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DIANA PAU
The Nissan Cube—a car popular with Japanese youth, but not yet available in the United States—made its debut at this year’s New York International Auto Show with the help of Pratt industrial and interior design students. The students had worked for months, under the guidance of Martin Skalski, professor, Industrial Design, to perfect colorful and intricately patterned exterior and interior treatments that represented the spirit of the car for the show. The team members who created the design “Quazé” said its gridlike exterior pattern was inspired by a street map of Brooklyn, where the teammates all live. The vehicle’s surface, which second-year graduate industrial design student Emily Potter says reflects the “buzz and beat” of the borough, contrasts with the quilted, silk-taffeta interior, complete with zip-up seat belt/vests, designed to wrap passengers in comfort. The “Nielus” team mixed aggressive shardlike shapes with larger, broken polygons and subtle squares, setting up a striking tension as the patterns shift on the surface of the vehicle and as the viewers’ eyes notice the changing shapes. Team member Minos Tzouflas, a first-year graduate industrial design student, said, “We wanted to create an interest on various levels so that people wouldn’t think about the design until they started to examine the surface of the car.” The Nissan Cube is slated to make its official entry into the U.S. market at the Los Angeles Auto Show this fall.
DIANA PAU
STUDENTS PRESENT DESIGNS FOR NISSAN CUBES AT NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW
1. “Nielus,” designed by students Susan Hasselbrook, Kaspar Spurgeon, Diana Thomas, and Minos Tzouflas 2. “Quazé,” designed by students Tawny Hixson, Yeon Jee, Emily Potter, and John Renaud
Pratt Students Compete in Lighting Competition Commemorating Design Innovator George Kovacs
Stephanie Slaght
Graduate and sophomore industrial design students participated this spring in the George Kovacs Lighting Competition, organized to preserve the legacy of George Kovacs, the late Austrian-born designer, manufacturer, and importer of modern lighting fixtures, who first introduced the halogen torchère to the United States. Students were encouraged to create new lighting designs that embodied the standards set by Kovacs more than 50 years ago. Three outside judges made the selections based on originality, creativity, and use of sustainable materials. “It was hard to decide,” reported Alecia Wesner, Kovacs’ first in-house designer and current president of Kovacs-Wesner Design Group, when she announced the winners in February. Jennie Maneri (Graduate Industrial Design, ’10), took first prize, earning $1,000, for her design of the table lamp, Night Sky, which Wesner said was a “universal favorite.” Austin Doten (Industrial Design, ’11) won second prize for his table lamp, FIYA, and Robert Volex (Industrial Design, ’11) took home third prize for his floor lamp, Filament. Recognition for Best Concept went to Alexandra Pulver (Graduate Industrial Design, ’10) for her table lamp, Hourglass. Heidi Patterson (Graduate Industrial Design, ’10) earned a special mention for her floor lamp, Current.
From left to right, Alecia Wesner, Austin Doten, Robert Volex, and Jennie Maneri 46
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Sculpture Student Receives First Anthony Gennarelli Memorial Award
Charlotte Meyer, M.F.A., Sculpture, ’09, is the first recipient of the Anthony Gennarelli Memorial Award, which will support her participation in the School of Art and Design’s Pratt in Venice program this summer. Meyer, whose sculptural installation Repair, 2006, is shown above, received the award based on artistic and academic merit. Anthony Gennarelli was an innovative visual artist who brought the art of stone sculpting with him from Tuscany to the U.S.; he was also a talented musician, teacher, and owner of a successful textile firm. His wife, Alba Gennarelli, used proceeds from the sale of some his sculptures to establish the Anthony Gennarelli Memorial Award, which will be used to support sculpture students’ study abroad, to fund their work in Pratt’s sculpture program, and to back their endeavors at other institutions with which Pratt partners.