Congratulations, Graduates!

Today is the big day... UCLA Extension graduation!

Scott and I look forward to seeing you at Royce Hall. We'll be outside looking for you. If you see us, please be sure to come over so we can shake your hand!

It's a big year for DCA certificate students. There are 59 of you earning your Design Communication Arts, Advanced Web and Interaction and Advanced Print and Graphic Communication Certificates today. Please keep us posted about where you go with your new portfolios and expanded skills!

It's very exciting to remember our first meeting - however long ago - then see where each of you are now. Congratulations, again!

Here is more info about today, which includes the ability to watch graduation on Facebook if you can't be there, and Twitter hashtags so you can keep everyone informed.

Your AIGA Student Group Presents: An Evening with Design B*tch Terry Lee Stone

Poster designed by DCA student Benjamin Anik.

Terry Lee Stone Talks Business, Clients, and Making Money in Design

Join Terry Lee Stone, author of the Managing the Design Process books and the force behind the new design business column, “Ask Design B*tch” at rockpaperink.com, for a talk focused on answering one of the most important questions graphic designers confront: How the #%&# do you make money?

Terry will deconstruct the creative process of attracting, winning, and building great client relationships — advice that any designer can use immediately to become more effective in the professional world.

Terry is an educator, manager and strategist who has worked with AdamsMorioka, Mercedes Benz, Adobe Systems, IBM, American Express, USC Law School, Sundance Film Festival, Margo Chase, and BMW Group DesignworksUSA. More about her here.

UCLA Extension @ 1010 Westwood Boulevard
Room 416, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Thursday, July 14, 2011 from 7:30 - 9:00pm

RSVP: terryleestone.eventbrite.com

This event is FREE and open to the public, but seating is limited. AIGA Members, AIGA Student Members, and UCLA Extension students RSVP by June 30 for Early Bird Admission. Tickets will be available to everyone starting July 1.

There is a public parking lot at 1036 Broxton Ave. for a $3 flat rate after 6 pm.

This event has been organized by your AIGA Student Group President, Aileen Tu!

Congratulations, Debra!

A Laurel Hummel Scholarships for International Students was recently awarded to DCA Certificate student Debra Chiang of Taiwan. These scholarships are available to students who are citizens of a foreign country, studying with F-1 student status, and who have completed at least 12 units in an approved certificate.

Here is an excerpt of her winning essay:
As a professional graphic-designer to be, I am as well conducting some scientific research regarding visual attention. This scholarship is the proof to potential collaborators regarding my ideas and capability in combining arts and science together for developing the best branding and visual communication strategies to clients.

See the note about Debra here.

"It's Your Show" Opens Tonight!

The snack tables are out, the frames have been cleaned and the programs are ready!

See you at the opening of "It's Your Show" tonight from 7-9pm at 1010 Westwood Boulevard in the 4th Floor Gallery. All are welcome and light refreshments will be served.

Check out inspired design, photography and studio art by talented visual arts students at UCLA Extension.

Business & Design : Pricing (How Much to Charge?)

A sad story with a happy ending from Scott Hindell, who is teaching Business and Design this summer:

I had a student a while back who was a freelance story board artist. Prior to going out on his own, he worked for a well known agency that billed handsomely for his work. When he went on his own, he felt that without the credibility of the agency, he should charge less. So he heavily discounted his rate, compared to what the agency was billing him out at, and bid on a lot of jobs.

While he was able to inch along, he was clearly struggling. In my class, I showed him pricing isn't as complicated as most think, and that pricing isn't only an issue of underlying costs, but more importantly, is relative to the market. After completing the exercise, he was able to see that the market value for his services was considerably higher than his pricing. So why wasn't he getting work? It's a great deal, right?

Humans still possess one of the strongest computers on the planet, our limbic brain. This part of the brain is able to calculate massive amounts of data. The problem, though, is its output comes in emotions. In this case, trust or distrust. While this might have been the deal of the century for his prospects, when they looked at the price, it didn't match up with his resume and the value he was offering. So, when in doubt, they moved onto the choice they could trust.

In the end, he raised his price, and immediately began to get more work.

Business & Design : Focus

Two key topics that Scott Hindell will focus on in the Business and Design course this summer (W5700) are focus and pricing.

This is the first of two posts by Scott Hindell about those two key areas:

This TED talk is about the importance of variability. I believe the coffee example (at 16:21) best illustrates the importance of variability, and why we should avoid following universal principles. When we understand this, and adjust our value strategy so we can offer customers higher levels of satisfaction in those areas of value they are most interested in, we develop stronger relationships of loyalty and affinity that separate us considerably from the alternatives customers might have compared us with before.

Pitfire Pizza's Washington Blvd. (Culver City) location is one of my most visible successes with adjusting the value equation to bring in more of those clusters of customers that highly value what they are focusing on. This is why it is their best performing location to date.

Learn more about the summer course and register here.

An Evening with Debbie Millman

I am so going to this (if you need a cocktail recommendation, let me know):

Join us Monday, June 13th for a casual meet-and-greet with outgoing AIGA President Debbie Millman, her very first visit to the AIGA LA Chapter. Debbie Millman is a partner and president of the design division at Sterling Brands, one of the leading brand identity firms in the country.

Millman is a chair of the School of Visual Arts’ MA program in Branding. She is a contributing editor to Print magazine and host of the podcast “Design Matters.” She is the author of How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer (Allworth Press, 2007),The Essential Principles of Graphic Design (Rotovision, 2008) and Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design (How Books, 2009).

Beechwood Restaurant
822 Washington Blvd. Vencie, CA 90292
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Be sure to RSVP via Eventbrite!

The book you see above is available on Amazon.

Five Reasons to Flash

Guest post (and love equation above) by Joshua Stearns, a multidisciplinary artist with a background in photography, design, and programming who is teaching Flash Platform I this summer. Thanks, Joshua!

There has been a lot of talk about the relevance of Flash as HTML5 has emerged as a future web standard. I think everyone can be excited that HTML5 has finally addressed some of HTML’s shortcomings as Flash was created as an alternative to do what HTML could not do, or could not do very well.

Flash continues to innovate with new features all the time and that is why Flash is here to stay. Both technologies have their strong points and there is little reason to argue over which technology is better. HTML5 and Flash have different capabilities and arguing which is better is like comparing apple and oranges.

Instead think about some of the exceptional examples of Flash experiences on the web and see why this standard is here to stay. These five sites are made with Flash, and could not be possible without it.

1. Hulu - Hulu is a fantastic place to watch video online. Built for the masses, it simply has to work and work well. The site is so good, people have cancelled their cable subscriptions and turend to Hulu instead. There isn’t a better example of a video player on the web that works as flawlessly. Hulu has not converted any of their technology to HTML5. In a blog post by Hulu, they talk about their commitment to continue developing in Flash.

2. Jordan - No one comes even close to innovation with motion on the web as the work produced for Jordan. This site continues to innovate by pushing the use of the latest Flash technologies. Take time to appreciate the 3D motion work. There is nothing on the web like it and it is pretty much untouchable.

3. Yes Yes Y’all - Yes Yes Y’all is an internet equivalent of a traditional television station, a lot like the MTV of in the 80’s of 90’s when it actually played music. It’s a curated video experience, that lets you sit back and watch high quality videos uninterrupted. I am little biased about Yes Yes Y’all, since I helped build it.

4. Nalden - Nalden is a blog made in Flash. Not only that, but it is done with a sprinkle of cool and dash of awesome. Nalden’s site is great place to catch up on internet culture from all over the world. It is rich in visuals and in content. If don’t want to get left behind, follow Nalden and he will keep you up to date.

5. Pete Philly - Audio and Video is one of Flash’s strongest attributes. The Pete Philly site flexes both those muscles like it is on steroids. This site is a perfect marriage for experiencing an artist with music and visuals.

These are just a few great examples of what Flash can do. Flash continues to innovate and provides an excellent platform to create. For both mainstream sites like Hulu and smaller sites like Nalden, it is the platform of choice. Not only because it provides designers and developer great control, but also because of it’s rich features. The opportunity to innovate in Flash has never been greater.

Get a dose of Joshua's enthusiasm for Flash this summer. Check out his portfolio here.

Reuse Your Furniture as a Pun!

What's happening in these photos?



Learn more about how graphic design is not just 2D from Andrew Byrom this summer in Design Fundamentals. The course starts June 20.

Two Shots of Photoshop with Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis and World Renowned Digital Artist Jane Conner-ziser

I'm passing on this word from Andrew Kutchera... Thanks, Andrew!

When: Thursday, June 23, 2011 * 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Where: Moviola, 1135 N. Mansfield Ave, Hollywood, CA 90038
(lots of free parking)

Take two Photoshop legends, stir in photographic artistry, heavy splashes of Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw, and pour on top of rock solid, time-saving techniques, and you have a evening that will spin your mind and rocket your work to the next level!

In just one evening you'll learn invaluable tips and techniques for everything from Image Compositing for web design to Portrait Retouching to Passionate Painting to Expressive Enhancing—using all versions of Photoshop and Lightroom—but especially with the incredible life-savers available throughout CS5 and Lightroom 3. From the retouching miracles of Content-Aware Fill and Puppet Warp, to the life-changing photo optimizing and enhancing speed of the new Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom, to the profitable painting possibilities of the new Mixer Brush—this double-shot, topic-packed seminar by Jack & Jane will have you up to speed, slashing deadlines, and adding to your bottom line in no time!

RSVP via Eventbrite.

Students can use the 30% off discount code (making the event $19)
Code: aila

TEDxUCLA Speaker & Tour Schedule

Have you seen the TEDxUCLA line-up? It's an inspiring list of designers, thinkers, artists and innovators - plus the chance to see the hidden worlds of UCLA, like the underground tunnels and hospital helipad.

Here's everyone who will be up just before noon:

Harry Hellenbrand: Provost, Cal State Northridge talks about learning
Eddo Stern: UCLA Game Lab Play Through Life
Yoh Kawano: UCLA Campus GIS: Can Twitter Save Lives?
Rebeca Mendez: UCLA Professor, D|MA: The Arctic Circle
Alma Cielo: Improvisational Violin Performance and Talk
Andrew Byrom: Type designer: If h is a Chair: Mapping New Forms in Typography
Azure Antoinette: Spoken Word

Then there is a whole afternoon after that! Go to tedxucla.org for the full line-up and information on how to buy tickets.

Summer Quarter Getty Design Internship

Image of work done with winter intern, Sara Vadgama

THE WORK
The student will partner with a lead designer to develop graphic design solutions for various print ephemera connected with the Getty, including Education and Performing Arts. Work will involve collaborations with internal clients, production and web staff to coordinate deliverables. The Design Studio is a fast-paced, deadline-driven, creative environment that develops high quality design solutions.

THE SITUATION
The Design Studio at the Getty will offer a fully set-up MAC workstation for the successful student candidate. The Internship position is 16 hours per week. The work must be carried out at the Getty Center Design Studio. Allocation of hours can be flexible —ideally the intern would be here two 8 hour days per week (8:30 - 5:30 with a 1 hour lunch break), and option 2 would be four 4 hour days (8:30-12:30 or 1:30-5:30).

QUALIFICATIONS
•Working knowledge of InDesign and CS4 programs.
•Ability to generate a design solution quickly and carry it through to completion.
•Strong communication skills.

APPLY
Send your resume, cover letter and three work samples to dca -at- uclaextension -dot- edu by Friday, June 10. I'm happy to help you prepare your application and answer additional questions or put you in touch with past interns.