Los Angeles is buzzing with design activity this month, most visibly with the architecture and interiors-oriented Design Festival which kicked off yesterday. But much more low-profile — and much more exciting for lovers of the current international graphic design scene — is a free, five-hour symposium happening tomorrow, June 15, at Otis College of Art and Design.
The event is titled “Work and Play: Variations in Design Practice,” and the participating studios do indeed engage in a broad range of disciplines, each using highly individual, experimental approaches. And their homelands range from Mexico City to London and Paris to Amsterdam and other Dutch cities. Right now, they’re wrapping up their workshop collaboration with the students and faculty of Otis’s MFA Graphic Design Program. It’s all part of the sixth annual “Design Week,” supported by a grant from the Consulate General of the Netherlands. You can read my Imprint coverage of Otis’s 2010 forum here.
The “Work and Play” discussions are a culmination and celebration of the week’s activities. The designers will discuss their practice with respect to how they work and think. Coordinator Kali Nikitas, Otis’s MFA Graphic Design and BFA Communication Arts Chair, sees it as “a unique opportunity to see seven studios from four different countries in a setting that’s small, intimate, and collegial.” Student workspaces will also be open for viewing.
Seating is limited, so reservations are required through “Work and Play”’s Facebook page.
Below: Otis students workshopping earlier this week…
Raw Color (Eindhoven)…
Team Thursday (Rotterdam), who were featured in Print‘s “New Visual Artists of 2013” issue…
Morag Myerscough + Luke Morgan (London)…
Pinar and Viola (Amsterdam), who also designed the poster at the top of this page…
Alex Quinto (Mexico City)…
Jean François Porchez (Paris)…
Eric De Haas (Eindhoven)…
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