SPECIAL EDITION | FALL 2012

SpotlightMODErN HISTOry page 04

TEDx AT KENDALLpage 05

CHANgE THE WOrLDpage 06

3 x NEWpage 07

Metals/Jewelry major Alex Walker working with new electroforming bath.

Kendall President Dr. David Rosen outside of the Historic Federal Building

Photography MFA student Ashley Lambart applying encaustic painting techniques to her photographs.

SPOTLIgHTThank you for visiting Kendall! We hope you are enjoying the excitement and energy of ArtPrize. As a college of art and design, Kendall knows the power of image and voice to promote innovation and change. We invite you to peruse the buildings, the artwork, and this publication to get a taste of the incredible work that is happening here and is felt around the world.

THIS IS ArT.THIS IS DESIgN.

THIS IS KENDALL.

rEPrODUCTION rIgHTSAll articles and photos appearing in Portfolio are the property of Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University and/or their respective authors or photographers. No articles or photos may be reproduced without written permission from the College.

© 2012 Kendall College of Art and Design

ON THE COvErThe newly renovated Historic Federal Building opened for classes this semester. Reborn as a wellspring of a new generation of artists and designers, it was restored to highlight the past and make it an integral part of the College and Grand Rapids far into the future.

Kendall & TEDxIn May, Kendall College of Art and Design became TEDxLabs, a complement

to TEDxGrandRapids, designed to spark small-group discussions about the

shifting lines between the physical and the virtual.

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Holographic images created from 3-D scans Kendall Digital Fabrication LabHistoric Federal Building lecture hall during the first week of Fall Semester classes

odern HistoryIf you are reading this article, you have most likely stood or are standing

in the Historic Federal Building, a part of Kendall’s campus.

As a congressman, Gerald Ford had his office in this building. In 1914, in one of the courtrooms that is now a lecture hall, baseball’s reserve clause was upheld. Dedicated in 1911 and on the National Register of Historic Places, the Historic Federal Building has served as a courthouse, a post office, and, most recently, the Grand Rapids Art Museum.

This building—lovingly restored and sustainable—stands as a monument to a future built firmly on the past. Like Grand Rapids itself, the Historic Federal Building embodies a community that cares about its future and sees that future in the careful convergence of entrepreneurship, sustainability, and art and design thinking.

This mix is the heritage of the region and was witnessed once again in the innovative partnership between the city, private investors, philanthropists, Ferris State University, and Kendall, which made the dream of restoration and repurposing a reality.

The newly restored building expands Kendall’s campus with 91,000 square feet of new classrooms, studios and galleries. Its top floor houses the Wege Center for Sustainable Design, made possible by a $1 million gift from the philanthropic visionary Peter Wege. The building will house the Sculpture, Ceramics, Art History, Fashion Studies, and Collaborative Design programs. And its exhibition and lecture halls will be a place for students, faculty, and community to come together. If the Historic Federal Building sits at the heart of this new, old city of Grand Rapids, Kendall College of Art and Design hopes to provide the blood that pumps through its ancient and vibrant heart.

Participants touched, stretched, sniffed, and talked about samples from Material ConneXion, the world’s largest resource for advanced, innovative, and sustainable materials and processes. Kendall houses the largest academic Material ConneXion library.

Visitors observed Kendall’s state-of-the-art three-dimensional printing technology build objects out of plastic so that almost any design can be rapidly made into a 3-D prototype before it is constructed.

Spectators saw computer-aided design models, laser scans, and stereo satellite imagery assemble digital holographic prints.

And they saw 3-D printing technologies creating an eerie convergence of art, science, and technology by using bio-plotting technology and computer-aided tissue engineering to create live samples of human tissues.

As Furniture Program Chair Gayle DeBruyn noted, “Kendall brings a powerful connection to the core content of technology, entertainment, and design.” To view video footage of all the TEDxGrandRapids speakers, visit www.tedxgrandrapids.org.

“Kendall brings a powerful connection to the core content of technology, entertainment, and design.”

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Collaborative DesignBecause the next generation of leaders in strategy and management will be design thinkers, Kendall has created the BFA in Collaborative Design. Uniquely positioned to offer this one-of-a-kind NASAD accredited degree, Kendall constructed an interdisciplinary studio program that emphasizes complex and innovative problem solving that underlies all design practice. It strengthens the mastery of these principles through cross-disciplinary design training and collaboration on real world problems where design thinking creates solutions.

When we think about art that changes the world,

we may think about spiritual masterpieces like

Michaelangelo’s Pieta, or political Molotov cocktails

like Picasso’s Guernica, or iconoclastic conceptual

works like R. Mutt’s Fountain.

Medical IllustrationThe Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Kendall have collaborated to create a BFA in Medical Illustration. In the medical field, observation is key. Kendall students and MSU’s pre-med students will work side-by-side in courses like dissection and anatomy. In the end, Kendall graduates will help medical researchers, practitioners, patients, and the general public see and communicate complex anatomical, biological, and medical information and ideas more easily.

What started as an academic exercise to demonstrate what he learned became Benjamin’s passion project. It lives on long after the cheers of graduation faded this May.

In its beta version, Benjamin took on a project for single moms in need, with a goal of raising $1,000: $300 to supply four mothers with groceries for a month and $700 to purchase infant furniture at a thrift store in Lynchburg, Virginia. The site exceeded the goal. And if you gave money, you got to see the receipts for the purchases, as well as before and after pictures.

Small but urgent needs. And art makes the difference, not just for those who receive the aid, but for those who give. And it makes a difference for one Kendall art and design student who learned to create positive change through developing his talents as an artist and designer.

You can see Benjamin’s work at beta.kindrid.com.

3 x NewKendall College of Art and Design has created three innovative and timely

programs for West Michigan and the world:

Collaborative design model by Brooke Ruble and Erica Lang

Lung medical illustration by Emily CiosekBen Biondo, “Kindred Thank-You Booklet”

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Fashion design sketch

Collaborative Design Exhibit Prototyping

Heart medical illustration by Tess Tobolic

But art changes the world in quieter ways too. One student discovered this in his senior project in graphic design. Benjamin Biondo accepted the challenge of designing a website to increase the generosity of givers by improving the donor experience. His target donor: Generation Thumb, those who navigate the digital world using a singular pair of human digits.

Benjamin designed the site to create an impulse to want to help, similar to the impulse we have to buy. He designed it to create a community of givers who support and encouraged each other in their generosity. And he designed it to help those whose urgency is small and quiet but fiercely felt and mostly unheard among the big and noisy causes.

One Student’s Art That Can Change the World

Fashion StudiesIn partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York (FIT), Kendall has begun offering a BFA in Fashion Studies. Graduates from Kendall already find a place in the design houses of Ralph Lauren and Liz Claiborne. Now with apparel as an emerging part of the Michigan economy and with greater globalization of the textile and clothing markets, the program extends Kendall’s legacy of design excellence directly to the fashion industry. The fashion program is looking to create alliances with schools in other important national and global markets, such as L.A. and London.

Kendall welcomes visitors and inquiries. For more information please call 1 800.676.2787 or visit www.kcad.edu.

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