hotel project, and we were able to really just do what we wanted to do. I was able to see my vision come to life, and I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

Work.

Q: What will you miss the most?

The people here—our interior group is very compact, there are about 15 of us. We are really tightknit, and there is a lot of fun that happens. It is that family atmosphere that everyone thrives on, so hopefully I find a workplace that is similar to that.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

Amazing. The amount of work that I have done in the past four years is insane, so it’s a good feeling and signifies the end of this time and my transition out. I am ready.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

There were a few, but probably display design. We have to take it as an advanced course, and I got some really good portfolio pieces. Justin Martini, who taught us, was really great about letting us run with our ideas and really pushing us.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

Relax. I love to read, and I haven’t read a book for fun in probably six months—I’m feeling deprived.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

That would have to be last semester again, during the hotel presentation. I was able to have a relaxed presentation, and a lot of CCAD faculty and staff came through. It was probably the most fun presentation that I’ve had.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would and I wouldn’t change things. I would have maybe changed how I learned a little bit. I think I needed to see things a little better. We got a lot of information over our time here, and sometimes I wish I could have spent more time on some of those things.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Hang in there, it is only four years. It is all worth it in the end. Do your best, people will notice. Work ethic is really important, and if you can show that, you’re good to go.

Venia is from Toledo, OH, and attended Whitmer Senior High School.

CCAD 2013 outstanding senior Justin Brown

At the end of the academic year, CCAD names the faculty-selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major.  Today, in part seven of our nine-part series, meet Industrial Design outstanding senior Justin Brown.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

My Zwei Desk I created my junior year; it was selected for the Design Emphasis Showcase at the International Woodworking Fair, and I placed second in my category.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

I broke my arm my freshman year while throwing a dodgeball. I didn’t think I was going to finish the year. I was in a temporary cast for a week, then I had to have surgery and couldn’t move my arm for about a month, and then I was in another cast after that.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I have a job. Throughout the year and during school breaks I have been interning at MidWest Studios in Indiana. I will be an exhibit design fabricator.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

Just being a craftsman; craft is something that I try to emphasize in all my work. So as far as a dream job I can’t really pinpoint that—as long as I am able to build and be a craftsman.

Justin Brown’s Zwei Desk

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

There have been a lot of times when I am asking “why am I doing this?” and I don’t know if that’s been answered yet. It is one of those questions I am still looking to answer. Meeting with my teachers has been very inspiring and they have pushed me to where I am now.

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

The Motorist building—it always just reminds me of Columbus.

Q: What will you miss the most?

Probably the old wood shop and working with Frank Laskowsky and John Henning.

Q: What are you most excited to leave behind?

The stress, absolutely.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

I would have to say a relief, and I’m looking forward to it.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

Conceptual drawing with Thornton Lothrop—it was a test class. I learned a lot of things in that class and a lot of interesting concepts that weren’t necessarily covered in my major, and the teacher was very, very inspiring.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

I build furniture; it is all I do. I don’t exhibit or sell it, I just give it away. It allows me to keep up with that hobby and be able to just be a craftsman.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

Working in the wood shop with Frank and John, that was great.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would have had more of a Fine Arts emphasis. I would take glassblowing, more ceramics, and woodworking, and I would combine those three mediums into a thesis. I have always had this dream of just making bowls out of all three mediums to emphasize the craft.

Learning that stuff is definitely still an option; it’s not too late. I think that if I want to pursue something like that I would look into an apprenticeship, something I can do in my free time, since right now I don’t necessarily want to go back to school.

What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Choose your major wisely.

Brown is a native of Troy, OH, and attended Miami East High School.

CCAD 2013 outstanding senior Wesley Talbott

At the end of the academic year, CCAD names the faculty-selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major. Today, in part six of our nine-part series, meet Illustration outstanding senior Wes Talbott.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

I have been really proud of what we have been able to do with the Illustration Student Collective. We’ve done several gallery shows and have had some visiting artists come in—our talks have really been inspiring.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

I was never really scared; I always knew I would just take on whatever came.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I was brought on as a freelancer for LEGO in April, and I’m working on a project for them right now. I actually just got back from Denmark and got the chance to see their workspace there and meet people on the team. And for after I graduate, I have a couple of people and companies on the list for freelance projects, and hopefully I will get more work through LEGO.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

Right now, LEGO is my ideal company, but being able to work for a small company may be fun just so you have control over multiple aspects of a project.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

I think it’s important for alumni to come back and help current students. It’s helpful for students to see someone who has gone through the exact same thing, classes- and training-wise, and have them speak on their experiences and how they eventually made it. It helps encourage those students that may be struggling.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

Every time I get a job and I start to get sick of it, I just sit back and think “I have no reason to complain—I am sitting here painting.” I have had other jobs at grocery stores and everything, and I hated it. So to be able to do this and get paid for it is awesome.

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

Polished concrete and white walls.

Q: What will you miss the most?

The interaction with other students. If I stay in Columbus, I plan to hang around here and still go to Illustration Student Collective meetings. We would have alumni randomly stop in and chat with us, and I loved that and want to be one of those people. But definitely just the people and the interactions.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

Completion.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

I really liked my sophomore illustration methods class with Joseph Kovach. He made that class, and I am taking two more independent study classes with him.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

Build with LEGO; I have a huge collection. At LEGO, you don’t have specific jobs, you kind of do a little bit of everything. One of those aspects is set design. Ever since I discovered that, I have wanted to keep up to date on what kind of pieces there are and how to use them.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

I think it’s just the teachers. Sometimes when you show you’re competent at a skill, [outside] people will question why you are even in school, but I learned so much from the entire faculty here that it is irreplaceable.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would have maybe pursued different attributes of illustration, but I don’t think I would really change anything.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Work hard, practice all the time, and I think the biggest advice I could give is to do what you love. Sometimes you have to take advice and what people say with a grain of salt and remember you just always have to do what you love.

Talbott is from Johnstown, OH, and was home schooled.

Stefanie Cook’s “self-portrait in mask (2012)”

At the end of the academic year, CCAD presents the faculty-selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major.  Today, in part five of our nine-part series, meet Fine Arts outstanding senior Stefanie Cook.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

How do you pinpoint your proudest moment? I don’t think I can, because I have been proud of every day that I have been here.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

The whole experience is terrifying; you have a lot riding on it. I am paying for this, I chose this path, and I think it means a lot to not only succeed in the work that you do, but succeed for yourself. Every scary moment I’ve had I knew I just had to suck it up and do it.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I would like to apply to grad school, maybe go to OSU. I want to stay in Columbus, though; I feel like moving here was a really good choice. It is a great city to get rooted and grow in—I didn’t expect to love it here, but I do.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

To be able to share my education by some means; I want to be able to plant those creative seeds in other people.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

When I applied and moved here I had never been to CCAD, seen the campus, or even visited Columbus; I just went on faith. I had talked to two former graduates that I knew, and hearing them talk about the school helped me make this decision. Having an alum leave here with such a positive attitude really does reflect on what the school is capable of doing.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

In my honors hand lettering class Richard Aschenbrand said a lot of profound things, and I didn’t get them right away, but they later snuck up on me and really did reflect on all of my other classes and my career here. He taught me how to really look at the marks I was making and that changed how I worked in every other class since then. So, to realize that a teacher actually changed my perception and impacted my work made me sit back and think ‘this was why I am an artist.’

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

The doughnut smell in the air—that and turpentine, acetone, and any AMF studio smell.

Q: What will you miss the most?

Being with like-minded people and being surrounded by people that are exactly like me. This is such a great place to grow, and it is so much better to be with other people like that than just by yourself.

Stefanie Cook’s “chair 30 (2013)” from her senior thesis

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

It’s hard to believe this is going to be the end. But I feel like it is never ending, since I want to head straight into graduate school after this, so it is just another step forward.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

Brian Williams’ art theft and propaganda classes. The fact that they were offered here was amazing. That’s a fascinating subject for me and I have read a lot of books based on the material he taught, so to be able to explore that with other people was just really great.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

I do something with my hands. If I am not doing school work, I am doing my own work. I am always making something, and if it’s not for CCAD, it is for myself—my hands are never idle.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

Being with like-minded people, all the relationships, and hanging out in AMF studios, those are my fondest memories.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would have had a stronger relationship with a full-time professor or dean. I would have been able to really learn through them and their mentorship.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

I actually just wrote a quote down. I watched this today in class, and I have been saying it over and over—it is from John Baldessari: “You have to be possessed, which you cannot will.” I am at this point where I am working on my thesis, and I keep asking myself “Why am I doing this?” and after hearing this quote, it is true. I can’t force this work, I just have to let it happen and let it take me over.

Cook is from Chicago, IL.

CCAD Outstanding Senior Katharine Hire

At the end of the academic year, CCAD presents the faculty-selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major. Today, in part four of our nine-part series, meet Fashion Design outstanding senior Katharine Hire.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

My senior collection and the fact that I am actually graduating.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

Everything. I was a ballet dancer for a long time and came into fashion not knowing where I stood, so it was a big change.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I have a job with Lane Bryant; I have been interning with them for the last two years. I will be an assistant designer in knit tops.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

My collection is about using African fabric to create flattering silhouettes for women, and my end goal and dream would be to develop a collection that allows me to give back to the African women I met during a missionary trip. I would love to be able to buy African-made textiles and create jobs for those women.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

When alumni come back to talk to students, it allows us to see that they have now made it, but were where we are now and were struggling too—it gives us insight on where we can go from here.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

Definitely finishing my collection with the African tie-in. For me, things have to have a little more meaning then just an assignment. With this, I want to be able to give back and send that message that beauty goes deeper.

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

Probably muslin.

What will you miss the most?

Being able to focus on my own work and my own stuff.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

I am so excited; it is just an “I did it!” moment.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

I took a watercolor class with Linda Gall, and she really encouraged me and changed my perspective on what I was doing. I felt like I could really experiment because it wasn’t a fashion class, and she just took all the fear out of grades. I really learned a lot from her.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

I love to dance, and over the years my friends and I would go salsa dancing—that became an outlet for me.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

This senior year has been really neat for me to see the camaraderie in our class. I feel we have all got each others’ backs and we’re all pushing and helping each other out, which sometimes is rare in this environment and industry.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would have learned to deal with my anxiety a lot earlier.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Put an emphasis on sleep and taking care of yourself. You will perform a lot better.

Hire is from Mansfield, OH, and attended Mansfield Christian High School.

CCAD Outstanding Senior Patrick Kain

At the end of the academic year, CCAD names outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major. Today, in part three of our nine-part series, meet Cinematic Arts outstanding senior Patrick Kain.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

Showing at the Columbus Museum of Art; I had a few of my films show over there last fall and this fall.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

Nothing, I wasn’t really afraid of coming here at all or anything while I was here.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I am working for Human, and we just got offices over in Studio Hall actually. So I will be designing t-shirts and creating animations.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

I interned with this company in New York City that does cartoons for [Cartoon Network's] Adult Swim and I got a little taste of doing that in between animations and clean-ups, so I would love to go to LA and create my own show.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

I’ve already started to give back; I helped out with the We Have Answers session for Admissions recently. Without CCAD, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I have had. We put an investment into our degree, so we don’t want the school to lose its reputation; it’s important for our own sake to keep the school up and supported.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

I was a little kid actually. I have been making films forever, and I remember I was trying to learn how to do stop motion. I was a little hustler back then, always trying to get people to watch my stuff.

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

Hunger pains.

Q: What will you miss the most?

Having faculty like Andy Friz, Tom Richner, and Charlotte Belland—as awesome as everyone here is, I really connected to the professors because of their knowledge and I spent a lot of time talking to them. I’ll miss the immediacy of being able to contact them and ask them any question that pops into my mind.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

I don’t know—I have never been sentimental about ending something. Vitamin C’s song doesn’t play in my head when I think about it, it is just another step in life.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

Design for Media, which is the class that I did my first film in that showed at the museum. We created a log during the class of our process and how we built it. That log is irreplaceable to show people in the industry what you have done and that you’re familiar with the process that it takes to create a short.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

I listen to music. Right now I am into Devo.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

Meeting my fiancee.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I started out in Animation—I probably would have just stayed in Animation. I’m interested in a lot, so I wanted to dabble in a little bit of everything, but I probably should have just stayed in Animation.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Work harder then everyone you are surrounded by.

Kain is from Kettering, OH, and attended Kettering Fairmont High School.

Nicole Chhuom. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

As a young girl, Nicole Chhuom became fascinated by the drawings of the female human form her uncle actively sketched. The lines and shapes of the human body not only intrigued her, but also made her desperately want to learn how to create her own sketches.

“I finally asked him to teach me how to draw,” she remembers. “I just thought the human form was beautiful.”

Nicole would sketch and sketch hundreds of variations of the human shape, getting better and better with each stoke. All of a sudden she started to add unique clothing designs onto those illustrations. Later she turned those designs into actual garments for her Barbie dolls using scraps of fabric from her parents’ closet or from old socks. She even created her own version of fashion plates.

“We didn’t have a lot of money when I was little and what toys we did have were from thrift stores, so most of the time I would have to think of something creative,” said Nicole. “I decided to take old magazines and newspapers and clip out outfits and put them together and make them into my own paper dolls—that’s how it all started.”

She later attended a local career center and developd her sewing and advanced art skills. It was there that she learned about CCAD’s fashion program and decided to apply. With all that she’s learned though, she continues to rely on those early sketching skills, especially when she started to research her senior collection.

“My strengths as a designer include design concept, illustration, and the styling part of it,” she notes. “I love mixing and matching pieces together and making people happy and comfortable in what they wear.”

In fact, those elements were key in even choosing her final fabrics for her collection.

“I am so particular when it comes to fabrics. It has to be comfortable, nice to the touch, and I want it to relate to me,” said Nicole.  “I don’t like a lot of prints and I’m very simple in my fabric choices.”

From Nicole’s sketchbook, photo by Kristen M. Foley

However, what wasn’t simple in this process was creating her final collection garments. She laughs about it now, but she admits she could have easily created 10 or more garments this year because she kept changing her mind about what she wanted her collection to be. In essence, she kept starting over.

Her final collection expresses dichotomy. In her written thesis Nicole describes being inspired by fragmented mirrors she saw in the Harajuku shopping district in Tokyo.

“The reflection within the mirrors itself strikes me the most,” Nicole wrote. “The repetitive and defined lines, the edges and soft curves within the reflections were all of the things that inspired my autumn collection.”

She also notes a fascination with femininity versus masculinity. She chose a neutral color palette, and interpreted her soft circular shapes as representing the feminine, while structured lines and triangular shapes symbolized the masculine.

“I’m happy with my collection now, but if I could make more changes I would,” said Nicole. “I sometimes felt like I was doing things to make everyone else happy…. I can’t just please other people. I have to please myself, too.”

Nicole’s designs will join her fellow seniors work on the runway in just a few short weeks at the 2013 Senior Fashion Show. If you were lucky enough to grab a ticket you’ll enjoy the future of fashion at its best and a pretty amazing party, too!

Nicole Chhuom is a native of Columbus, OH, and a graduate of West High School.

2013 Outstanding Senior Tyler Crowley

At the end of the academic year, CCAD names the outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major.  Today, in part two of our nine-part series, meet Animation outstanding senior Tyler Crowley.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

Being co-founder of the Animation Student Collective, which is the big student animation group that we founded two years ago. We were actually elected the best student group through Student Affairs last year.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

I don’t think I have ever been scared here. Mostly that is because I transferred here, so I got my freshman jitters out of the way.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

To find a studio to work in. I am going to be interviewing with some California studios at Directions [CCAD's reverse career fair], as well as some back home in New Hampshire.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

To work in a studio out in California and eventually pitch my own show.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

It’s important to give perspective to current students about what it’s like to leave this school. It is important for students to know that the people that they look up to and aspire to be were where they currently are at some point. Through the Animation Student Collective it’s been great for me to speak to alumni Chris Oatley and Alex Alvarado.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

A year ago I was working on a kind of a goofy assignment where I was making a guy try to pick up a girl in the bar, and she turns around and her face is an alligator. I was struggling with it and being really critical of the project, giving myself a hard time, and I got to thinking that no matter how hard I am on myself, I am still able to do projects like this, where there is an alligator-faced person, so it can’t be that bad.

Q: What will you miss the most?

The Animation Student Collective group. It is a huge group, but I really feel like I am close friends with all of them. It is going to be difficult to move into a different group of people.

Q: If you could describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

I have never been one for ceremony or anything like that; graduation for me is more of a relief that this part is done and thinking, okay, what’s next?

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

Any of my animation classes—especially ones with Tom Richner, Andy Friz, and Phil Garrett.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

I would spend a lot of time with my friends in the animation collective group. We have five student leaders, so the five of us are as tight as can be.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

The late nights that I spend with those five other leaders, anywhere from planning out our meeting to going to Steak ‘n Shake after, which is a tradition of ours.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would have come here immediately instead of spending the year at the technical college and transferring.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

Get involved in your department. Animation is one of the most collaborative art forms, so you are going to be working with a lot of people; develop those people skills, and get more comfortable talking with people both in informal and formal settings.

Crowley is from Milford, NH, and attended Milford High School.

2013 Outstanding Senior Lillie Templeton

At the end of the academic year, CCAD presents the faculty selected outstanding seniors for each undergraduate major.  Today, in part one of our nine-part series, meet Advertising & Graphic Design outstanding senior Lillie Templeton.

Q: What was your proudest achievement while at CCAD?

Being a part of the team that kick-started the pop-up store effort here at CCAD. I was part of the honors class project’s One and now I am working on FORTHMADE, which will go up at Easton.

Q: What scared you the most while you were at CCAD?

Probably being so far away from my family in North Carolina—it was a really big transition from a small town to a big city.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

I currently have a job as a designer at SBC Advertising; I was hired in January, and I am really happy to be a part of the team. I am primarily working with the Bed Bath & Beyond team, and I have worked on their email, their campus and beyond campaigns, their bridal campaigns, and just a little bit of everything.

Q: What’s your ultimate dream job or goal?

Ultimately I want to be a creative director. I like doing a little bit of everything, and I love seeing a project through from the strategy and research to the final visual project.

Q: Why is it important as an alumnus to give back to CCAD?

It is very important. I was part of the phonathon team my sophomore year, so I got to speak to a lot of alumni firsthand. Most of the alumni were eager to talk to students, and they would keep us on the phone sharing tips, knowledge, and wisdom. It was wonderful and made such an impression on me. Alumni donations, involvement, or even willingness to look at your portfolio really does make a difference in a student’s education.

Q: Do you remember a single point that made you sit back and say, “This is why I am doing this?”

Yes, absolutely. Normally it is when you finish a big project at the end of the year, and you step back a bit and get a phone call from your mom and she says she loves the project and you get messages from outside people saying how much they love your work. Those moments make the all-nighters worth it.

But the big moment for me was sophomore year when I was an illustration major (I’ve changed my major four times), and I was taking the advertising classes that were required and I realized I was the only person in the class that was enjoying myself. I liked it and wanted to do it the rest of my life.

Q: What smell, word, or whatever will always remind you of your time here as a student?

All-nighters.

Q: What will you miss the most?

I am going to miss the community here; I think that is the scariest thing about leaving here. I have so many friends, and there are faces that you are familiar with seeing every day—walking away from that and starting over is just terrifying, I am going to miss saying hi to Denny [Griffith, CCAD president] and seeing Jim [Lutz, chair of Advertising & Graphic Design] walk around outside, everything.

Q: If you can describe what graduation feels like in one word or sentence what would it be?

Victory.

Q: What was your favorite class at CCAD?

Biotechnology Inspires Artistry. I enjoyed it so much because it was unrelated to anything else I have done in my career. It was with Julie Posey; she taught the biology side and Kristine Schramer taught the art side. It was entirely new curriculum. Julie spent the first half of the semester talking about human anatomy and biology, and then Kristine helped us create gallery pieces and we had in a show at the end. It was fun because it got me away from the computer and I learned so much.

Q: What did you like to do during your free time?

If I did have free time, I probably just cleaned, since it was long overdue by the time I got to it.

Q: What is your fondest memory at CCAD?

Freshman year, those were the days. Hanging out in the dorms and late-night walks.

Q: What would you change about your undergraduate career?

I would have taken more credits my first semester. I only took 12 and I knew you could take up 18; that way I would have had less of a workload my last year.

Q: What is your advice to future CCAD students?

It is never too late to start your LinkedIn profile. You can start building your professional presence online, and LinkedIn can help back up your reputation. It also is helpful if you don’t have your website built yet. It’s so easy to neglect the business and networking side when you are in the arts, and this helps you get connected to those networks.

Templeton is from Wadesboro, NC, and was home schooled.

From left, Animation Chair Charlotte Beland, Toon Boom CEO Joan Vogelesang, CCAD President Dennison Griffith, Cinematic Arts Chair Ron Saks, and Toon Boom Market Development Director Mark MacLellan,
photo by Katlin McNally

This morning Columbus College of Art & Design was officially declared a Center of Excellence by Toon Boom, a global leader in digital content and animation software. CCAD is the first college or university in the U. S. to receive such an honor.

The announcement was made, fittingly, in the college’s labs for Animation and Cinematic Arts. Toon Boom CEO and President Joan Vogelesang flew in from Montreal (where the company is based) to celebrate CCAD’s selection with faculty, staff, students, guests, and media including WCMH-NBC4, WBNS-10TV, and WSYX . As CCAD was honored, a moment was taken to give a special thanks Cinematic Arts Chair Ron Saks for his ongoing commitment to the industry

“CCAD has been a long-standing customer and supporter of Toon Boom. We are thrilled to see them become the first Center of Excellence in the U.S. and prepare students for the marketplace. CCAD will be highly recommended to all our customers as a prime source of talents for their productions,” Vogelesang said.

Dana Turtle (right) interviews Don Yoakam while a few feet away Angela An interviews Andrea Rawson and Emma Pennington, photo by Katlin McNally

When asked why Columbus was chosen for the site of their first U.S. Center of Excellence, Vogelesang noted that in addition to Columbus having a solid reputation, CCAD was an early adopter of the technology. Toon Boom began changing how animation was produced 14 years ago. They not only sought to create paperless methods of production, but to utilize technology in a way that allowed for more creative flexibility. CCAD was among the first institutions to embrace these advances in the industry.

“Being a Center of Excellence provides CCAD students with the opportunity to test and use the latest versions of this industry-leading software and maximize their value among film and animation employers,” said Dennison Griffith, president of CCAD. “Employment opportunities in this field are growing significantly with the use of animation not just in the entertainment industry, but in the development of apps, software, and gaming technology.”

Rather than explain the value of Toon Boom software in Animation and Cinematic Arts work, CCAD chose to show how students work with the product. A team of three Animation students worked together to animat three local television anchors.

Juniors Andrea Rawson and Don Yoakam along with sophomore Emma Pennington turned Angela An (WBNS-10TV), Monica Day (WCHM-NBC4), and Dana Turtle (WSYX) into animated characters.

Juniors Andrea Rawson and Don Yoakam along with sophomore Emma Pennington turned Angela An (WBNS-10TV), Monica Day (WCHM-NBC4), and Dana Turtle (WSYX) into animated characters—which were shared to the delight of the gathered audience, which included An and Turtle.

The audience also viewed a live demonstration, thanks to senior Alan Backer, who showed how the software works through each phase of concepting and producing animation.

The audience was also shown a trailer for the student-made film Lumin, which utilized Toon Boom software in its production. Lumin has been submitted to more than 30 festivals internationally and nationally and it has already been accepted into several, including Chile Monos, Leeds Young Film Festival, Ohio Shorts, taafi Official Selection, and Sff International Film Festival.

To cap off the event, CCAD announced a storyboard contest for high school students with a prize worth nearly $3,000. Students are invited to create and submit a storyboard for a short film (not to exceed one minute of screen time). The winner will receive a full-ride scholarship to attend CCAD’s three-week residential summer program College PreView, where they will be able to focus on Animation and Cinematic Arts and work with Toon Boom production suite software. Details on the contest can be found here.

The choice of CCAD as the first American Center of Excellence follows Toon Boom’s selection as an official educational resource and curriculum to support development of 21st century skills among Canadian students by the Information and Communications Technology Council in Canada.

Becker is from Columbus, OH, and graduated from Dublin High School; Rawson is a from Buffalo, NY, and graduated from Williamsville East High School; Yoakam is from Delaware, OH, and graduated from Bishop Watterson High School; and Pennington is from Hilliard, OH, and graduated from Hilliard Bradley High School.

Jazzmin Evans. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Jazzmin Evans always strived to be different, especially when it came to her fashion choices. As a teen, not only did her desire to be distinctive influence her retail purchases, but when she couldn’t find what she wanted in the store she started sketching her own designs and turned to her seamstress aunt to help her create her own trends.

“Fashion is a way to express yourself and I’m a person who loves to be different,” notes Jazzmin. “Fashion is different and there’s no right or wrong way to do fashion.”

Hearing her stories about her fashion focus as a youth, it’s not surprising to hear that Jazzmin’s favorite part of the design process is still trend forecasting.

“I love the entire process of starting a new trend. It’s how I can express myself—feelings, personal experiences, my surroundings, music, and just everything that inspires me,” she said. “I’m easily inspired and get a great feeling from being expressive.”

For her senior collection, Jazzmin turned her attention to an Egyptian theme. She was attracted to the bold patterns and the rich colors of red, white, and gold. The theme came to her while she was searching for her inspiration last summer. At first she wanted something that was more sculptured, but eventually moved toward a look that allowed the clothing to drape on the human form.

Jazzmin on set at the lookbook photoshoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

“I’m proud of my decision to be bold by color and design,” she said. “I’m stepping out of the box, and in my designs I’m aiming for a high-fashion audience.”

Jazzmin accumulated so much fabric during her initial research that one of her biggest challenges this year was deciding which pieces to use in her designs.

“I went to Michigan, Cleveland, Miami and Chicago to buy fabric,” she said. “I didn’t find exactly what I wanted here and I didn’t want to settle. Everything I got had gold in it, too. I ended up with a lot of fabric left over that I didn’t use.”

Not settling seems to be a theme with Jazzmin. She came to CCAD with a sincere desire to not only learn the basics of creating her own three-dimensional designs, but to dive into illustration, pattern making, construction, surface design, and even electronic design. She felt CCAD gave her an abundance of options that would ultimately allow her to fulfill her fashion dreams.

“I just knew I wanted to study fashion design and I was patient with myself and didn’t rush,” she reflects.  “I even gave myself an extra year to graduate to retake classes, to get a full understanding and more experience to better myself. That was one of the best decisions I made since being at CCAD.”

Jazzmin’s elegant collection will grace the 2013 Senior Fashion Show runway on May 10. Don’t miss out on this amazing annual event, there is still time to get tickets.

Jazzmin Evans is a native of Columbus, OH, and a graduate of Independence High School.

]]> http://www.ccad.edu/blog/2013/04/jazzmin-evans-brings-bold-egyptian-inspired-work-to-the-runway/feed/ 5 http://www.ccad.edu/blog/2013/04/ccad-counts-down-to-graduation-day/ http://www.ccad.edu/blog/2013/04/ccad-counts-down-to-graduation-day/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:00:19 +0000 Katlin McNally http://www.ccad.edu/blog/?p=20789

Photo from 2012 commencement

May is quickly on its way, accompanied by rain, flowers, and, very soon, graduation caps and gowns. On May 11 Columbus College of Art & Design will celebrate nearly 250 graduating CCAD students as they cross the stage of the historic Ohio Theatre and receive their hard-earned diplomas.

As the countdown to commencement begins, CCAD honors this year’s outstanding seniors. Each year department heads choose an outstanding senior for each undergraduate major. This year’s awardees include Justin Brown, Industrial Design; Stefanie Cook, Fine Arts; Tyler Crowley, Animation; Katharine Hire, Fashion Design; Kayla Holdgreve, Photography; Patrick Kain, Cinematic Arts; Wesley Talbot, Illustration; Lille Templeton, Advertising & Graphic Design; and Katelyn Venia, Interior Design.

We sat down to interview each of these stellar students, and we’ll publish a profile a day (on school days) starting on April 29 and culminating on May 10 when we announce the class valedictorian(s).

The outstanding seniors and valedictorian(s) will be honored at commencement, which will also feature an address by nationally renowned artist Mel Chin.

Olivia Brezinski. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Olivia Brezinski has always been a lover of clothes and everything they represented. In fact, in high school she made it a personal goal every year to never repeat an outfit. She succeeded.

“It’s changed a lot since then though, as I’m not that strict about it anymore,” she laughs. “I did achieve it though, which is scary.”

While the daily styling of her personal wardrobe was a priority back then, she also started to focus on the technical side of her passion.

I took every home economics class my school had to offer from seventh grade until senior year,” said Olivia. “I was very fortunate that once I got to high school there was actually a sewing construction class, and that is where I began altering patterns and making real clothing.”

Even with her sincere fondness for fashion and her construction skills growing stronger, Olivia didn’t consider either as a future career. It wasn’t until her mom posed the suggestion that Olivia started to research various art schools around the country.

“Then one day my mom came home from work and told me she found a design school in Columbus, CCAD” she said. “This was it. I found my school. I immediately requested information, took a campus tour, and applied. Here I am four years later in my last semester ever, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Detail of the feathers used throughout Olivia’s collection. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

As Olivia planned for her senior collection at CCAD, she found herself listening to the music of Lana Del Rey. One particular song, “Dark Paradise” started to encapsulate the sketches she was working on. A combination of soft and hard; stiff and feathery. Yes, feathery. There are lots of feathers throughout her collection.

“I have always done sketches with feathers and I felt like this was finally my chance to use them,” she said. “It’s about the dimension that feathers have and they just take it to a different level than normal materials.

“I knew I wanted to use feathers in some shoulder pieces,” she said. “I always draw strong shoulders and I thought feathers would accentuate them.”

Olivia incorporated the feathers as well as chiffon and leather into her pieces; each with their own strong and dark personality.

Olivia admits that one challenge throughout the process was completing the entire collection and creating final, finished pieces for the runway.

“Up until this point I had never completely lined a garment, and I realized how much time and work it takes,” she said. “That was probably one of the biggest challenges I had to work through.”

Olivia’s dramatic “Dark Paradise” collection will take the stage on Friday, May 10. There are still some tickets left, but get them soon.

.

FORTHMADE is a pop-up store created by CCAD students; click above to watch the video.

Last semester, CCAD honors students created One, a one-day pop-up store on campus. This semester the students are at it again with FORTHMADE and they are partnering with Easton Town Center to bring the one-day store to the outdoor shopping center located in Columbus, OH.

The honors Developing Retail class is a project-based class led by adjunct faculty Marcia Tabler.

“It has been really interesting to watch the creative juices flow,” Tabler said. “There is so much satisfaction in seeing these students create something of their own from the ground up, and watching the natural ebb and flow of designers as they work as part of a team.”

The nine students handled everything from the marketing strategy, including the promotional photography and video, to the store design. Details such as branding the shopping bags, price tags, and even hangers were not overlooked.

Students involved in the execution of FORTHMADE are Advertising & Graphic Design seniors Alex Laniosz and Lillie Templeton, junior Haley Fischer, and sophomore Qisha Kendy; Cinematic Arts juniors Amanda Hess and Richard Smith; Fashion Design senior Ryun Harrison and junior Lauren Colbert; Illustration sophomore Phong Nguyen; and Industrial Design senior Meara Swiler.

The class sent a request campuswide for students to submit their work to be judged and possibly sold in the store. The response was overwhelming, which wasn’t surprising considering last semester’s store sold more than 70 percent of its inventory. Submissions ranged from clothing to jewelry to prints and everything in between. One thing that is certain is that the products available will all be CCAD-designed, handcrafted, and one-of-a-kind.

“Our ultimate goal is to have this project be self-funded,” Tabler said. “All the profits from this store will go to the next class’s retail store project, and hopefully this can become an ongoing tradition here at CCAD.”

Easton Town Center generously donated space for the store. The class will take advantage of the large theater that once housed Shadowbox Live.

“At Easton, we’re always looking to present new ideas,” said Beau Anderson, the executive vice president for asset performance of Steiner + Associates. “We’ve enjoyed a wonderful relationship with CCAD, and the pop-up shop seemed like a logical way to extend our partnership while offering our customers unique, locally designed apparel and accessories. This will be a shop of discovery, and we cannot wait to see what the students offer in this space and how they will approach the visual merchandising.”

FORTHMADE will be in business May 4, 1–9 p.m., at 160 Easton Town Center, Columbus, OH.

Colbert is from Westerville, OH, and attended Saint Francis De Sales High School; Fischer is from Lawrence, KS, and attended Lawrence High School; Harrison is from Alpharetta, GA, and attended Alpharetta High School; Hess is from Columbus, OH, and attended American School of Technology; Kendy is from Jakarta, Indonesia, and attended Jakarta International School; Laniosz is from Willowbrook, IL, and attended Hinsdale South High School; Nguyen is from Germantown, MD, and attended Mansfield High School; Smith is from Blacklick, OH, and attended Licking Heights High School; Swiler is from Maumee, OH, and attended Trinity High School; and Templeton is from Wadesboro, NC, and was home schooled.

Leah Sloane Kennedy. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Leah Sloane Kennedy’s love of fashion started as early as fourth grade when she would carry around a little sketchbook full of rough drawings of various garments. As she got older she came to a personal realization of what fashion really meant to her.

“It was not just items of clothing I was putting on my body, but that they were a part of me,” said Leah. “Fashion is art one wears and that was the most beautiful idea to me.”

While Leah is obsessed with the details behind a design, one of her favorite parts of the process is coming up with concepts.

“Once I get the ball rolling with my inspiration the ideas just keep coming,” said Leah. “I feel the most fulfilled when I can lay out really quality designs that come from my heart and mind.”

Having so many ideas is a good thing; however, Leah admits she struggled earlier in the year with even starting some of her garments because she didn’t like the direction her initial collection concept was going.

“I was just kind of lost in it,” said Leah. “I was pressuring myself to do something, and it just wasn’t working.”

Leah took a step back, reevaluated her designs and completely stopped what she was doing mid-semester and started over. The collection is now appropriately entitled “The Collection Reborn.”

“I saw Rear Window with Grace Kelley and was drawn to her silhouettes by Dior and loved everything about it,” she said. As Leah researched the film she found connections between Hitchcock’s 1954 suspenseful drama about voyeurism and the political climate of the ’50s, in particular McCarthyism.

Leah’s sketchbook. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“I researched the whole meaning behind that film and the whole red scare,’” she said. “It started leaking into my own Russian heritage and I wanted to bring that out.”

After starting over and receiving positive feedback on her final pieces, Leah is even more confident in not only her collection, but also her career choice.

“I kind of feel like it’s that part of the year where I’m reaching a point of ‘what am I going to do with the rest of my life?’” reflects Leah. “Hearing that I have what it takes really felt good. It reaffirmed ideas that I kind of lost in all of the stuff that was senior year.”

As the year comes to an end, she is also happy to offer advice to those students who will soon embark on the same journey she is close to completing.

“I would tell them to use every resource given to them, try your very hardest even if it’s not your favorite subject,” Leah advises. “Be honest and true to yourself, and put your heart into all of your work and love it with all of your being.”

Leah’s Russian-inspired collection will grace the runway on May 10. Don’t be left out. Grab your tickets now.

Leah Kennedy is a native of Ypsilanti, MI, and a graduate of Ypsilanti High School.

Jennica Gray. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Jennica Gray was so excited about finally being able to design what she wanted without limitations that she came up with five different concepts during the summer break before her senior year. Luckily, she was able to put together a collection using the best aspects of all of those original concepts. She refers to her inspiration as “structural delicacy.”

“It’s based around the more organic shapes in nature and how they live harmoniously with more structural shapes,” said Jennica. “More specifically focusing on the organic curve of the leaf in opposition to the ridged, sharp line of a crystal formation.”

As elated as she was that she didn’t have a theme to guide her collection, Jennica soon found out that having too much freedom was even more of a challenge.

“Being able to make up our own theme was wonderful, but then I realized ‘wow, I can do anything’ and it’s hard to begin on an infinite amount of options,” she said. “I wanted to challenge myself, but still show my aesthetic and the end needed to be fabulous. That was a lot of pressure I put on myself way too soon.”

Two of Jennica’s looks being photographed for the lookbook. Photo by Katlin McNally

Jennica began by researching and pulling inspiration for the collection from all aspects of her surroundings, both natural and structured. She then tried to take those two very different worlds and find a way to connect them harmoniously in her designs.

“It was then about morphing them together and taking aspects from each that I liked,” she notes. “Putting them together and making it work.”

Jennica is particularly proud of the line work in her collection. She wanted to create interesting lines throughout the pieces that would be viewed as fresh and innovative.

The result is four finished pieces for the show that have a unified look, even though she used nearly 10 different fabrics in her pieces—everything from leather to silk to lace. Jennica also challenged herself to work with a minimal color palette of neutrals, greys, and mint; which contributes to the cohesive feel of her collection.

“I’m extremely proud of the risks I took as these are some of the most complex pieces I’ve ever created,” said Jennica. “Knowing how much labor, heart’ and soul went into it and that the collection turned out better than I [expected] was personally gratifying.”

The 2013 Senior Fashion Show is almost here. Will you have a seat to see Jennica Gray’s unique designs? Only if you have a ticket. Hurry before they are gone.

Jennica Gray is a native of Columbus, OH, and a graduate of St. Francis DeSales High School.

Phoebe Isaac. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Phoebe Isaac searched and searched for a word that would encompass the inspiration behind her collection. She finally found it in a Japanese word: yugen.

“There isn’t a translation for it, but there should be because it’s such a powerful word. I wanted to choose a word that identified breathlessness or when something takes your breath away,” said Phoebe.

“It’s this feeling that you connect with the universe. For me it’s when I’m on an airplane and I can press my face to the window and just sort of be in the clouds, or when I’m laying on the ground and looking up at the stars when I’m in Maine and looking from one side of the sky to the other,” she said.

Phoebe used a resist technique when creating her fabrics. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

Phoebe expects that everyone will conjure a different emotion upon viewing her collection, but she hopes it will be one of transcendence. The designs are otherworldly with her uniquely dyed fabric, which showcases her celestial and star-scape inspirations.

“I actually dyed my own fabric and it was supposed to be a loose interpretation of the stars,” she notes.

She crafted the design by first using a “resist” technique with a tjanting tool. She then hand dyed the fabric with various vibrant colors.

“The tool has hot wax in it with a little spout and you just press it on the fabric,” said Phoebe. “I put it on wherever I didn’t want the color. Then I dyed it the dark color first and added the other colors in various spots.”

Phoebe never really specifically pictured herself pursuing an education in fashion; however, she did know she would eventually end up at an art school.

Celestial views were among Phoebe’s inspirations. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“I’ve loved drawing since the day I could pick up a pencil. My mom, dad, and stepmom would hang countless, pointless drawings that I had done on the fridge, they never stopped letting me express myself,” she remembers. “As I grew up, they continued to encourage my artistic nature and as a teen, I began checking out my favorite Sailor Moon comics from the Columbus Metropolitan Library and I would go home and draw the Sailor Scouts until I couldn’t possibly draw anymore. It was around this time that I became interested in fashion.”

Looking back on those early drawings Phoebe can identify the progress of her talents and how the intricate outfits would improve with each new sketch. Even today she can look back at previous designs and garments and see their improvements.

You can see Phoebe’s final progression come down the runway on May 10 at the 2013 Senior Fashion Show. Do you have your tickets yet?

Phoebe Isaac is a native of Lexington, OH, and a graduate of Lexington High School.

Jess Betz wants to create clothes that make people feel beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

When you first meet Jess Betz, you instantly recognize that her personality is as bright and colorful as her senior designs, and there is a positive energy that simply radiates from her. It’s no wonder that her goal is to change the way people feel about themselves through her designs.

“As a girl growing up in a world that is so focused on the outer appearances I began to explore the world of fashion design,” she said. “It was at that moment that I found my calling, and since then it has been my mission to create clothes that make people feel beautiful not only on the outside, but more importantly on the inside.”

After completing her associate’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, she took some time off and began to experiment with painting fabrics and decided she wanted to learn more about textile art. Her aunt, who lives in Columbus, told her about CCAD. She knew instantly it was the place for her, especially when she learned of the school’s surface design classes. Ever since then, Jess has come to love all aspects of the fashion design process, but still gravitates toward the surface design lab and creating fabrics using dying techniques such as shibori and batiking.

Jess used hand-dying & painting techniques on her fabrics. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“Designing my own fabrics is such a peaceful and tranquil part of the process that allows me to express my true nature,” notes Jess.

That same tranquility is reflected in her ocean and tropical fish inspired designs. As a child, she remembers vacationing in the Florida Keys with her family and watching her father fish.

“I remember dangling my feet off of the dock above the endless sea and being amazed by the beautiful creatures that swam beneath the glistening surface,” she says. “As a child I wished I could wear clothes that reflected the patterns and textures of fish, but what I did not know is that my wish would one day come true.”

Jess was inspired by the ocean and tropical fish. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

Her tie-dyed and hand-painted fabrics are as lively as the reflections of her youth. The unique use of color and patterns make the designs seem to float. It’s a look that she describes as modern hippie.

“Some days I feel as if I am living in one of my own reveries, but realize that they are real. I could not be more proud of myself and my classmates for never giving up on our true callings in life,” says Jess. “Now, the only thing left that I have to wish for is that my clothing will inspire people to treat our oceans and the environment with more care, so that we can continue to cherish all of the beauty that life has to offer.”

Do you have your tickets yet for the May 10 Senior Fashion Show? Don’t miss out on the fun. Order your tickets today.

Jess Betz is a native of Toledo, OH, and a graduate of St. Ursula Academy.

Danielle Nicole Jones was inspired by the majesty of palm trees for her “Royal Trees” collection. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Last summer, Danielle Nicole Jones found herself alone in Florida while completing an internship with Chicos. Her son and family were home in Ohio; therefore, she discovered she suddenly had a lot of time on her hands. She used that time to search for her senior collection inspiration and found it unexpectedly in a palm tree.

“Palm trees struck me first with their outer beauty. They amazed me in their beautiful stature: a strong large trunk but free flowing at the top with the palm leaves,” she said. “I watched them as they went through the vicious tropical storms of Florida and I loved how no matter how hard the wind blew, the trunk stayed strong. While the leaves blew, the tree almost never tore down completely.”

Danielle found the palm to be almost a metaphor for her life.

Danielle used her sketches to design and produce her own prints. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“The meaning of palm trees is victorious, growth, and triumph—all true to my journey of life thus far. I felt this was the perfect opportunity to use this as a symbol, to speak to my victory. No matter how beat down I may have gotten through life’s circumstances, I will get back up and shine beautifully,” said Danielle.  “The fallen pieces of my leaves are only a testament of the storms I’ve weathered. I am a mother, a designer, a warrior, and I am victorious—A royal tree.”

Before coming to CCAD, Danielle earned an associate’s degree in graphic design and started creating designs for T-shirts for family and friends. That sparked a desire to study fashion in a deeper way.

“I’ve always admired clothing with the fancy prints and patterns and I wondered what would happen if my graphics experience and fashion could somehow marry and I could create wonderfully fun clothes,” said Danielle.

During her internship at Chicos she had the opportunity to work with the Computer Aided Design (CAD) department, which designs prints and patterns.

Danielle adjusts one of her looks before a photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

The experience inspired her to design her own prints for her collection.

The collection, aptly named “Royal Tree,” includes an assortment of prints created from the sketches and images captured during Danielle’s summer in Florida. Creating and producing her own patterned fabric added another challenge to her design process. The results; however, are stunning, and she’s found an area of fashion design that she’d like to pursue professionally.

“Ultimately I would love to be over a CAD team that deals with print, art, and color. Or, [work on] a trend team that travels and researches—drawing inspiration from all around the world,” said Danielle.

Be sure to check out Danielle Nicole Jones’ “Royal Tree” collection during the 2013 Senior Fashion Show on May 10. Get your tickets now before it’s too late.

Danielle Nicole Jones is a native of Westerville, OH, and a graduate of Westerville South High School.

Katlin Hatfield found inspiration in armor for her senior collection. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Last summer, Katlin Hatfield became fascinated with armor—the shape, the size, the materials used to construct it, and why it was worn. The more she learned, the more she realized there was a deeper meaning rooted in her fascination.

“The reality of society being so in denial about vulnerability attracted me. We don’t like to be perceived as vulnerable, so we have this armor,” said Katlin. “That’s what I really wanted to do with my collection, so I built these really structured armored pieces that would draw you in, but keep you at a distance at the same time.”

Katlin has always found ways to create. Growing up in a rural area she did not always have easy access to art classes; therefore, she utilized her surroundings and created her own art education.

“I grew up across the street from a garage and behind the garage there was tons of stuff that we would gather,” she remembered. “My brother and sister and I would go build random things. I loved to create anything, whether it was fabric, wood, or metal; I just loved to create things.”

When she was just nine years old, Katlin’s grandmother surprised her with a toy sewing machine. She was so enthralled with it that her mom had trouble even getting her out of her room for dinner. She also loved to draw and since she loved to sew, clothing was always the main subject.

Katlin used wool and leather in her armor-inspired, structured looks.

“When I realized that fashion design was a career option I decided that it was what I wanted to do,” she noted.  “I learned about CCAD when I was 15 while I was looking at all the fashion design programs in the states. I visited a few institutions and private colleges and decided that CCAD, with its amazing community of artists and talented professors, was where I wanted to be.”

Katlin also found that her foundation classes at CCAD were just as important as her fashion design classes, if not sometimes even more enlightening.

“Starting at the beginning is really important and helpful. Plus, if you take [foundation classes] earlier, it really helps to conceptualize things,” she said. “From a fine arts perspective it helps you come up with pretty unique designs, which results in more consistency in your collection.”

When it came to Fashion Design classes, for Katlin patternmaking was something that just clicked with her.

“I love how you could take simple math and in a very technical process draw it out,” she muses. “Now it’s like a meditative process for me because it’s a nice, slow, and meticulous process. Once you learn how to do it, it becomes an essential process.”

Katlin’s armor-inspired pieces will grace the runway on May 10. Will you be granted entrance to the show? It only takes a ticket to be part of the magic. Get yours today.

Katlin Hatfield is a native of Adamsville, OH, and a graduate of Tri-Valley High School.

Karla Norquist created tropical-themed summer cruise wear look. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Karla Norquist’s love of fashion was uncovered when she was just a tween. She completed her first fashion sketch at age 11, even though at the time she admits she really didn’t know what she was doing.

“I liked an outfit in my mom’s fashion magazine so I drew it,” she remembers. “Then I started drawing a version of what I would want. When I showed my mom she told me I should look into fashion as a career.”

Karla still has that first sketch. It’s a constant reminder of what she loves and what she wants from the future, including her senior collection, which she considers “tropical jungle wear.”

In her designer brief she notes that she “wanted to capture the energy and creativity of youthful street fashion through silhouette and color” and “based on upcoming trends, chose a tropical theme for spring and summer cruise wear.”

Karla was also inspired by street fashion. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

Just as Karla’s relationship with fashion started young, so did her education at CCAD. An alumna of the Saturday Morning Art Classes program as well College PreView, Karla quickly learned that there was a place for her in the CCAD community.

Karla notes that she also chose CCAD because she had the option to take classes from different fields of study. If she had attended a fashion-only school she wouldn’t have been able to take classes in ceramics, oil painting, or advertising, all of which she felt were essential to her creativity.  However, fashion has always been a guiding force in her art direction

As she has developed her skills in fashion design, Karla found that by draping the fabric on a form first, she would get a better idea of what she wanted to create.

Karla started at CCAD young in the Saturday Morning Art Classes program.

“I worked backwards,” she laughs. “I’m much better at draping so I just started draping forms on mannequins. I initially came up with this scaled looking garment with all these inverted pleats down the back. Once I made my first look my classmates told me I should use brighter colors and before I knew it, it was tropical.”

With her senior collection done and graduation nearing, Karla had a moment to think about what advice she would give to next fall’s incoming class.

“At CCAD you’ll take a lot of classes that seem like they have nothing to do with your major, but pay attention in these classes,” she said. “They have everything to do with your creative process and design influence. Keep an open mind and you’ll learn a lot. You’ll be surprised what ceramics can do for a fashion major.”

You’ll have a chance to see some of Karla’s vibrant cruise wear on May 10 during the CCAD Senior Fashion Show. Order your tickets today before you miss the boat.

Karla Norquist is a native of Eagan, MN, and a graduate of Northridge High School.

Krista Guanlao Sison found inspiration for her collection in Spain. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Inspiration comes in many forms. It can be a cloud on a sunny day, a random splash of color from a garden of flowers, a sharp angle on a sign, or even from a church. For Krista Guanlao Sison, her inspiration came to her while traveling in Spain and visiting La Sagrada Familia.

“I’m Catholic so every time I go into a new church my mom tells me I should make a wish. So I made a wish when I went in there and it was a really amazing place,” remembers Krista. “I don’t think I ever felt that way before. My breath was taken away. I wanted to recreate that feeling in my collection.”

Although her designs are not exact replications of the space that touched her so deeply, it did encourage her to think beyond customary fashion materials and produce something entirely unique. She hopes that those who experience her work understand the message she was trying to convey with the pieces.

“Even though it doesn’t reflect the same kind of coloration or structure, I think it shows the feeling of what a home is or what a sanctuary is to a person,” said Krista. “I think everybody goes through that search of who they are, where they belong, who they belong to, and if they fit in anywhere. I wanted to show that the body is a person’s home. Only in your own self can you truly feel at home.”

A detail of one of the garments created by Krista.

She originally tried to construct her architectural inspired designs out of fabric; however, she quickly learned it wasn’t reflecting her original vision. After expressing her frustration, her teacher simply asked, “Why do you have to use fabric?” That question prompted Krista to start over, this time with materials that better suited her vision.

“I used weird materials that a lot of the designers probably wouldn’t use, including acrylic, Plexiglas, and a lot of vinyl, which was really hard,” said Krista. “I’d never worked with leather and vinyl is similar, but I had worked with Plexiglas before.”

Krista wanted to recreate, in her collection, the feeling she experienced visiting La Sagrada Familia. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

For one of her pieces she started the process by creating two isosceles triangles from foam core, traced it out on Plexiglas, drilled holes in it, and then connected it with fishing wire. In the end, Krista thinks it took her 80 hours to complete.

“It was built piece by piece,” said Krista. “I couldn’t really plan out the whole thing because it had to fit around the whole form. I had to hang it on the form and then add another piece and then another and then another. When it went down the runway for the jury I was crying because that’s the first time it actually worked on the body.”

As commencement draws near, Krista is looking to graduate school, and has applied to the internationally renowned Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London. After spending last summer there for a three-week program she knew she wanted to return to continue her studies in sculptural fashion.

You’ll soon have a chance to see Krista’s collection, “Sanctuarium,” at CCAD’s 2013 Senior Fashion Show on May 10. Make sure you get your tickets today.

Check out Krista’s website: www.kristaguanlao.com

Krista Guanlao Sison is a native of Parma Heights, OH, and a graduate of Valley Forge High School.

Ohio Governor John Kasich with winning design Aaron Roberts

CCAD-Designed Licenses and Plates Hit the Road

It was a pretty big deal when Gov. John Kasich asked CCAD to help design new driver’s licenses and license plates for the Ohio BMV. And ever since the selected designs were unveiled in November 2011, we’ve been itching to see them out in the real world.

Well, that time has come. The new driver’s license went into circulation in January, and the new plates are due to come into use as this magazine hits the mail. So watch the wallets, purses, and bumpers near you for clean, elegant new designs by CCAD’s very own Aaron Roberts (Advertising & Graphic Design 2012)!

Informal Critique Blooms on Campus

Want to get unvarnished opinions about your art? Ask your peers.

That’s the approach Fine Arts alum Erin McKenna (CCAD 2012) adopted for a student-driven critique program she started at CCAD.

During her junior year, she participated in the semester-long New York Studio Residency Program. “There were kids from all over the United States,” McKenna says. “Nobody knows anybody when you get there. We decided that on Wednesday nights we’d make dinner together and walk around the studios, giving critiques. It was at night, much more relaxing; there were no professors there. We listened to each other. I learned a lot; it was nice to have the perspective of a peer.”

McKenna liked the idea so much she brought it back to campus, organizing evening critique sessions for students during her senior year. Up to 30 participants, mainly Fine Arts majors with some from Illustration and Advertising & Graphic Design, visited studios. “I had a lot of people come up to me after they had their critique and say it was very helpful.”

“It’s still going on Wednesday nights and has even more people,” she says.

Animation students during Skype conversation

Animation Students Skype for Advice

For members of the Animation Student Collective at CCAD, professional advice is only a Skype away.

Skype, an Internet voice and video service, links the student animators to professionals, including CCAD alumni. Animation senior Rico Jackson, president and founder of the Animation Student Collective, explains: “Most of the professionals are in California because that’s where the animation industry is, the bulk of it. We can’t bring them to Ohio because that would cost entirely too much money.

“Instead, we Skype them.”

The group meets in Kinney Hall. Using a computer linked to a video projector, Jackson asks the guest animator questions; other students also can come up to the computer’s camera and pose questions as well.

Chris Oatley (CCAD 2001), a former Disney character designer who now runs an online art academy, held a session with students last semester. “Chris is a phenomenal speaker,” Jackson says.

Jackson hopes to have Skype sessions with three guests during spring semester. He says the sessions have an impact. “With Chris, a lot of people sent us messages or talked with us afterward. They said it was really inspirational. Students made some artwork right away because they were inspired.”

Students work in the MindMarket

Students Embark on Two-Year Project with Electronics Company

The CCAD MindMarket’s DesignLab is giving students the chance to dig into an extended design project with the advanced electronics company InPower.

“InPower reached out to CCAD after learning about some of the offerings CCAD has for Industrial Design,” says Cynthia Gravino, CCAD MindMarket director.  “We determined that a DesignLab partnership would best serve their needs and would provide a great hands-on opportunity for our students in a client-based project setting.”

Tom Gattis, dean of the School of Design Arts and chair of Industrial Design, stepped in to lead the project.

For the first semester (fall 2012) students conducted a comprehensive market, product, and competitive landscape analysis.

This spring, they’ll incorporate that research into a redesign of InPower’s product packaging.

InPower will continue to tap into CCAD talent throughout 2013­–2014, focusing on work to find new avenues for their products.

“As an engineering-based organization, InPower provided an opportunity to expand the types of companies we serve,” Gravino says.

“The only difference [from the real world] is we are doing it within the safe confines of the college,” Gattis says. “Students have expert guidance from faculty and can try a lot of things and really explore concepts that in a corporate setting would be a bit too risky.”

Science Chair’s Research Presented

CCAD Chair of Science Julie Posey has worked with Ohio State University’s Division of Infectious Diseases since 2010 to create a tracking profile for a specific strain of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Posey’s research studied nearly 500 positive cases of MRSA.

The resulting paper, Development of Bio-informatics Research Network for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Blood Stream Infections (BSI): A Multicenter Regional MRSA Surveillance Collaborative for Genotyping, Geocoding, and Data Collection for Outbreak Investigation, was presented by OSU researchers at the Infectious Disease Society of America conference last fall.

Alexa Carson’s holiday card design

’Twas the Season — for a Holiday Card Contest Winner

CCAD teamed up with the Columbus Partnership last year to create a new tradition — a holiday card design contest.

The Columbus Partnership is a nonprofit, membership-based organization of 49 CEOs from Columbus’ leading businesses and institutions. Its primary mission is to improve the economic vitality of the Columbus region.

“Partnering with CCAD was a great opportunity to support an incredible educational asset in our community and work with the creative student innovators of Columbus who help drive our economic growth,” said Stephen Lyons, vice president of member services and community engagement at the Partnership.

A jury reviewed 38 entries and selected Illustration senior Alexa Carson’s design.

Carson received a $1,000 cash prize, and the card, which included her name and contact info, was distributed to more than 3,000 Columbus Partnership clients and friends.

Fine Arts Faculty Member Keeps Active Practice

Danielle Julian Norton’s approach to artmaking? Two words: keep moving.

Norton, a 1999 Fine Arts alum and now an assistant professor of fine arts and graduate studies, is keeping up an almost dizzying itinerary of residencies and exhibitions in the United States and Europe.

This includes stints last fall at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO, and last summer at I-Park in East Haddam, CT.

A year earlier, she did residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE, and in Dresden, Germany, under the sponsorship of the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

Her exhibition schedule last year ranged from the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster to the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO, to the Cynthia-Reeves Gallery at Art Miami. A show at Ohio Dominican University will have just closed as this magazine mails.

“To grow as an artist I feel it’s important to meet other artists and go outside my comfort zone.” Norton says. “Each time I go and meet a new art community and group of artists, it’s like a mini-graduate school; you learn new approaches to art-making.”

“I think it works well in the classroom,” she says. “I can give [students] real-world examples. A teacher should also be an active artist.”

Norton calls her work interdisciplinary, “a cross between sculpture, photography, and performance.”

Next on tap is I Forgot to Forget, a June 15 – July 20 exhibition she is curating at the Urban Arts Space of Ohio State University.

Part of Andrew J. McCauley’s final thesis

On April 12, CCAD will open the exhibition Trace of a Moving Point, which is the culmination of two years of intense study for nine MFA candidates.

The exhibition in the Canzani Center Gallery will showcase the graduating MFA students’ innovative work, ranging from glass, installation, video, and photography to illustration, painting, and digital media.

The artists are Kristin Baird, Amy Cubberly-Yeager, Linda T. Diec, Laurie Ihlenfield, Mike Laughead, Andrew J. McCauley, Liz Morrison, Amy Lynn Schweizer, and Pamela I. Theodotou.

“My work revolves around the effects that diseases like multiple sclerosis have on the body and mind,” Andrew J. McCauley says in his artist statement.

McCauley’s multimedia paintings incorporate the human figure into a narrative landscape that acts as a metaphor for memory loss.

Photograph by Amy Schweizer

He creates his work by carving into the surface, adding a mixture of gasoline and paint pigments to the panels, and then igniting them. The stains left on the surface call to mind blood vessels and neurons underneath the skin.

Another MFA candidate, Amy Lynn Schweizer, also relates her work to illness. “Illness is a common thread that connects all people to one another. And as changes in health occur, one’s sense of self can change as well,” she says in her artist statement.

Schweizer photographs in black and white, capturing the subjects as they are moving, to create a ghostlike appearance.

Still from Pamela I. Theodotou’s “Pandora”

Pamela I. Theodotou’s final thesis also explores the world through a lens.

During her time at CCAD, Theodotou created three “cinemagraphic novels,” which combines words, images, video, and motion graphics. According to her artist statement, the final one, Pandora, looks at “confrontations created when beauty and the grotesque are brought into the philosophiocal dualities of truth and immortality.”

Theodotou was the writer, producer, cinematographer, artistic director, and production designer for the project. The second film in her series, Stark Justice, will appear in film festivals in Columbus, OH, and Los Angeles this year.

The cover of Mike Laughead’s graphic novel

While Theodotou uses moving pictures for her “novels,” Mike Laughead takes a more classic illustration approach with his thesis project. The Legend of Acornhead is a fantasy-genre graphic novel about a teenage girl leaving her religious commune to seek a husband.

Laughead collaborated with an inker and colorist to develop the story, for which he drew inspiration from his experiences as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and, in particular, his time as a missionary in Argentina. The graphic novel addresses themes of acceptance between people with different points of view, but with a sense of humor to appeal to a younger audience.

Amy Cubberly-Yeager’s multiple self-portraits

The idea of identity is explored in Amy Cubberly-Yeager’s final thesis. Her work explores portraiture and self-portraiture in materials such as oil, charcoal, wood, wool, coffee, and beans.

Cubberly-Yeager uses repeated self-portraits to reveal her true identity through repetition and redundancy. This process, according to her artist statement, is similar to when a word is repeated over and over again and begins to sound bizarre and lose its meaning.

Kristin Baird’s paintings deal with repetition—in her case, the patterns of “the urban core, be they structures that make up the urban environment, the footprint on which the city is built, or the human interactions and relationships occuring within the city,” as noted in her artist statement.

Detail of Kristin Baird’s “Tracing 1″

Her two- and three-dimensional works showcase layers of patterns and elements found in her urban surroundings and her movements within them.

Another MFA candidate that explores repetition and order is Laurie Ihlenfield. Her work considers the idea that order is consistently being challenged by nature and time and that man has no control over this.

“We find comfort in order, but our push toward order is constantly challenged by nature and time,” Ihlenfield said in her artist statement. “Nature is a force that can be altered, but not ignored.”

Detail shot of Laurie Ihlenfield’s work

Her large-scale embroidered drawings have a sense of grandeur, but at the same time are delicate and precise.

Her inspiration comes from the the cities, cultures, and landscapes she has viewed in her lifetime and her observation of how humans arrange and react those environments.

Linda T. Diec is similarly inspired by her culture and environment. A first-generation American born to Vietnamese refugees, she grew up in a home where her parents were pressured to stop speaking their native language. This led Diec to look at the meaning and origins of language and translate that investigation into her work.

Linda Diec in her studio

Diec’s final project, Halo, “illustrates the ego and futility of the human desire for perfection with poetic environments rich in cultural, spatial, and theoretical irony.” Her artist statement also describes her desire to create something extraordinary out of common materials.

Liz Morrison’s final thesis derives from something that is certainly not a common material— the night sky and the chaos and beauty in its constellations.

Her original poetry is presented visually as though it were a constellation—with clusters of words and connecting lines highlighted against deeply colored backgrounds.

Detail of one of Liz Morrison’s works

“The setting for the stories is a quiet, personal cosmos, an intimate experience of the infinite created through scale and construction,” she says in her statement. “Whereas the expansive night sky overhead is overpowering, these modestly sized pieces are approachable.”

Check out all nine candidates’ work in Trace of a Moving Point, April 12–May 3 in the Canzani Center Gallery. There will be an opening reception April 12, 6 p.m.

CCAD’s MFA in Visual Arts is a project-based, non-media-specific curriculum that focuses on individual artistic/design development and creative leadership. It brings together talented individuals from a variety of different media to build a community that fosters exploration, professionalism, and creative success.

Olivia Mitchell approached each piece like a painting. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

Olivia Mitchell’s senior collection is influenced by emotion—from grief to love and everything in between. Yet, it’s not only about how she felt when she created each piece, but also the feeling you get when you see them. It’s an emotional journey that started with a somewhat impulsive trip to Europe.

“I had a tragic death in the family during my junior year when my father passed away,” said Olivia. “I just needed a break and I had this opportunity to go to Europe with a fellow student from CCAD who was presenting in Liverpool.”

She started researching her collection and watching for trends while in England. She later found herself in Paris where she purchased fabric for her collection and fell in love with the city’s architecture.

“I had already started out with an architectural theme that had been consistent throughout my work up until my senior year; therefore, I already knew that it was going to play a big part,” notes Olivia. “The whole romance of Europe and the French aesthetic also played a big role.”

Architectural themes play a big role in Olivia’s collection.

She admits that she used really unique pattern construction in her designs, which resulted in pieces that are a bit avant-garde and not “traditional ready-to-wear.” They are elegant and dramatic, which allows the wearer to stand out at a special event.

“I approached each piece kind of like a painting, and I imagine it as art more than as a commodity,” she says. “Just as a painter would look at their work and feel something from it, that’s how I engage with my design.”

Olivia always knew that her future would involve the art of fashion. It started when she was little girl sketching images from fashion magazines and evolved into a love of painting and fine art.

“One day it became obvious to me that I was an artist,” said Olivia. “As an artist, the love of architecture and structural drawings captured my heart. I pursued studies in Interior Design and Fine Arts before finally combining my strength of draftsmanship and fine-art expressionism into the study of fashion design.”

A detail shot of one of Olivia’s looks. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

Before CCAD, Olivia found hands-on experience as a tailor’s apprentice and then later as a fitting and alternating specialist for a large bridal company. Her time at CCAD provided her with the creative atmosphere she needed to learn and grow as an artist while focusing and developing specific skill sets in fashion design.

“Fashion Design allows me to enjoy the structure and physics of 3D design, while still being able to express myself as an artist,” she said. “Fashion Design was a natural fit for me and CCAD has been as well. The creative community at CCAD and Columbus is one of a kind and was a major draw to my coming to the school to study.”

Olivia’s avant-garde designs head down the runway May 10. See her looks while enjoying a spectacular fundraising event by purchasing tickets today.

Olivia Mitchell is a native of Columbus, OH, and a graduate of Reynoldsburg High School.

Still from the animated film “Lumin”

An advanced animation class at CCAD has just completed a project that is now being entered in national festivals. The Advanced Time-Based Projects class, taught by Associate Professor Tom Richner, created an animated short named Lumin.

Lumin tells the story of a young boy and his escape from dozens of monsters who pursue him for one thing, his light.

The 17 students in the class spent four months creating the film from start to finish, working on all aspects from script writing and sound development to animation and final editing.

“We [the Animation faculty] have been talking about working on complete films during the course of a class,” Richner said. “When we saw the talent that was in this past fall’s class we knew we had to make a film with this group.”

The class included Animation seniors Christopher Campbell, Tyler Crowley, David King, Arianni Kurniawati, Laura Maue, Bekah Nunn, Jonathan Pezzatta, and David T. Reed; Animation junior Kelly Cumpson; Cinematic Arts seniors Alan Becker, Patrick Kain, Lauren Thornberry, and Mariah Ward; Cinematic Arts juniors Grace Kim and Aaron Zawisa; and recent Animation graduate Victor Dearing (CCAD 2012) and Cinematic Arts graduate Alex Trimpe (CCAD 2012).

“I was really impressed about how all the students handled the whole semester,” Richner said. “There was never a point where we got behind schedule. They all bought into the project and took ownership and worked very hard.”

“A lot of these students have aspirations to go work in studios, big and small, and the nature of animated films is that you need a lot of bodies to get these projects done. Working in a studio environment means that they are going to be collaborating with people, so I think giving them that chance to do it here gives them the opportunity to fine tune those skills they’ll need in the real world.”

The class had to make some decisions in order to finish the project on time, such as creating it in black and white instead of color and keeping the length of the video managable.

“Even though we did do some things on the design end to make it easier, we didn’t cut any corners in terms of the story we wanted to tell; we did what we set out to do,” Richner said.

Character line-up from the animated film “Lumin”

To complete the project, the class used Toon Boom, animation software package.

“It is a great thing for students to be exposed to this software in school since a lot of studios are currently using it,” Richner said. “We’ve had it in our classrooms here CCAD for more than 10 years now, and we were some of the early adopters of it.”

Alumni have said that their experience with Toon Boom in CCAD classrooms was beneficial as they began their careers.

“We have heard from animation alumni who have been able to stand above their peers when they can express to directors that they know how to use the software,” Richner said.

The class’ work isn’t done yet. They have submitted the film to more than 30 festivals internationally and nationally and have already been accepted into festivals including  Chile Monos, Leeds Young Film Festival, Ohio Shorts, taafi Official Selection, and Sff International Film Festival.

The spring Advanced Time-Based Projects class has a new group of students; they’re developing an animated film called Aria, which they plan on entering into festivals and contests as well.

Lumin will be shown during CCAD’s animation screenings at the opening reception of the 134th Annual Student Exhibition on May 10.

Becker is from Dublin, OH, and graduated from Dublin Scioto High School; Campbell is from Worthington, OH; Crowley is from Milford, NH, and attended Milford High School; Cumpson is from Chesterland, OH, and attended West Geauga High School; Dearing is from Westerville, OH, and attended Saint Francis De Sales High School; Kain is from Kettering, OH, and attended Kettering Fairmont High School; Kim is from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and attended North Surrey Senior Secondary School; King is from Hamilton, OH, and graduated from Ross Senior High School; Kurniawati is from Salatiga, Indonesia, and graduated from Loyola Catholic Secondary School; Maue is from Bellbrook, OH, and attended Bellbrook High School; Nunn is from Wilmington, OH, and graduated from Wilmington High School; Pezzatta is from Columbus, OH, and graduated from Fort Hayes Metro Education Center; Reed is from Ashland, OH, and attended Ashland High School; Trimpe is from Cincinnati, and attended Elder High School; Thornberry is from Cambridge, OH, and attended Cambridge High School; Ward is from Cincinnati, and attended the School for Creative & Performing Arts; and Zawisa is from Columbus, OH, and attended Grandview Heights High School.

Update on April 25:  Lumin won a Telly Award in the “use of animation” category.

Kate Elaine Pohrt readies her look for the photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

By Kristen M. Foley

If Kate Elaine Pohrt had it her way, after graduation she would be organizing and designing costumes for a huge movie production. It could be a futuristic or historical piece, anything that would tie together her love of costuming and the ever-changing fashion world.

“Growing up I had always enjoyed dressing up and making sure that even my companion stuffed animal was the best dressed. I would even go so far as to request that my mother take the time to sew something onto a garment last minute if I believed it would improve the look,” she remembers. “My parents nurtured my passion and encouraged me in every aspect that would improve my ability to fulfill my vision.”

Kate enrolled in sewing classes at a young age and continued to build upon her new-found talent as she got older. She then applied her skills to the art of costuming as part of her high school’s intensive theater program. Under the direction of her costume supervisor Kasia Mrożewska, she challenged herself not just in the art of design, but in the construction of the pieces. She also focused on the historical accuracy and poignancy of the designs for a each production.

Kate was inspired by art deco among other things. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“[Kasia] had all of these avant-garde ideas and I wanted to take that and apply it to fashion,” said Kate. “I felt that coming to CCAD would expand my horizons far beyond theater tech school. As a designer I also believe it is important to have a well-rounded understanding of all aspects leading up to the design and final construction of a garment.”

As a senior poised for graduation, Kate truly believes that after all of the years of hard work and dedication CCAD has prepared her and her classmates for the ever-changing fashion world. The last step in the process being her senior collection.

Since there was no over-arching theme this year, Kate looked forward to the freedom to “do what she pleased” with her designs. She took inspiration from Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis and her affection for art deco and avant-garde elements are intertwined throughout her three final pieces.

“I’ve always appreciated the art deco style and I wanted to go to the more theatrical side without moving away from that ready-to-wear place,” she said. “I also brought in a lot of metallic to my collection.”

Kate looked forward to ‘doing what she pleased’ with the designs for her final collection. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

While “swatching” fabric, Kate discovered a metallic upholstery fabric that she instantly fell in love with. Due to its non-traditional nature, she originally thought the super-shiny fabric would be used as just an accent to her designs but soon found herself creating an entire garment out of it.

“People have responded to it really well and I really appreciate that,” said Kate. “I also found ways to incorporate it into my other pieces by creating cutouts and inlays in some of my other garments. It was something I haven’t done in the past.”

Will you be able to see one of Kate’s designs shine from the stage? Only if you order your tickets for the May 10 show now.

Kate Elaine Pohrt is a native of Ann Arbor, MI, and a graduate of Ann Arbor Pioneer High School.

Rachel Chertoff’s collection concept is “Human Desire.” Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

You often hear stories from artists about how they were able to channel a certain personal experience or passion into their work. Rachel Chertoff takes raw emotion and channels it into wearable art.

“I am able to come up with my concepts when I am kind of miserable, as weird as that sounds. It helps me get whatever is bouncing around in my brain onto paper and then to move on and forward with that concept,” she explains. “At the end of the day I know I will have my creativity and that’s what I rely on, especially through those rough times we go through in life.”

She describes her collection, “Human Desire,” as having everything to do with the beauty she sees in the way humans desire, whether it’s one another, materialistic things, or ideas. She also notes that there is beauty in the low points of our lives.

“I kind of was lost this past summer because I was just getting out of a long relationship with someone who helped get me where I am today as a designer,” said Rachel. “So I was trying find myself and figuring out what I wanted with my life and what I wanted my next step to be.”

Her experience and emotions fueled her creativity as she developed her collection, but her themes are also reflected in tangible ways.

Rachel’s collection features several hand-knit, hand-crocheted pieces. Photo by Lacey Luce

“I went to this idea of showing parts of the body that I think are beautiful and what other people desire to see,” said Rachel. “The designs are also functional pieces for the carefree person who is taking things one step at a time.”

Rachel incorporated her love of knitting and crocheting, or as she calls it her “grandma habit,” into her collection, but on an elevated and youthful level.

“I hand-crocheted and knitted big pieces. It’s one of the most time consuming things I have done, but it’s worth it in the end,” Rachel said. “Using those skills helps convey my concept because this collection is like showing the public a very special secret piece of me that I wouldn’t normally share. I am excited to be conveying this piece of me to the public.”

Expressing her personality through fashion has always been important to Rachel; however, it wasn’t always easy to do, especially since she relied on the hand me downs of her sister and sister’s friends.

Rachel makes adjustments during the photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

“I am a girl of 5’1″ stature and clothing that I would want to wear was always difficult to come across,” she said. “But it was always a way for me to express how I was doing in my life.”

After years of hard work at CCAD, Rachel can express herself through designs of her own making. Her CCAD journey began when she visited the college on the advice of her guidance counselor.

“I came and received a tour and then I was told about the College PreView program, which I then attended, and I just fell in love with the school,” she said.

Now as graduation nears, Rachel reflects on her time and offers those just starting their college experience a little advice.

“Don’t get discouraged. Things get tough and it’s a difficult journey but you can’t forget the good times you have along the way and focus on the bad,” she advises. “You will have great friends who last a lifetime and the goofy memories that you’ll keep.”

To see Rachel’s six-look collection on the runway May 10, you’ll need to get your tickets ASAP.

Rachel Chertoff is a native of Buffalo, NY, and a graduate of Williamsville East High School.

Antoiné Slater looks over her sketchbook. Photo by Katlin McNally

By Kristen M. Foley

For as long as she can remember, Antoiné Slater was drawn to anything that was creative, allowed her to apply herself artistically, and was hands on.

A love of braiding hair inspired Antoiné to earn her cosmetology license during her last two years of high school, but she soon learned it was not the lifelong career for her.

“I was able to be creative in this area and I knew I wanted to do something with my hands,” said Antoiné. “However, after I graduated I didn’t want to do hair anymore. It was something I enjoyed, but I didn’t want to do it as a job.”

Her mom encouraged her to do some research and think hard about what she really wanted to study. It didn’t take Antoiné long to determine that fashion, something she’s always loved in one way or another, was the direction she wanted to pursue. Four years later, she’s ready to showcase her love of fashion with three of her final designs in the CCAD Senior Fashion Show.

Antoiné’s collection is inspired by a quote: “Sometimes the king is a woman,” by De La Vega, an American born artist of Puerto Rican decent who is best known for his street art and murals.

Fabric used in Antoiné Slater’s collection. Photo by Katlin McNally

Antoiné created designs that she felt reflected the strength of women. In her artist statement she predicted that her line would attract a woman who is “outspoken, open minded, always willing to try new things, never afraid to speak her mind, or stand out in a crowd.” Gold used throughout her designs along with bold and bright African prints adds to the sense of royalty.

“I feel like it all ties together, too,” reflects Antoine. “My culture and how I feel strongly about expressing myself and being comfortable with myself. It all connects.”

Antoiné recently discovered that a strong fashion sense runs in her family, and this discovery is reflected her collection. While reconnecting with her paternal grandmother last summer, Antoiné learned that she was not alone in her passion for fashion.

Antoiné Slater looks over her sketchbook. Photo by Katlin McNally

“She has everything you could imagine in clothes, jewelry, bags, and shoes from back then. She was a fashionista,” Antoiné said about her grandmother. “I learned that she is exactly where I get my instinct from, and I did not know that until this past summer. We bonded over that.”

Not only will her fashionista grandmother be in attendance at this May’s Senior Fashion Show, but all of the gold jewelry Antoiné is using in her collection comes from her grandmother. It’s another way Antoiné feels she was able to tie everything together and truly elevate the look for the runway.

“It all connects,” said Antoiné. “The opportunities I experienced with this collection always came at just the right time.”

As graduation draws closer she is already focusing on the new connections and opportunities that lay ahead, including a job.

“My dream job would be working with a fashion forward creative design team, traveling all over the world for inspiration and spotting trends,” she says. “I want to be that person who connects it all together.”

Make sure you make a connection of your own and order tickets today to see Antoiné’s collection on May 10.

Antoiné Slater is a native of Dayton, OH, and a graduate of Wayne High School.

Kassie Haji checks a jacket from her men’s wear look. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

When it is time to design, sew, and finalize a Senior Fashion Show collection, every minute counts. Just ask Kassie Haji, who spent every free moment she had on her collection, including the hours she spent commuting to and from school on the city bus (a 90-plus-minute ride each way).

“Some of my classmates have told me they couldn’t believe I was still at school. They would have dropped out by now if they had a commute that was that long,” says Haji. “It [college] was what I really wanted, and it takes dedication. I don’t usually complain about it, but that’s been one of my biggest challenges.”

While the travel time made meeting her models difficult and sometimes made for long days, Kassie pushed forward and worked hard and fast on her collection.

“I would do hand sewing on the bus and some sketches,” she notes. “The problem with the bus is that it shakes so much or that people would stand there over me while I worked. I don’t know how I was able to do it, but I did it.”

Five of Kassie’s finished pieces will make a commute of their own as they travel down the runway in May. The collection comprises women’s and men’s wear and combines the essence of classic romance with modern silhouettes. She is particularly passionate about the men’s wear in her collection.

Hand-sewn button holes are just one of the fine details in Kassie’s collection. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“I feel like men’s fashions are always pushed back and they need to be given the opportunity to show their style in everyday life, just like women do,” said Kassie.  “I’m intrigued by the way a male silhouette looks when they are really dressed well. They are very beautiful to me. I also find it very challenging at the same time, and I love to be challenged.”

A native of Northern Iraq, Kassie and her family came to the U.S. when she was just three years old. They lived in several states, including Texas and Rhode Island before moving to Ohio. She is extremely proud of her heritage so she surprised a lot of people when she chose not to include that as a focus of her collection.

“I wanted to design according to what the public or the customer is looking for rather than just pulling from my culture,” said Kassie. “I also didn’t want people to think I might not be able to design for other customers besides what I’m used to.”

Kassie added that she doesn’t ever want to be a static designer. She wants to continually reinvent her designs and cover all facets of the fashion world.

“I want to have my own brand, and style, but I am versatile,” she says proudly. “I love designing for all kinds of costumers.”

Kassie adjusts a look during the photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

The result is intricate details with a tailored look that is flattering and comfortable.

Another challenge that Kassie faced this year was not having access to a good sewing machine outside of the CCAD labs. She met that challenge by doing more hand sewing. Surprisingly, hand-making button holes ended up being a plus for her collection.

“Honestly, I didn’t know how to make the machine button holes so I told myself I needed to reinvent the button hole in a way that would work without looking bad,” she says. “I was able to apply the technique to the jacket and button up shirts and make them look very sophisticated. I was very proud of it, but it was a lot of work.”

You’ll have a chance to see Kassie’s designs up-close and personal as they take the stage on May 10. Order your tickets now, prices go up March 29.

Kassie Haji was born in Northern Iraq and is a resident of Columbus, OH. She graduated from Feinstein High School in Rhode Island.

Ngockhanh Ngo’s collection is inspired by American work wear. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

After moving from South Vietnam to the United States when he was just four years old, Ngockhanh Ngo’s family established a home not far from CCAD’s iconic ART sign. Although he had always dreamed of attending an art school as a child, he never knew that sign would ultimately signal a future in art and fashion.

“My parents never wanted me to pursue art at all. They wanted me to go the safer route of becoming a nurse, lawyer, or a doctor,” reflects Ngockhanh. “Coming from a third-world country, artists are usually starving. It took me some time to realize I needed to do what I’m gifted to do and enjoy.”

This year, Ngockhanh channeled his gift into a men’s wear collection entitled “Working Men,” and in his mind each piece has a story to tell.

“I wanted to create work-wear inspired pieces,” he said. “With a little bit of vintage and modern edge to it that is reflective of my own street-edgy style.”

For his four-piece collection, Ngockhanh designed, constructed, distressed, dyed, and sometimes even destroyed various denim pieces that include men’s jeans, jackets, jumpsuits, and overalls. He also took the time to add in unique details such as patchwork, buttons, and even hidden details in the lining of a jacket that only the wearer can see. To him, this was a way to make it a complete and styled collection.

Design details in Ngockhanh’s collection include things only the wearer will see. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

His attention to all the details doesn’t stop with his own designs either. He spent hours online looking for the perfect shoes that would work with his theme without taking away from it. It’s important to him that everything is styled and complete.

“I feel that when you are able to create your own line and pull from your own inspiration it will inspire everything down to the shoes,” said Ngockhanh. “The day before the jury show I even cut two of my models’ hair. I wanted them to have a clean cut. I already told them that before the Fashion Show I want to meet up with them to cut their hair again.”

Known by his classmates as “The Machine,” Ngockhanh admits that he works well under pressure. When he found out one of his models was moving away and wouldn’t be able to take part in the jury show he not only had to find a replacement model, but recreate some of his pieces to fit the new person in less than a week.

Ngockhanh readies a look for the photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

“I made the jeans, distressed the jeans, and then finished them the day before the jury show with final details,” says Ngockhanh. “If you have the skills to whip it out and get it done, then do it, but I never want to overwhelm myself. I submitted only four looks so I could put everything into them.”

With the fashion show and graduation just a few months away, Ngockhanh has some thoughts about his future ambitions.

“I would like to see my self working in the denim or outerwear department for Levi’s or Ralph Lauren, two companies I favor,” he said. “I want get the most experience I can soak up in five years and then figure out what’s next for fives years after that.”

Ngockhanh Ngo is originally from South Vietnam and a resident of Columbus, OH. He graduated from Beechcroft High School.

See Ngockhanh’s creations and more at this year’s Senior Fashion Show on May 10. Get your tickets soon. Prices go up next week (March 29).

Katharine Hire’s collection has gold elements threaded through each look. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

By Kristen M. Foley

It’s fitting that Katharine “Katie” Hire’s collection is entitled “Golden Passion.” The name not only reflects gold utilized throughout her designs, but also her dedication and devotion to something bigger.

“The golden thread is what ties the garments together and the passion is for me,” said Katie “That’s where my heart and my love is.”

That love started when she was pursuing another dream: becoming a professional ballerina. She took a position in a small ballet company in Colorado as a dancer, but soon fell in love with the process of creating costumes for the company’s productions.

Katharine Hire checks her garment at the photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

“I just started draping things on forms while looking at other garments and mimicking them with different fabrics,” remembers Katie.  “I would also cut very quickly into final fabric. It would turn out OK for a costume, but looking back it wasn’t up to par.”

Even with that seed of fashion planted inside her, it would be a few years before she would allow it to grow and flourish. After attending the University of Akron for a year then moving to Columbus with the notion of studying dental hygiene at Ohio State University, Katie decided to apply to CCAD on a whim.

Whim or not, it was an obvious choice for her, but not exactly for the obvious reasons. It would certainly help her further her understanding of pattern making, construction, and design; and CCAD’s location meant she would also be closer to family and friends. There was,  however, another motive to Katie’s creative choice.

“I’m dyslexic and book things aren’t for me. If I had gone into dental hygiene I would have been so miserable. Hands on is really good for me.” she admits. “Of course, it’s been a hard road, but CCAD has really challenged me and showed me that I can accomplish a lot of really great things and that I’m good at something. I feel like I’m still learning, but that my perspective is valid as a designer.”

Katie’s “Golden Passion” collection reflects another one of her life experiences.

“I used all African fabrics with suede, leather, and gold detailing, …” Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“I went to Africa a few years ago on a medical mission trip and just got really inspired by the people, the culture, and the fabric there,” said Katie. “I used all African fabrics [in the collection] with suede, leather, and gold detailing; but I also tried to transfer it to modern day with classic silhouettes and dresses—things that I tend to gravitate to more.”

That trip not only inspired her senior collection, but also a dream to use fashion for social good. Katie has a vision for a design company that employs women in Africa and purchases African-made textiles—providing women, like those she met on her trip, with a source of income.

“What can we do? We are women of fashion. How can we give back?,” she reflects. “It’s a big, big dream, of course, but it goes back to my inspiration—freedom for women. I want to design and create women’s clothing that is empowering and flattering at any age and size. I would like to also work to give women dignified jobs in another country and use fashion as a vehicle to accomplish this goal. I would also like to leave everything I am involved in a little better than how I found it.”

Katie’s golden designs will hit the runway on May 10. Take a moment to click on this link and order your tickets before prices go up March 29.

Katharine Hire is a native of Mansfield, OH, and a graduate of Mansfield Christian High School.

Tina’s collection, “Modern Vintage Abroad,” is inspired by her family and heritage. Photo by Katlin McNally

By Kristen M. Foley

Tina Hughes’ passion for fashion started with a house. MTV’s House of Style to be exact. She recalls watching Cindy Crawford interview designers during an episode featuring fashion week and knowing exactly at that moment that fashion was what she wanted to pursue.

“I always gravitated toward that and knew that’s what I wanted to do, I just didn’t know what direction,” reflects Tina. “Some people know right out of high school and grow into it. I feel blessed in a way that I went through everything I did because I’m even more passionate about it than I was back then.”

“Everything” included being accepted into the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City where she studied buying and merchandising and received her associate degree. From there she went on to upper division (to complete a bachelor’s degree) and changed her major to fabric styling and textile design; however, her life took a different path, which included moving to Columbus with her husband and raising her two daughters, Emma, 12, and Layna, 6. She continued to design and sew outfits for her children and realized that fashion was still something she wanted to pursue.

“I think of these stories in my head and that’s what I enjoyed the most as I developed these five looks.” Photo by Katlin McNally.

“It was always in the back of my head that I wanted to finish my degree for myself, even just to set an example for my kids that I finished what I started,” notes Tina. “They are a little bit older now, so they can see how hard I worked to get this degree.”

Balancing two children as well as school work has been a challenge, but also inspiring. She recalls lots of late nights followed by early mornings, but is beyond elated that she is that much closer to the fashion show and graduation. She survived the long days with the support of her entire family. Their surprise notes and gifts were enough to keep her motivated and to work extra hard to achieve her goal of completing not only her education, but her collection.

“I’m just so proud to have completed it,” she muses. “I set a plan for myself and I am proud that I was able to execute it. I feel so excited about it.”

“I also have a great strength for adding details and finishing touches to the garment to give it a one-of-kind feeling.” Photo by Kristen Foley

Tina draws inspiration from her family and her Italian and Greek heritage. This core inspiration combined with her own personal eclectic style is clearly present in her collection, which is appropriately titled “Modern Vintage Abroad.” She loves that she is able to mix and match pieces, but still create a cohesive look with a story behind it.

“I think of these stories in my head and that’s what I enjoyed the most as I developed these five looks,” notes Tina.  “I really think about who this girl is, what she is going to wear when she shops, goes to the museum, or on a date. I tried to intersperse that throughout my five looks, but I could have done 10. You always wish you could do more once you see how it evolves.”

Tina’s looks are also tied together through her use of bold fabrics and vintage details. Whether it’s using old timepieces as buttons or utilizing a variety of textured fabrics like brocade, silk and denim; each piece is unique but tells a collective story.

“I love putting together fabrics and color palettes,” she says.

You will be able to see Tina’s collection on May 10, but you’ll need a ticket, and you’ll want to get it now before prices go up March 29.

Tina Hughes is a native of Cleveland, OH, and a graduate of Eastlake North High School.

The 2013 Art of Illustration poster, created by Illustration senior Taylor Hicks

The Art of Illustration show is a student-run and -organized exhibition that is now in its 16th year. The juried show features illustrations from all majors and alumni who participated when they were students are now coming back to act as jurors.

This year the five Illustration student organizers included sophomore Haleigh Richards and seniors Lexie Holliday, Josh Parkinson, Wes Talbott, and chair Andrew Thompson. The students chose five judges to look over 291 submissions for the show that runs March 16–30. The judges included four CCAD alumni: Scott Hull (Advertising & Graphic Design 1977), Steve Prescott (Illustration 1995), Jason Jourdan (Illustration 1998), and Graham Erwin (Illustration 2011). The fifth judge was artist representative Frank Sturges.

The judges gathered on campus and spent the day going through submissions, offering thorough critiques and advice on every piece, whether accepted or not. Ultimately 40 submissions were accepted into the show.

“The show is and has always been entirely organized and run by the students,” said Stewart McKissick, Illustration professor and alumnus. “They selected and contacted the judges, organized where and when the judging would take place, and researched and collected donations for the opening reception at the gallery, as well as prizes for entry winners.”

This is the third year for the show to be held at Rivet Gallery, a gallery located in Columbus’ art district, the Short North.

“Rivet has been very generous to us, allowing students to sell their work from the show with no commission fee to the gallery,” McKissick said.

Having the exhibition at an off-campus external location for the last three years has allowed it to function as a professional, juried show.

Erwin, who does preproduction work and design for a custom screen printing shop and freelance illustration for a wide range of clients, has witnessed the show expand as a student and now as an alumnus.

“I first submitted work for AOI as a sophomore,” Erwin said. “Although my piece wasn’t chosen that year, it definitely lit a fire for the years to come, and I began approaching every piece as if it could be a submission for one competition or another. I continued to submit work my junior and senior years, where I had pieces accepted and awarded.

“The Art of Illustration show was an important part of my illustration training,” Erwin said. “It was my first experience where my work was looked at by professionals with a critical eye. I think it is important for the show to now be held at Rivet, where students can see their work in a real-world gallery setting.”

The show allows students the ability to access professionals to evaluate their work and have critiques by people other than their peers and professors.

“This process shows students the importance of submitting and getting their art into the real world,” Hull said. “And also accepting the rejection that may come along with this.”

Hull, founder of Scott Hull Associates and illustration representative, has worked as a juror twice now for the show and views helping out students at CCAD as highly rewarding.

“Helping young talent navigate their creative dream is a passion of mine,” Hull said. “I think it is a good practice to have alumni come back as jurors for this particular show, since they are able to understand the CCAD culture a little better and they want to offer any and all help to the students.”

Originally, the show was solely coordinated by Illustration students, and they were the ones submitting work, but as the show has grown so has participation from throughout the college.

“What’s exciting to see is the ever-increasing interest and participation now by the majority of our majors,” McKissick said. “It is an excellent leadership opportunity for the students who work on the committee, and it is a chance to have students learn about aspects of the art world beyond just the making of it.”

The show’s award ceremony was held during its opening reception March 16, 7–10 p.m. Selected work will be honored with first, second, and third place, and each judge selected a work to be awarded Judge’s Choice. The show will be up through March 30.

“I can honestly say that every year is another great memory for us,” McKissick said. “And we’re always very proud of what the students accomplish.”

Erwin is from Columbus and attended Whetstone High School; Hull is from Danville, OH, and attended Danville High School; Jourdan is from Mansfield, OH, and attended Mansfield Senior High School; McKissick is from Franklin, PA, and attended Franklin High School; Prescott is from Gates Mills, OH, and attended Mayfield High School.

Dax makes adjustments before the photo shoot. Photo by Katlin McNally

By Kristen M. Foley

Each CCAD student has a story to tell with their art, it’s just up to them which medium they want to use to convey its chapters. For Dax Thomas Kauser, his story is uniquely woven through a very personal fashion collection that reflects on his past, including his time as a Marine deployed overseas.

“It’s really a build up of my life from adolescence to where I’m at now,” said Dax. “My collection is everything I want to say as I reveal myself to the industry and future customers. This is my story and I am ready to share it.”

Before attending CCAD, Dax jests that he “dabbled in schools and collected colleges,” and he admits that he believes his arrival at CCAD resulted from an impulse.

“Once back in Columbus, me and my friends would go to all the festivals and hustle tee shirts that we would screen print,” said Dax.  “After a while creative boredom set in so I applied to CCAD on a whim and was accepted with a great scholarship.”

A detail of fabric used in Dax’s collection. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

“During my first semester I wasn’t sure what to choose as a major, but as soon as I walked into the fashion department I knew that this is where I belonged,” remembers Dax.  “When I informed all my friends that I was going into fashion, I was surprised that none of them were shocked. That’s the great thing about CCAD, the ability to try new avenues. Who knows, you might just discover a dormant passion.”

That passion evolved into six designs that Dax fittingly entitled the “Nomad Collection.” It’s a wearable story of the twists and turns his life has taken over the years as well as his travels throughout the world.

Dax wrote in his artist’s statement: “The Nomad Collection is a story of my travels, hardships, loss, and the beauty of balance. Inspired by the wonders of the Arab world and its mesmerizing culture to the outlandish fashions of Japan.”

Dax’s “Nomad Collection,” is a reflection of his past. Photo by Kristen M. Foley

As he started his collection, his first step was reflecting on all of those past experiences and then finding a way to incorporate them intricately and literally into his designs. Many of the silk-screened fabrics in his collection were created using abstracts of the photographs he captured during his deployments. These unique pieces showcase the various cultures he was exposed to and learned to love.

“Out of the four years that I was in the Marine Corps, almost three were deployed in some kind of hostile environment,” adds Dax. “From there it really affected who I am and helped me decide what I wanted to do. Life is short. Do what you love.”

Dax will continue to do what he loves after graduation when he heads to New York City to pursue internships and continue to grow and learn his craft.

“I want to experience a little more and ensure I fit with the company first,” he says. “I’d rather go in with an internship and get a feel for them and them for me and go from there. That way it’s a little more open.”

You’ll get a chance to experience Dax’s amazing runway story at the CCAD Senior Fashion Show on May 10, but only if you buy your tickets now (ticket prices go up at the end of March and the show sells out each year).

Check out Dax’s website at www.thecreativecult.com.

Dax Kauser is a native of Columbus, OH, and a graduate of Groveport Madison High School.

Sarah checks a garment before a photo shoot.

By Kristen M. Foley

One of the reigning themes among the senior designers this year does not have to do with their inspiration, the fabric they used, the revolutionary technique they uncovered, or even the designs they created. The theme for all seemed to include a strong tutorial in time management, something they will take with them long after they leave CCAD.

“The most difficult challenge I’ve encountered while working on this collection has been balancing my other classes. Ideally I would love to be able to dedicate this year solely to creating one fantastic collection, treating it like a job and working consistent hours on it alone everyday,” said Sarah Frederick. “Unfortunately between other school courses, jobs, and life in general, that hasn’t exactly been possible. It’s a daily battle to determine what needs to be made a priority and what needs to be sacrificed temporarily. I’d like to give everything I’m working on my full dedication.”

With five pieces headed to the runway in May’s Senior Fashion Show, Sarah’s final collection–filled with free-flowing, feminine, and Western-inspired pieces–certainly showcases the hours of hard work and dedication she put into her collection.

Accessories are carefully selected for each look.

As noted in past blogs, the students were not given a theme to follow this year and were instructed to find inspiration within. Sarah spent her summer break last year thinking about what designs she would feel most like herself in if she were to wear them.

“I am definitely a slow thinker. I like to mentally mull over inspiration, eventually sifting through enough ideas to dream up something I feel is truly worth creating,” she muses. “But when the concept stage feels thought through enough to begin doing the physical work, I can’t wait to begin the measuring and draping to find what shapes will make flattering silhouettes on the human body. Finally, actually constructing the garment feels the most rewarding, especially when you are able to sew something that looks like the idea you had in your head.”

During that initial thought process, Sarah thought hard about what she would want to wear as well as what would be feminine, comfortable, and confident.

“I try to think about how clothing affects how a person feels and how they interact with others,” she notes. “Designs that enhance your body instead of taking away from it or covering it or exposing it.”

Checking the details.

Sarah took aspects from Western culture and combined them with more modern and practical personal touches like little pockets or suede details. She also created a natural feel to the clothing through design, soft fabric choices, and various fabric-working techniques.

“One of the one most experimental techniques that I used in one of my dresses was embroidery and cutwork,” she reflects. “I layered two fabrics together and embroidered a pattern that I designed in Illustrator. You pin it to the fabric and then embroider over top of it and then cut off the top layer of fabric so you can see the dimensions in the layers.”

You can see Sarah’s detailed designs on May 10, but only if you have a ticket. Get yours now as prices go up at the end of March.

Sarah Frederick is a native of Swanton, MD, and a graduate of Southern Garrett High School.

Photos by Katlin McNally.

The 2013 designer group shot.

11 a.m.

It’s fashion photo shoot day, and I’m sitting and waiting. That happens a lot on fashion shoot day, especially if you are a blogger. If I were a make up artist or hair stylist, I’d be busy. If I were a model I’d be trying to sit very still while people transformed me. If I were a designer I’d be getting my garments ready for the shoot—steaming, pressing, etc. And if I were the photographer I’d bee setting up stations, testing lighting, and readying my equipment. But, I’m none of those things. All I had to do was find a corner with an outlet that was out of everyone’s way.

There are two stations where they are shooting for the lookbook, both in sewing labs in Design Studios on Broad.

Unfortunately the only place I can be out of the way of the first session is a place where I can’t actually see anything. This is turning out to be a good thing. I have a roving photographer (the lovely and talented Ms. Katlin McNally) out there getting pics of the fashion photographer, Nick Fancher, and his gang at work. Katlin will be my eyes (and yours, check out the gallery below). What I can do, and have never been able to do in past photo shoots, is hear the photographer and that’s actually more interesting. He provides a constant stream of direction. Chin up, arms this way, turn your elbows out, square the feet, turn your body, feet apart a little more, relax your mouth, setc.

Of course now that I’ve heard all this direction, I really want to SEE what the heck is happening. Fortunately for the next session I can find a new corner and observe.

3:30 p.m.

Everyone has finished up their late lunch, freshened up hair and makeup, and shooting has resumed. I have now been able to wander a bit and observe the shooting a little more closely. A few observations: The looks are seriously tight, well finished, and full of unexpected details. I had seen most of these looks in photos taken during the jurying, but they were even more impressive in person. There are more male looks than I recall seeing in past shows. There are more pants, shorts, and long sleeves (all of which are particularly difficult to make well). I’m seeing a lot of handmade patterns and hand-died fabrics (our dying lab is pretty sweet). There is more diversity in the style of clothing—which is perhaps a result of not having an over arching theme.

I could go on, but really you just need to get a ticket and experience the wow for yourself. The show is May 10. See you there.

Before I sign off I just need to give a big thanks to our photographer Nick Fancher, The Ologie team including Casey Carmell and Andy Hayes, the wonderful hairstylist from Jolie Laide, and of course the fabulous Tim Maurer and his team from Mukha Custom Cosmetics who once again worked makeup magic.

How fun is the CCAD Senior Fashion Show event? take a look at last year’s event.

February 28^th was a long arduous day for CCAD designers, as they presented their final collections to a jury of seven industry professionals.

The job of those professionals was to evaluate the designs and choose the best looks for the runway show. The jurying was blind in that they did not know which designers were attached to which looks when they did their review—their choices were based on the strength of the design and construction alone. The end result: after reviewing more than 100 designs, 68 have been chosen for the May 10 show.

Below is our list of participating designers, including where they hail from. Sunday we’ll be covering the fashion photo shoot, and next week you can start getting to know these designers a little better as our fashion blogger Kristen Foley sits down with each one to talk design, inspiration, and the future. The jury has done their work, but the only way you get to see what they’ve selected for the runway is to get your tickets now. The May 10 fundraising event is shaping up to be spectacular.

1. Jess Betz, from Toledo, OH, graduate of St. Ursula Academy
2. Olivia Brezinski, from Perrysburg, OH, graduate of Perrysburg High School
3. Rachel Chertoff, from Buffalo, NY, graduate of Williamsville East High School
4. Nicole Chhuom, from Columbus, OH, graduate of West High School
5. Jazzmin Evans, from Columbus, OH, graduate of Independence High School
6. Sarah Frederick, from Swanton, MD, graduate of Southern Garrett High School
7. Jennica  Gray, from Columbus, OH, graduate of St. Francis DeSales High School
8. Kassie Haji, from Columbus, OH (previously from Providence, RI) , graduate of Feinstein High School in RI
9. Katlin Hatfield, from Adamsville, OH, graduate of Tri-Valley High School
10. Katharine Hire, from Mansfield, OH, graduate of Mansfield Christian School
11. Tina Hughes, from Cleveland, OH, graduate of Eastlake North High School
12. Phoebe Isaac, from Lexington, OH, graduate of Lexington High School
13. Danielle Nicole Jones, from Westerville, OH, graduate of Westerville South High School
14. Dax Thomas Kauser, from Columbus, OH, graduate of Groveport Madison High School
15. Leah Sloane Kennedy, from Ypsilanti, MI, graduate of Ypsilanti High School
16. Olivia Mitchell, from Columbus, OH, graduate of Reynoldsburg High School
17. Ngockhanh Ngo, from Columbus, OH, graduate of Beechcroft High School
18. Karla Norquist, from Eagan, MN, graduate of Northridge High School,
19. Kate Elaine Pohrt, from Ann Arbor, MI, graduate of Ann Arbor Pioneer High School
20. Krista Guanlao Sison, from Parma Heights, OH, graduate of Valley Forge High School
21. Antoine Slater, from Dayton, OH, graduate of Wayne High School

Group at ADDY awards, from left to right: Vice President for Academic Affairs Kevin Conlon, James Lutz, Lillie Templeton, and Alex Laniosz.

The ADDYs, organized by the American Advertising Federation, are the advertising industry’s largest, most competitive competition, and during the recent 2012 ADDY award ceremony in Columbus, OH, CCAD talent was well represented.

Seven Advertising & Graphic Design seniors won awards. Lillie Templeton received a Best of Show and a Gold award for her integrated campaign Ball Jars—Off the Shelf; Ali Prater received two Gold for her Epson Ink Cartridge packaging and her Teavana catalog; Zayne Parmiter won a Silver for his Flour Child packaging; Robert Trautman won a Silver for his Lark & Key Branding stationary; Taylor Vogel won a Silver for his Ikea app; Alex Laniosz won a Silver for the Balls’ jars ad, and Jessica Alley won a Silver for her integrated campaign for the United States Postal Service.

Ologie, founded by alumna Bev Bethge, won a total of 24 awards: one Judge’s Choice, seven Gold, and 16 Silver. A number of these awards were for community work, including work completed with CCAD on admissions collateral and the Senior Fashion Show lookbook.

Advertising & Graphic Design alumnus Greg Beck (CCAD 2009) was part of the team at Longstride, a local motion graphics company that grabbed a Gold award in the category of Public Service, Audio/Visual for its Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio campaign.

The ADDYs receive more than 50,000 entries nationwide through local ADDY competitions. Leading work is rewarded with Gold and Silver awards, and top honors are Judge’s Choice and Best of Show. Gold winners qualify for the AAF Fifth District ADDY competition, where entries from Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia compete.

The Columbus chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AFF) represents more than 100 member companies. AAF works to enhance the professional development of its members, while increasing recognition for the advertising industry and giving back to the local community.

Alley is from Baltimore, OH, and attended Bloom-Carroll High School; Laniosz is from Willowbrook, IL, and attended Hinsdale South High School; Parmiter is from Marietta, OH, and attended Marietta Senior High School; Prater is from Hilliard, OH, and attended Hilliard Darby High School; Templeton is from of Wadesboro, NC; Trautman is from Niles, OH; and Vogel is from Mason, OH, and attended William Mason High School.

CCAD students look over design options

The 2013 Arnold Sports Festival is celebrating its 25^th anniversary in Columbus this weekend and it turned to students at Columbus College of Art & Design to design merchandise for the event.

Eight students participated in the 72-hour charrette through the CCAD MindMarket’s DesignLab.

Participating students included: Advertising & Graphic Design juniors Evan Symonds, Ian Li Cissel Tan, and Jonathan Yukek; seniors Ezra Hone, Nicole Londeree, and Trevor Payne; Illustration junior Alexis Schuknecht; and senior Dylan Shuman.

“We all worked in the same room within the MindMarket,” Schuknecht said. “It was nice since we were able to bounce ideas off each other and hang our designs up around the room and get feedback as we worked. It truly mimicked a professional, real-world challenge.”

After finishing the designs students presented to Tom Sabatino, a representative from the Arnold Festival, CCAD MindMarket Director Cynthia Gravino, and instructor Jim Johnson.

Awards were originally given to Payne for first place, Schuknecht for second, and Hone and Tan tied for third place.

The four award-winning designs will be developed to go on T-shirts to sell at the expo and possibly be placed on other merchandise including stickers and posters.

Sabatino enjoyed the designs so much he decided he reward the students’ work by offering additional prizes for the design that receives the most orders from vendors and the design that sells the most overall during the festival.

“This is the fourth year we have worked with CCAD to design merchandise and the competitiveness of the students is what really impresses me every year,” Sabatino said. “We hope to continue to grow this relationship and work with the MindMarket again in the future.”

The students will also get a chance to meet with Arnold Schwarzenegger during a legends breakfast this weekend and will receive a letter of recommendation for their design work to put in their portfolios.

The CCAD MindMarket offers several creative services formats through the DesignLab, from charrettes, which are intense 54-to-72 hour design challenges, to class projects lasting 16 weeks, to partnerships, which can be longer and recruit the broadest variety of CCAD students, faculty, and staff.

Hone is a native of Columbus, OH and attended Groveport Madison High School; Howard is from Mount Vernon, OH and attended Mount Vernon High School; Londeree is from Columbus, OH and attended Worthington Kilbourne High School; Payne is from Cincinnati and attended Princeton High School; Schuknecht is a native of Saginaw, MI and attended Heritage High School; Symonds is from Lima, Ohio and attended Shawnee Senior High School; Tan is from Singapore; and Yukek is from Cleveland and attended Valley Forge High School.

Jessica Seyfang and Nicholas Most’s design for the competition

The Planning and Visual Education Partnership (PAVE) held their annual 3D Design Challenge for Students, and two CCAD seniors in Interior Design were among the 12 finalists.

Jessica Seyfang and Nicholas Most worked as a team for this year’s competition, which was sponsored and presented by Van Stry Design. The challenge prompted students to design and create a 3D model or rendering of a store fixture that communicates an existing brand of headphone.

The 209 entries from 12 countries were graded by a panel of judges, and the top 12 designs were selected to move on in the challenge. Prototypes of these designs will be produced by Van Stry Design and will be displayed at GlobalShop 2013 in Chicago, April 16-18. Winners will be announced at an award ceremony on April 16 and will receive cash prizes.

The competition, which is now in its fourth year, offers students a chance to see their designs come to life and gain exposure at GlobalShop, a major industry trade show.

Founded in 1992, PAVE’s goal is to encourage students to study in the field of retail design and planning and visual merchandising. It holds competitions, projects, seminars, workshops, grants, and scholarships to involve companies and students.

Hazel Varanese’s “Wolf”

The Society of Illustrators will be seeing a lot of CCAD this spring. The acclaimed professional society has accepted three illustration seniors into the 2013 Society of Illustrators Scholarship Competition and is honoring professor C.F. Payne with a Distinguished Educators in the Arts award.

Accepted into the scholarship competition: Art of Robots by Taylor Hicks, Bad News and The Conqueror by Matthew Houston, and Wolf by Hazel Varanese.

The four illustrations were chosen by jurors from more than 5,000 entries. The final exhibition will feature the work of more than 200 students from universities nationwide in the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators, May 15–June 5 in New York City.

The Society’s endowment, contributions from private and corporate donors, and proceeds from an annual auction of member-donated artworks will fund approximately 25 scholarships during an opening reception on May 17.

During the reception, Payne will also receive his Distinguished Educators in the Arts award. The  award is presented to educators who have made a strong impact on illustration as both a teacher and an artist. Payne is one of two honorees this year.

Payne’s artwork has graced the covers of Time Magazine, Readers Digest, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Book Review, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. In addition he has illustrated numerous children’s books, including most recently Mousetronaut, written by astronaut Mark Kelly.

Since the competition’s founding in 1981, the Society of Illustrators has awarded more than $1,500,000 to deserving students.

CCAD student Alexa Carson’s winning design for the card contest with Columbus Partnership

Columbus College of Art & Design teamed up with the Columbus Partnership  to create a new tradition—a holiday card design contest.

The Columbus Partnership is a nonprofit, membership-based organization of 49 CEOs from Columbus’ leading businesses and institutions. Its primary mission is to improve the economic vitality of the Columbus region.

“When thinking about this year’s holiday card we paused a moment to think about how we could best illustrate the flavor of Columbus and all the great things our community has accomplished,” said Stephen Lyons, vice president of member services & community engagement at the Columbus Partnership. “Partnering with CCAD was a great opportunity to support an incredible educational asset in our community and work with the creative student innovators of Columbus who help drive our economic growth.”

Lyons along with Kevin Conlon, CCAD’s vice president for Academic Affairs  served as the jurors and deliberated over the 38 entries from CCAD students and alumni and selected Illustration senior Alexa Carson’s design as the cover for the Partnership’s 2012 card..

“I have lived in Columbus for my entire life,” Carson said. “One of my favorite things about the city is how it is a vibrant community made up of many different kinds of people working together. This concept is what I chose to illustrate.”

Carson’s design shows three snowmen underneath arches located in the Short North, Columbus’ arts district. The three snowmen represent Columbus’ vibrant community of artists and designers, students and educators, and businessmen and women of small and large corporations.

Carson was ecstatic to win the design contest (even doing a happy dance when she found out). Carson will receive a $1000 cash prize and the card, that has the artist’s name and information printed on it, will be distributed to more than 3,000 clients and friends of the Columbus Partnership.

“As a senior getting ready to venture out into the professional world, it is huge to have my name printed on the card sent out,” Carson said. “If there is one thing I have learned from my professors this semester, it is that getting your name out there is half the battle of being a successful artist.”

Second place went to Advertising & Graphic Design alumna Jessica Lipps (CCAD 2012), third place to Fine Arts alumnus Michael Aldag (CCAD 2009), and honorable mention to Illustration senior Katie Langford.

Jerrica Fields at the Spring 2012 CCAD Art Sale

The CCAD Art Sale has become a staple in the Columbus community as a great place to buy local art. More than 100 vendors, consisting of CCAD alumni, faculty, staff, and students, will be set up on Saturday, Dec. 1 to display and sell their work in the Loann Crane Center for Design.

Fine Arts alumna Jerrica Fields (2011) will be participating in her fifth sale this winter. She’ll be selling handcrafted and crocheted jewelry designs in copper and sterling silver, along with her paper goods that include hand-bound notebooks, journals, planners, cards, and magnets.

“There are people at CCAD who are proud of me, and I want to show them how much I have grown because of their help and continued support,” Fields said about why she returns to CCAD to sell her work. “Every year I have repeat customers who tell me they can’t wait to see what new design I’ll come up with—that alone makes what I do worth it.”

CCAD’s doors open at 9 a.m. for first-choice admission, and general admission is 10 a.m.–2 p.m. The spring sale welcomed more than 1,400 customers and raised more than $5,000 through admission fees, which goes straight into the scholarship fund.

Michael Bonardi at the Spring 2012 CCAD Art Sale

“People who attend the sale, especially in the first-choice time period, know how important this sale is to us [the vendors],” Fields said. “We get to show them what we’ve learned and how we are incorporating it into our daily lives as artists and what their money is helping facilitate. People who come to an art college to buy art are here to see what CCAD artists are all about, including craftsmanship, sweat, ambition, pride, and good old-fashioned hard work.”

Fields spends weeks preparing for the sale. After taking inventory of her pieces and hand-crafting her business cards she does a mock-up of her display.

“I have grown so much as an artist, so I love to see the students at the sale and offer them some advice and encouragement,” Fields said.

One of those students is Illustration senior Wes Talbott. He will be selling his prints at what will be his third CCAD Art Sale.

“The Hunter” by Wes Talbott

“Having a table at the sale helps me understand how the general public reacts to my work,” Talbott said. “The response you get from the trained eye of a teacher can be a lot different than the response you get from a customer; both are very helpful to hear.”

Fine Arts alumnus and CCAD admissions counselor Michael Bonardi (2004) is a seasoned professional when it comes to the sale, with this December sale marking his 24^th: eight as a student and 16 as an alumnus.

Bonardi will be selling his blown glass, porcelain, digital photography, and other experimental photographic works.

“For the sale I try to keep a steady inventory of work,” Bonardi said. “Every year I try to add something new into what I present, whether it is a new body of work or different display structures.”

Bonardi’s home entryway doubles as a storage space and gallery for his current work.

“The customer that comes to the CCAD Art Sale knows that all the vendors have a common bond of being a part of the CCAD family,” Bonardi said. “And by coming to the sale they are not only supporting our work, but they are supporting future CCAD artists and students.”

The CCAD Winter Art Sale is Saturday, Dec. 1. Enter at 9 a.m. for first-choice admission ($50) and 10 a.m. for general admission ($5). Come celebrate art, the Columbus community, and above all our CCAD vendors. Click here for more information on the sale.

The anatomy lab at Columbus State Community College, photo courtesy of Kristine Schramer

By Robin Hepler

Tens of thousands of visitors to the COSI science museum this winter will view an exhibition of CCAD students’ interpretations of the human form. Students in the fall semester course The Human Body in Art and Science have had access to the cadaver labs at Columbus State Community College and to the fall Body Worlds & the Brain exhibition at COSI to study the body from numerous perspectives—all for their use in creating art at the level expected for an exhibition hosted by a regional tourist destination.

CCAD faculty members Julie Posey (Science) and Kristine Schramer (Fine Arts) developed the team-taught course and negotiated the community partnerships to bring this full array of opportunities to students. The project provides an expansive and very public new venue for students to exhibit their final coursework and serves as an example of CCAD’s evolution in project-based learning.

“The college is moving toward a more cross-disciplinary way to deliver on project-based learning to mimic what happens in the real world,” says Kevin Conlon, CCAD vice president for Academic Affairs. “We are intentionally seeking external academic partners to provide opportunities for students to engage in teaming and problem-solving challenges.”

The expanding scope of projects is bringing faculty members together to create whole new classes, such as Posey and Schramer’s human body course.

“The scale of these newer project-based learning opportunities is becoming much more ambitious,” Conlon says. “As a result, they often engender dedicated courses that aggregate talent from multiple levels and departments and in academic constructs that may go beyond the limits of current course models and academic terms.”

CCAD students doing a dissection in the CSCC lab, photo courtesy of Kristine Schramer

Constructing new learning opportunities

Posey says she and Schramer spent three months developing learning objectives and finding the right combination of curriculum elements from science and art for the new course.

“I focus on the world out there that isn’t art. This course is about the human body—every different aspect, from tattoos to aging to body systems to our DNA,” Posey says. “I try to engage students about issues that are fundamentally meaningful to them as humans, not necessarily as artists. That is where Kris comes in.

“Kris shows these kids that our worldly experiences, our knowledge of our own micro-world, can be truly inspirational as art,” Posey says. “She ties what I do with what artists do.”

In each lecture Schramer shows students work of contemporary artists who work with the human form as their muse. Students are not asked to memorize facts about science; instead, Schramer says, she wants to teach students how to make themselves subject experts when they need to for their creative work.

And she teaches the process of a project.

“My goal is for every student in this class to have the experience of taking on an ambitious project and completing it successfully. I meet so many creative people who are full of brilliant ideas, but lack both the nerve to begin and the practical skills to manage the execution of a complicated project,” Schramer says.

“Using the study of science and each student’s individual project as the educational vehicle, I guide them through the stages of brainstorming, refining, proposing, revising and proposing again, researching, planning, budgeting, scheduling, and presenting their work publicly.”

Schramer says these skills can be applied to any major endeavor undertaken in life, whether it be artistic, entrepreneurial, or personal.

Posey and Schramer partnered last fall to team-teach a biotechnology course that also tapped the resources of Columbus State anatomist Eric Kenz. That project helped launch 2012 graduate Jonathan Hodge’s career in medical illustration. This year’s public exhibition at COSI, sharing museum space with the acclaimed Body Worlds & the Brain exhibit, makes their second project-based course much larger in scope—creating more opportunity and expectations.

UPDATE 12/2/12: There will be a free, public reception to view the student work on Sunday, 6-8 p.m. Dec. 9, 2013, at COSI Columbus.

Community-based projects

Students working in the CCAD MindMarket, photo courtesy Danielle Ford (2013)

Businesses and organizations in central Ohio can now access the talent of CCAD faculty, staff, and students for projects through the CCAD MindMarket’s DesignLab. Depending on the need, the CCAD MindMarket can assemble cross-disciplinary teams to provide design solutions through three different project structures: charrettes lasting 54–72 hours; semester-long, in-class projects; and longer-term project partnerships.

A spring 2012 joint project that teamed up a Fashion Design class and an Advertising & Graphic Design class is an example of the kind of community project that likely will work through the new MindMarket in the future.

Twenty-two students from the two classes presented design solutions for Huntington Bank’s branded team jersey for the annual Pelotonia bike race to raise money for cancer research. In the end, the bank asked that two options be combined—utilizing functional design elements by senior Nina Rehner and graphics by senior Dahui (Danny) Li.

“That’s how real projects work in corporations,” says Suzanne Cotton, chair of Fashion Design at CCAD. “It was a terrific scenario for the two finalists to work together to combine their concepts.”

Matt Mohr, assistant professor of Visual Communications and Media Studies, led the graphic design students in the project.

“We’re always looking for ways to combine disciplines,” says Mohr. “Apparel graphics, especially the opportunity to create a concept that covered the entire garment, posed a unique challenge. Given that the designs were for a well-respected, high-profile event made for eager excitement among the students.”

Conlon says the new curriculum architecture being built at CCAD supports the practicum experience, whether faculty members are bringing new projects to the classroom or outside organizations are approaching CCAD through the new structure of the MindMarket.

“It’s all about providing the students choices among a variety of paths to the practicum and a gateway to the professional-level and portfolio-worthy experience,” Conlon says.

All project-based learning is incredibly valuable for the student—not just for the experience of merging research, theory, application, experience, and result, Conlon says, but also for the benefit it provides students in developing their portfolios.

“Professional development has always begun with the portfolio at CCAD. Our continuing commitment to the portfolio as the primary evidence of discipline readiness will now be enhanced with the engagement of more and varied types of project-based learning,” Conlon says. “The practicum experience, played out in at least 12 credit hours within the new curriculum architecture, is the college’s demonstrated commitment to this ideal.”

For Schramer the experience is paying additional, personal dividends: “In these classes, Julie and I are learning right along with the students,” she says.

To check out the online print version of IMAGE, click here.

Screenshot from the animated short film “Reversion”

Animation sophomore William Oglesby and Illustration senior Wes Talbott were a part of an international team that won a 2012 Suzanne Award for the Best Design Short at the Blender Conference in Amsterdam.

Their entry, Reversion, is an 11-minute film from writer and director Giancarlo Ng. Talbott and Oglesby worked on the short with nearly 20 other artists and programmers.

The awards were presented as part of the Suzanne Animation Festival, which invites filmmakers, artists, animators, designers, and scientists to submit their work for judging as part of the Blender Conference.

The conference hosts a mix of technical talks, scientific presentations, case studies, and workshops by artists and developers focusing around Blender, an open-source content creation suite.

The conference was held Oct. 12–14, 2012.

Lian Dziura in front of her work at the Thunderdome awards reception at Clifton Cultural Arts Center.

FOTOFOCUS is a monthlong celebration in Cincinnati, OH that combines exhibitions, conferences, presentations, and other special events to honor the art of photography. Many CCAD alumni, students, faculty, and staff were involved with various exhibitions around the city in October.

Professor and Illustration alumna Helen Hoffelt (CCAD 1982) showed work in the Midwest Society for Photographic Education Members Exhibition at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington, KY, Sept. 28–Oct. 31. Hoffelt also had work in Images of the Great Depression: A Documentary Portrait of Ohio 1935-2010 at the University of Cincinnati’s Sycamore Gallery, Oct. 1–Oct. 27.

Henry Scott with his work at the Thunderdome awards reception at Clifton Cultural Arts Center.

Media Studies alumna Rachel Girard Reisert (CCAD 2002) had a solo exhibition Tropism at 1305 Gallery, Sept. 28–Nov. 11. Reisert also presented during the Midwest Regional Society for Photographic Education Conference on Oct. 13.

A senior in Photography, Kayla Holdgreve, exhibited two of her pieces in Current: MW Society of Photographic Education Student Juried Exhibition at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Oct. 4–31.

Photography alumna Lian Dziura (CCAD 2012), Junior in Cinematic Arts Tom Hoying, MFA alumnus Cosby Lindquist (CCAD 2012), Photography alumnus Marcus Morris (CCAD 2012), junior in Photography Henry Scott, and MFA alumna Crystal Tursich (CCAD 2012) participated in the juried invitational exhibition Thunderdome, at Clifton Cultural Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH, Oct.13–14. Lindquist was one of three award winners and Dziura received an honorable mention.

Designers choose condoms at first meeting for condom couture fashion show

CCAD students often work with a variety of unusual material and face multiple design challenges and for 14 students participating in Planned Parenthood’s Condom Couture Fashion Show this latest project is no different.

Each students was given 800 condoms to use in an original clothing design that will be modeled by a community leader in a fashion show on Oct. 17.

During the show the designers will be judged by local boutique owner Maren Roth, menswear designer David Swetman, and CCAD instructor Esther Chung. The garments and designs will be graded on theme, color, creativity, attractiveness, originality, technique, and concept.

The top three winners will receive scholarship money; first place is awarded $1000, and second and third $500.

This will be the second year Bridgette Stevens a junior in Fashion Design, has competed in the fashion show.

Last year Stevens designed a truly couture one-of-a-kind dress that included a matching umbrella. The ensemble incorporated hot pink, black, and white condoms, creating a zebra print pattern.

Student Bridgette Stevens structure for a hat as part of the condom couture fashion show

“Last year I spent way too much time perfecting my garment,” Stevens said. “This year I will again have a very couture garment. I am doing a hot pink gown in organza, so it will be transparent. I will hand-stitch the condoms on and gather them across the dress, it will be very sexy. I am also going to have a couture hat to complete the look.”

Although Stevens has her plan all worked out, she remembers, from last year, that condoms are not an easy material to work with by any means.

“The hardest part about working with this material is thinking through how you want your design to come across,” Stevens said. “Second is the application; it is really difficult to work with these latex critters—they don’t always want to cooperate.”

Competing along with Stevens will be freshmen Katherine Benson, Kaylene  Biddle, Diana Chung, and Kailey Rinder; Fashion Design sophomores Elaine Hunt and Caroll Kern; Illustration sophomore Samantha Russel; Fashion Design juniors Kristain England, Marquis Engle, and Julie Ward; Fashion Design seniors Leah Kennedy and Krista Sison; and Interior Design senior Jocelyn Williams.

“We’re thrilled to host such a creative way to raise awareness about prevention,” said Stephanie Kight, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. “Previous years’ designs have been stunning…It’s exciting to see designers transform condoms into wearable art.”

Read about last year’s event here, and find out more information about the event and how to attend here.

Photo from last year’s Family Weekend & Homecoming

Classes are in full swing and the temperature is starting to drop, which can only mean one thing…. Family Weekend & Homecoming is almost here.

This will be the second year that the popular events are combined into one spectacular, action-packed weekend; this year on Oct. 12 and 13.

Last year during and after the event we shared hundreds of photos with our friends on Facebook via our Columbus College of Art & Design page and our CCAD Alumni page.

People tagged and liked the pictures, allowing everyone online to participate. So, what better way to get excited for this year’s event then look back at last year’s photos and comments?

A few that warmed our cold hearts:

“Totally enjoyed the Family Weekend & Homecoming thing—great job,” said alumnus James Walter Elston. “So good to be back at CCAD.”

Alumna Lisa Hetzer said, “we had a great time at the Homecoming/Family/Alumni weekend! Kudos to everyone involved with the planning, great job. What a wonderful surprise to see my favorite teacher, Billie Ingram, being honored at the alumni reception!”

Attendees were excited about the carnival on the quad, the comedy performance, and the homecoming reception, but some were also just as excited for the food.

“Joy Waking up starving and making overdone eggs isn’t fun, heading down to the market to get some good food,” current student Starla Hay said on a post announcing breakfast was beginning.

Sharing photos allowed the people who were there to reminisce (even while the event was still going on), but our hyperactive posting and tweeting meant that those who weren’t able to make the trip to campus got to enjoy it vicariously (at least that’s what we hope).

Alumna Amy Marie Book commented, “I wish I could have gone…miss my CCAD days bad…they were rough while there, but now looking back they were the best years for being myself.”

“I think if I visit now I will get lost,” alumna Sylvia Olmos stated on a picture of the campus. “Campus looks a lot different from 1986 when I started.”

Olmos is right; campus has changed a lot (just another reason to come back). But for those who are worried about getting lost, throughout the day there will be guided tours, so no need to worry.

Those who were watching our posts throughout the day were also a little perplexed by who we were exactly.

Student Alejandro Bellizzi commented that he thought our Faceboook page was alive—“I like this because I don’t understand who you are. It’s as if CCAD is alive and once you are an alumnus/a, you can talk to it like it’s a person. What are you? Are you some kind of art school ghost spirit?”

No, we are not an “art school spirit,” but wouldn’t that be cool? Walking through walls and just appearing places? …We digress. Like last year, Lacey Luce and I (Katlin McNally) will be wandering the streets tweeting and posting—and we think you should too! Seriously, do we have to do everything?

But, anyway, we like Bellizzi’s thinking. We are here to bring the “spirit” of CCAD to you (but not in a creepy poltergeist way)—whether you are among our alumni, a student, a family member, faculty, or staff—we are all CCAD family and on Oct. 12 and 13, everyone is coming together to celebrate. This is something you will not want to miss!

To check out a full listing of events planned for the weekend, please go to our event page. Also, look at photos from last year on our Facebook photo albums here and here.

Work by Kyle Boganwright

Fine Arts senior Kyle Boganwright’s solo exhibition Karnak’s Brood will be shown at Gallery 831 in Columbus, OH, Oct. 5–24.

The exhibition is a collection of colorful illustrations that embody messages about history, politics, social needs, causes, and the human condition. Boganwright uses a combination of media to bring texture into his work.

Shot from Pamela Theodotou’s film “Stark Justice”

MFA candidate Pamela Theodotou’s film project Stark Justice made the first cut in The Columbus International Film + Video Festival (CIF+VF) Experimental Shorts Division.

The film is a neo-noir cinemagraphic novel following a main character, Tom Stark, who is an assassin hired by the government.

“One of the goals of the project was to explore new media options in presenting narrative,” Theodotou said. “I wanted to create a work that visually reads like a novel but uses video, art, and special effects to enhance the experience. There are no vocals—just music and sound effects and written dialogue in the form of kinetic text.”

CIF+VF, now in its 60^th year, is Nov. 13–18.

To watch Theodotou’s Stark Justice, click here.

Christopher Olvis and Michiella Sturiano hold their winning umbrella design for Easton Town Center

Easton Town Center in Columbus, OH, offers a perk for visitors and shoppers when the clouds turn grey: a courtesy umbrella. This year the design is brand new thanks to Advertising & Graphic Design students at the Columbus College of Art & Design.

Easton hosts nearly 21 million visitors a year and orders 8,000 umbrellas a year for those customers to use—so when Steiner & Associates, the managing company of Easton, approached CCAD Advertising & Graphic Design classes with this project, the students were beyond excited.

Students had to not only create a design that incorporated Easton’s current brand theme and colors, but also work on an umbrella stand, follow a strict budget, deal with storage issues, consider guidelines for the arc, panels, and handle for the umbrella, and create a communication plan, all within an eight-week time frame.

A group of Easton staff members chose the winning design team, which included then-seniors Christopher Olvis and Jacob Graham and junior Michiella Sturiano.

Their design features a nature-themed pattern including snowflakes, autumn leaves, and tree branches all on the color blue that Easton uses as a brand color.

Easton Town Center is one of several community clients that CCAD has recently partnered with. Others include The Central Ohio Transit Authority, the State of Ohio’s Governor’s office, ScottsMiracleGro Company, and Nationwide Insurance.

2012 Team Huntington's Pelotonia jersey

Columbus Clippers fans got a surprise on July 25 when a flash mob rushed the field to debut the 2012 Team Huntington Pelotonia jersey.

The jersey was designed by two CCAD seniors in Fashion Design, Dahui (Danny) Li and Nina Rehner. The original class project was open to students in the Advertising & Graphic Design and Fashion Design majors, with 22 students submitting design proposals.

Officials from Huntington Bank had a tough choice and decided on not one, but two students’ designs, asking them to work together and combine both of their concepts. Li and Rehner were thrilled to create the jersey as a team, incorporating Li’s overall graphics and theme and Rehner’s approach to the fabric and shape.

The jerseys have a sleek design, that incorporates the bank’s brand colors: green and white, with orange acting as an accent. On the back panel of the jerseys Li proposed writing the question, ‘who are you riding for?’

“Huntington’s new Pelotonia jersey allows riders to circle who they ride for on the back of the jersey,” noted Li. “Words like ‘husband, mother, and friend’ motivate participants to compete, and the design expresses the notion that we’re all affected by cancer in some way.”

Rehner brought a new design structure to the 2012 jersey. In previous designs, the jersey fabric weighted down riders in the summer heat. This year the light weight fabric cools the rider and keeps sweat from soaking into the shirt. Rehner’s paneled design won Huntington over by making the shirt more fitted and sharp looking.

“The new jersey design reminds people why they are riding,” said Rehner. “It’s a great design that adds memory to the event, and makes the riders feel proud to be part of Pelotonia.”

“The enthusiasm of the fans, and the energy in the ballpark and on the field, reflects the growing momentum for Pelotonia support, not just at Huntington, but also within the Columbus community,” said Mary Navarro, director of retail and business banking at Huntington.

Pelotonia is a three-day bike ride where riders run their own fundraising campaign, requesting donations from friends and family. One hundred percent of all funds raised directly support cancer research at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center—James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. Over the past three years, riders have raised more than $25 million for cancer research.

Student looks at work

Each semester, the Honors Program at CCAD hosts a symposium where students and faculty present their semester’s work. This year it took place on May 7, starting with a reception for all CCAD faculty, staff, and students.

Work ranged from puppets to glass installations, and the projects came from two honors classes: Associate Professor Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis’ Ekphrasis: Art Begets Art and MFA student Elena Harvey Collins’ Art as Social Practice.

The following students showed their projects: Fine Arts seniors Jack Ramunni, Alejandro Bellizi, Krista Sison, Yezen Abusharkh, and Mary Nemeth; Media Studies senior Brian Liston; Fine Arts junior Eric Sherwood; Advertising & Graphic Design junior Danielle Williams; Photography junior Derrick Whitson; Industrial Design sophomore Kelly Lee; and Fine Arts sophomores Esteban Gonzalez, Nicole Santos, and Hannah Mason-Macklin.

A packed crowd.

7:30 p.m.

One of the many things I love about this event is the spectacular people watching it affords. The nature of our event—cocktails, runway show, dancing—is such that our guests are encouraged to have fun with their fashion choices.

There are no rules.

Jeans are fine. (I’ve seen people here make jeans look like high fashion.)

Wanna rock your club wear? Bring it.

Look sassy in a cocktail dress or feeling like full-length couture? Go for it.

Jewelry your thing? Make it shine.

As a spectator, I get to take it all in. The crowd, for me, is as much of a fashion show as what happens on the catwalk.

Don’t worry dear readers, there will be plenty of pictures. This year we set up a photo station thanks to our title sponsor Limitedbrands Foundation to ensure we capture our fashionista guests on their way in to the VIP cocktail reception, which is courtesy of Nationwide. (Let’s face it, the lighting that’s great for a cocktail party is not so great for fashion photos.)

Mayor Michael Coleman and Janelle Simmons.

Guests are starting to arrive and already I am wowed—this year will not disappoint. One shoulder dresses seem to be a favorite pick of some of the ladies. Lot’s of light shimmering fabrics, an ode to the coming summer I suspect. One dress has a harem pant affect at the bottom, it’s subtle and lovely. Sequins are shining and there are even a few gentleman sporting bow ties for the evening. Wait, is that a blue tuxedo jacket I see? That rocks.

The atmosphere here is oddly both charged and relaxed. People are clustered together in groups talking and laughing while sipping their drinks—it’s like they’ve taken a big collective breath after a long week and now they are ready to let loose and have fun.

Lots of local celebs and media are joining the crowd of VIPs. A few high-profile lawyers gather in one corner, perhaps recapping today’s courtroom antics, while competing newscasters trade a few stories and perhaps fashion tips in another. It’s an elite crowd but inviting just the same.

Ok, I have to pause here and pay homage to a stunning cobalt blue dress complimented by big chunkie gold bangles.

As a little preview to the show, there are garments from the designers on mannequins throughout the party space. The Diamond Cellar is also here and once again they are raffling off a piece of exquisite jewelry (the winner will be announced next week). Helping them out is Fine Arts junior Carson Weaver, who was the winner of this year’s Diamond Cellar design contest.

This group certainly appreciates well designed accessories, one woman has a fabulous multitude of black and white beads streaming around her neck.

While lots of ladies, both young and young-at-heart seemed to opt to pull out the pearls and they look stunning.

Wow. Time went fast. They are already urging guests into the tent for the runway show.

I guess I better pack up and get over there.

Click on an image to view a gallery and view them larger.

Weaver's final design for the ring

Junior Fine Arts major Carson Weaver was recently announced as the winner of the Diamond Cellar’s Jewelry Design Contest. Weaver will be given $1,000 to assist in creating the ring she designed and also the opportunity to offer her piece for sale at the Diamond Cellar’s 2012 Designer’s Gala in December.

This is the second year for the competition, which was created as a result of a longstanding relationship between CCAD and the Diamond Cellar.

Thirteen students from instructor Kelly Nye’s jewelry design course submitted ring designs to be judged by Diamond Cellar staff as well as internationally known jewelry designers Michael Bondanza, Steven Lagos, Charles Krypell and Christopher Slowinski.

Weaver discussing her ring with Hill

Before sending their designs off to the judges, students were able to consult with Christine Cooper Hill (CCAD 1987) during a class visit. Hill has been designing and handcrafting fine jewelry for more than 22 years and has had her own business, Christine Cooper Hill Jewelry/Cooper Hill Studio since 2007.

Hill looked over the student’s ring designs, offering advice on marketability, stone use, costs, and overall appeal.

Weaver’s ring will be fabricated using a wax casting process. The setting of the ring will be made of platinum, and the design includes Tahitian pearls and two single-cut round melee diamonds.

The Diamond Cellar will display Weaver’s final drawings at the 2012 CCAD Senior Fashion Show. They will also display work by the judges and Hill.

Diamond Cellar is one of several community clients that CCAD has recently provided significant creative services for, including Scott’s Miracle-Gro, Central Ohio Transit Authority, the Ohio Governor’s office, and Nationwide Insurance.

An early rendition

On May 11 Columbus College of Art & Design will open its annual student exhibition (the 133rd for those of you who are counting). This phenomena is a massive celebration of the best work of CCAD’s academic year.

Most of the art and design work in the show—representing the college’s graduate program and its nine undergraduate majors—is the result of thesis projects, contests, and class assignments. One project is simply a labor of love.

Each year students from the three-dimensional illustration class produce a crowd-pleasing piece that, while whimsical, is also masterful. This year’s creation is sure to be another attention getter—and its makers, who have spent the entire academic year building it, did so on their own time.

The colossal blood-sucking monster from a lost age

So what is this mysterious beast? Well, to call it a giant flea doesn’t really do justice to something the size of a compact car. It has been described as a “colossal blood-sucking monster from a lost age” and a “terrifying beast from a distant planet.” The beast isn’t alone; it will be ridden by a woman (presumably some type of warrior). When we asked her name, there was a quick scramble to come up with ideas—Fleaopatra seemed to stick.

You would think all this extracurricular work would just be added stress for a graduating senior, but Christopher Castorano says differently.

“This guy’s been keeping me sane,” explained the Illustration major with a smile.

The journey to build the beast and its rider began fall semester with Castorano and Illustration junior Tyler Crooks (both also work as Illustration lab techs). In spring they were joined by two juniors and fellow lab techs Henry Scott (Illustration) and Allison Cundiff (Animation). Leading the monster squad (and credited as the mastermind) is 3D Illustration Professor Mark Hazlerig.

“Mark’s been wanting to do this for 20 years,” explained Scott, who has known Hazlerig since Scott was first a student at CCAD in 2000. Scott left the college to join the military, returning to continue his studies after serving four tours.

The team will be working up until the last minute, bringing in one extra hand to help with the painting. At their most basic, the 3D pieces are constructed of blue foam and covered in latex. But, as with all good things, the process is much more complicated than that. (When we asked about construction, terms such as two-part foam, molding, and resins were bandied about). Anyone seeing the beast in person will appreciate the extraordinary level of detail, right down to the spindly little insect hairs.

Come see the colossal beast along with many other exquisite examples of art and design work from CCAD’s undergraduate and graduate programs. CCAD offers nine undergraduate majors, Advertising & Graphic Design, Animation, Cinematic Arts, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Design, and Photography; the graduate program is a multidisciplinary one called the MFA in Visual Arts: New Projects. THE SHOW: the 133rd Annual Student Exhibition opens Friday, May 11, at 4 p.m. and will be open through the summer.

The garment on the left is from Rachel Kaplan's collection, inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe and Umberto Boccioni. Chavilah Bennett used the fashion shoot photo to recontsruct a work of art inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's painting “Red Canna."

When the music is pounding and the models are strutting down the runway—each bringing forth a delightful new surprise—it is easy to only see the fashion design talent at the CCAD Senior Fashion Show.

So, each year we like to take a moment and call attention to all of the other creative minds that make our extraordinary fundraiser such a memorable experience.

One piece in particular, the lookbook, lasts well beyond that one adrenaline-fueled night. CCAD students have always played a significant role in developing the book, but this year that role was increased. The book not only showcases the design talent of our fashion students, but it also showcases the talent of our photographers, graphic designers, fine artists, and illustrators—not just in its production but in the rich content seen on each page.

“The fashion designers took their inspiration from 2D and 3D artists. To showcase that inspiration, we took the idea of deconstruction and reconstruction to highlight more forms of art and design at CCAD,” said CCAD Creative Director Lindsay Kronmiller as she described the concept for this year’s fashion show lookbook.

The team that developed the concept for the lookbook, the invites, and did the design work, from left Isabella Hidalgo, Aaron Roberts, Walker Crane, and Isuri Merenchi Hewage

“We took photos of the models wearing the designs on backgrounds that make it appear that the fashion is being ‘unpacked’ for a gallery show,” explained Kronmiller. “We then gave those photos to artists, designers, and illustrators and had them reconstruct each photo into a piece of art that was inspired by the original 2D and/or 3D artist—thus creating an ‘exhibition book’ of CCAD work focused around this year’s fashion thesis projects.”

While guests of the event will appreciate the beautiful book as they wait for the main event to start, the book’s shelf life lasts quite a bit longer. For the next year the admissions office will include the fashion lookbook in packets to prospective students and bring it with them to college fairs.

“This has become a signature piece for the college,” said Robin Hepler, director of marketing and communications at CCAD. “It started as a program just for the event, but we found that prospective students considering CCAD were fascinated by it and inevitably wanted a copy to keep. So, each year we’ve improved the content and ordered more quantities turning it into a regular piece in our recruitment packet. This year we’ve gone even further to ensure the book showcases the breadth of diverse talent at CCAD, while still being true to its original purpose.”

CCAD’s Design Group is an in-house design firm staffed by students and directed by Kronmiller. The team that developed the concept for the lookbook, the invites, and did the design work, included Advertising & Graphic Design seniors, Isabella Hidalgo and Aaron Roberts; Illustration senior Isuri Merenchi Hewage; and Advertising & Graphic Design junior Walker Crane.

Lookbook photographers, from left, Danielle Ford, Xandre King, Kelsey McClellan, Lian Dziura, Nicole Miller, and Marcus Morris.

The visual content for the lookbook was also all student generated. The photographs were taken by CCAD students (and an alumnus) during a daylong photo shoot that involved several sets  in CCAD’s massive photography studio space. Photography majors on the shoot, included seniors Lian Dziura, Xandre King, Kelsey McClellan, and Nicole Miller; junior Danielle Ford, and 2011 alumnus Marcus Morris.

The ‘reconstructed artwork’ was completed by the following students and alumni: Justine Arreche (Advertising & Graphic Design 2011), Chavilah Bennett (Advertising & Graphic Design 2012), Danielle Deley (Advertising & Graphic Design 2011), Pei Yin Chen (Photography 2011), Crane,  Dziura, Ford,  Andy Hayes (Advertising & Graphic Design 2001), Merenchi Hewage, Hidalgo,  Matthew Houston (Illustration 2012), Alex Lanisoz (Advertising & Graphic Design 2013),  Brian Liston (Media Studies 2012),  McClellan, Nathan Moser (Fine Arts 2012),  Simone Noronha (Advertising & Graphic Design 2011), Emily Rickard (Fine Arts 2010), Madison Schneider (Advertising & Graphic Design 2012), Pallavi Sen (Fine Arts 2011) Dillon Sirimongkhon (Illustration 2011), and Miles Tsang (Illustration 2012).

Videographers, from left, Alex Trimpe and Tom Hoying

Adding to the creative mix, CCAD tapped local branding agency Ologie to provide creative consultation and mentorship for the students as they worked on this massive undertaking.

While the lookbook has become a signature piece, it’s not the only student produced work that will be seen the night of the event (and beyond). Media Studies majors Tom Hoying (sophomore) and Alex Trimpe (senior) have been filming the lookbook design process and will be filming the entirety of the event to develop promotional materials for 2013. They also worked with local videographer Ryan Sweeney to develop a piece that will run prior to the runway show.

If you have your tickets be sure to remember to pick up a lookbook to see what all the fuss is about. If you don’t have tickets, we’ll do our best to post as many student-generated photos as we can the night of the show for your vicarious enjoyment.

Marissa Haley Schmidt's "Sun Bear"

Winners and finalists of the eighth annual Lowell Tolstedt Drawing Prize have been announced. This year’s contest was judged by a visiting artist, Professor Dana Saulnier of Miami University.

Winners included Illustration senior Marissa Haley Schmidt (first place and $500), Fine Arts senior Stephanie Cook (second place and $250), and Illustration junior Erlson Chunga Neba (third place $100 supply store gift certificate). An honorable mention went to Fine Arts junior Nikohl Gallas.

“Dana was very impressed with the quality of the work, as well as the energy and enthusiasm of the students here at CCAD,” said Rob Robbins, chair of drawing and print. “He was extremely contemplative and considerate in choosing this year’s winner, and said that the decision was very difficult.”

The winning drawings will be exhibited in the THE SHOW: The 133^rd Annual Student Exhibition, May 11–Sept. 14, 2012 on CCAD’s campus.

The Lowell Tolstedt Drawing Prize was established to celebrate and promote the strong drawing tradition at CCAD. The prize honors Lowell Tolstedt, a professor emeritus and Fine Arts dean who retired from CCAD after more than 35 years at the college.

From the Pipeline Project video directed by Erich Burchfield (with Meghann Pearson, Jen Stefanski, Dan Zimmer, Greg Browe, Philip Matthews, and Andy Robinson)

In film and video, there are a million ways to tell a story. With CCAD’s newly designed major in Cinematic Arts, you can find the right way (or ways) to tell yours, as well as learn the latest tools and tricks of the trade. Students in the program, which was officially approved last fall, learn the whole filmmaking process: storyboarding, production design, cinematography, directing, and post-production.

“The Cinematic Arts major grew out of a previous program, Media Studies, which was more general in nature. The recent name change reflects curricular revisions to offer a more focused major,” says Kevin J. Conlon, CCAD vice president for academic affairs. “This program prepares students in all cinema-related areas, but I think what distinguishes it from a typical film program is that, while the traditional skill sets are there, our program is all digitally based. Students won’t be working with traditional film—they’ll be working with 21st-century tools and techniques. We wanted to think ahead and think more broadly about preparing CCAD students for a variety of cinematic experiences.”

Conlon notes that students who pursue this major will dive deep into the roles of director, screenwriter, cinematographer, video editor, motion graphics designer, and sound designer. Throughout their coursework, they’ll be exposed to the latest film and editing technology and have the opportunity to spend time outside the classroom shooting on location. By the time students finish their senior project and put it on the big screen, they’ll have both a remarkable demo reel (including cutting-edge commercials, broadcast graphics, music videos, and short films) and a portfolio to showcase their talents.

Prospective students who are interested in the Cinematic Arts major should contact the CCAD Admissions office. Current students should contact One-Stop Student Services and make an appointment with an advisor.

In the gallery below, some student work by recent Cinematic Arts students.

2012 Art at the Arnold artists at work with model, photo courtesy of Ralphoto Studio

An alumnus and student took home prizes in the third-annual Art at the Arnold competition, which coincided with the 2012 Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, OH.

Don Slobodien (CCAD 1988) earned first place and a $2,500 prize. Illustration junior Shelby Bertsch placed third, receiving a $500 prize.

The competition comprised more than 50 Columbus artists competing in a three-day event.

It started with a half day of figure drawing and painting athletic models, followed by an afternoon of sketching and gathering references throughout the festival.

Artists spent the second day in a studio work session using materials gathered from the day before. On the final day artists selected one piece to submit for judging. Ron Pizzuti, owner of Pizzuti Companies in Columbus, was the judge for the 2012 competition.

Travis Hayes (left) and Luis Uzcategui (right)

Two CCAD Illustration students will exhibit work that they developed over a four-month study abroad trip to China.

Junior Luis Uzcategui and senior Travis Hayes spent a semester in China from September 2011 to January 2012. They attended classes at Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, learning traditional Chinese painting along with the history and philosophy behind the art form.

“I learned a whole new style of ink painting that still resonates in my work,” Uzcategui said of his experience.

The students lived on the academy’s campus for the duration of their trip, immersing themselves in an entirely different culture, while attending art class every day alongside their Chinese peers and learning the specifics of Chinese painting.

“We had to relearn basic techniques because their style is so different,” Hayes said. “They focus on two-dimensional line work to depict shapes and scenery, where at CCAD we focus on three-dimensional shapes and shading.”

Each student will have approximately six paintings in the show, and their sketchbooks will also be out for people to look through. A projection screen will be set up in the area, displaying photos from their trip.

“I feel like China greatly influenced my voice as an artist. It helped me find my specific style,” Uzcategui said. “The line work that is involved in traditional Chinese painting will continue to have a presence and influence in my work.”

Both students enjoyed learning the philosophy behind traditional Chinese art, recalling a trip to a Buddhist temple to discuss the history and meaning with a local monk. They said experiencing the culture day-in and day-out had just as much impact on their art as the daily lessons.

“I thought of every day as an adventure, not a struggle,” Hayes said. “I know my work and skill level made a significant jump from when I left to go to China to when I came back.”

The students will display their paintings on the third floor of the Loann Crane Center for Design on April 20–May 4, 2012, with an opening reception April 20, 6–8 p.m. The Crane Center is open during regular business hours.

First-place winner for TDAC, Evan Thomas' illustration "Past Spa"

Studio SSS, founder of the popular websites They Draw and Travel (TDAT) and They Draw and Cook (TDAC) recently announced the winners of their CCAD student competition for Illustration majors.

TDAT and TDAC were created by a brother/sister design team of Fashion Design alumna Salli Swindell (CCAD 1981) and Nate Padavick.

Swindell came to CCAD in February 2012 to lecture as part of the Visiting Artists Series. While here, she announced a competition. Students were encouraged to enter their illustrations into one or both of the sites; the top three designs would receive a cash prize.

First-place winner for TDAT, Emily Lockwood's illustration "A Climbers Guide: Red River Gorge, Kentucky"

“Not only is it a great exercise for people who enjoy drawing, but it is also a career opportunity, since we have had many professionals contact [our sites'] illustrators to do freelance work,” Swindell said during her visit.

The company received more than 70 entries for the contest and had an outside judge to choose three winners and three runners-ups. They Draw and Travel was judged by illustrator Steve Mack, who blogs regularly for Illustration Friday. Sophomore Emily Lockwood took first place, junior Jesus Walle took second, and junior Cody Hanes took third. The three runner-ups were sophomore Andrew Pena, freshman Sichong Xie, and junior Melissa Hiat.

They Cook and Draw was judged by the CEO of Flourish Agency, Inc., Christopher Ferranti, and his team. First place went to junior Evan Thomas, second place went to senior Isuri Merenchi Hewage, and third place went to senior Monica Cronin. Runner-ups were included sophomores Samuel Veirs, Alesha Williams, and Sherlann Lewandowski.

Artists from around the world have submitted their illustrated recipes and/or maps to the TDAC and TDAT sites. After receiving hundreds of submissions, the design team published their first cookbook last year, which includes illustrations from artists around the world.

They Draw and Travel winning entries can be viewed here and They Draw and Cook entries here.

AOI poster created by junior Wes Talbott

CCAD’s annual Art of Illustration (AOI) exhibition opens March 3 at Rivet Gallery in Columbus’ Short North arts district.

The student-produced exhibition is in its 15^th year and is part of a collegewide illustration competition that is juried by local professional illustrators.

The exhibition, which used to be shown on CCAD’s campus, moved to Rivet Gallery last year. The exhibition will once again debut during Gallery Hop, a first-Saturday-of-every-month event in the Short North.

“We wanted to showcase the best illustrative work created by students of CCAD and give them a chance to have their work exhibited in a gallery off campus,” said Brianne Schulze, a student organizer of AOI. “This is our second year working with Laura Kuenzli at Rivet Gallery, and she has been a big help to us throughout the entire process and in giving the exhibited artists an opportunity to sell their work.”

This year the show is organized by four Illustration students: seniors Lexie Holliday and Brianne Schulze, and juniors Andrew Thompson and Wes Talbott. Advisors are Professors Stewart McKissick (CCAD 1979) and Walter King (CCAD 1981) and Chair of Illustration Chris Payne.

Left to right: Chris Seaman, Jeff Carlisle, Lora Innes, Chris Payne, Adam Watkins, and Maxe Smith

The panel of judges included alumni Lora Innes (CCAD 2002, Media Studies), Chris Seaman (CCAD 2000, Illustration), Adam Watkins (CCAD 2004, Illustration), Maxe Smith (CCAD 2009, Illustration), and Jeff Carlisle (CCAD 1997, Illustration). They evaluated 190 submissions, narrowing the pool down to 41 accepted illustrations for the show.

Awards will be given for first, second, and third place. Six pieces were also chosen as  judges’ picks and will receive awards. The show is sponsored by Chipotle, Starbucks, r designs & printing, Noodles and Co., Dick Blick Art Materials, Kroger, and Giant Eagle.

Art of Illustration will open March 3 at Rivet Gallery, 1200 N. High St., with a reception from 7–10 p.m., during which awards will be given. The show will run through March 28, 2012.

Final image in Nationwide video, painted by Alan Becker

Twenty-five students in CCAD’s Pipeline Project recently created a video for Nationwide to display in the lobby of their downtown Columbus corporate offices.

The Pipeline Project, now in its sixth year, is an extra curricular program at CCAD that provides students a chance to produce a film in a collaborative, team-oriented manner that mirrors professional practice.

The project was led by Assistant Professor Thomas Richner, who met with executives from Nationwide throughout the process and presented the final 30-second video.

The final video focused on the history of Nationwide. It featured a white eagle flying over different Ohio landscapes and a chronological succession of buildings bearing Nationwide’s logos.

“The Pipeline Project allows students to work with real-world factors such as deadlines, meetings, and client requests,” Richner said.

Mardi Girard, a senior in Animation, has participated in the Pipeline Project twice.

“This project was not only a resume builder, but it also taught me how to work with other animators when trying to make a cohesive animation,” Girard said.

Animation senior Bekah Nunn was excited to work in a large group.

“It modeled what we will be doing when we leave school,” she said. “I was able to network with other students and get more experience in completing a team project start to finish.”

Other students who worked on this year’s project include Animation sophomore Kelly Cumpson; Animation juniors Joann Cundiff, Jonathan Pezzatta, Donald Yoakam, Chris Campbell, and Tyler Crowley; Animation seniors Brittney Kellogg, Victor Dearing, Shannon Beech, and DeJuan McCoy; Media Studies juniors Alan Becker and Manuel Austin; and Media Studies senior Jessica Miera.

A student talks to an alum during the phone-a-thon.

Very recently CCAD students participated in the second annual phone-a-thon to touch base with our alumni and raise money for student scholarships.

Every evening for three weeks, a gaggle of students took over staff offices and diligently made calls. During this time they got responses that ranged from humorous to inspiring, and sometimes just really, really cool. Here is a sample of what we heard:

Best reason to get off the phone: Going into labor! (We wanted to follow up, but decided that might be a bit too intrusive.)

Coolest reason alum couldn’t talk: On a movie set, ready to shoot.

Most interesting reason to decline giving a monetary donation: One alumnus explained that he had taken a vow of poverty—he is literally a monk living in a monastery. Peace, brother!

Blake Roberts, a junior majoring in Advertising & Graphic Design, said the coolest thing he heard during the phone-a-thon was an alumnus describing how he “bit the bullet and moved to New York and is making life work.”

Blake said, “For some reason, I really respected that specific designer’s gumption to just pick up and MAKE life happen for themselves, not LET life happen. I appreciated knowing that there IS a career for me.”

Throughout the campaign many alumni were kind enough to ask the students who they talked with to stay in touch. Thank you for that!

Did you get a call from a CCAD student about the Annual Fund Drive?  If so, share here what it was like to talk to a current student from your alma mater.

FLIP logo

Seven students in an experimental animation class at CCAD recently showed their work at the Flip Animation Festival, held in the United Kingdom at the end of October.

Established in 2004, Flip is a mix of all things animation. The festival provides educational workshops, feature film screenings, and spotlights on animation studios.

Tracy Robbins, associate professor of Animation, gave the assignment for her students to enter the festival’s Flippin’ Stings competition, which called for a 1o-second “animated sting” that had to use one of the festivals sound bites and the word “flip” or the festival logo.

“This was an amazing experience for the experimental animation class, where students incorporate a variety of materials such as small objects, clay, sand, collage, traditional drawing materials and digital tools into their work,” explained Robbins.

“I presented the competition the week it was due, so they didn’t have time to over think it.,” she added.  “They had one class to work on the 10-second animation, then it had to be posted to the competition site within three days. They were able to use any style or technique and could even incorporate clips of animation that they had been working on. The students did a remarkable job with the challenge, especially considering that, for many of them, this was their first animation class. It allowed them to use the same process of many independent animators, who will incorporate the ideas, techniques and experiments from their personal work into professional projects. It drove home the fact, that, as animators, we can say something in 10 seconds, which is great to understand. As well, it was just exciting for all of us to know that the stings were being used in between sessions featuring Aardman Animation, Bill Plympton and many other inspirational animators at a festival in the UK.”

The students’ stings were  shown at the festival between workshops, panels, and screenings. The students whose work was shown include sophomores in Animation Zach Brown, Xuan Shang, and Scott Ciprian; sophomores in Cinematic Arts Elizabeth Mort and Matt O’Grady; junior in Illustration Colleen McDonnell; and senior in Animation Shannon Beech.

Follow the links to view the students’ work. Xuan Shang, Colleen McDonnell, Zach Brown, Shannon Beech, Scott Ciprian, Elizabeth Mort, and Matt O’Grady.

Members of the 1492 project sit to discuss project goals

CCAD’s collaboration in two innovative entrepreneurial events this fall has lead to a rich new appreciation of the importance of creative thinking in business development.

Startup Weekend Columbus took place Oct. 7–9, 2011 on CCAD campus. In its fifth year, it was the first time this 54-hour program was hosted on CCAD’s campus.

The program, which normally draws students, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, had a new edge by including the creative class.

“Through Startup Weekend our students got an accelerated and intense sense of any number of considerations that impact business decisions and in turn impact design. They got to see how design contributes to business and how business influences design and how together, a company becomes more successful and their stories more impactful,” commented Cynthia Gravino, director of career services.

The program helped emphasize how closely related the creative and business processes have become.

“The weekend was not just another class exercise for students,”said Gravino. “This is a real-world experience that they can take with them as they launch their careers.”

Ten CCAD students participated in Startup Weekend Columbus, including honors students, Chavilah Bennett (senior, Advertising & Graphic Design), Lillie Templeton (junior, Advertising & Graphic Design), and Hilary Sroufe (junior, Advertising & Graphic Design); and Yiangos Panayiotou (junior, Illustration), Vincent Smigiel (sophomore, Advertising & Graphic Design), Abby Staley (freshman), Manuel Austin (sophomore, Media Studies), Michael Kroptavich (junior, Advertising & Graphic Advertising), Nikhil Nigade (freshman, Advertising & Graphic Design), Danielle Williams (sophomore, Advertising & Graphic Design), and Devin Broadnax (junior, Fine Arts).

The students worked closely with the 16 teams launching their business plans. Creatives and techies worked together to execute a successful start-up.

At the end of the weekend three of the 16 teams were chosen as the best concepts presented. They included, Source Match, DemandZilla, and UserTOS.

Similiar in some ways, 1492 is a program that accelerates the creation of start-ups in a couple of months as opposed to what would normally take a couple of years. The program is a collaborative effort among TechColumbus, Columbus State Community College, and CCAD, with support from the Ohio Third Frontier and includes money for the chosen projects.

Out of 162 applicants, 10 companies were chosen to present their ideas to a panel of judges on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Out of the 10, five were chosen to participate in an 11-week coaching program on CCAD’s campus. They will each receive a $20,000 grant and will launch a product or service in mid Jan. 2012, following the program.

The five companies selected for the 1492 program this year were Azoti.com, Capstone Innovations, Churchsys.com, hungerly LLC, and Infinum Education LLC

Azoti will serve local farmers, dairies, fisheries, distributors, co-ops, farmer’s markets and artisans by providing demand aggregation services, program management and a host of CRM solutions.

Capstone Innovations has designed and patented an adaptable interlocking pallet system made up of identical units.

Churchsys is a software service (SaaS) developed to manage all aspects of operating a church or any other institution with patrons.

hungerly LLC is a location-based mobile marketing, analytics, sales, and loyalty platform built with street truck and cart vendors in mind.

Infinum Education has developed Aviso, which allows students and instructors to collaboratively drive both student and institutional success.

During the 11-week training the start-ups cover everything from financial advice to meetings with business mentors, and brainstorming sessions on how to achieve their desired goals and results.

In addition to these training programs, the start-ups will be able to utilize a CCAD intern. The intern will be with them through the duration of the program and their initial launch.

Support from participating organization, professionals, peers, and CCAD’s creative talent ensure the participating companies with a successful product launch.

The awardees are: Mary Ann Lobb, a senior majoring in Media Studies with a minor in writing; Laura Maue, a junior majoring in Animation with a minor in writing; and Jennifer Owens, a senior majoring in Interior Design with a minor in copywriting.

The Creative Excellence Fund provides “last dollar” grants to students who have excellent academic records and have applied for all available aid, only to fall short of the funds needed to continue their education at CCAD. Established with a lead gift from the William H. Davis, Dorothy M. Davis and William C. Davis Foundation in 2009, the Fund has grown through many individual contributions and a second generous grant from the Davis Foundation in May 2011.

If you’d like to join them in providing long-term support that can truly keep a student in college, please visit www.ccad.edu/donate today.

First place winner Shirley Wang's design with model Robbie Banks

The lights dimmed, and the show started. One by one 15 models came down the runway in a one-of-a-kind CCAD student designed garment made of …condoms.

This was the annual Condom Couture Fashion Show which took place this year at ShadowBox Live on Wednesday, October 19, 2011.

The Condom Couture Fashion Show is a fundraiser benefiting the Planned Parenthood of Columbus Ohio and it is also a competition. Each designer is challenged with creating a wearable garment using condoms. The garments are then modeled by members of the community to a packed house.

This year’s judges included, Miki L. Gotch (CCAD 2010), assistant technical designer at Lane Bryant; Dennis Parker, professor emeritus of theatre at The Ohio State University; and Maren Roth, owner of Rowe.

The panel of judges evaluate the garments based on theme, color, creativity, attractiveness, originality, technique, and concept.

Each designer was given 800 Proper Attire condoms to create their ensemble (Proper Attire condoms are designed for the fashion-conscious women). Inspiration ranged from sweet 16 cakes to vintage wear.

Second place winner Michelle Watson's design with model Deja Redman

Of course some of the designer encountered challenges in the construction.

“The most interesting part about working in this medium has been trying to figure out how to get them to not break…you just want to cry every time that happens,” said Elousie McGill, a junior fashion designer.

“There is a lot of research involved. It really takes a while to come up with the proper technique in order to capture the look you are trying to achieve,” said Bridgette Stevens, sophomore fashion design major.

Despite the unique challenges designers were excited for the event and as McGill said,  “actually getting to see my design go down the runway will be a big day for me as a designer.”

Not only did the designers see their garments come down the runway, but they heard the cheers and applause of the enthusiastic audience.

As  Lisa Perks, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio, noted “the condoms have been stitched, braided, knotted, and glued by students from the jewel of our community, CCAD.”

The 15 designers involved included, Pohrt Kaitlyn, Qianyu Shirley Weng, Elouise McGill, Joella Stallard, Byonka Taylor, Dahui Li, Bridgette Stevens, Jocelyn Williams, Jamaica Gilliam, Keser Haji, Michele Watson, Skyler Riggan, Pavani Kolli, Peyton Godfrey, and Marquis Engle.

Third place Jocelyn Williams' design with model Katie Burk

After the models had strutted the garments down the runway, each designer had an opportunity to speak. Then the winners were announced.

Jocelyn Williams, a sophomore majoring in interior design took third place with a brightly colored romper. It had shades of teal and blue featuring a large, white bow in the back.

Michelle Watson, a fashion design senior took second place. She designed a slick, tight-fitting, one shoulder dress. The dress had the condoms layered,  painted white, and then stretched to appear cracked.

Shirley Wang, a fashion design senior, took first place with a seemingly simple, but complex black dress. It included braiding of the material and hand beading at the top.

Second and third place winners received a $500 scholarship with first place receiving $1,000.

One designer summed the process up when asked how difficult it was to construct a piece from this material, “as a designer you face challenges all the time and this is one of those challenges, but it is better to look at them as opportunities and not get discouraged,” Keser Haji, a senior fashion design major said.

Nathan Moser (center) with band, The Bare Feats

As if CCAD didn’t already have talent enough, on Thursday Sept 15, 2011, the Student Programming Board put on their first talent show: CCAD’s Got Talent. Finally! A chance for us to see what else our crazy-talented artist friends and classmates have going for them. When students aren’t pulling all-nighters trying to get that homework done, it turns out they’re practicing some other extra-curricular talents. What don’t CCAD students do? Seriously.

We all knew that CCAD has painting, drawing, and designing. But did you know that we also have bare-footed banjo players (The Bare Feat); singing sensations (Julie Ward and Beth DuBoe); tap, hip hop, ballet, and Indian classical dancers (Mary Mauger, Marcos Castillo, Da’Niro Brown, and Zaria Ahmed); singer/songwriters (Patrick Thomas and Taylor Repuano); cello and piano players (Stephanie Berrie and Michael Young); stand-up comedians (Zayne Parmiter); a bass-slapping beast (Alejandro Bellizzi); and even our very own Lady Gaga (Christian Cimoroni)? Yeah. Just saying.

We all voted by texting the number of our favorite performers (insert boast about how tech-savvy our school is), and then a panel of faculty judges picked a winner out of the crowd’s favorite four. At the end of the evening, hip hop dancer, Mr. Marcos Castillo ( a junior in Illustration) took home the grand prize of $200, but all the other performers took home something too: the admiration of their fellow student body.

As for me, I’m still trying to find my talent. I guess pulling 17-hour workdays will have to be it for now. If you need me, I’ll be sleeping. Over and out.

Dancing to Way Yes

This past Friday (Sept. 2) CCAD’s Student Programming Board put on their first event of the season, the annual back-to-school staple, WelcomeFest. Kicking off the year in its shiny new location right under the Art sign, WelcomeFest was bigger and better this time around with musical appearances from Way Yes, Yellow Light Maybe, and Jonathan Hape. The guys from Make Believe Monsters and FDZ Clothing were there too doing their thing. Oh and did I mention The Cheesy Truck? It was there. In all of its $100 caviar grilled-cheese glory. Yeah. Just saying.

The night was described as “very welcoming” by many students, so, you know, the name is fitting. SPB members Blake Roberts and Lacie Daley (both juniors in Advertising & Graphic Design) were thrilled with the greater turnout of the event this year, mostly credited to its new location right in the heart of campus. Blake also mentioned that this time there was a more relaxed vibe than past years with friends catching up on the quad, playing cornhole, foursquare, skateboarding, biking, and lazily laying in the grass (this girl), which is what they’ve always shot for.

Besides their usual annual events like WelcomeFest, Family Weekend, Big Boo, and Winterfest, SPB is also throwing out a few wild cards this year that you should watch out for. I prodded them into giving me the skinny on what they’ve got brewing and the upcoming event you should pencil in is CCAD’s Got Talent offering cash prizes to the winners and a guaranteed good time, obviously, for everyone. Auditions are this Thursday, Sept. 8. at 9:30 p.m. in the Crane Center, and the final show is Sept. 15 at 9:30 p.m. in the auditorium. Don’t forget to sign up for an audition slot this week on the front desk of Crane. See you there!

CCAD Student Government President David Merz III was honored at the annual Leadership Recognition Banquet.

In a reception hosted by CCAD’s Student Affairs office, 10 awards were presented to students, a staff member, and a student organization during the college’s second-annual Leadership Recognition Banquet.

More than 100 members of the CCAD community attended the reception Friday, May 6, at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel to honor members and advisers of sponsored student groups and leaders of registered student organizations.

“This year we are introducing a new award specifically for a member of our student government called the Service to Students Award,” said Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dwayne Todd. “As organizers of the Student Government awards, there is little opportunity to recognize the hard work and dedication the president of student government has shown to the CCAD community, and this of all years is the time to begin this honor.”

Student Government president David Merz III received the award.

“We have seen more growth and development in the past year than in all the years we have had student government at CCAD combined,” said Director of Student Activities & Orientation Jason Bowser. “We have not seen as great a positive change in the organization and its presence on campus since the group was started and that is due in no small part to the leadership and vision of David.”

The entire list of 2011 honorees is as follows:

• Service to Students: David E Merz III (CCAD 2011)
• Megan Clare Mathie Student Leader of the Year Award: Kenneth Aschliman (CCAD 2011)
• Commitment to Diversity: Amanda Knittle (CCAD 2011)
• Commitment to Service: Danielle Williams (CCAD 2014)
• Commitment to Involvement: Lacie Daley (CCAD 2013)
• Commitment to Involvement: Walker Crane (CCAD 2013)
• Student Organization: Student Programming Board
• Student Event: Quidditch Cup
• Most Involved Faculty/Staff (outside the classroom): Erica Ott, assistant director of student activities & orientation
• Design Square Resident Advisor: Amanda Knittle (CCAD 2011)
• Schottenstein Resident Advisor: Blake Roberts (CCAD 2013)

“The Megan Clare Mathie Outstanding Student Leader Award goes to a student who has also made a considerable impact on campus through leadership in student organizations and involvement,” said Bowser.” This award’s namesake made an incredible impression on campus through her involvement during her four years. This year’s winner is Kenneth Aschliman for his work with Student Government and the Spotlight Student Exhibitions Group.”

The Commitment to Service Award is presented to a student who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to community service by volunteering time, energy, or resources towards the aim of helping improve the lives of others within and beyond the CCAD community.  The award also recognizes those who make extraordinary efforts to promote an environment of civic responsibility among other CCAD students.

The Commitment to Diversity Award is presented annually to a student who demonstrates an exceptional commitment towards creating a campus environment that is welcoming and inclusive to students from varied cultural backgrounds and personal identities.  The award is given to recognize a student who shows a deep commitment to the values of equity and inclusion, while also helping raise awareness and understanding of multicultural issues within the CCAD community.

The Commitment to Involvement Award is presented annually to a student who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to enhancing campus life and creating opportunities for other students to develop memorable experiences and connections at CCAD.  This award recognizes a student who has helped to advance the goals of the CCAD Student Affairs Division through active involvement in multiple student organizations and campus leadership roles.

“This banquet is our way of saying thank you for contributing so much to the CCAD community and for being such an integral part of making the CCAD experience better for everyone,” said Bowser.

Lillie Templeton presenting at the Fall 2010 Honors Symposium.

CCAD’s Honors Program gives high-achieving students the chance to shape and expand their CCAD education—and not just in the classroom. “Several years ago a faculty and staff committee met to consider an Honors Program,” said Provost Anedith Nash. “Discussion turned on whether to do a more conventional liberal arts honors program or to fully integrate all of our educational experiences. The decision to offer Honors as part of the whole CCAD experience was important. Even more important was encouraging the Honors participants to be the creators of the program.”

When the program opened in 2009, participating students created an Honors Student Council, which took the lead in researching honors programs nationwide. “We’re one of the few art and design schools to offer an Honors program—and we are certainly pioneering by offering both seminars and studio courses in Honors,” said sophomore Lillie Templeton, the current Council president.

Templeton and fellow Council members Jennifer Chema, Dayna Smith, and Austin McClellan have worked alongside CCAD faculty and staff to launch the program, hold CCAD’s first two annual Honors Symposiums, and formulate plans for the program’s next steps.

Jennifer Chema presenting at the Fall 2010 Honors Symposium.

Jennifer Chema (JC): The Honors Symposium is a great way of saying to family members, potential employers, or community members that here is something more from CCAD.

Dayna Smith (DS): We’ve been working very closely with Career Services, and we’re hoping at some point we can get prospective employers to come to the symposium and look at it as a highlight reel for the school. It will get students to want to join and show them that this is something more than just a bunch of geeks wanting to do more work.

Austin McClellan (AM): We definitely do not want to claim that we are the best designers at this school. We just say that we are much more excited about working on projects that encompass the all-around.

DS: Right. [Honors] expands how we think outside the aesthetic. …It’s something we think about—a lot. I think the best thing about Honors is that we can trust each other, and we’re not just going to say, “Oh, that looks pretty!” We’re going to give each other really good feedback.

AM: I ask people to talk to me about my work in [Honors] class. That way, I can get a much broader spectrum because there is someone from a different major offering their advice.

DS: You learn to not only listen to these ideas but to take them in and let them change you. When you’re in a room with people who have different ideas, you grow better. I think the difference is that [our regular] classes teach us how to produce, but Honors teaches us how to…

Lillie Templeton (LT): Control it.

DS: Well, get through it. Think. It isn’t so much the product as it is how you got to the product.

AM: The process.

LT: It’s about how you think through things. We’re not geniuses; it’s not about our final work being better than someone else’s. It’s all about offering these resources to help students think through something differently.

Dayna Smith presenting at the Fall 2010 Honors Symposium.

DS: I think the people in Honors usually consider it more fun. We get to do more things, have bigger ideas. You don’t get told what to do; you pursue something that really interests you. When you do that, you’re not really doing homework anymore. And you start to learn how to apply that to everything else.

JC: I would like to say that working with our [Honors faculty] mentors is really helpful because I am one of those people who likes to work one-on-one with people.

DS: I only saw my mentor three times the whole semester, but every time I went in there he completely changed my whole thought process. And at that moment, I know my whole mind has just gone crazy and I have to write down everything. I’ll fill up half a sketchbook with writing and half with drawing and find out what works. He’s so busy, but he finds the time to work with me, which is great.

LT: And that’s a really nice thing the Honors program can offer. A lot of students will look at it and say “I’m going into this field, and you don’t offer seminars specific to that field.” Well, that’s because that’s what your major offers, and we’re trying to offer you something a little bit different, something that you won’t get elsewhere. The other nice part is that the teacher/student relationship that we offer with the mentoring is not limited too within your major. Even though I am an Ad/Graph major, I can go to an Illustration faculty member. I can go to someone in ID and say, “I’m an Honors student, would you be interested in mentoring me?” And they could say no, but…

DS: …They almost always say yes. Teachers like kids that are crazy.

Austin McClellan presenting at the Fall 2010 Honors Symposium.

AM: I like that you can also go out and find a mentor that isn’t a faculty member. I often [work with] a faculty member at Kentucky University; she’s in child development, and she helps with transferring ideas to a child, getting a child to relate to what I’m trying to communicate.

DS: I work with members of the children’s department at [the] Mayo [Clinic] who specialize in psychiatric health, and they let me in on the way the kids see agoraphobia. They’ll tell me something, and I’ll say, “Really? I never thought of it like that.”

JC: And it’s also nice that our mentors are like, “Take a breath, breathe.” They help so much at refocusing your energy and very gently saying, “Do this.” [Because] you’re not doing such time-constrained projects, it’s nice to have someone there to be gentle, and I just can’t thank my mentor enough. I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore.

Students on the quad.

Co-ed residence halls, where men and women live in the same building but not in the same room, have been a standard of college life for decades—the private Ohio liberal arts school Oberlin College made the cover of November 20, 1970, issue of Life magazine when it was one of the first colleges in the country to have co-ed halls. But gender and college housing are in the news again now, as dozens of colleges and universities across the country are offering the option for students to choose their roommates without restrictions on gender. The issue has garnered national coverage in news outlets from the Los Angeles Times to Fox News, and it has been the subject of numerous scholarly articles.

The current movement started as an effort to help gay and transgender students feel comfortable in on-campus housing. But more colleges are embracing the idea because it allows all students, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, to pick the most compatible roommates.

Students enjoying the sun.

CCAD started offering gender-neutral roommate selection last year after opening its new Design Square Apartments, which have private bedrooms.

“Many of our students share off-campus apartments with roommates of differing genders, and they wanted that same option if they continued to live on campus. Now that we have an apartment building with private bedrooms and bathrooms, the choice to provide such an option was an easy one for us to make,” said Dwayne Todd, vice president of student affairs and dean of students. “Our experience with mixed-gender housing has been virtually problem-free.”

Like most schools, CCAD only provides the gender-neutral roommate selection option to students at a sophomore level or higher. Additionally, CCAD discourages romantic partners from living together. Staff were prepared to make room transfers if couples did move in together and then broke up—but that hasn’t happened. Todd said, “We’ve found that in practically every case, our mixed-gender apartments are comprised of friends and siblings. I suppose some healthy distance is still important to those who are in romantic relationships.”

CCAD students.

Sophomore Animation major David King’s decision to live in an on-campus apartment with three female roommates stemmed from their being well-acquainted their freshman year. “We all became friends when we had foundations classes together,” he said.

Still, living with three women has been an eye-opener. As with any new roommates, “once you live with someone, you see a different side,” King continued. “The fact that they are females means we have some different perspectives on how to deal with relationships and conflict.” He acts as a buffer at times and encourages his roommates to be forthcoming about issues that could brew into larger problems. In addition, they all share their experiences dealing with members of the opposite sex. “I’ve learned a lot about women from hearing their point of view on their relationships,” he said.

“It’s an interesting balance. I think we’ve all benefited from the experience.”

Image by Kyle Boganwright

Art by CCAD sophomore fine arts major Kyle Boganwright is being shown at a gallery on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Coordinated by the Office for Disability Services at OSU, the exhibition is on the second floor of Bricker Hall.

Items in the exhibition previously were displayed by the Alliance for Art and Writing. Boganwright won the alliance’s national award for art portfolio in 2009.

Student Government President David Merz leads the discussion.

What happens when you put 30 CCAD students in a room? Change.

Today CCAD Student Government hosted a spring semester student symposium, a moment for CCAD students to come together in a town hall format to express what is/isn’t working for them.

“The symposium offers students the formal opportunity to tell us the positive and negative things about CCAD,” said Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dwayne Todd. “It helps us [the administration] identify issues that need to be addressed and those that have primary importance to students.”

So what was on the docket during today’s meeting? Safety and security, facilities, and printing. What wasn’t? Sustainability—yet every concern had a hint of it in there (these are some seriously eco-conscious students we have on our campus).

Want #1: Maintain safety on campus.
The plan: Since the beginning of the academic year, access to many on-campus buildings has only been available through the “swiping” of a valid CCAD ID card through magnetic card readers at select building entrances. By the end of the summer, virtually all buildings on campus will have “proximity card” readers, which will open a door simply by waiving a card over the reader.
The results: “I feel incredibly safe on campus,” said advertising & graphic design sophomore Lillie Templeton. “I don’t have to worry about anyone following me into the building, or anyone being in the building who shouldn’t be.”

Want #2: Reduce waste caused by to-go containers in dining hall.
The numbers: The student heading up the facilities committee said that, on average, 250 Styrofoam to-go containers are used ever day in the dining hall. (So what’s that mean big picture? More than 90,000 to-go containers are sent to the landfill each year courtesy of CCAD.)
The ideas: Promote the social experience of the dining hall by switching to a biodegradable to-go container that has to be purchased (say, $0.25). It will promote students actually sitting down to have a meal together and reduce the waste—which is pretty much the definition of a win-win.

Want #3: Free color printing.
The catch: “I’m afraid that a lot of people would abuse color printing if it were free,” said Student Government President David Merz. “People would print everything in color, which means a lot of paper would be wasted and ink would need to be changed more often.”
The ideas: Remove the change from the equation. Find some way of paying with the students’ ID card. The direct cost associated with printing will continue to promote responsible use of the on-campus printing equipment.

Other topics discussed included the possibility to have an on-campus composting option; having an all-you-can-eat versus a la carte dining hall (my favorite quote came from advertising & graphic design senior David Merz, “I personally love all you can eat”); adding more microwaves to campus; and the paperwork that goes along with internships.

“Keep in mind that making the changes you want to see is like turning a great big ship,” said faculty member Duncan Snyder. “Because you all have expressed the need, they’ll happen, but it takes time.”

Meet the members of CCAD’s Student Government here.

To see more pictures from the event, “like” us on Facebook.

First place entry by Alejandro Bellizzi

Winners and finalists of the eighth annual Lowell Tolstedt Drawing Prize recently were announced after being presented for judging by visiting artist Nora Sturges.

The quality and variety of the final 23 entries were commended by Sturges, head of Towson University’s painting department.

Winners include Alejandro Bellizzi, a sophomore majoring in Fine Arts (first prize of $500 cash), Fine Arts junior Shawn McBride (second prize of $250 cash), and Amanda Thompson, a sophomore Illustration major (third prize, $100 CCAD Supply Store gift certificate).

Honorable mention awards were extended to Taylor Hawkins, a junior studying Fine Arts, and sophomore Illustration student Alex Rupert.

Other drawing prize finalists include seniors Jon Guinn, Nathan Moser, Brianne Schulze and Alexis Warnock; junior Jonathan Hodge; and sophomores Thomas Johnson, Alexander Klein, Katherine Langford, Alex Laniosz, Erik Probst, Alex Rupert, Hillary Sroufe, and Sarah Tanner.

An ad hoc committee of drawing faculty members and Gordon Lee, chair of Drawing and Printmaking in the Fine Arts division, narrowed all the submissions to 17 entries prior to final judging.

Tolstedt, Fine Arts professor emeritus, retired from CCAD after more than 35 years and serving as dean of the division of Fine Arts since 1981. He has work in a number of collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Evansville Museum of Art, and the Minnesota Museum of Art.

Image from Marcia Evans Gallery

Two emerging CCAD artists are facing their first fine arts gallery exhibition this spring in Columbus.

Faces: Kyle Boganwright and Steve Kropp will be shown April 1–May 31 at Marcia Evans Gallery, 8 E. Lincoln St. in the Short North neighborhood. An opening reception is 6–9 p.m. Friday, April 1.

Boganwright is a sophomore majoring in Fine Arts. Kropp (CCAD 2007) majored in advertising and graphic design.

Marcia Evans described Boganwright’s prolific style as pop surrealism and said Kropp, a former graffiti artist, creates emotional abstract line drawings of faces with graffiti-like text.

For more information on Boganwright go to his website.

AOI poster by Graham Erwin

CCAD’s  annual Art of Illustration exhibition, now in its 14th year, is spreading its wings and leaving the nest for a Short North gallery.

The popular exhibition, featuring the best of CCAD student illustrations, is organized entirely by students—from designing promotional posters and selecting jurors to securing sponsors and notifying participants from all nine CCAD majors.

Art of Illustration, opens March 5 at Rivet Gallery, 1200 N. High St. in Columbus, and continues through March 25. An opening awards presentation and reception begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 5.

This year’s show is organized by five Illustration majors: seniors Alex Alvarado and Noel Ang, juniors Lexie Holliday and Brianne Schulze, and sophomore Andrew Thompson. They secured a panel of professional alumni jurors—Linda Bittner (CCAD, ’88), Tim Bowers (CCAD, ’79), Eric Fortune (CCAD, ’99), and Scott Hull (CCAD, ’77)—as well as Illustration Chair C. F. Payne to winnow the 164 entries down to 38. Per tradition, judging took place in Payne’s home.

“Our main focus this year was to get the community more involved,” Schulze said. “In the past, the show was held in one of CCAD’s galleries, so we figured the most obvious solution was to find a gallery off campus.”  The Illustration department is excited about the gallery’s involvement because the student work, opening reception, and awards presentation will be showcased during Columbus’ popular monthly Gallery Hop.

Payne describes the jurying progress as “very regimented and very tough once selections get down to the final level.” All students submit their entries in a digital format. For jurying, the student organizers project the images for the judges to see, then track each round’s selections and tally the overall winners, a process that lasts several hours.

Awards, including prizes from various sponsors, will be presented for best of show as well as first, second and third place. Additionally, five selections identified as “judges favorites” will receive an original work of art from the respective judge.

This year’s sponsors include Chipotle, Cameron Mitchell, Kroger, and R Designs and Printing. CCAD student, a senior majoring in Illustration, designed the 2011 AOI poster.

Payne is pleased that the student-led tradition continues to grow and sees the move to an off-campus gallery as a positive development. “Having AOI in a gallery adds some prestige,” he said.

(click on thumbnail to see full image)

Third Eye image from ryansablogspot.com

A photography exhibition curated by CCAD student Ryan Walters has been extended through March 25 at OSU’s Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus.

Third Eye, a collection of 10 artists’ work, includes CCAD alumni and students who question, revolt against, and embrace photography’s impact on perception within contemporary culture. The artists reveal photography’s capacity to illustrate the relationship between artist, subject, and viewer, and explore its constructs and limitations.

The exhibition is in the City Center Gallery, where a free reception will be 5-7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28.

Walters, a senior majoring in Fine Arts, organized the grant proposal to secure funding for the exhibition after he and Christopher Von Holle, a senior majoring in Photography, took a class with John Fergus-Jean, professor, Photography and Graduate Studies.Curatorial assistance was provided by Fine Arts sophomore Alejandro Bellizzi.

Participating alumni and students include Frank Castanien (CCAD ’07), Pei Yin Chen, a senior in Photography, Evan Eisel, a sophomore majoring in Photography, Fine Arts senior Elina Khachaturyan, Eric Sherwood, a freshman in Media Studies, Clifton Stommel (CCAD ’10), Miles Tsang, a senior majoring in Illustration, and VonHolle.

Sherwood also will offer a special one-time performance just prior to the Jan. 28 reception.

Castanien majored in Fine Arts and Stommel majored in Photography at CCAD.

Kyle Boganwright, a sophomore majoring in Illustration, will have three pieces in the gallery’s Holiday Hop event. The evening’s festivities are 7-10 p.m.  The exhibition continues through Dec. 18.

Roy G Biv, a nonprofit gallery for emerging artists, is located at 997 N. High St. in Columbus.

Exhibition at Columbus Metropolitan Library

Kind of Blue, which features original works by artists and friends associated with Fresh A.I.R. (Artists In Recovery) Gallery, opens Thursday, Nov. 11 at the main branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.  An opening reception is from 5-7 p.m.

Kyle Boganwright, a sophomore majoring in Illustration, has art work in the show, which takes place in the library’s Carnegie Gallery, 96 S. Grant St., in the Discovery District of Columbus.

The exhibition runs through Tuesday, Dec. 28. For event information, hours and directions call 614-645-2ASK (2275) or go to the library’s website.

The Fresh A.I.R. Gallery is a project of Southeast, Inc., Recovery & Mental Healthcare Services. It exhibits the works of individuals affected by mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders to break down stigmas by bringing focus to the artistic vision.

Cover of NAMI Ohio's newsletter

Artwork by Kyle Boganwright, a sophomore majoring in Illustration, is on the cover for NAMI Ohio’s summer/fall 2010 newsletter.

The work is part of Boganwright’s solo exhibition Mirrors, at Fresh A.I.R Gallery (which is on display through November 19).

Boganwright told NAMI Ohio “the greatest thing anyone can do is influence someone else, and affect them. To me, that is the meaning of life. I call this the cosmic consciousness. The items I paint are reflections of me.”

To see the full article in NAMI’s newsletter (pdf) click here.

Dante's Inferno Cafe by Kyle Boganwright

Kyle Boganwright, a sophomore majoring in Illustration, has a solo show titled Mirrors at Fresh A.I.R. Gallery to showcase his work in mixed media, pen and ink, and sculpture. The opening reception is 5:30-7 p.m. Sept. 22 and the show continues through Nov. 19.

Boganwright won a gold medal, which represents most outstanding works in the nation, in art portfolio in the 2009 National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition. His previous studies at CCAD include the Saturday Morning Art Classes program and Art Explorer Post 407 with Ron Tardino, professor, Illustration.

Located at 131 N. High St. in downtown Columbus, the gallery exhibits the works of individuals affected by mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders to educate the community and to break down the stigma of mental illness and substance abuse by bringing focus to the artistic vision. For more information, directions and gallery hours go to http://www.southeastinc.com/fresh_air.php

Check out Boganwright’s work on flickr.

To learn more about Art Explorer Post 407 go to its website and for details about Scholastics competitions go to http://www.artandwriting.org.

For additional local coverage of the exhibition go to www.thelantern.com and to www.dispatch.com.

To view some of McGill’s work go to Mission Savvy’s website or http://www.greengrechen.com.

Long Haul Trailer

Shelby Bertsch, a freshman majoring in Illustration, was selected as the overall winner of Celadon Group’s Art for the Long Haul student art contest, which was part of the company’s25th birthday celebration. Selected as best of show among entries from throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, Bertsch’s submission portrays an animated girl gazing into the distance with her hair flowing in the wind. A trailer wrapped with the winning artwork was parked in front of the New York Stock Exchange when Celadon’s chairman and CEO rang the opening bell on April 23. Bertsch’s artwork will hit the road when the trailer reenters service in Celadon’s fleet.