Now that Tim Marshall has been kicked upstairs to serve a term as interim provost of The New School, Joel Towers has been appointed to fill the decanal post at Parsons The New School for Design, also on an interim…
So long, RISD and hello, MCAD! Jay Coogan, the former provost of the Rhode Island School of Design, has been named the 16th president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Coogan will take office in July, succeeding retiring president Michael O’Keefe. Among Coogan’s achievements during his 25-year career at RISD were establishing a dual degree program with Brown University, leading initiatives to link RISD with the greater Providence community, and spearheading the development of the Center for Integrative Technologies, a new interdisciplinary facility to provide studio space for graduate students. At MCAD, he’ll focus on “strengthening the College’s regional connections, building new partnerships, and elevating MCAD’s reputation as a leader in discovering and developing creative talent,” according to a statement issued by the school.
When not leading educational institutions, Coogan is an artist himself. His sculptural work includes this zippy sculptural frieze, a 1998 commission for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Want to get on his good side? Try wearing a fedora. “For many years, hats, in particular fedoras, have been an image basis for many of my sculptures,” notes Coogan on his RISD profile page. “I came to using hats from doing a number of sculptures involving hats, shoes, and gloves, all of which cover the extremities of the body. The hat suggested the most evocative range of interpretations as it is a natural surrogate for the mind.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
If you were wondering where ex-Google designer Douglas Bowman would head next after his widely-circulated blog post about his former company’s design issues, you need wait no longer, as the rumors wound up being true and this past month’s most talked about web celebrity has taken a job with Twitter. Bowman will be taking on the role as the company’s creative director, meaning he’ll be the main guy in charge of picking out what shades of blue things should be. Here’s a bit from BusinessWeek:
Bowman will replace [Biz Stone], who was acting as Twitter’s creative director. “The Twitter Web page looks pretty simple,” says Stone. “But from our perspective the design needs a lot of work.”
This is a great hire for Twitter, and more proof that Twitter has replaced Facebook as the tech industry’s hottest startup. Bowman probably could have joined Facebook if he wanted. But the talented designer, who used to work at Wired News, clearly sees a bigger opportunity at Twitter, not only from a design perspective but perhaps from a monetary one as well.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
Is the future of fashion magazines online? Joseph Ungoco seems to think so. The former style director of Zink has just left the magazine to become the editorial director of the fashion website WhatsWear.com. Ungoco has been pursuing opportunities in the digital media world since last fall, when the planned relaunch of Zink‘s website was indefinitely postponed. We caught up with Ungoco (and literally ran into him this afternoon at the Ports 1961 show) to get the scoop on his mid-Fashion Week move, his view on the role of digital media in the fashion world, and of course, his favorite fall shows.
(Photo: Katy Winn/Getty Images for IMG)
Why did you decide to leave Zink?
The 24/7 demands of feeding a web-based news monster preclude my working full time in print. In addition, I have long wanted to have access to a more immediate medium to disseminate the type of information—breaking and short-lead time fashion news—that a print magazine with a static website that is only updated once a month cannot accommodate.
I had spent this past summer working double full-time on the redesign of Zink‘s website. The new site was planned to launch during New York Fashion Week last September, but because of financial difficulties we were not able to accomplish that goal. We had planned to create a more dynamic website that could serve as a fashion news portal and incorporated a social networking element for players in fashion photography: models, hair stylists, makeup artists, photographers, and fashion designers and stylists. I hope to be able to put my expertise in these areas to work in my new endeavor.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
“After eight wonderful years directing the Rubell Family Collection in Miami a new adventure has begun,” Mark Coetzee tells us. What’s next for the Johannesburg-born curator, scholar, and artist? Directing creative pursuits at Puma, the “Sportlifestyle” brand owned by French retail conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute. Coetzee has been appointed program director of PUMAVision and chief curator of puma.creative.
“PUMAVision is PUMA’s way of uniting all initiatives that come under the heading ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and giving them a coherent direction and framework,” said PUMA Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz in a statement issued by the company. “It comes from a vision of a world that is better than the one we know now—a world that is safer, more peaceful and more creative. Through the programs of puma.safe (focusing on environmental and social issues), puma.peace (supporting global peace), and puma.creative (supporting artists and creative organizations), that vision becomes practical reality.” Coetzee will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, where he will expand puma.creative projects planned in Africa and help Puma gear up for the 2010 World Cup, which will take place in South Africa.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
Architectural historian, educator, and curator Bruce Ambler Boucher (pictured at right) has been appointed director of the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville. March 1 will be his first day on the job. Since 2002, Boucher has been the curator of European sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also happens to be an expert on 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, which just might have helped cinch the director’s job, as Thomas Jefferson (UVA’s founder) was a huge Palladio fan. “I look forward to joining the University of Virginia both because of its great reputation and because of the opportunities that its art museum offers,” Boucher said in a statement issued by UVA. “The museum is an important part of the Jeffersonian ideals of this university, and it will be an honor to work with the museum’s excellent staff in determining its future path.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
Back in early 2007, we had the chance to sit down with automotive design legend and General Motors‘ vice chairman Robert Lutz, who went on and on, in his very jovial but firmly-grounded way, about how design was the only way to save the company (and you tend to listen very closely to a man who helped deliver to the world one of the greatest cars ever: the BWM 2002). But while his hopes that the company had a new future ahead of it, the financial ruin of the company he was now helping to lead seems just outside the crystal ball for everyone in the industry. Now, apparently fed up with the whole business, he has announced that he will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Surely this is another sign that G.M. has a very, very tough road ahead. Here’s a bit with the specifics:
Mr. Lutz will give up his duties as head of global product development on April 1, but will remain a vice chairman and senior adviser until the end of the year.
G.M. said its board has elected Thomas Stephens, currently an executive vice president for engines and quality, to be Mr. Lutz’s successor.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
You’d think that Old Navy, Gap’s bargain-priced little brother, would thrive in a poor economy—surely, the time is right for twelve-dollar sweaters for the whole family. Not so much. In December, comparable store sales at Old Navy were down 16%, compared to 8% last year. And so Gap Inc. is bringing back Mark Breitbard, who left the company in 2005 for posts at Abercrombie and Fitch (where he launched its Banana Republic-esque Ruehl brand) and then Levi Strauss & Co. (where he headed up the retail division). Breitbard will return to Gap Inc. as chief merchandising and creative officer leading design and merchandising at Old Navy.
Reporting directly to Old Navy president Tom Wyatt, Breitbard “will guide product strategy for the brand from design conception to product assortment through to its final presentation in stores,” said the company in a statement issued yesterday. From 1997 through 2005, Breitbard held a variety of merchandising roles at Old Navy, Gap, and Banana Republic ultimately serving as a senior vice president. No word as to what this appointment might mean for Todd Oldham‘s role as Old Navy creative director.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
Over to Las Vegas now, a city we don’t discuss all that often. As you likely could have guessed, the economic storm that created this whole financial mess we’re in now has hit the city just as hard as it has everywhere else. But sometimes the timing of something is just a coincidence, floating alongside a national trend. Such is the case with the Wynn Resorts company, which has just laid off 53 employees from their design department now that the hotel and casino chain has completed work on their latest Las Vegas offering, the Encore, which opened in late December and thus, no longer requires a full staff. So a lay off not due to economic woes, but handled with a heavy heart none the less, considering how tough the job market is. Here’s a bit:
John Littell, president and chief operating officer of Wynn Design and Development, said in a Wednesday statement that the layoffs were difficult, but the result of Encore being completed.
…The company says the layoffs trim the design and development staff to 76, with the laid off workers receiving full compensation and benefits for 60 days.
Speaking of Wynn and Vegas, we recommend going back to reading this post about Joel Bergman, Wynn’s former design man, wherein he talks about both about working within Wynn’s company and how the city will handle these tough times.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
Keep your eye on Money, the country’s most widely circulated financial publication, because Kate Elazegui (pictured at left) has just joined the Time Inc.-published magazine as director of design. Today was her first day on the job.
In a memo sent to his staff yesterday, Craig Matters, managing editor of Money, announced Elazegui’s appointment and provided a run-down of her experience. “An expert packager with a knack for taking complex material and making it inviting to readers, Kate will bring her formidable talents—recognized repeatedly by SPD, ASME, and editors who have worked with her—to Money.” After four years as art director of New York, Elazegui decamped last year to now defunct Radar, where she was design director.
Meanwhile, Money art director Davia Smith will leave the magazine at the end of the month. In his memo, Matters lauded Smith’s “design vision and hard work over the past four-plus years” as having been “crucial to the success of Money‘s consumer franchise.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
