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// ROLAND YOUNG TO JOIN THE SCHOOL OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

Mary Scott reports that Roland Young will be joining the School of Graphic Design here at the Academy of Art University starting next semester. Roland is one of Mary's design heroes and mentor. In an essay she did for AIGA she refers to him as, "cooler than cool."

Much has been written about Roland Young. He was called the "Shock Prof" in last year's CMYK story on him. The article reports that he has been called inspirational, intimidating, brilliant and terrifying. One former student said of him, "If not for Roland, I don't know where I'd be today. He gave me eyes to see and pushed me to my limits."

// ALUMNI HOMECOMING 08 SPEAKERS TO BE COCO QUI, MICHELE RONSEN, ANDREW CAMBOURIS

The Academy of Art University School of Graphic Design's second annual Alumni Homecoming event will be held on November 13, 2008.  The evening's events will include among other things, talks by three School of Graphic Design alums.

Coco Qui graduated from the Academy of Art University in 1995 with her BFA.  A native of Shanghai, China, she began her career at PrimoAngeli:Fitch in 1996 as a designer, and became design director in 2000. She went on to become design director at Philippe Becker Design, Inc. Currently she is the creative director at JLA Home, a partner at doGood Brands, and teaches packaging design at the Academy of Art University. Coco has since lead-designed for such clients as Nestlé, Intel, Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Coca-Cola, Guinness (Ireland), Safeway, Whole Foods Market and Williams-Sonoma. Coco’s design work has been published in Graphis and How magazines, and her honors include both Clio and How magazine design awards.

Andrew Cambouris received his BFA from the Academy of Art University in 1997.  He has over 10 years of experience creating award-winning designs in several disciplines ranging from corporate & brand identity, to print collateral, package design and interactive design.  He is currently an Associate Creative Director for Silverlign Group, Inc., an integrated marketing and design company where he works on accounts such as Levi Strauss & Co., Cisco, NetApp, Expedia, Stanford University, and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

Michele Ronsen will also be a juror in the Alumni Design Show.  See her bio in the post Michele Ronsen, MaeLin Levine, Ron Miriello to Judge Alumni Design Show.

// MICHELE RONSEN, MAELIN LEVINE, RON MIRIELLO TO JUDGE ALUMNI DESIGN SHOW

The School of Graphic Design is pleased to announce the esteemed panel of jurors for its inaugural Alumni Design Show.

MaeLin Levine is Partner/Creative Director, Visual Asylum, San Diego. She was recently named an AIGA Fellow at the AIGA's National Design Legends Gala held in NYC for her participation in the direction and growth of the San Diego design community. MaeLin sits as President of the Board of Trustees of Urban Discovery Academy, a brand new K-6 Charter School that she was instrumental in starting. MaeLin holds a BFA in Graphic Communication's Design from the University of Denver.

Michele Ronsen is Vice President and Creative Director, Wells Fargo, San Francisco who will also be a speaker at the Alumni Homecoming 08 event. "Thinking about design is a fundamental part of who I am and how I live my life," she says.  Michele also served as Vice President and Design Director for Wells 
Fargo Advantage Funds. Michele's previous positions include: Founder and Principal of Martin Paul Partners; Senior Vice President and Design Director at Bank of America; Art Director at Nordstrom;  Designer at Michael Osborne Design; and intern at Pentagram Design.

Ron Miriello is the founder and director of Miriello Grafico in San Diego and a founding member of the San Diego Chapter of the AIGA and an AIGA Fellow. As a design director in Southern California community for 30 years, he has helped set a high benchmark for creativity and sees design as a language rather than a discipline. More recently, Ron has been interviewing and photographing craftsmen of everyday products in Italy for a book series about handcrafted products in a world of global mass production.

// MICHAEL OSBORNE DESIGNS SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT

There are almost 2,000 artifacts in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's new exhibit Alphabetilately.  The exhibit, designed by Academy of Art University School of Graphic Design alum Michael Osborne (MFA, 2008), uses 26 Cinderella stamps (decorative stamps that have no postage value) each designed by a different San Francisco area designer.  The stamps each use a letter of the alphabet to represent some aspect of stamp collecting or the postal system.  

For instance the M stamp designed by Osborne stands for Mulready envelopes which were elaborately decorated, pre-paid envelopes and letter sheets used in the mid 1800's.

Each stamp is the centerpiece of it's own mini-exhibit surrounded by artifacts that pertain to its particualr subject matter.  The 26 of these individual exhibits make up Alphabetilately.  Osborne designed the entire exhibit including display cases, invitations, calendars, keepsakes, the 15th anniversary logo, and the official postage cancellation.  Cody Dingle, a Academy of Art University alum who works at MOD assisted Osborne with the exhibit.  "Cody was my right hand person on the project.  He created the mechanicals for everything, the walls, the cases, the exhibit, everything," said Osborne.

Alphabetilately will be on view through October 15, 2009.