education

Enhance your resume and your vacation photos with the mediabistro.com mothership’s two-day crash course in Adobe Photoshop, back by popular demand. In one short weekend (March 3-4) you can get up and running on the program of programs—the subject of many an ethical debate—under the guidance of images whiz Rob Tannenbaum, a photo editor who has worked for The Martha Stewart Show and wields a master’s degree in newsroom graphics management. Learn more here.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

Ready to get serious about that new year’s resolution to “harness the power of social media for fun and profit, but mostly profit”? Prepare to fall out for mediabistro.com’s Social Media Boot Camp, an online conference-cum-workshop that kicks off on February 16. Tomorrow, which also happens to be the 229th birthday of social media pioneer Daniel Webster, is the last day to take advantage of the early bird discount and save on an eight-week program that includes keynote speeches, live interviews, and practical how-to sessions led by social media gurus including Michael Brito (Edelman Digital), Morin Oluwole (Facebook), and Leslie Bradshaw (JESS3). Learn more and register here.

You probably know Allan Chochinov as the core of Core77, the beloved industrial design megasite of which he serves as editor-in-chief. The designer and educator’s latest creation is a new MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. As chair of the MFA in Products of Design, Chochinov has devised the graduate program around a new way of considering the design of artifacts, experiences, sustainability, strategy, business, and point of view. The design star-studded faculty ranges from Paola Antonelli (MoMA) to John Zapolski (Fonderie47). “We have created a program that I feel represents a optimistic, rigorous, and future-forward step in the future of design education,” he says, adding that applications are now being accepted for the inaugural class. “We are looking for all kinds of applicants: the highly-skilled, seeking more meaningful applications; the deeply-knowledgeable, looking for greater scale and impact; the passionate, looking for more rigor and process; and of course the iconoclastic, looking for a home.” In answering our seven questions, Chochinov gives us the full scoop on the program, discusses some of his own career highlights, and proves that unwieldy edibles (or useless machines) make the best gifts.

1. What led you to create the MFA in Products of Design program?
I’ve been teaching design at the college level for 17 years now, and I’m passionate about students, creativity, and point of view. When SVA approached me about creating a new MFA program, it was an incredible opportunity to spend time researching, conceiving, and collaborating on a program that would represent future practice and equip students with the skills and fluencies that the world will demand of them. The program that resulted, I feel, is at the sweet spot of business, making, storytelling, and stewardship. It’s a program that aims to engage, ennoble, and empower. It’s also going to be a ton of fun.

2. What can prospective students expect from the program, in terms of coursework, faculty, and experience?
The program is rigorous but joyful, multi-disciplinary and multi-sensorial. There are no grades. Most of the classes are in the evenings. Several classes happen off-site (the Design Research and Integration class is held at IDEO in SoHo, for example; the Materials Futures class is held at Material ConneXion). Two of the classes are co-mingled with MFA Interaction Design students. There’s our new Visible Futures Lab fabbing space next door, and a city brimming with design making, design thinking, and design doing right outside the door. We’re dedicating a lot of the architecture and curriculum to food and food systems, and we’ve got a faculty comprised of some of the most fascinating, progressive practitioners in design.

3. What’s been the most challenging and/or rewarding aspect of working on the program?
The most challenging aspect has been to clarify this very fuzzy place where I think design needs to be right now. (That last sentence is a bit fuzzy in itself!) Referencing the challenges inherent in designing for systemic, interconnected conditions, faculty member Manuel Toscano remarked to me that “we will need students who are comfortable being uncomfortable.” I think that’s very true. Design is at an incredible moment right now, but the challenges of production, consumption, labor, resilience…these demand a nimble kind of practice.
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We’re sorry to start your morning out on a gloomy note, but sometimes the news just plays out that way. Yesterday, Georgetown University‘s Center on Education and the Workforce published a report entitled “Hard Times,” a look at the employment prospects, or lack there of, college and graduate school students face upon graduation. While there’s been plenty of talk about the national 9% unemployment rate across the board among all graduates, the study breaks down the data by a variety of majors, analyzing just how difficult a time they’ll have finding a job and how much, on average, they’ll wind up making. It’s a fascinating report, though if you are a student in any sort of creative field, the news is, as expected, much more bleak. When broken down by majors in the arts, those seeking a major in design face an 11.8% unemployment rate. That’s eclipsed by fine arts majors (12.6%) and those in film, video and photography programs (12.9%), but it gets particularly grim when it comes to architecture, which ranks at the top for unemployment, coming in at a staggering 13.9%. Granted, none of that’s new, as we’ve been writing about students rethinking architecture programs since 2008, and about how impossible the post-school prospects have been in the proceeding years. You’d expect and/or hope that things had gradually improved at least a little over these long four years, but apparently that just isn’t the case yet. Here’s a bit from the report:

…majors that are closely aligned with occupations and industries in low demand can misfire. For example, unemployment rates for recent college graduates who majored in Architecture start high at 13.9 percent and due to its strong alignment with the collapse in construction and housing, unemployment remains high even for experienced college graduates at 9.2 percent.

You can read the full report, here (pdf).

Admit it. Your seven-year-old nephew could out-HTML tag you any day and you think that a Cascading Style Sheet is something with a thread count. That’s where the mediabistro.com mothership comes in. They’ve asked us to tell you about the upcoming online course in HTML Fundamentals. Over four fun-filled weeks, user experience design guru (and photojournalist) Bartram Nason will guide you through a variety of web page production techniques, from column-based layouts and search engine optimization to semantic markup and advanced CSS styles. And you’re bound to ace the Photoshop and typography sections. The online learning fun begins on Tuesday, January 17, and by Valentine’s Day you’ll have brought a pre-designed webpage to life through the magic of HTML. Preview the course syllabus and register here.

Admit it. Your seven-year-old nephew could out-HTML tag you any day and you think that a Cascading Style Sheet is something with a thread count. That’s where the mediabistro.com mothership comes in. They’ve asked us to tell you about the upcoming online course in HTML and CSS. Over four fun-filled weeks, user experience design guru (and photojournalist) Bartram Nason will guide you through a variety of web page production techniques, from column-based layouts and search engine optimization to semantic markup and advanced CSS styles. And you’re bound to ace the Photoshop and typography sections. The online learning fun begins on Tuesday, and by January 10, you’ll have brought a pre-designed webpage to life through the magic of HTML. Preview the course syllabus and register here.

Three fashion designers are clearing space on their shelves for a virtual cornucopia of awards. First up is that wizard of stripes, Paul Smith (that’s “Sir Paul,” as of 2000), whose vast retail empire one cannot truly appreciate without visiting Japan. On Monday, Smith will receive the outstanding achievement award at the British Fashion Awards in London. The special award celebrates the achievement of a designer whose work “has had an exceptional impact on global fashion,” according to the British Fashion Council, which has previously honored Smith as an exceptional menswear designer (1997/1999), classic designer (2001), and contemporary designer (2003).

Meanwhile, back on our shores, Parsons The New School for Design is gearing up to honor one of its own. Donna Karan, who famously failed draping (apparently the second time was the charm), will be recognized along with philanthropist Sheila Johnson at the 2012 Parsons Fashion Benefit on May 1. “Parsons gave me my start in the industry, and to be able to support future designers is incredibly important to me,” said Karan in a statement issued by the school. “I am particularly excited to be honored with Sheila, who has been so instrumental to the success of Parsons, as well as to celebrate the first graduating class of the new MFA in Fashion Design and Society.” The new graduate program was made possible by the endowed Donna Karan Professorship.

Another design legend will get his due from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Couture Council, which will honor Oscar de la Renta with its 2012 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion. Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at FIT, describes the designer as “a true fashion superstar who has long served as one of the greatest ambassadors of American style. His clothes, which draw on the heritage of Spain and the French haute couture, as well as on the dynamism of contemporary New York high fashion, convey a sense of luxury and drama that have earned him acclaim throughout the world.” De la Renta will receive the award at a luncheon in September.

Enhance your resume and your vacation photos with the mediabistro.com mothership’s two-day crash course in Adobe Photoshop, back by popular demand. In one screen-intensive weekend (November 19 and 20), you can get up and running on the program of programs—the subject of many an ethical debate—under the guidance of photo editor and photographer Rob Tannenbaum, who has a blackbelt in Photoshop (and a master’s degree in newsroom graphics management). Learn more here.

(Photos: Tim Knox, Walter Briski, Jr., Courtesy William Wegman Studio)

Tonight Pratt Institute entices art and design-loving donors to open their checkbooks and their autograph books for the school’s annual Legends scholarship benefit. The 2011 honorees, “distinguished individuals whose accomplishments and values resonate with those of Pratt,” are artist and musician Laurie Anderson, furniture/interior designer and artist Juan Montoya, and artist and filmmaker William Wegman. The awards ceremony should be anything but dull, seeing as Pratt has convinced charming narrative wizard Salman Rushdie to introduce Anderson, while Architectural Digest editrix Margaret Russell will do the honors for Montoya and Agnes Gund will prime the crowd for Wegman. Among the 300 or so guests expected to party the night away at 7 World Trade Center in lower Manhattan are Pratt alums such as exhibition designer Ralph Appelbaum and Amy Cappellazzo of Christie’s, as well as architect Steven Holl and author Kurt Andersen, a Pratt trustee. No word on what will be served for dessert, but it will be accompanied by a special performance by Anderson, so keep an eye out for Fenway Bergamot.
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Here’s your chance to get the scoop on the graduate program that we can’t stop talking about. On Saturday, October 22, the School of Visual Arts’ Design Criticism department will host an afternoon of presentations and informal discussion about its MFA in Design Criticism, better known by its rapper name, D-Crit. Students will talk about their experiences so far, delightful D-Crit chairperson Alice Twemlow will provide a program overview, and faculty members Andrea Codrington Lippke, Steven “Design Mind” Heller, and Karen Stein will discuss the courses they teach. Stick around to hear designer Massimo Vignelli reflect on what has been achieved since he wrote the essay “Call for Criticism” in 1983, and what are the priorities for today’s emerging design critics. Two such priorities—mimosas and doughnuts—will be on offer, and if you ask nicely, we suspect they’ll let you peruse the twelve-volume reprint set of Domus that we spied in one of the D-Crit classrooms on a recent visit. Get all of the details and register here. And read on for a look at the department’s stellar fall lecture series.

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