Tucked away in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, in a small alcove embraced by four oil paintings, are two glass cases displaying five objects from the 14th through 16th centuries. Some museum-goers walk right past the cases, not realizing they’ve just bypassed the chance to see original works of art on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded an Art Works grant of $20,000 to the UO’s Department of Product Design for “Unparalleled Oregon Product Design,” a week-long series of free educational workshops, lectures, and exhibitions in uniquely Oregonian design.
Some 40,000 people from 60 countries will see designs by two UO faculty members exhibiting at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair in February. Because 80 percent of exhibitors at the fair come from Scandinavia, the invitation to the Americans is a coup.
Putting a brand on a sports product or an athlete is big business and requires careful consideration, Associate Professor Susan Sokolowski noted recently in an article on the Adobe Creative Cloud website. “The branding should be strong and recognizable to play up the benefit of being associated with a sports star, but people also should be able to understand the relationship between the parent company and athlete sub-brand,” she said. “Look at athletes who’ve had successful partnerships.
Professionally, Erkki Huhtamo collects peep show boxes. Personally, he grows his own coffee. Academically, he teaches design and media at UCLA. His presentation at UO on February 27 will explore ‘media archaeology,’ a nascent research field that explores artifacts such as broken smartphone screens, among other ‘forgotten, neglected, and suppressed media-cultural phenomena.’ He speaks at 6 pm in Lawrence 177, with a reception at 5:30 pm.