Miriello Grafico

When Michael Osborne asked if I’d come up to San Francisco in late November to judge at Academy of Art University Design Show I assumed it was for his design students. But after he repeated to me five times that this was their inaugural alumni show for practicing alumni- it finally registered- alumni not students- got it. I spent three days in San Francisco with Mary Scott their graphic design director, Michael Osborne and fellow judge from Wells Fargo Bank creative, Michele Ronsen. We had dinner at Bix, I visited with design friends at 11 and MethodHome and even got around to judging and attending the opening of a very strong design show.

The quality of student work I saw at the Academy was beyond my expectation.  The level of thinking and quality of execution was beyond what I’m accustom to seeing at college level. Mary has that place on the right track and I’m looking forward to scanning their graduates. The alumni from the Academy are now scattered around, working everywhere from Nike and Disney to Tolleson Design and Cahan Associates. Our best of show award when to Cahan designer and alumni Erik Adams.

Learn more about the show and see more pics at The Academy of Art University site.

See more photo-booth candid captures from the opening on Flickr.

 I had never spent time in Houston before so when Alex Barber, the incoming president of the Art Directors Club of Houston, invited me to help judge submissions to the 53rd Annual Art Directors Club of Houston, I was there.

In some ways Houston was what I expected, a city shaped by the oil industry, big money and conservative politics. But it was also a place of cool surprises, risk-taking creativity and reinvention. The ADCH kept the five judges running all weekend. If we weren’t huddled in a print warehouse evaluating Houston’s creative work, we were eating BBQ or becoming best friends with Houston artists, print makers and designers. With a largely traditional client base, the ADCH has a vital purpose in the Houston design scene where a creative community helps in the role of inspiring, promoting and pushing. Especially critical when the marketplace itself isn’t doing the pushing for them. And let’s face it, the marketplace is rarely the driving force for new creative invention in the end.

The judges group was stellar. It included art director Michael Borosky from Eleven, photographer Jeffrey Brown, illustrator Sterling Hundley and web expert Molly Holzschlag. Saturday night was a blow-out event with Houston artist Wayne Gilbert, a painter and Houston original whose pigments are made from human remains.

The last morning I spotted a bar room sign on the side of the road, ripped-down recently by the devastation of hurricane Ike. 10 minutes after I’d said, “I’d love to have that sign”, ADCH leader Jamie Farquhar was on the phone to her brother, “Get your truck out to highway 56 where it jogs south – right now. I need you to pick up something for a friend of mine.”  I was getting another glimpse of what makes Houston. . . Houston.