CCPS OFFERing FOUR NEW CAREER PATHS

In spring 2013, Pratt’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies (CCPS) based on the Manhattan campus at West 14th Street will offer four new certificate programs for adults who are professional designers, fashion entrepreneurs, architects, landscape architects, green designers, and fragrance sales and marketing professionals.

The four new options that can lead to exciting new career paths are: Design Entrepreneurship, a program to be conducted in collaboration with the Pratt Design Incubator; Fashion New Media, a program to meet the needs of the fashion industry; Perfumery, a collaboration with France-based Cinquième Sens, to teach fragrance development or sales; and Urban Green Infrastructure: Green Systems Clean Water, an area in which Pratt has been in the forefront in New York. The new certificate programs offer a range of foundation, core, and elective courses that lead to certification within one to three semesters. 

The Design Entrepreneurship program will prepare designers to establish their own businesses. The new certificate program will build business acumen and set the stage for developing a viable design-driven enterprise, whether in fashion, furniture, product, or design consulting. Sustainable best practices will be integrated to ensure that participants pay heed to the environmental and social impacts of their creative ventures in addition to their economic success. The program will be offered in collaboration with the Pratt Design Incubator, which has been turning creative professionals into successful entrepreneurs since 2002.    

The Fashion New Media program will train designers, photographers, and social medial marketing professionals to produce photographs, websites, and graphics with the same industry standard tools the pros use. Drawing upon CCPS’s rich offerings, this new certificate program will help students develop a polished portfolio and learn to utilize their production skills to enter the fashion industry. Participants will also learn to grow their network and express their unique voice as they design new media for the highly competitive world of fashion. Internship opportunities are available to exceptional students.

The Perfumery program, which is intended for perfumery marketing professionals, distributors, and fragrance enthusiasts will offer two career tracks: one in the technique and language of perfumery needed to create new scents, and the other in selling fragrances. Participants in the first track will learn the language of scent and the culture of fragrances and their raw materials, while those who choose the second track will learn marketing and sales techniques in fragrance development and gain a deeper understanding of the emotional dimension of selling fragrances. This new certificate program will be conducted in partnership with Cinquième Sens, a perfume school founded in Paris in 1976, whose team of experts will share its passion for creating and transmitting a true perfume culture.

More topical than ever since Hurricane Sandy, the Urban Green Infrastructure: Green Systems Clean Water program addresses such vital concerns as storm water management and rainwater runoff from the impermeable surfaces that constitute about 70 percent of New York City’s acreage. The city is a leader in addressing national water quality standards, so the training offered through this program’s two-track curriculum will put participants in the vanguard of successful green infrastructure practices. 

For further information about the new certificate programs, click here. Specific admission requirements are listed in the CCPS Spring 2013 catalog, which may be picked up at Pratt Manhattan’s CCPS office on the second floor of 144 West 14th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues or visited online at www.pratt.edu/prostudies. For further information and course advisement, contact Chris Ferrara, Customer Services Specialist, at 212-647-7199.

Open registration begins on December 1. Classes begin January 14, and Pratt alumni receive 10% discount off tuition.

Text: Adrienne Gyongy and CCPS
Image: Courtesy of Federico Savini

students freak out for annual halloween contest

In the run up to Halloween, the Undergraduate Communications Design department held its 9th annual Halloween Costume and Pumpkin Carving Contest. Ninety-five students from across the Institute were invited to enter their most inventive designs for a chance to win cash prizes: most original won $500; best concept won a $500 gift certificate to Utrecht art supply store; and the other winners received $300 apiece.

Judges were from the Undergraduate Communications Design department included M. Cecilia Almeida, assistant chair; Michael Gerbino, adjunct professor; Philip Graziano, assistant to the chair; Michael Kelly, adjunct associate professor; and Father Michael Perry, former Chaplain of Pratt Chapel and friend of the department.

new sculpture to have a large presence over newman mall

James Tyler, Brickhead: Yemanja, 2011, ceramic brick.The Pratt Sculpture Park has a new member presiding over Newman Mall. Currently on loan, James Tyler's Yemanja is a ceramic brick sculpture made with architectural red and buff stoneware. It is a heavily grogged clay body specifically designed for use in making exterior architectural ornamentation. As in all Tyler’s Brickhead series, it is a hand built, one-of-a-kind piece constructed hollow, with a wall thickness averaging three inches. In turn, it is scored and disassembled into bricks and then reassembled using stainless steel pins between each course. The bricks are a natural ceramic finish; variation in color occurs during the firing process. You can find more information at www.tylersculpture.com.

Photos: Peter Tannenbaum