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By Rachel Ellner, December 19, 2012 8:08 pm

It’s one thing to admire great menswear on the street. But how do you recreate that feeling of a great pair of pants walking by for a customer in a virtual store? In order to turn “Nice pants, man” into more than a stand-up line — and into a desire to purchase those pants online — was the goal of this year’s PAVE (The Planning and Visual Education Partnership) competition.

PAVE’s annual competition has categories in visual merchandising (or product display) and the interior design of retail stores. From among this year’s 400 PAVE contestants who submitted pop-up designs for Bonobos online men’s clothing store, senior interior design student Hye Young Hayley Park won honorable mention.

Hye Young Hayley Park in the middle of two fellow PAVE winners

“We’re proud to have Hayley represent the great work our students do at FIT,” said interior design chair Andrew Seifer. “Hayley is an incredible talent in our department. She won the Decorator’s Club award last spring and continues to flourish.”

Rendering of pants and denims display by Hye Young Hayley Park

“My pop-up store aims to create the virtual experience that’s closest to a physical experience by converging digital and retail stores,” says Ms. Park about the pants and denims shown in an on-the-go style in her rendering (above).  ”For each pair of pants on display, an Ipad will be provided that allows customers to read reviews, check available colors, sizes, and find additional product information before making a purchase.”

Rendering of accessories display wall by Hye Young Hayley Park

“The accessories display wall is a 3′ x 3′ modular system with adjustable shelving sticks,” says Ms. Park. “The displayed products include shoes, ties, bags and belts. The LED seating cubes can be custom-colored and be rearranged. The material would be chipboard, good for sound absorption.”

While Ms. Park’s taste in fashion is commonly noted, it’s her interior design expertise that could make virtual shopping a sleek and wonderful experience.

To read about last year’s FIT PAVE winner go to: “Natasha Melo helping us locate lipstick, eyeliner & more”

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By Rachel Ellner, December 13, 2012 6:51 pm

There are two garish babes bursting with vanity and a gloating cross-legged, primed prima dona. There are the furious fat spider, a he-man who boasts, and a lecherous pair of wide-open mouths sporting minks’ teeth. An ominous, famished figure sits eerily among them while a lazy daydreamer lies pathetic and inert.

 Jealousy, vanity, famine, greed and rage are on display in terrifying, cartoonish proportions on the 3rd floor of the Pomerantz center. These creatures originated in Professor Dan Shefelman’s contemporary media class.

Lauren French

A group of very self-absorbed, miserable louts share space together.

Brittany Falussy

Pandora’s original box came with a heavy lock. These evils are contained in a plexiglass covered display case.

Adam Bohemond

Danielle Fee

The dysfunctional contents of Pandora’s Box.

photos: Dan Shefelman

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By Rachel Ellner, December 12, 2012 1:28 pm

… with jewelry design professor Steven Parker’s help of course. In the old days — the very old days — people shopped for pre-owned jewelry at their favorite Egyptian tomb. A lot of that loot survives today in the wings of major museums.

King Tut’s imagined bracelet.  Photos: John Bigelow Taylor

But sometimes precious items go missing yet again during periods of political upheaval. Well, at least they could. A bracelet of King Tut’s — a lesser known ninth bracelet — with a prescient clockwork mechanism was lost, then found, then lost again. Well, in truth it was never lost. But it was “found” by Professor Steven Parker, whose fanciful creation of this ancient Egyptian-themed bracelet suggests what Tut might have worn.

The famous archaeologist Kent P. Streaver (an anagram of Steven Parker)  writes in metalsmith magazine that when he came into possession of the original bracelet, he called on its  oracular powers.  The bracelet foretells that the famous archaeologist might not fulfill his  mission.

Sure enough, “a hand bandaged with dirty linens,” swipes the bracelet from the  archaeologist’s ”field of vision.” Alas, “the bracelet [is] gone!”

“I can only hope that the bracelet will resurface someday,” concludes Streaver (setting us up for future adventures).

To read the full story of the bracelet’s journey go to: acmeclockworks.com.  And expect more amazing discoveries from the good archaeologist… err… FIT professor.

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By Rachel Ellner, December 7, 2012 4:33 pm

…for getting together to make gingerbread houses.  Art & Design chairs, assistant chairs, the dean and assistant dean got together for team-building and some very sweet house-building last week.

Photos: Walter Murdock

Houses are being donated to storm victims from the FIT community.

Layout designer: Paola Pachon 

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By Rachel Ellner, December 5, 2012 1:59 pm

Ok, it’s not some new 3D movie thing. They are your classmates. Anime Club members are using bake sales as an opportunity to dress like Japanese animated movie characters while raising funds to attend an upcoming convention in Maryland.  Anime — action-packed cartoons, often explicitly drawn, has grown in popularity in the U.S. but is especially well-received in the country of its birth, Japan, where audiences go gaga over human-like beasties and blond, blue-eyed cartoon females. Really.

Anime friends Chelsea Assing & Anna Yamoto

“Since fourth grade I was watching a show on how to draw anime and I was hooked,” says illustration major Chelsea Assing. “I took out a pad of paper and couldn’t stop drawing.”

“I originally was very into reading manga, the comic book version of anime. So naturally I would be interested in anime as well,” says communication design major Anna Yamoto.

Bretagne Krieger, Anime Club member at the D-lobby bake sale

Those interested in  the Anime Club are encouraged to check out their Facebook page. “It’s a pretty open group from what I’ve seen so far,” said Yamoto. “FIT students can get info about us and our events from the flyers we post up around school and at our bake sales and flea markets.”

 photos: Rachel Ellner

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By Rachel Ellner, December 3, 2012 1:24 pm

Dan Shefelman is an illustration department professor who understands the bottom of the food chain. He writes the comic strip “Ooze,” which appears in the current December issue of Mad magazine.

Professor Shefelman’s microbial view fits well with Gary Larson’s (of “The Far Side”).  If you think that Larson’s cows are smarter than the typical political leader, Shefelman, does one better — he has bacteria that are smarter. Imagine your bar date reproducing so fast that you’ll wish you went dutch when the bill comes?

by Dan Shefelman © E.C. Publications, Inc.

To find out more of what happens to Chico Paramecium on his blind date with Cilia Flagella, check out Mad magazine’s December issue on the stands, or to view it free (“What me worry?”) at the FIT library.

Image used with permission from Mad magazine.

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By Rachel Ellner, November 29, 2012 5:33 pm

One of the most exciting things about King of Prussia, PA is the town’s name. Now along with the driver’s license address “King of Prussia” (officially confirming every driver in town as royalty), you also have a community with an exciting new centerpiece.

Most town boundaries are marked with dull, functional signs. Now six new gateway monuments stand at the entrance to King of Prussia. The town’s mall remains the big attraction. It’s the largest on the East Coast, with 20 million unique visitors coming every year.

Craig Berger, chair of visual presentation and exhibition design, developed the gateway with the King of Prussia District.

One of six gateway monuments to the town of King of Prussia, PA 

Creativity doesn’t get stuff built on its own. The collaboration is the deal here, says Berger.

Berger used an educational interactive approach, which brought together designers, business leaders and fabricators. It is hardly common for these three entities to plan and develop a commercial project from beginning to end. “Well, to design yes,” says Berger. “To pay for it no.”

Made of aluminum with internal dynamic LED lighting, the gateway monument uses cutting edge technology.

“Very few urban gateway projects use lighting as a design centerpiece,” says Berger. “The soft glow of the sign edges make the signs visible from a great distance. The illuminated letters create a strong town identity.”

Photo: Eric Goldstein

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By Rachel Ellner, November 28, 2012 2:39 pm

And what was interior design student Hayley Cavagnolo doing while her family was gathering for Thanksgiving and her mother the gourmand directing dinner preparations in the kitchen? She was surveying the dinner table from above for the right shots for her “space, time and light” project for her interior design photography class with Prof. Brad Farwell (PH404).

photo: Hayley Cavaghnolo

Despite being “deathly afraid of heights,” Hayley teetered from her perch undaunted. “I was standing on a chair. It was looking like it was going to break so I borrowed a ladder from the garage. I brought it through the kitchen where everyone was cooking.” After capturing this shot on her Canon Rebel at 1/60 second at F4.5, ISO 800 “I jumped onto my sister on the way down.” Thanks sis, from all of us, but you had something more to do with this.

photo: Hayley Cavagnolo

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By Rachel Ellner, November 27, 2012 5:43 pm

Celebrated textile designer Sarah Campbell brought her keen sensibility, warmth and  signature style to Faces & Places in Fashion this past Monday. “She was really heart warming, and intrinsically British,” said Assistant Dean Sass Brown who was in attendance.

Currently a collaborator with the furniture company West Elm, Campbell’s client list includes Yves St Laurent, habitat, and Marks & Spencer.

“You have to know your customer, but the reason they’ve hired you is for you,” Campbell said regarding how graduates can retain their own style when entering the industry.

Sarah Campbell signing a copy of “The Collier-Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern”

Following tea and cakes Campbell critiqued the silk scarf paintings of 10 of Prof. Sussman’s students whom she mentored in the use of Campbell’s techniques. The scarves hung as part of a temporary wall exhibit in the foyer to the Katie Murphy Amphitheater. The students received copies of “The Collier-Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern,” which Campbell co-wrote with her late sister Susan Collier and Emma Shackelton.

Students lined up for autographs of he “Collier-Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern”

“Her career is ideal. She’s doing the collaboration with West Elm but her name is on her work. Most times your name isn’t recognized,” said fabric design student William Storms. “They’re just going to take your design and it’s the end of the day.”

“She’s invested in the hand process,” says Brown about Campbell’s paintings on silk.  “For her the physical process of working with water color was really valuable. The connection from the brain down through your arms down to the paper — it just isn’t always as direct with the new technologies.”

Campbell mentioned her FIT talk and “crit” of the scarf paintings, as she called it, on her blog, Sarah Campbell Designs.

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By Rachel Ellner, November 26, 2012 2:20 pm

Two days after Hurricane Sandy struck on October 31, fine arts students Lydia Maria Zackery, Jessica Planter and Eric Gottshall headed to John Jay High School to bring aid and cheer to seniors and youngsters. The school, in Park Slope Brooklyn, had been turned into a temporarily shelter for Red Hook and Coney Island residents.  After assisting seniors, the students applied their artistry to face-painting youngsters for a Halloween bash with live music and treats.

Lydia Maria Zackery with a Halloween party-goer at John Jay High School

“I’m an abstract expressionist,  so she got a wild face makeover, ” said Zackery about the little girl on the right with a debonair mustache.

Erika Von Gundy (City worker), Lydia Maria Zackery & Eric Gottshall at John Jay High School

“I live in Crown Heights and we weren’t affected at all. But to walk 45 minutes to Park Slope and see people being evacuated to there from Staten Island and Red Hook gave us a dose of reality,” said Zackery.

Lydia Zackery and Jessica Planter having a quick bite before heading to John Jay High School with art supplies

There was help along the way.  Zackery stopped at Seventh Avenue Art Supplies in Park Slope on her way to the makeshift shelter. “I told the owner what we were doing and he said ‘Take whatever you can use,’” said Zackery.  It was another generous act without the fanfare that would follow.

photos provided by Lydia Maria Zackery