PRATT WORK PROMINENT IN INAUGURAL NYCXDESIGN WEEK

Pratt students, faculty, and alumni are participating in New York City's inaugural design week, dubbed NYCxDESIGN, a citywide event that showcases and promotes design from all disciplines. NYCxDESIGN seeks to bring together culture, education, commerce, and entertainment, with programs including exhibitions, installations, trade shows, talks, and open studios. Pratt’s participation in the 12-day event, which kicked off on May 10 and runs through May 21, spans various disciplines of design including architecture, industrial design, communications design, fine arts, and design thinking.

Today, the Partnership for Academic Leadership in Sustainability (PALS), a consortium of 30 independent colleges of art and design founded by Pratt in 2009, will present an exhibition titled HOME_LESS_HOME at the 25th Annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The exhibition shows student designs that are inspired by the changing nature of urban society and the impact of climate change. For more information click here.

THIS IS NOT GRAPHIC DESIGN, the graduate Communications Design thesis exhibition, is one of several Pratt thesis shows that are part of NYCxDESIGN. The exhibitors use printed matter, video, interactive installations, typography, silkscreen, and photography to explore new currents in graphic design. Areas of inquiry include the promises and pitfalls of technology and the manipulation of verbal and visual language in the public sphere, as well as social, emotional, and political empowerment. The exhibition will be on view until June 7 at Pratt Manhattan. For more information click here.

On view until May 22, the American Design Club is presenting Trophy at the Museum of Arts and Design. The design exhibition features Pratt Industrial Design alumni Colleen Whiteley (B.I.D. ’03), Evan Dublin (B.I.D. ’09) and Steph Mantis (B.I.D. ’09), and Pat Kim (B.I.D. ’09). For more information click here.

Other Pratt-related events that helped kick off NYCxDESIGN included Life Preservers, an exhibition of Adjunct Associate Professor James Garrison's post-Sandy prefabricated beach structures for the City of New York; stopTHINKshop, a pop-up store by Kris Drury (B.I.D. ’09), assistant director of the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, that showcased socially innovative products that have a positive impact; an interactive workshop presented by the Pratt Design Incubator, Design Your Life Like an Entrepreneur, which covered business fundamentals, design strategies, and case studies in surviving self-employment and taking advantage of creative potential; and GEFÜHL, an installation by Pratt's Fashion Department and Karlsruhe University of Art and Design that featured fashion and design products from student design collaborations during a two-week intensive held last summer in both Brooklyn and Karlsruhe, Germany.

Go to NYCxDESIGN to learn about additional programming.

Text: Luke Degnan

SENIOR WORK SPOTLIGHTED ACROSS THE CITY

As usual, the Institute's annual thesis shows presented an impressive and wide range of media, methods, and ideas. The talent of hundreds of graduating students was on display at venues across New York City in April and May. In addition to exhibitions on the Brooklyn campus, the annual fashion show was held in Chelsea; Flameproof, the work of senior painting and drawing students, was on view in midtown Manhattan; and the work of Pratt M.F.A. students is still on display in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery through May 21.

Pratt Show 2013, an annual exhibition—juried by faculty—of exceptional design work by more than 300 graduating students, was also on view in May at the Manhattan Center. It featured the best work by students in various programs including advertising, communications design, digital arts, illustration, industrial design, interior design, and jewelry. The show gave industry professionals and the public a chance to see the best work of students.

Text: Luke Degnan and Amy Aronoff
Photos: Courtesy of the artist/designer unless otherwise noted

SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED AT ART OF PACKAGING GALA

(L–R) Alexandra Haime, Kashfia Rahman, Marc Rosen, Veronique Gabai-Pinsky, Vivi Feng, and Kyle Calvert.

More than 300 guests attended the annual Pratt Institute Art of Packaging Award Gala at a private club in Manhattan on April 30, 2013. The gala, which attracts the top tier of New York City's multi-billion-dollar cosmetics industry, supports the Marc Rosen Scholarship and Education Fund for Packaging by Design and raises scholarship funds for graduating package design students at Pratt. It is the only scholarship in the world available to college students looking to pursue careers in cosmetics and package design. The glamorous black-tie event raised $350,000 in 2013 and has raised more than $3.5 million over the last 24 years.

The Art of Packaging Award, which is presented each year to a beauty/cosmetics company that has excelled in the art form, was awarded to the Aramis and Designer Fragrances division of The Estée Lauder Companies. Veronique Gabai-Pinsky, global brand president of The Estée Lauder Companies' Aramis and Designer Fragrances, BeautyBank, and IdeaBank divisions, accepted the award from Trey Laird, chief executive and creative officer of Laird+Partners.

Gabai-Pinsky spoke about the inspiration of great design. She noted that the initial success of a product is "linked to the creative expression" of the brand through design. She encouraged Pratt communications and package design students to "stay hungry for the thrill of discovery and creative process." 

At Pratt, Rosen teaches a course on cosmetic and fragrance package design, which is the only one of its kind in the world. As part of the course, students select a floral, green, or Oriental fragrance. They name the fragrance and design a perfume bottle from sketch to clay form to prototype along with a scent card, box, shopping bag, and advertisement.

Student Scholarship Recipient Kashfia Rahman’s work.This year's student scholarship winners include Kyle Calvert, Vivi Feng, Alexandra Haime, and Kashfia Rahman. Calvert designed a modern, oval bottle using silver and pink for a calming floral scent that he named "Serene." Feng's scent, which she named "Vertigo," was influenced by the mystery and allure of the classic Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name and Art Deco style; the bottle was a faceted design inspired by origami. Haime's work—for an Oriental scent she named "Kahlia"—was inspired by the idea of clarity and replicated the form of natural quartz crystal. Rahman chose a green scent, which she named "Belle Journée," and used a green leaf motif that translated the light scent into a graceful design.

Each winner's fragrance package design work was on display in the lobby of the event venue.

Text: Amy Aronoff
Photos: Patrick McMullan Company