DxD: Differentiate by Design No. 2 "Interdisciplinary Innovation"

Text

No.2

D x D

D x D

H ello

PRATT INSTITUTE DxD: DIFFERENTIATE

by DESIGN

Interdisciplinary Innovation Speaking of Design, Hennessy V.S, Lipton, Colgate-Palmolive, Umbra, and more.

The truth is design should not be departmentalized. The best design is born of an interdisciplinary approach that expands the perspective and range of its creators and enriches the end product, whether a chapel, a swimsuit, an appliance, a desk, or a traffic system.

D

Recent research into the future of design and design education by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design stated the need for interdisciplinary approaches unequivocally: “Design today is practiced in an interconnected world at an unprecedented level of complexity.” That means “designers have to be mindful of the interaction between physical, social, cultural, technological, and economic factors, in addition to traditional visual concerns.”

The interdisciplinary model also means throwing the college gates open, inviting the corporate community in so that students can work in partnership with businesses to create actionable ideas that lead to real-world solutions and quantifiable results. At Pratt, we call such classes sponsored studios, a way of learning and creating in which corporations are collaborators, from concept to outcome.

Today, the interdisciplinary approach is more valid, and necessary, than ever.

In a studio, groups of students with disparate backgrounds from all of Pratt’s schools—not just Art and Design but also Architecture, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Information and Library Science (though not in the way you may think)—lend their knowledge, ideas, and experiences to the design process.

Students gain broader awareness of critical design factors beyond their own majors and are far better prepared to excel in the workplace.

As this second issue of DxD documents, interdisciplinary approaches to innovation—enhanced by student/corporate collaborations—yield insights impossible to achieve in a vacuum.

x D

Speaking of Design

D x D

Speaking of Design

Speaking of Design

D x D

OPPOSITE PAGE Pratt Trustee Juliana Curran Terian (B.Arch. ’90), chairwoman of the Rallye Group Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

In 2007, Pratt began to link its design programs physically with the opening of the Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, a symbol of Pratt’s approach to interdisciplinary excellence.

Speaking of Design

“ This proximity to different ways of thinking and approaching a challenge enables students to develop shared insights and vocabularies that expand and enrich their ability to solve problems.”

OPPOSITE PAGE Simone Kurland, Trenchcoat of Cotton Twill Photo: Dominik Tarabanski

D x D

Juliana Curran Terian has long understood the power of disciplines influencing one another. As someone who once worked as a fashion model, graduated from Pratt’s School of Architecture in 1990, founded the firm Curran Architects and Planners, and now serves as chairwoman of the Rallye Group, one of the nation’s largest automotive groups, Terian believes that her broad-based training has enriched her architecture, management, and planning skills.

nications possible by being creative problem solvers and elegant image makers. Courses include creation of content, business, information design, social media, and branding. Throughout their time at Pratt, students learn from and present their work to the designers and art directors who are leaders in their fields and who will ultimately hire them. This wellrounded program provides students with the tools and technology necessary to help them succeed immediately when they enter the workplace.

She wanted to reinforce Pratt’s ability to provide that sort of interdisciplinary cross-pollination. So Terian provided a means of linking four of Pratt’s design disciplines—undergraduate Communications Design, Fashion, Industrial Design, and Interior Design—to encourage a natural flow of ideas and creativity among disciplines. Her gift of $5 million enabled Pratt to build a fittingly transparent pavilion to serve as the centerpiece for the design complex.

All programs share a common entrance, gallery, lecture space, and landscaped courtyard that pull together the classrooms and studios of the four design programs and provide many areas for discussions and informal gatherings.

Fashion education at Pratt has long focused on the inclusion of a range of related disciplines, including illustration, photography, film, performance, visual studies, and material culture. The highest values of production, craft, and aesthetics are paired with real-world dealings through sponsored design competitions and instruction by faculty that includes directors of prestigious design houses, historians, and curators. The department also offers a wide variety of elective and advanced courses on topics such as millinery, shoe design, fashion and video, zero-waste construction, tailoring techniques, jewelry design, leather and fur, and knitting to complement the core curriculum. A major annual event is the Pratt Institute Fashion Show, spotlighting innovative student fashion designs in a runway show attended by fashion industry leaders and critics.

Thomas Hanrahan, dean of Pratt’s School of Architecture, designed the building with his partner Victoria Meyers, of the firm Hanrahan Meyers Architects. As he says, “The pavilion creates a unified center out of several different buildings, placing nearly all of Pratt’s design programs under one roof, encouraging interaction among disciplines that before shared no common ground, physically or through communication.”

In the seven years since the new design center opened, the programs have grown stronger and Pratt’s students have become better prepared to meet the intellectual, creative, and business demands of the workplace­—achieved in large part through ever greater emphasis on an interdisciplinary education.

Pratt’s Communications Design program is the only one in the country that integrates illustration, advertising, and graphic design. Pratt recognizes these disciplines as the main vehicles for the visual expression of ideas. Here students are taught how to craft the most memorable and strongest commu4

Industrial Design is composed of artists, designers, and inventors who translate ideas into forms that become the objects of life, from toothbrushes to jumbo jets, cameras to computers. Students join the program with backgrounds in math and science, drawing, painting, model making, and sculpture.

The shared goal: to move past traditional, productoriented problem solving to explore the underlying relationships between people and the designed world they inhabit. Pratt’s undergraduate program (ranked fifth by DesignIntelligence) and its graduate program (consistently ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report and DesignIntelligence) have strong links with industry, particularly through corporate-sponsored studios. The faculty includes professionals in furniture, lighting, products, graphics, automotive, and medical equipment.

With an undergraduate program ranked second in the country by DesignIntelligence and a graduate

Speaking of Design

D x D

5

Speaking of Design

D x D

Pratt students, through interaction with peers in other disciplines, gain a fluency and sensibility in areas beyond their own fields of study.

program ranked first by U.S. News & World Report, Interior Design at Pratt is an undisputed leader with its architecturally oriented programs that also encourage students to look beyond the department to gain broader insights, through fine arts or other design programs. Students focus on spatial design rather than surface embellishment, including scale, proportions, configuration, and light sources, as well as textures, materials, and colors. Pratt students graduate as designers who are multifaceted and able to develop innovative design solutions. Faculty members are also practicing professionals who bring the realities of realworld interactions with clients and contractors into the classroom.

“It is so important for students to have the opportunity to work with and near designers from other disciplines,” Terian says. “This proximity to different ways of thinking and approaching a challenge enables students to develop shared insights and vocabularies that ex-

pand and enrich their ability to solve problems.”

There are no design silos at Pratt. What the Institute offers, instead, is a broadening experience that focuses on skills and knowledge that enable graduates to perform at the highest levels. There is also an important bonus for prospective employers and clients. Pratt students, through interaction with peers in other disciplines, gain a fluency and sensibility in areas beyond their own fields of study. And because of the emphasis on corporate studios and internships, students also gain confidence and competence in workplace settings and situations.

“The great timeless designs­—and the most successful—have embodied seamless relationships between disciplines,” Terian points out. “Look at Apple, where industrial, fashion, and interior design are all incorporated into each of its products. That integration of disciplines is what makes design and design students successful.”

6

ABOVE From left: group project, Interior Design students.

Changing Room Laura Zalewski (B.F.A. Communications Design ’14) Brilliant Color Down to Shavings, Revlon Advertisement OPPOSITE PAGE William Bausback (B.I.D. ’12) Cave Porcelain Tables

Speaking of Design

D x D

7

D D x x D D

Pulling Down Design’s Glass Walls

Essay

This issue of DxD is dedicated to a simple imperative: The best design results from collaborative processes that are systemic, whether in a college, a design studio, or a massive corporation. As Nick Leon, director of Design London, once said, “Edison didn’t just design and patent a light bulb; he created an entire new system that changed our world.”

8

Essay

That’s what we are trying to do—to create an entire new system of educating designers. Throughout this issue, you will see how Pratt is working to position design—and our design students—as integral to the entire product-development process. And I hope you also will come to understand Pratt’s commitment to creating an academic environment that is wide open to the world, one in which it is a given that interdisciplinary initiatives are critical to our students’ success and to our ability to provide the best-prepared, most broadly educated, and most intellectually curious design graduates in the world.

that go into creating products. Finally, design needs to be embedded into the science and technology of production. There is still a lot of educating to be done on both sides of the designer/maker divide before we can achieve a universal approach to design, and Pratt is working to address this need.

The best design results from collaborative processes that are systemic, whether in a college, a design studio, or a massive corporation.

And here is where I think we must begin: with communication and with empathy. We need to understand each other’s challenges. We need to involve the users and consumers in the development process.

In the design industries, we have been talking about team approaches for years—getting the engineers, the marketing people, the designers, etc., all in the same room to discuss the challenge at hand. But we have yet to come to a true understanding.

For example, Pratt recently launched the Global Innovation Design (GID) program with the Imperial/ Royal College of Art in London and Keio University in Japan. A graduate-level program, GID draws on each of the partners’ areas of expertise to give students a rigorous education infused with a unique cross-cultural perspective. By the time they have completed the program and their theses, GID graduates will be able to demonstrate the full range of design skills, including drawing, rendering, computer modeling, 3-D modeling, color, user evaluation, and design methodology.

As noted in the 2010 Design Council report “Multidisciplinary Design Education in the U.K.,” designers must gain business skills. They will be better able to explain their own work, and they will begin to realize that not all gorgeous designs can be practically built; consumers may simply not like (and therefore not buy) a given product that is difficult to operate or has an unappealing look. Conversely, business people—from MBAs to plant managers—need a grounding in why good design sells and bad design doesn’t, resulting in losses for the company. The business mind needs to spend time on the creative side, understanding the tools and processes that lead to breakthrough products.

Beyond these innovative approaches, incorporating good, smart design in science, technology, and manufacturing also makes good business sense. Last July, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that, going forward, the GDP would now include research and development, which would be treated as an investment, not an expense. As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said at the time, “We will be more likely to promote innovative activity if we are able to measure it more effectively and document its role in economic growth.”

Second, designers must gain increased understanding of science and technology. Many comprehend a great deal about the technologies surrounding the products they are designing, but do they understand the broader issues of climate change? Do they understand they may need an entirely new design solution that is more sustainable?

Here’s how Pratt is looking at such issues. Recently Pratt’s Center for Sustainable Design Strategies (CSDS) partnered with high-end luggage company Tumi to evaluate the environmental impact of a rolling bag and a computer bag. Pratt interns from Communications Design, Industrial Design, and Environmental Systems Management took the bags apart to study how each element of the bag contributed to impacts on water use, resource and energy use, ecological and human health, and climate change throughout the entire life cycle of the bags. The CSDS made recommendations on sourcing materials, manufacturing, and design that would reduce the environmental footprint. Tumi is already studying how to incorporate the recommendations into its production.

Incorporating smart design in science, technology, and manufacturing also makes good business sense.

This means that design is now part of “intangible investment,” a phrase coined in 1908 by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen. More than a century later, maybe design will begin to receive the attention it deserves—and designers’ work with industry partners can elevate the dialogue to address pressing social challenges as well as those in the marketplace.

As a third way to enhance education, designers need to become familiar with manufacturing and engineering. That is best achieved by giving students the chance to work with these industries to better understand the materials, technology, and production parameters

9

D D x x D D

D x D

Never stop.

Never settle.

Hennessy V.S

OPPOSITE PAGE: André De Castro (M.F.A. Graphic Design ’13) Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

What’s your wild rabbit? Hennessy V.S challenges Pratt students to create work inspired by the brand’s mantra.

D x D

Hennessy V.S

D x D

Hennessy V.S

“My wild rabbit is engagement with people through art and design.”

André De Castro | Pratt Institute | Graduate Communications Design 2013

“My wild rabbit is the process of making art.”

D x D

Mike Finkelstein | Pratt Institute | Photography 2014

“My wild rabbit is the inherently challenging, exciting, and constantly evolving medium of filmmaking.”

Stephen Mondics | Pratt Institute | Film / Video 2013

OPPOSITE PAGE: Mike Finkelstein (B.F.A. Photography ’14) Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

Hennessy V.S

Hennessy V.S, the top-selling cognac in the world, has its own mantra: Never stop. Never settle. It also has its own symbol, the Wild Rabbit, an emblem of what leads people to fulfill their potential and achieve their dreams. All it needed was a group of talented Pratt students to bring the Hennessy philosophy to life.

D x D

“The partnership between Pratt and Hennessy is very natural because both institutions share a passion for pushing the limits of individual potential,” says Rodney Williams, senior vice president at Hennessy.

The collaboration began in 2012, when Pratt students were first challenged to explore and demonstrate the Hennessy themes through their art.

The second annual competition began in June 2013, when Jeff Bellantoni, faculty advisor and graduate Communications Design chair at Pratt, invited students of Photography, Jewelry, Film/Video, and Communications Design to once again create art that represented their own “wild rabbit.”

Such partnerships are critical to the growth of Pratt students. “When academic institutions and corporations collaborate, students can benefit from having an invitation to experiment, to fully immerse themselves in an exchange that can spark an innovative range of new work,” says Bellantoni. “This competition enables students from different backgrounds and disciplines to work together, to share ideas and even techniques.

It is nearly impossible to describe the ways these collaborations inspire, motivate, and enrich our students’ learning experiences.”

André De Castro (M.F.A. Communications Design ’13) is the winner of the second Hennessy challenge. His personal project, Movements, explores the youth movements that have, in recent years, remade cities into stages for political protest. His work, through a series of portraits, brings to life the political actions of young people in Brazil, Greece, Turkey, and the

OPPOSITE PAGE: Stephen Mondics (B.F.A. Film/ Video ’13) Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

United States. This project met Hennessy’s challenge to create artwork inspired by the inner drive that pushes the limit of one’s potential.

Mike Finklestein (B.F.A. Photography ’14) and Stephen Mondics (B.F.A. Film/Video ’13) took second and third place in the competition. All three winners’ works will be presented at the Art Basel show in Miami Beach in December 2013, providing the young artists with an international platform to showcase and share their talents.

De Castro believes his Pratt experience has helped shape his approach to design, especially the school’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning. “I consider discovering parallels and the complementary nature between design and other disciplines to be critical to the practice and study of graphic design,” he says.

Immediately after graduation, De Castro began working at Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency: “I think Pratt prepared me not just for Saatchi, but to better understand my process and goal in design, helping me better understand the field I work in and the possibilities it offers.”

De Castro is an advocate of a broad-based education, a philosophy honed at Pratt. “Design education should not be based on trend, style, or technological tools, but on concepts, beliefs, and process,” he says.

“We must educate professionals who are adaptable to the field’s future but who are also able to become masters of their own craft and intentions.”

Hennessy V.S

D x D

Differentiating by Design

Linda Tischler

Peter Barna

Jonathan Bowles D x D

Kevin Slavin

On May 20, 2013, Pratt convened a panel of design leaders and entrepreneurs for a public conversation on the increasing impact of design and innovation in the 21stcentury economy. Held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, “Differentiating by Design: How the Creative Economy Will Drive the Next 125 Years� explored how design and innovation will shape the future, focusing on opportunities to mine and polish intellectual capital to prepare the next generation to thrive.

In business, politics, and the arts, design and innovation are essential for success in the 21st-century economy.

The creative economy has become a pillar of our nation’s growth strategy.

Yet what do we really mean by the “creative economy”?

How exactly will design and innovation shape the future?

And how can we mine—and polish—intellectual capital to prepare the next generation to thrive in this environment?

D x D

Differentiating by Design

D x D

Linda Tischler

Peter Barna

senior editor of Fast Company, writes about the intersection of business and design.

provost and chief academic officer of Pratt, is also a principal at Lighting Design, an international lighting company.

“Thomas Watson, Jr., the second president of IBM, said, ‘Good design is good business.’ . . . We complain that businesses don’t understand the design language. Well, I think there is an equal responsibility for understanding what the business side needs in order to have some meeting of the minds, where the corporate side values what you bring to the table and doesn’t dismiss you. How can you help them solve real business problems? It could be increasing the top line or saving money on the bottom line, but that’s when designers will get respect. . . . Maybe that’s the trick to real innovation. If you can find a way to make money out of it, then you have some chance of having sustainable innovation.”

“Design is arguably a methodology for discovering and refining and making useful the discoveries of science and technology. . . . To be an innovation, it has to be broadly spread—which means it needs a business model to make it applicable. . . . At Pratt, we’re educating some of the human capital essential to drive businesses of tomorrow. Because of that, our two systems, education and business, must necessarily become linked. They both must inform and challenge each other; hence, both the business and education are facing a massive integrated systems challenge. How do we bring those two together?”

Jonathan Bowles

Kevin Slavin

executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, was instrumental in establishing the first Design Week.

now at the MIT Media Lab, founded Area code, a game design company he sold to Zynga.

“New York City has far and away more designers than any other city. . . . There are about 40,000 designers in New York City. The city with the next highest number is Los Angeles, with about 23,000.

New York City also graduates twice as many students in design and architecture as any other city in the U.S. Just in the last 10 years, the number of design jobs in New York City grew by 75 percent. . . .

So many different parts of the economy are increasingly looking to design in order to innovate. You know, whether it’s hospitals and health care or technology companies, design seems to be a central part of their ability to innovate today.”

“The minute you make something digital, you have a user. You have discrete use patterns, you have distinct use patterns, you have a record of how [consumers] use things. . . . That’s actually one of the most profound differences. It’s not the fact that it uses a computer, it’s not the fact that it’s transmitted over a network; it’s that in fact it gets used, instead of just played, instead of just watched.

And designing for users is super different than the design education I got 20-some odd years ago. . . . We just designed—our basic questions were ‘did we like it?’ . . . And now whatever it is, it will have users, and they’ll tell you whether it’s good or not.”

Illuminating

D x D

Sponsorship

Design

D x D

Opportunity

Supima

D x D

22

Supima

D x D

Lipton

D x D

Lipton Iced Tea needed a centerpiece for its Feel The Taste Campaign to be held at Manhattan’s Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club at South Street Seaport.

Good ideas were required fast as the summer solstice was approaching, and the Lipton Feel The Taste Campaign party, hosted by singer and actress Katherine McPhee, was to open the promotion.

Lipton invited Pratt to produce ideas that would reinforce the concept of making summer brighter with Lipton Iced Tea. An interdisciplinary team of Pratt graduate and undergraduate students from Industrial Design, Communications Design, and Sculpture, led

by Eric O’Toole, adjunct assistant professor of Graduate Communications Design, came up with three proposals. The client chose its favorite—and then the Pratt team had just two weeks to create the Lipton Sun-Orb, a massive display that brought 24 hours of sunlight to the beach club.

The team built the 9.5 ft. tall, 9.5 ft. in diameter installation from scratch, including its internal frame to the face-mounted LED lighting grid, which held 8 internal bulbs and several hundred LEDs that glowed in honor of the summer solstice. It was a structural and marketing success.

Collaborations such as the Pratt/Lipton Iced Tea project are a critical element of an elite design education that emphasizes interdisciplinary endeavors. Students experience the challenges corporate marketers face daily while corporations gain access to fresh insights and creative problem-solving skills unfettered by traditional art and design school boundaries.

24

Lipton

D x D

PREVIOUS SPREAD Student designers Caroline Matthews, Robin OlgesbeeVenghaus, Juan Sebastian Jacobo, and Dakota Sica in front of the Lipton Sun-Orb. Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

ABOVE The Lipton Sun-Orb on display at the Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club at South Street Seaport Photo: Andrew Kelly

OPPOSITE PAGE Caroline Matthews, Juan Sebastian Jacobo, Robin Oglesbee-Venghaus, and Dakota Sica in front of the Lipton Sun-Orb. Photo: Andrew Kelly

25

D x D

Colgate-Palmolive

Industrial Design: Actionable Ideas for Colgate-Palmolive When a consumer products company­—already considered one of the most innovative in the country by Forbes magazine—wants fresh insights, where does it turn? Colgate-Palmolive looks to Pratt. During the past several years, Colgate-Palmolive has collaborated with students in Industrial Design on several projects related to the company’s key categories.

of a mouthwash bottle with a fresh, daring look that also resulted in a container that Colgate could feasibly manufacture. And that is how Pratt students in the graduate Industrial Design program found themselves doing field research and conducting user groups on how people use mouthwash—and in particular, what they think about its bottle.

Jay Crawford, director of the corporation’s industrial design packaging strategy, says Pratt students “bring fresh thinking, not weighed down with assumptions or preconceived notions about how consumers use products.” Through its sponsored studios at Pratt, ColgatePalmolive has seen how those insights work firsthand.

Many of the findings were unexpected, and that affected the design process. Had the class relied on assumptions rather than actual research, the resulting designs would have been less likely to correlate with consumer desires. As Natsume says, “Sometimes our students can do a better job than a professional firm.

They bring a passion that I believe is not always found in the workplace.”

Seven semester-long research studios, focused on development of packaging for shower gel, underarm protection, mouthwash, and other personal care products, were instituted as a result of Colgate’s commitment to external innovation and Pratt’s prominent reputation in the field. Because Colgate continuously strives to understand what consumers want from its products, it is always looking for ways to improve their presentation. At the start of the studios, Colgate marketing managers and the head of long-term innovation met with the students to present a specific challenge.

Sponsored studios at Pratt are symbiotic. Students are able to see ideas, which might normally remain on paper or a computer screen, take shape. They also learn how to interact with a corporate team, greatly enhancing their real-world skills. Companies gain new viewpoints unburdened by corporate constraints, and they just might gain a new way of offering a product to consumers. New design packaging concepts for Colgate’s mouthwash will soon appear on store shelves, the result of the original research and thinking done by Pratt graduate Industrial Design students.

Their assignment, in a class led by Visiting Associate Professor Gary Natsume, was to reimagine the design

27

D x D

Umbra

UMBRA LOOKS TO PRATT FOR DESIGN WINNERS

When Umbra, a Toronto-based global leader in modern, original, and affordable home design, was approaching its 25th anniversary, it wanted to find a way to give back to the design community, commercialize emerging design products, and recruit top students.

First stop: Pratt.

“We were looking for an American design school brimming with talent located in an emerging area, a combination we felt would bring us exceptionally good ideas,” says Paul Rowan, co-founder of Umbra.

“It was the start of a great partnership, one that we hope will continue as a long and beneficial one.” Now in its eighth year, the annual Umbra/Pratt Design Competition challenges undergraduate and graduate students in the Industrial Design program to create innovative, compelling products. Rowan believes that collaboration is at the heart of the competition. “It’s so important to share thoughts, whether with sales, manufacturing, marketing, or each other,” he says. “It inspires creativity.”

D x D

The fruits of the relationship have been significant, resulting in winners that include the Conceal BookShelf (1.3 million sold); the Wishbone soap dish; the Clutch Clip; and now, the T-Frame, designed to display T-shirts on walls. This corporate/school crosspollination has benefited everyone involved. Umbra has gained top-selling products, and the winners of the competition and Pratt have received royalties.

28

Umbra

D x D

OPPOSITE PAGE From left: Prakhar Mehotra and Caleb Ferris (both B.I.D. ’14) T-Frame T-Shirt Display Jeremy Alden (M.I.D. ’05) Wishbone Soap Dish ABOVE Miron Lior (B.I.D. ’07) Conceal BookShelf RIGHT Jeffrey Rubio (B.I.D. ’13) Clutch Clip 29

Profiles in Design

FACULTY PROFILE

Anthony Cocciolo, assistant professor, Information and Library Science, is a digital archivist and researcher who helps individuals and communities access their past and preserve their present. That means he is involved in the important (but not always understood) task of saving current digital assets (e.g., born digital films, videos, websites, mobile apps, or email correspondence) that are of enduring value but not captured well on paper.

Cocciolo, who considers himself a meld of old-fashioned historian and geek, has always been interested in how computing can expand what people know, how they know it, and what they can do with it. An example is an innovative open-source software platform he developed with Debbie Rabina of the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and a colleague from GoetheInstitut. The first use of this software, GeoStoryteller, was the creation of German Traces NYC, which uses a phone app to let users view archival materials, from documents to photos, coupled with multimedia narratives. (Code from GeoStoryteller appears on the cover.) Now, the open source software has been adapted by a number of other organizations from Ride NYC to German Jewish New York.

Pratt, which offers an Archives Certificate Program that can be taken as part of the master’s degree in the SILS, is one of several schools in the area offering such programs. Cocciolo says, though, that Pratt’s emphasis on leading edge technology makes it a standout. Pratt is also active in the Library of Congress National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), along with two other local institutions, Columbia and New York University. NDSA gave its first innovation award to Cocciolo in 2012 for his pioneering methods in teaching digital preservation.

Part of that approach is engaging students in real-world situations. “I pair my classes with cultural heritage institutions to complete digital archiving projects. The students learn about digital archiving in a realistic context, and the partner institution gets a tangible project at the end of the class,” says Cocciolo.

D x D

He is also an advocate of the interdisciplinary approach for the optimal education. For the past three years, he has shared class sessions with a colleague from graduate Architecture, Adjunct Associate Professor Carla Leitão. The goal: for students to think about the intersections of space and information and develop practical applications.

A current project, springing from a study of how mobile phones are used at the National 9/11 memorial, involves using mobile phones as a learning tool. The study found that “individuals . . . perceived that the mobile technology enhanced the memory and remembrance functions of the memorial. This is largely the result of having access to the curated oral histories or stories available on an app.”

Saving the Ephemeral Present

While some experts may worry that the digital age has led to depersonalization, Cocciolo would disagree: “I think some recent research has pointed out that history is very useful in helping people construct meaningful narratives where they can see how their actions and lives are situated within a larger continuum of human activity.”

He adds, “History and archives are going to be essential tools for reflection and meditation on the meaning of one’s life.” To his mind, innovative uses of technology will allow more people to access this critical element of self-understanding.

Profiles in Design

ALUMNI PROFILE

Diego Kolsky (M.S. Communications Design ’95), partner and creative director at MBLM, is frank about his affection for and longstanding ties to Pratt. In his mind, Pratt and New York are synonymous—places to work hard where people are constantly inventing and re-inventing.

When Kolsky came to Pratt, he already had an undergraduate degree in design from Universidad de Buenos Aires. But should he pursue a master’s degree in architecture, product design, or communications design? The late Don Ariev, then head of the Graduate Communications Design Department, encouraged him to cut across programs to take classes in architecture and industrial design. “I was always trying to enrich my learning experience by mixing disciplines and ideas,” Kolsky says. He also had an early interest in technology; its enormous potential had only been guessed at, but he was pretty sure he was glimpsing a whole new world. He parlayed the vision into a thesis project called “Subchannels,” which used a network of screens on subway platforms for signing and providing information while also recreating the urban landscape underground.

In 1994, as he was ready to graduate, Kolsky heard about a company looking for a Spanish speaker. The firm, which evolved into FutureBrand, took a cross-disciplinary approach to client solutions. “Pratt had prepared me so well that I was ahead of the curve,” Kolsky says. In 1999, he was named creative director, charged with developing and coordinating work across a network of five offices in Latin America and, later, across the United States and Canada. Clients, from service and industry to destinations and retail environments, gave him a broader horizon that built upon the foundation he received at Pratt.

Next, he co-created FutureBrand’s brand experience discipline, integrating strategy, design, and technology capabilities into a single methodology.

By 2006, he had a child and decided to cut back on travel. He started his own firm, Brandfields, creating brand and branding programs for The Standard Insurance, GE Money, and the City of Portland, OR, and he also worked with R/GA on brand identity initiatives for a number of major companies. Kolsky then began working with some former colleagues and mentors on projects, and that led him to MBLM, an agency dedicated to creating higher intimacy between people, brands, and technology.

At MBLM, Kolsky has developed a multidisciplinary team with capabilities ranging from brand identity to digital design, motion, and video editing. He personally leads assignments for key accounts and creative development on major new business initiatives for a range of companies.

Building on a Strong Foundation

He has done well, and he gives full credit to Pratt: “Sometimes I wonder where I would be without Pratt. It is so rich in ideas, a place that encourages you to grow and prosper in your profession, where you are invited to experiment.” He also believes Pratt is breaking ground on a new model, which brings together the academic and private sectors in a unique, mutually beneficial, and innovative fashion, and that this new model reflects something businesses need today. This allows students the opportunity to flourish within a comprehensive model of education that is unparalleled. It also makes Pratt students job-ready.

“And that is why I always hire Pratt students when I can,” says Kolsky.

D x D

Career Services

D x D

ABOVE Kevin (Wenkang) Kan (M.S. Communications Design, ’13) New York Magazine Art Direction: Rodrigo Corral of Rodrigo Corral studio and Tom Alberty

Career Services

Talent Connection “ We have created a pipeline to help employers find the best candidates for jobs, and to move Pratt students and alumni into those job openings.”

Pratt students and alumni are known for their innovative thinking, creativity, and technical expertise—traits that companies from start-ups to Fortune 500s need to stand out and succeed. To connect corporations with the right Pratt talent to meet their needs, Pratt’s Center for Career & Professional Development (CCPD) offers a number of professional matchmaking services that benefit employers as well as Pratt job seekers.

internship at Rodrigo Corral Design, a firm specializing in magazine and book covers.

“Our job is to stay ahead of trends and employer needs,” says Rhonda Schaller, director of CCPD. “We achieve this through maintaining strong, ongoing relationships with employers and organizations offering internships, nationally and internationally.”

The CCPD works with companies to bring guest speakers and recruiters to campus to discuss careers in creative industries, review portfolios, and hold interview sessions. Apple, Nike, Sony, and David Yurman are just a few of the corporations that have visited Pratt to meet with prospective employees.

As part of its commitment to matching the right person to the right job, the CCPD reaches out to employers around the world to identify and post thousands of new positions each year on the Pratt Pro job board.

“We have created a pipeline to help employers find the best candidates for jobs, and to move Pratt students and alumni into those job openings,” says Schaller. Employers interested in filling a full-time, freelance, parttime, or internship position can go to the employer site to register and begin posting open positions. For information on setting up an internship, contact Laura Keegan, Assistant Director for Experiential Learning, at lkeegan@pratt.edu.

The CCPD’s efforts are effective. Michael Kors, Thom Brown, Inc., the Metropolitan Opera, and Frank S. Smith Architect are among the companies that have found Pratt talent through its resources. And corporate clients benefit, too. Graduate Communications Design student Kevin (Wenkang) Kan provided New York magazine with original cover artwork thanks to his

Here are just some of the ways the CCPD builds meaningful connections between emerging designers and professionals.

Guest Lectures and Portfolio Reviews

Industry Outreach The CCPD brings students to design studios to meet industry leaders and learn about the latest trends. It also hosts opportunity fairs, round-table discussions, and creative career conferences with visiting partners, recruiters, and industry leaders.

Portfolio Reviews & Exhibitions Throughout the year, the CCPD promotes numerous portfolio reviews and thesis exhibitions of current and graduating student work, including the end-of-year Pratt Show, highlighting the best work of the graduating class.

“We help employers find and hire some of the most talented, seasoned design students in the country,” says Schaller. “We help students start terrific careers.

The CCPD makes dreams come true.”

D x D

Events

Join us Pratt Institute and The Conference Board Present DIFFERENTIATING BY DESIGN: Design Thinking, Next Competitive Advantage April 10–11, 2014 Pratt Institute Pratt Manhattan Center 144 W. 14th Street New York City “Although Design is most often used to describe an object or end result, Design in its most effective form is a process, an action, a verb not a noun.

Design is a protocol for solving problems and discovering new opportunities.” —Fast Company Design thinking allows businesses to increase their efficiency, streamline their operations, and differentiate themselves from the pack. How we design our processes, protocols, goods, services, and interactions within an organization, with other organizations, as well as with consumer markets, has serious and tangible implications for growth.

D x D

Join Pratt and The Conference Board for a twoday conference as we explore key questions: What is design thinking and how can it be applied? How do insights take shape and lead to innovation?

Work with us to develop insight into what kind of leaders are needed, transforming your organization, and developing yourself as a design thinker.

For information, email CorporateRelations@pratt.edu.

PRATT INSTITUTE ART OF PACKAGING AWARD GALA The Marc Rosen Scholarship and Education Fund for Packaging by Design Honoring Mary Kay, Inc. Tuesday, May 6, 2014 The University Club Fifth Avenue at 54th Street New York City Join us as we honor Mary Kay for excellence in the art of cosmetic packaging design. Previous recipients of the prestigious Art of Packaging Award include Avon, Bath & Body Works, Calvin Klein, and Shiseido. Top-tier representatives of New York City’s multi-billion dollar cosmetics industry will be in attendance, supporting Pratt Institute as it raises funds for the Marc Rosen Scholarship and Education Fund for Packaging by Design. Recipients of the Marc Rosen Scholarship have gone on to become creative directors and executives of companies and branding agencies worldwide.

For information, call 212.925.2507 or email elaine@Kxassociates.com.

PRATT SHOW 2014 May 13–15, 2014

2014 PRATT INSTITUTE FASHION SHOW & COCKTAIL BENEFIT Save the Date: Thursday, May 1, 2014 6 PM Award Presentation and Fashion Show Center 548, 548 West 22nd Street, New York City 7:30 PM Cocktail Benefit Location to be announced.

Bringing together leaders in the fashion industry, the 2014 Pratt Institute Fashion Show will feature the best work of graduating seniors in Pratt’s Fashion Design Program. The star-studded evening will also honor a top designer in the field chosen for his or her impact on the fashion world and inspiration to our students.

For information, visit www.pratt.edu/fashionshow.

The Manhattan Center 311 W. 34th Street New York City An annual juried exhibition of outstanding design work by more than 300 of Pratt Institute’s graduating students, the Pratt Show offers members of the design industry the opportunity to discover the next generation of design leaders and view the cutting-edge work created by Pratt talent.

Fields represented in the show include advertising, communications design, digital arts, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, interior design, jewelry design, and package design.

Good Bye

D x D

ABOUT THE COVER Code from the GeoStoryteller project created by Anthony Cocciolo and Debbie Rabina, School of Information and Library Science INSIDE FRONT COVER Movements by André De Castro Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

ABOVE Fort Standard Crest bottle openers Gregory Bantain (B.I.D. ’08) and Ian Collings (B.I.D. ’08) Photo: courtesy of Fort Standard

CREDITS Corporate Relations at Pratt Institute: Ludovic Leroy, Director lleroy@pratt.edu

Typeface: Aperçu

Production: David Dupont

Printing: High Road Press, 220 Anderson Avenue, Moonachie, NJ 07074

Design: Joshua Graver

www.pratt.edu/partnerships

Writer: Karen Horton