News and VCAD
April 4, 2012 - Spring Portfolio Show to Shine Spotlight on Vancouver’s Newest Art and Design Talent
March 7, 2012 - Growing Art and Design Industry in Need of Well-Trained, Creative Professionals
February 7, 2012 - VCAD Offers New Online Resume-Building Software
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Newsletter
Winter2012
Newsletter
Gamers like to battle the bad guys and come to the aid of those in need - in fantasy land. But there are some video game developers who are being real-life heroes to children and youth in their communities. Check out these game-related charities that are working to make a difference.SpecialEffect
For young people with disabilities, most video games are too hard to play. SpecialEffect helps them enjoy playing games through projects like the Loan Library, which loans outs special control devices and games to be tested out before purchase, and StarGaze, which meets the needs of those who have been paralyzed due to a sudden injury or illness with gaze-controlled computer systems.
Get-Well Gamers Foundation
Video games are an effective and proven pain management tool and provide much-needed entertainment during long hospital stays. That's why the Get-Well Gamers Foundation has been bringing games and video game systems to children's hospitals since it was founded in 2001.
Child's Play
Child's Play is a video game industry charity raising donations for toys, games, and books to improve the lives of sick children in hospitals across North America. Since its inception, more than five million dollars have been collected. When it receives monetary donations, Child's Play purchases new games, consoles, and peripherals to be used in hospitals and therapy facilities.
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Winter 2012 Newsletter
Fashion Fit for a Museum
While not all fashion can be considered art, some museum curators have embraced the concept of fashion as art with noteworthy exhibitions that present fashion in relation to society, identity, and the body.One of the most talked about fashion exhibitions of 2011 was "Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty" held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The Jean Paul Gaultier show, "From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk" at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts marked his 35 years in fashion. More of an interactive runway than a museum display, it featured mannequins with "talking heads" created by digitally projected faces, and more than 130 of Gaultier's avant-garde ensembles in video clips and musical recordings from shows, concerts, and films incorporating his designs.
Kate and Laura Mulleavy for Rodarte have used inventive processes and unusual materials (like cheesecloth and cobwebs) to create their clothing line. This past spring, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles displayed over 20 designs by the edgy sisters for the "Rodarte: States of Matter" exhibition. Featuring looks from past runway collections and costumes from Black Swan, the fashions were presented on their own as "inanimate objects in a state of flux."
Reduce, Reuse, Make Beautiful!
Old buildings are often abandoned, awaiting one of three possibilities: demolition, preservation, or adaptive reuse. Today, many architects and interior designers are taking the innovative and sustainable approach to repurpose, reclaim, and recycle old structures into new designs.There's a lot of architecture around the world that would have gone to waste if it wasn’t adaptively reused. The Tate Modern in London was formerly a power station and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris had a former life as a train station.
In New York, the High Line was once a stretch of elevated railway that's been recycled into an urban park that spans a mile in the middle of Manhattan! And the next time you're visiting Holland, book a stay at the Hotel De Vrouwe van Stavoren and sleep inside a rescued wine barrel that's been recycled to make a hotel room!
Materials are being recycled to be used in the building process as well. While many homes are built with wood frames, some are now being framed out of recycled steel from junk cars that have been crushed.
What are some of your favourite adaptive designs? Share with us on Facebook and Twitter!
Do you have a story idea or question you'd like answered in the next newsletter? Send along your ideas or questions to stories@vcad.ca!
Make the Ordinary, Extraordinary
Artists offer us innovative examples of ordinary objects used in creative ways all the time. Open your mind to the possibilities and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to add a touch of unexpected to your daily lives.Think big and turn the building you see every day, the place you go to, the game you love to play or the object you use into a spectacular creation. Whether it takes some Photoshop, design, programming or sewing skills, pick a very ordinary "thing" and make it extraordinary using your creative mind and your technical skills.
Enter by posting your work on VCAD’s Facebook page between January 16, 2012 to February 12, 2012. Facebook fans will have from February 13-22, 2012 to vote for their favourite entry and winners will be announced on February 24, 2012.
Stay tuned to Facebook for more information on how you can enter!
When Form Meets Function
Functional art is the blending of form and function to create objects that are both useful and aesthetically pleasing.One of Vancouver's functional art pieces can be found at Science World. Part bike rack, part solar lamp post, the Solar Bike Tree stands 15 feet tall at the junction of three of the city's major bike paths. It collects energy from solar panels nestled within its metallic branches to power motion-sensitive LED lights, and parks 12 bikes in the root racks around the base, while three more can hang from the tree trunk.
Another city that now has more attractive street furniture is Vancouver, Washington. Its first artistic bike racks are shaped like mountain peaks, found outside an indoor climbing gym, lending a more interesting look to the cityscape.
Is your art functional? Tell us how on Facebook or Twitter.
Making the World a Better Place
This past holiday season, staff and students joined together to collect food for the local food bank and toys for children in need. The donations helped kids and families experience a little Christmas spirit that they may not have otherwise had.Did you know that nearly one million Canadians were helped by a food bank in 2011? That means one in every 30 people in the country have experienced a time where they were unable to afford the basic necessity of food. Close to 40% of the people helped by food banks each year are children. Efforts like this year’s food drive help to make things a little bit easier for those experiencing hard times. The food raised will be used to support snack programs for kids, community soup kitchens, family food hampers and much more!
Thanks to everyone for the donations and support – together, we really can make the world a better place!
Winter 2012 Newsletter
Don't Judge a Book by its Cover
Interactive storybooks are redefining the way young readers engage with their stories by blending content and animation with cutting-edge technologies in tablet computing. These interactive e-books are also changing the way children read and learn.Grids Interactive, an independent publisher of original interactive storybook apps, has launched Surf Angel, their second digital book for the iPad. Adapted from the successful print book, it's an animated storybook about Surf Angel, who comes to tuck her ocean friends into bed for a good night's sleep. Using the same beautiful artwork as the original print version, this app uses soothing ocean sounds and lets readers record their own voices for narration. However, the touch interaction has been removed so it won't excite readers. After all, it's a bedtime story.
Using high-level animations, Surf Angel comes alive on the iPad screen. Different teams of artists must work together in order to bring characters to life from printed word to animated story. From modeling and lighting to animation, sound and video editing, there are many stages involved in the production process.
What do you think about animated storybooks? Tell us on Facebook and Twitter!
Do you have a story idea or question you'd like answered in the next newsletter? Send along your ideas or questions to stories@vcad.ca!