Last week I was delighted to attend the Atlanta Ad Club luncheon along with Tanya Frank, who was one of the 2007 Scholarship winners celebrated at the Silver Award Medal event.

The festive occasion was packed full of activity as long time Advertising pundit-to-guru Patrick Scullin, who is one of the principals and the Executive Creative Director of Ames Scullin O’Haire, received the prestigious Silver Medal Award from the Atlanta Ad Club.

This award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to advertising and who continually furthers industry standards, creative excellence, and social responsibility. Congratulations for all the …more

I thought on this day you might find it of interest a project being done in our class on Modernism, Theory & Criticism at Portfolio Center, as it confirms the very values we all embrace… and, it is ongoing right now on this very day. A group of young, bright, neophyte designers are defining the possibilities of a future—the potential of their futures, their world. Even as I write this, one of the four teams is out going across Atlanta, interviewing veterans firsthand.

Their ideas are provoking and give a promise of future leaders and what can be created. In …more

This commentary came to me yesterday, and even within the propaganda framing of it, I thought this to hold certain truths that are worth sharing… as well, this seems to be a frank acknowledgment by Hasselblad, particularly in the first several paragraphs prior to moving onto the promotional attitude of what they have done, that neither they nor a lot of others have kept up with the way communications are changing… and those that have are quickly entering the field of play.

Unfortunately, they may still be listening to a voice of times gone …more

This note from PC alum Miti Desai, now a designer in Mumbai, gives this quarter’s Design History class a new way to think about ‘concept’ as they continue the process of designing their chairs:

The concept is a base which comes from the union of your thoughts (which is your story) and the ‘what it is’ that you want to communicate through it. What is the one thing that you want to communicate and express through this? That will ultimately give you the concept. It’s just like child birth: a union leads to conception, but conception is not the child. The …more

Pictures from last Friday. Early in the morning, we began class reading about Distortion and Idealism during the Renaissance, and then went on to talk about Walt Disney and re-imagining, all the while listening in the background to Patti Smith, Townes Van Zandt, Sting, and Edwin Karamazov performing 16th century Elizabethan compositions of John Dowland’s melancholy music.

I remember thinking to myself, what a range of performers… but I really meant storytellers… Most interesting, the whole day could be compacted into that one ideal: storytelling.

Each of you has worked very hard to become storytellers, yourselves. By sharing your …more

Yesterday, writing counsel and all-around sage Sam Harrison stopped by the office and dropped off a couple of historic artifacts…a bit of history—NuGrape Soda and a greatest hits Roy Orbison CD—which harkened back to my own southern roots. Those small gifts would resonate with anyone over 30 who grew up in the Deep South. That got me to thinking about how Nostalgia can be such a valuable tool in our creative arsenals—how it plays to our emotions and reminds us of our values.

Then I began thinking about how each of you finds your way to Portfolio Center and—for that matter—how …more

As Fernando finishes packing for his move to Austin, I want to let him know how much he has meant to us at Portfolio Center. Fern has been a dedicated member of the staff here for seven years. He was a student worker while he was in the design program and, once he graduated, made the choice to commit his energy and expertise to the school full time. He has worked tirelessly, wearing several hats, including admissions rep, registrar, international student liaison, designer, counselor, social director, host, chef, and friend.

We will miss his ear-to-ear grin, his hip pink pants, …more

Just a reminder about tonight’s opening reception for the Portfolio Center student show—7 p.m. at Octane. Thanks again to everyone involved with putting the event together, including the second-quarter students. Stop by to support the school, your friends, and the good folks at Octane.

As I write this note, I’m on a return flight back to ATL at 10 p.m. from a whirlwind two days in NY where I have been up with Michael J, Michael Y, Mary, Dave, Larry, George, Karen, Bryan, and Tanya, attending the NY Art Director’s Club national invitational portfolio review. And, as soon as the message climbs down 37,000 feet and finds a server it will go out to you.

I wanted to share how your peers represented the School and themselves superlatively— with flying colors. The review put them in front of some of the most notable c.d., e/cd’s, …more

Be sure to take a look at the Portfolio Center show up at Octane, one of the most hip and popular coffee spots in Atlanta, over/ very near to Coke, USA.

Once you get to the flicker site and see all the thumbnails… then look in the upper right hand corner of your screen and hit ‘view as slideshow,’ upon which a new page will come up and the actual slide show will begin.

This fabulous effort was done largely by the second quarter Media Arts class, with support from a lot of folks—for ex: A.K., as you see …more