Design School: Planning for Kids; Degree Shows; Visiting AA; Ambigram Class

LA goes to design school; check out some of the work being created by the region’s students, young and slightly less young, as well as an “ambigram” workshop and a visiting architecture school that is open for applications.

Start ‘Em Young

Just as LA is rich in design so it is rich in design education, at least at graduate level. The following post lists some of the student final year shows and design education opportunities that have come across DnA’s transom, noting that design education is not exclusive to professionals and certainly should not be exclusive to adults (above, teachers and students at Culver City’s Turning Point School are introduced to urban design concepts by James Rojas at a residency this week.)

Final Review: Woodbury, Otis, USC

For many design students in Los Angeles, May means final design review or grad show time. Public and prospective employers are invited to see showcases of architecture at Woodbury School of Architecture and USC School of Architecture. Next week Otis College of Art and Design holds their final shows, encompassing art, graphics, landscape, environment, fashion, toys and more.

Head Over Heels for Typography

TypeEd, an L.A. based typography program for graphic designers, invites you to learn the mysterious art of ambigram design (work out what an ambigram is from the image above) with illustrator and lettering artist Ana Gómez Bernaus, a guest instructor for the Head Over Heels workshop, taking place Saturday, May 10, in downtown Los Angeles. Although TypeEd caters primarily to trained graphic artists, anyone with an understanding of how to use Illustrator and an interest in typography can participate (remember a young Steve Jobs credits a typography class with shaping his vision for the Apple Mac).

London Calling: AA Comes to LA

One of the world’s most esteemed architecture schools is the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) in London, including among its alumni including Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, Steven Holl, Nicholas Grimshaw, Peter Cook and, more recently, LA’s Alvin Huang, DnA’s Danielle Ragoand Kevin Patrick McClellan. Now the three are holding “AA Visiting School Los Angeles” from June 16-27, at USC School of Architecture.

Huang, who describes the intellectual foment of the AA experience “completely life-altering,” says the aim of the 10-day charrette is to “interrogate, challenge, and speculate on new modes of living that are enabled by advances in technology, and guided by changes within contemporary society.” Participants will be asked “to explore the applications of parametric modeling and digital fabrication to investigate a contemporary take on the Case Study movement.”