AIGA Jacksonville Blog

09:07 6th May 2013

Jacksonville Design Community Converges for 24th Annual Portfolio Review

AIGA Jacksonville’s 24th annual Portfolio Review saw an impressive display of talent on both sides of the review tables at Jacksonville University’s Davis School of Business Saturday, April 13. More than 50 professional designers and educators took time to review more than 60 students from five area design programs, including The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Flagler College, Jacksonville University, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Keiser University and the University of North Florida.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the review hall was filled with a creative and energetic atmosphere as students showed their best work to reviewers eager to offer insight and feedback. Each student reviewed with six to eight different professionals in sessions lasting 20 to 30 minutes. In response to the trend in previous years to show work digitally, and to show more interactive and motion work, this year’s review split the competition into two portfolio categories: print and hybrid/digital. A panel of five judges, including current president Karen Kurycki, past presidents Russel Quadros and Varick Rosete, Claire Do, and guest speaker Mikey Burton, narrowed more than 20 competition entries to four winners: Kristie Feltner (Flagler) took top honors for the print division and Lauren Trump (UNF), Anthony Orrach (UNF) and Ryan Tempro (Flagler) took first, second and third place, respectively, for the hybrid/digital division.

Across the board, students continue to exhibit a very high quality of work. All of the students’ professors should be commended on their efforts to help develop this level of skill in graduating students.

“We were impressed by the work we saw from the students this year. I personally loved seeing some strong illustration skills mixed in with the design books, along with some really fun motion pieces,” said Kurycki. “I think the new format for judging was a good change to the review—any student who wanted to be considered for top honors was considered, which made it an even playing field.”

The two-day Portfolio Review event kicked off Friday night with a hilarious and inspiring evening with guest speaker Mikey Burton, whose presentation highlighted his Kent State University thesis project of illustrative reinterpretations of classic book covers, and told the tale of how drinking beer and designing posters for local bands with his friends turned into a lucrative career illustrating for national publications and designing for world-renowned music acts. UNF’s Talon Room was the perfect venue for the crowd of 65 to mingle before and after the presentation.

Many thanks to all of the professionals, participants and volunteers who continue to make this event such a success and such a great opportunity for young creative minds to engage with the area’s dynamic design community—we could not do it without you. We hope to see you at next year’s Portfolio Review.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Folio-Weekly, Character Counts! in Jacksonville, and Modis. You can check out the rest of the photos on flickr.

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12:36 26th Mar 2013

Design Sidekicks Join in on the Agency Action!

AIGA Jacksonville’s Design Sidekicks was an incredible success this year. With seven different participating agencies and eleven excited students, we started off with a breakdown meeting at Robin Shepherd in the morning. We were able to get everyone introduced, enjoyed a light breakfast, and sent the students off for their first session of the day.

Students received the opportunity for one-on-one instruction from printers, designers, and creatives learning the craft hands on. Welcoming agencies, firms, and shops allowed students to see an array of professional expertise and insight from the process of coding a website, to project development, to printing processes first hand.

After their first session, several students had lunch with their agencies, while others convened up at High Tide Burrito to discuss their mornings with other students. After discussing the morning’s events, students later became involved with additional hands on learning during their afternoon sessions. As the day concluded, everyone met at Kickbacks for dinner to discuss their experiences; agencies, students, board members, and friends gathered around the table to encourage their enthusiasm of the day’s events. To learn more about this event and other events with AIGA Jacksonville, please visit aigajacksonville.org.

Quotes from the students:

All quotes are directly from students themselves, and have given permission that their words be used.

“I learned how an agency works, and to always be yourself in your work - after all in the end that’s why you are hired. I liked the fact that Caroline really loves what she does and it shows.”

-Laura Marshall

“Dagher Printing was a really good opportunity for me, since I go to school online it was a great fieldtrip of sorts to see the ins and outs of printing. Joseph was really knowledgeable and loves printing and sharing the knowledge to the future graphic designers. I was made to feel welcome everywhere, it was a great experience as a newbie.”

-Laura Marshall

“I experienced awesomeness. That is all.”

-Susan Jang

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13:15 14th Mar 2013

Historic Florida Theatre Hosts 2013 Citrus Cel Animation Film Festival

Cultural Celebration Brings International Films, Industry Pros to Jacksonville

Jacksonville, FL, February 27, 2013—The Citrus Cel Animation Film Festival, an event celebrating animation and illustration from across the globe, returns April 4–6 to Jacksonville, Florida. The historic Florida Theatre will host the three-day event. Highlights include an opening-night feature film, student short films, animated shorts for children, competitions, workshops, and guest speakers from the animation industry.

Representatives from Oscar-nominated animation studio LAIKA/house (ParaNorman, Coraline) will deliver the keynote presentation. Other guests include animators from Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who!) and developers from software maker Toon Boom Animation, who will present a storyboard master workshop.

“We’re really excited to be involved with Citrus Cel this year,” said LAIKA’s Mark Shapiro, “because it brings together an incredible group of talented professionals, students, artists and animation fans of all ages. It’s going to be a great, informative and fun weekend!”

North Florida-based design and animation firm Dripsblack founded Citrus Cel in 2009. The inaugural festival took place in 2010, and it remains the only festival dedicated to animated film in north Florida.

“Our festival is meant to inspire, to make people aware of what’s out there in the art community, and to create a place to come annually to share and learn,” said festival director Shane Douberly. “Students and professionals benefit and learn from one another. I want attendee as well as myself to leave with new inspiration and new friends.”

The films run the gamut from science fiction to music videos, noir, and experimental films. This year’s opening night feature marks the Florida premiere of Zarafa by filmmakers Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie. Short films that will screen include Prix Ars Electronica Award winner Caldera, Countdown, Much Better Now, The Butterfly Effect, and Academy Award winner The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Citrus Cel also presents The Art of Storytelling, a juried art exhibit that pays tribute to the narrative form of illustration, as well as Design in Character, a student competition showcasing the inspiration, technique and storytelling of character design. Finally, the festival will host the
fast-paced competition Juiced!, which invites animators to conceptualize and execute an animated clip within a tight 24-hour time limit.

For more on the Citrus Cel Animation Film Festival, visit citruscel.com.

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12:03

Atomic Sketch Blows up at Artwalk’s Draw Your HeArt Out

February’s Atomic Sketch was a blast (yes, unfortunately that pun was intended) as our sketchers scattered themselves throughout downtown. With 14 venues and nearly 50 artists, onlookers and art-walkers really got to enjoy quite a variety of artwork at our stations. We created commissioned works, collaborative pieces and the occasional Valentine’s Day themed card. Even the artwalk map was created by members of the AIGA Jacksonville board, Jim Ward and Karen Kurycki.

Work is sold anywhere from $5 to $50, which is a crazy bargain for an original piece of art! All proceeds from the work went to our Discover Design high school mentoring program which was suiting, as local students were out and about examining work that they liked, and some were even required to have their favorite artists sign a worksheet for an in-class assignment.

Overall, the night went off with amazing work thanks to our atomic-sketchers! We hope to see you out at our next Atomic Sketch event, so stay tuned and look out for more bomb work!

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11:37 2nd Mar 2013

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Mapping our minds at the second session of #DiscoverDesign! (at Museum of Contemporary Art‎ (MOCA))

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11:08 23rd Feb 2013

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Getting stared with #DiscoverDesign, here at @MOCAJax! (at Museum of Contemporary Art‎ (MOCA))

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13:55 12th Feb 2013

We Love Design and Print Resources (PrintJax)!

With our highly anticipated event coming up featuring the design legend, Louise Fili (check out our blog post from yesterday), we wanted to fill you in on how we’re able to bring you this wonderful opportunity, as well as call attention to the fact that we’re giving an I Love Design sketchbook to each attendee!

Our generous sponsor, Print Resources, aka PrintJax (printjax.com), your friendly neighborhood print house, is behind it all—and their love of the print and design industry couldn’t be more apparent.

Print Resources loves everything print. They feature a full service resource for printing, promotional products, signs, banners, posters, apparel (screen printing/embroidery); you name it, they’ll get it printed.

Print Resources loves Designers. At PrintJax, they understand design isn’t just a pretty cover, and will happily work with you, the designer, to find the highest quality solutions to your printing needs.

Print Resources loves Design. In fact, they love it so much, they offered to produce an event exclusive I Love Design Sketchbook we’ll be giving away with every ticket, so be sure to register for the event now! If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

True to PrintJax style, the process of creating the sketchbook was fun and collaborative. The cover, designed by Karen Kurycki, features two watercolor heart halves overlapping to form a pen nib to represent Ms. Fili’s hand-crafted style. The design was handed off to Brian Holcomb, owner and lead press-man at PrintJax. After considering a variety of papers, they decided on 100# sundance felt cover white because it works so well Karen’s watercolor style.

Every production decision has a purpose at PrintJax—inside, 70# Mohawk Via text 100% PC cool white was selected because it is close in color to the cover, and with environmental sustainability in mind, it’s 100% post consumer recycled. In the end however, it is simply a fantastic paper to draw on.

Next, they measured the paper to fit the soon to be spine and adjusted the cover art as required. Soon we were press checking the cover, which you may have seen from Facebook, or @printjax on twitter and instagram, but if you didn’t catch it online, check it out here! The inside pages were then cut down and collated, while the cover prints and dries.

Check out this great video of the cover printing!

Finally the binding is set in motion. The cover, which is perfect bound, is scored in-line, glued, and the pages mechanically set in place. It is then folded into book form, pressure applied for the glue to set, trimmed on three sides and, ta-done! We have a complete sketch book!

We look forward to handing them out to each of our guests at I Love Design, so make sure you register soon! Not only will you have the chance to speak with a design legend, but you’ll also receive an awesome Print Resources/AIGA Jax sketchbook to fill up with inspiration, and your love of design.

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14:29 11th Feb 2013

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I Love Design Presents an “Elegantissima” designer, Louise Fili

If you haven’t heard about the absolutely amazing presenter we have lined up for you this Friday, there are two things you need to do:
1.) Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where we’ve been squealing excitedly and 2.) Bring something to write with, because you have the chance to hear and learn about design from one of the greats!

Every year we host I Love Design to bring in the best, most proficient designers in the industry to give you the chance to hear their stories, learn their secrets, and understand their ways. This year, we’ve blown it out of the water. Louise Fili will be bringing her wonderful calm and thoughtful presence to us here in Jacksonville.

Louise is a Master Typographer, designer, teacher and more. She has such an amazing range of accomplishments, from high profile design positions, awards and nominations, featuring work in various permanent collections, to authoring and coauthoring numerous books and teaching at the School of Visual Arts and abroad. Needless to say, she’s accomplished quite a lot over the years and has been met with much success. And she’s coming to Jacksonville, just for you.

Her most recent book, Elegantissima, is an amazing monograph featuring case studies, typography, process and inspirations. You can pick her book up on amazon, online with us while registering for the event, or night of at I Love Design, where she will be holding a book signing as well!

You can also listen and watch a really great interview with Louise on Design Observer, and another on Youtube:

Make sure to visit her website and check out more of her achievements and work to become inspired, learn from an amazing designer and perhaps Love Design even more than you already do…

Be sure to register for I Love Design to reserve your spot for the presentation and book signing, with thanks to Louise Fili and our generous sponsor Print Resources.

~Bryan Hunt, AIGA Jacksonville Communications Director

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10:16 7th Feb 2013

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We had such a great time at #AtomicSketch last night! Thank you to all of our artists and venues for being so awesome!! (at Chamblin’s Uptown)

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10:38 31st Jan 2013

Ligature 22: UF Graphic Design Exhibition and Lectures

The University of Florida’s School of Art and History is hosting their 22nd Ligature exhibition and we are excited to head to Gainesville to check it out! Having attended past Ligature events, we know that UF always puts on a quality show.

Ligature 22 is a public exhibition of student design work and a set of free lectures by esteemed graphic design professionals. The event also includes creative workshops and portfolio reviews reserved for current UF students. Ligature 22 is produced by the University of Florida student graphic design group, voxGRAPHIS, and funded by student government.

Friday, February 08, 6:30-7:30pm in the 103FAB (Fine Arts Building B) lecture hall.
Speaker: Matteo Bologna

Saturday, February 09, 6:30-7:30pm in the 105FAB (Fine Arts Building B) lecture hall.
Speaker: Lotta Nieminen

The opening receptions for the Ligature design show as well as the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition coincide with the Friday, February08 lecture in the Focus and University Galleries.

Check out the UF Campus Map here!

SPEAKER BIOS:

Matteo Bologna. Matteo is the founder and principal of Mucca Design. His multidisciplinary background in architecture, graphic design, illustration and typography facilitated his early business successes and inspired his decision to create a New York branding and design agency. As creative director, he oversees and inspires every project with energy, intellect, and a quick wit. Matteo is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Type Directors Club, and is frequently asked to lecture about branding and typography around the world.

Lotta Nieminen. Lotta is an illustrator, graphic designer and art director from Helsinki, Finland. She has studied graphic design and illustration at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Rhode Island School of Design, and has worked as a freelancer in both fields since 2006. After working for fashion magazine Trendi, Pentagram Design and RoAndCo Studio, Lotta is now a full-time freelancer based in New York City.

Please consider heading down to Gainesville to check out the twenty-second year of Ligature. It’s a great chance to see highly esteemed speakers (for free!) and to see the wonderful student design work on display.

For updates about times/campus locations please email the student organizer — ligature22@gmail.com

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15:51 25th Jan 2013

AIGA Gets an Exclusive Tour of MOCA

This past Thursday, January 24th, a small group of AIGA Jacksonville members became privy to a “behind the scenes” look at MOCA Jacksonville.

During this members-only event, Director of Education, Allison Galloway began the tour with an introduction to MOCA’s “Project Atrium” series, which features site-specific installations by emerging and mid-career artists. The most recent installation is by Dr. Ian Bogost, an author and artist whose creativity has manifested in the form of an interactive video game. At the top of an altar-like platform sits an unassuming ipad, on which you play Bogost’s game, “Simony”.

Next, the group was ushered into an elevator and taken to the third floor, where workers hurried to complete their newest exhibition, SLOW: Marking Time in Photography and Film.

Carefully stepping around ladders and freshly painted walls, the members got a first look at some incredible work by Eve Sussman, Kota Ezawa, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Chris McCaw, Idris Khan, James Nares, and David Claerbout. This exhibition explores our perception of time and duration. It asks us to take a break from our hectic lives and just watch: see what can happen in the span of a second. The exhibition features the works of seven American and European artists whose approaches to this concept complement and challenge one another.

There are projection rooms, television screens, sound cones, rare materials, and innovative photography to be seen, as these artists explore multiple approaches to the topic. We were blown away by the depth and creativity of the artwork, as well as MOCA’s expertly crafted exhibition space.

The exhibition will be showing from January 26th - April 7th, with a Patron’s and Member’s preview on Friday, and an artist panel on Saturday.

Normally, we’d tell you to hurry on over for this don’t-miss MOCA event, but in this case we may encourage you:

Take it slow.

~ Stephanie Soden, Programming Co-Director

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11:49 23rd Jan 2013

Sign up for the Cocktail Couture Fashion Show!

IIDA Jacksonville is celebrating its 10th Annual Cocktail Couture benefiting Dignity U Wear. The Cocktail Couture event has been our signature event where designers create fashion accessories from interior design finish materials. We have created hand bags, beach bags, shoes, hats, and belts over the years. These items were then highlighted at the event each year and entered into a silent auction. In the past 9 years, IIDA Cocktail Couture has raised and donated $64, 500 to benefit Dignity U Wear.

This year IIDA Cocktail Couture is going to the next level, we are leaving the fashion accessories behind and creating garments to be worn in a live Fashion Show. Design Teams will be paired, at random, with Material Sponsors and will work together to create an outfit. The theme for this year is “Brave New World”; looking to the future of design, innovation of materials and use. Teams will be judged by 3 notable judges during the fashion show at WJCT on March 21, 2013. The four winning teams in the categories: Best Use of Material, Ready to Wear, People’s Choice, and Judges’ Choice, will be on display at the Jacksonville Fashion Week Accessories Showcase on March 28, 2013.

Most importantly, IIDA is so excited to open this event to ALL design professionals, inviting AIGA, ASID and AIA to join and compete in this First Annual Cocktail Couture Fashion Show. Deadline for team entries is February 1, 2013. Registered teams will be meet their sponsors on February 5th at WJCT 5:30-7:30. There we will review all competition rules and requirements, and answer all your questions. For more information, please contact us via email at IIDAcocktailcouture@gmail.com, or visit our website, www.iida-nfc.org (under the events page). We can’t wait to see the amazing creations on the runway.

~Seka Roberts Collins, IIDA Cocktail Couture Event Chair

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09:24 22nd Jan 2013

Cocktails & Creatives January Recap

What a great way to start the New Year!
Underbelly was definitely a good choice in location, since the AIGA Jax crowd started pouring in right on time and it was a packed house within the hour.

Underbelly was generous enough to give us specialty drink pricing which we gladly took advantage of.

Also, Arvid Smith played during our event, and was followed by a really good line up of indie bands including: Juicy Pony, Ritual Union and The Fuzz. As most of our C&Cs end, it turned into a dance party!

The winner for the “Pin the cigarette on Don Draper” from December’s Mad Men Christmas Party was Brett Mosher. Brett is now the new owner of a AIGA Jax Morning Leaf coffee mug.

Thanks to everyone that came out and we hope to see you all at the next Cocktails & Creatives: Cupid’s Red Party on February 7.

~Tia Wigham, Cocktails & Creatives Chair

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14:12 21st Jan 2013
Calling All Mentors — Yes, You!
Sign up for Discover Design 2013.

We invite you to take the plunge and become a mentor for Discover Design! The program pairs high schoolers interested in graphic design with practicing professionals. Guided by co-chairs Natalie and Donald, mentoring pairs will complete a project over 8 sessions.

This year teams will create a brand for a non-profit organization that promotes the betterment of local businesses, groups and/or children’s lifestyles. Teams will work on a system which brands the organization as well as adversities an event.

Mentoring is a rewarding way to get involved with AIGA; meet fellow professionals, share your craft with an interested student, and accomplish something on Saturday mornings! Sessions are from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm on the following dates:
- Session 1 – Feb. 23
- Session 2 – March 2
- Session 3 – March 9
- Session 4 – March 16
- Session 5 – March 23
- Optional Session – March 30
- Session 6 – April 6
- Session 7 – April 20
- Session 8 – April 27
We ask that you attend 6 of the 8 sessions to be a mentor.

Download the form here.

Have questions? Want to sign up? Email Natalie at hello@nataliekdesign.com.

~ Natalie, Design Mentoring Co-Chair
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12:25 17th Jan 2013

Don’t forget to Do Good - Last Chance!

A huge thank you for any and all who have participated in Designers in Toyland 4.

This year all donations made in the name of Designers in Toyland are going directly to Don’t Miss A Beat, an after-school program for students in the Brooklyn and Riverside communities.

Just in case we got lost in the holiday shuffle we wanted to give you one last chance to make a difference in a child’s life.

We’re in the final days of collecting donations, so start your year off right and help AIGA support an amazing local program!

Donate Here.

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