Olivet University Art & Design Blog

The design blog includes the latest news from Olivet University's design program along with inspirational posts from artists around the world. Check out the blog for creative works from students, faculty, and leading artists in the field. Olivet School of Art & Design (OSAD) prepares students seeking to serve Christian Missions through the field of visual arts & design.

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New OCAD Library Resources promote Art Interests

Olivet School of Art & Design (OSAD) library newly acquired over 1000 books in the subject area of Art History, Photography, Architecture, Modern Art, and Graphic Design.  Books were chosen by OSAD faculties and are expected to enhance foundation resource of art and design area.

With a  diverse range of academic study and interests at Olivet, OSAD is currently working to further promote their own art and design resources to staff and students.

"We're seeking to expand interests to non-design students and engage them into areas of architecture, photography, interior design, and more,” commented OSAD Program Director, Diana Yoo.  “We're catering to our design students but also making sure there are resources for everyone else"

Art General Education courses help spark interests for those who are looking to further their curiosity in various art subjects or engage in an art related hobby.  The new books and resources are expected to be available before the start of fall quarter in the Ralph D. Winter Main Library.

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Designing a Universal Language is 'Tough'

Olivet University's College of Art and Design (OCAD) students are tasked with developing an identity and communications system as part of their final projects.  The info graphics involved within the project involves the balanced use of icons, logos, typography, color, and composition.  Each was created newly for existing organizations to promote its brand and innovatively communicate visually.

Some examples included students redesigning a bus route map for the San Francisco Muni transportation system.  Another involved a map for visitors to Yosemite National Park.  Every project presented its challenges as students may only use icons and signs to ensure visitors know how to reach their desired location using very limited text. 

 "The biggest challenge for was figuring out how to communicate it well and not just making the map look pretty or cool," said design student Jorge Cruz.  "It's very tempting to just wanting to make the project look visually attractive but not communicate in the proper manner.  Making things universally understood across all languages is tough."

 The students from the Identity course are expected to present the project during finals week with some selected for OCAD's quarterly exhibition show.

Source: http://www.olivetuniversity.edu/news/articles/2013/03/19/786/olivet-university-designing-a-universal-language-is-&-039;tough&-039;.html

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Transforming Culture in the Workplace

This latest article features how top tech companies are discovering ways to transform their company work culture.  Yahoo was an example as a company falling behind and catching up.  Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer decided to transform Yahoo's culture by ending full time work from  home arrangements.  The story also examines Google's campus and comparing it to a campus where employees play volleyball  and soccer accompanied by free food within their cafeteria. "Why? Because when you put them back-to-back, people walk down between the chairs, they bump into each other — it's actually called a 'Google bump' — and you go, 'Hey!' and you sit down and talk," says SF State University consultant John Sullivan. The layout of the workplace was all by design and earned Google  the award of "best place to work" from Fortune magazine.  The story continues to look at another company Facebook.  Facebook also sets up its company culture to be more free and encourages employees to converse with one another. Yahoo is looking to maintain its talents through food and perks in order to energetic its new company culture.  You can check out more details from the article link below. Source:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/03/13/174195695/serendipitous-interaction-key-to-tech-firms-workplace-design  

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Olivet University Design students toured Studio Hinrichs, which is one of the top five influential Bay Area design studios.

Studio Hinrichs engages in all types of design projects, including corporate communications, brand identity, promotion, publishing (books and magazines), packaging, interactive and environmental systems.

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Art students from Olivet University's Design College will have the opportunity to showcase work in this year’s Christ Centered Art, CCA, show hosted at the Trinity Baptist Church in Livermore, CA. MORE

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As a designer it is important to understand where design came from, how it developed, and who shaped its evolution. The more exposure you have to past, current and future design trends, styles and designers, the larger your problem-solving toolkit. The larger your toolkit, the more effective of a designer you can be.

www.designishistory.com

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As part of the Graphic Design 2 Concept course, students explore the process of experimentation and creation as they engage in the creative process that involves planning, exploration, and building. 

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Alphabet Library

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French design team corinne muller and piotr oleszkowicz of best before have been creating baskets of different forms from recycled paper using macramé. To create the fibers, the duo hand-roll the paper into long pieces of twine. The strands are then knotted in order to achieve the shapes.

(via recycled paper macrame by corinne muller and piotr oleszkowicz)

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Lighting made from cassettes. Here’s another example. And we’ve of course featured many other cassette-centric projects, browse them here.

(via Tape Lamp | Design Milk)

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Madi

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BTV Branch Innsbruck by Rainer Köberl

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Grass Page Markers

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“Deconstructing the Houses” by Michael Jantzen

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Daniel Reed Identity