Futbol Fashion Feature

Several Otis juniors in the Fashion Department are creating the new uniform designs for the Brazilian national soccer team. The project is being done in conjunction with Nike. Yesterday there was a fitting for the uniforms and local news channel KNBC4 was there to capture it!

Take a look:

Otis Fashion on KNBC4

Serving Up Support for the Santa Monica Musuem

Last week's Home section of the Los Angeles Times included this item- Otis alum Gajin Fujita was one of 12 artists commissioned by the Santa Monica Museum to create a limited edition plate in honor of the museum's 20th anniversary. At a cost of $2000 each set and with only 125 being made, it's doubtful that folks will be serving dinner on them though!

image from Los Angeles Times website by photographer Carlos Chavez

Juno May Get the Oscar but Otis May Get the Most Eyeballs

Shadowplay, the Los Angeles based studio created the opening title sequence for the multi-Oscar nominated film Juno. The sequence has received some buzz of its own including this interview with Shadowplay's co-founder Gareth Smith:

The Submarine Channel interview

Otis has worked with the folks at shawdowplay several times, most notably in the creation of our video "Discover Otis." They report that is one of the most viewed pieces on their site and it's been very successful for us!

One Year of Observing Otis

One year ago today I started The "O" Observed. It has been a wonderful experience to find and blog about Otis in the media, in museums and galleries and other places out in the world.

With a year's worth of posts I've only scratched the surface. For every post I make there are three more I could if I had more time.

I'm looking forward to another year of observing Otis and I hope you are too.

Cheers,

Marc

Otis in the OC and Endangered Species

This weekend I was at the Laguna Art Museum's Auction 100 event, which raised money for their exhibition and education programs. It was quite a fun evening and Otis was well represented with works sold from alums Billy Al Bengston, Sandow Birk, Kavin Buck, Adam Mars and Pattsi Valdez. In addition the evening's piece that fetched the highest price, nearly $30,000 was by another Otis alum, John Altoon.

I also caught the opening of the new group show Endangered Species at Santa Monica College's Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery (part of their new Performing Arts Center). It includes work by Otis grads Sarah Perry and Peter Zokosky along with Otis faculty member Robin Palanker. The show remains on view through March 8th.

John Altoon "Untitled" 1959

Motion Theory Magic

It seems like Motion Theory must be a pretty cool place to work. I should check in with Otis alum Cui Haozheng '06, who is an animator at the firm. With offices here in Venice as well as New York and Europe, they are able to work with a diverse set of clients including Beck, Hewlett Packard, Gatorade and Budweiser.

Probably the best description of what Motion Theory has done for the world of advertising comes from writer Diane Mehta in her story Loco Motion, which appears in the February issue of Fast Company magazine:

"Now it's leading a wave of New York- and L.A.- based companies that are reinventing the TV comericial, even the look of video itself, and changing the way advertisers and other clients connect with the public...no one blends those worlds better than Motion Theory, with its radically strange hybrid of live action, visual effects and 3-D animation."

When describing Otis' Digital Media program, I often use the phrase we are teaching our students to tell stories through motion. The work that Motion Theory does is an excellent example of what I've been trying to say. They have selected pieces on their website. If you only watch one, make it the video for Beck's song "Girl."

Enjoy!