The 2008 Art Center Design Conference: Serious Play Opens in Just Under Three Weeks

Art Center College of Design has announced the first-ever hands-on Serious Play Studios. These studios provide a rare opportunity to all Conference attendees to learn directly from the Conference speakers, Art Center faculty, and top design practitioners. Bringing together some of the greatest inventors, designers, tech wizards, architects and artists of our time, this three-day international gathering will explore the key role of "play" in creativity and innovation - in business, the arts, technology, and more.

This year's Conference will be an immersive experience for everyone attending. The Serious Play Studios will span a wide variety of topics and will include:

* Make a Map of Your Life, led by designer/artist Paula Scher and Art Center faculty member Sean Adams
* Reinvention: Tools of Today for Innovations of Tomorrow with inventor/hacker Pablos Holman
* Alphabet City: Letterpress Studio led by Art Center's Archetype Press director Gloria Kondrup
* Explain Yourself: Learn to Draw What You Know with master illustrator David Macaulay
* Playing Seriously: Airport Security with IDEO's Tim Brown
* Silkscreen Studio led by Art Center Printmaking Lab director Tony Zepeda



Tim Brown, CEO and President of the renowned innovation and design firm IDEO, will open the Conference with the keynote presentation. Over 25 design luminaries, emerging leaders, and internationally known speakers will present their stories over the three-day gathering, including:

* George Smoot, Nobel Prize-winning cosmologist
* Helen Hood Scheer, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker
* Michael Curry, Tony-award winning puppet master
* Elizabeth Diller, Mac Arthur prize-winning architect
* David Macaulay , Caldecott medal-winning author
* Paula Scher, Mac Arthur prize-winning architect
* Pablos Holman, inventor and hacker
* Michael Bierut, blogger, author, designer
* John Oliver, correspondent, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
* Stuart Brown, Director, The National Institute for Play
* Petra Blaisse, interior and landscape designer
* Michael Moschen, kinetic artist
* Robert Lang, origami virtuoso
* John Maeda, President-elect, Rhode Island School of Design
* Aimee Mullins, athlete and artist
* Irene Au, user experience designer, Google
* Charles Elachi, Director, Jet Propulsion Lab
* Will Beall, LAPD homicide detective, author
* Philip Rosedale, creator, Second Life
* John Hockenberry, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist as Master of Ceremonies.

The Conference will once again feature luncheon roundtables with Conference speakers, special guests, and Art Center leaders.

The 2008 Art Center Design Conference is presented by Richard Koshalek, President, Art Center College of Design, and Erica Clark, Senior Vice President, International Initiatives. Guest Program Director is Chee Pearlman.

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