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Gina Manola
Education
MFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
BFA The College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY
I have been working in the field of graphic design for 15 years and currently run my own business CALICO, www.calico-kids.com. The focus of CALICO is to provide design and marketing services to publishers and developers for the children's market. Calico also designs and develops marketing collateral and products for the adult trade and gift markets, although it's the design work for kids that makes up the bulk of my business. I have recently begun to develop games and other proprietary products that I am working to bring to market. My client base includes publishers, toy companies, packagers and marketing firms.
Design Matters
Design plays an important role in our daily lives. Successful designers are sought after by companies looking to marry a designer's equity with their store's brand. Retailers devote enormous resources to build their brands around designer products. Because of their marketing efforts, the public is more attuned than ever to how design influences our lives. Specialty mass retailers like Target, Pottery Barn, West Elm, The Gap and Crate & Barrel have built their businesses by promoting the message that design matters. Whether or not these retailers' aesthetic, moral and cultural messages resonate with you individually, it is still worth noting the way in which design is used as a key selling feature of these brands. On a personal level, look within your own environment. Who is speaking to you? Whose messages are reaching you and whose aren't?
We live in an image world. Everywhere you go there are messages competing for your attention—some of the messages are successful, some are not. Developing a sensitivity to visual messages as well as the ability to interpret and analyze their content will help you to create engaging and relevant visual communication.
Parkland College will help you begin the work of building your own visual language of design and well as develop the critical skills needed to hone those ideas. You will learn to conceptualize and communicate the fundamentals of design as well as develop the necessary software skills to powerfully communicate those ideas.
Under the Influence
- Designers: Seymour Chwast, Tibor Kalman and Paul Rand.
- Artists: Phillip Guston, Louise Bourgeois, Luc Tuymans, Jessica Stockholder, Fairfield Porter, Annette Messager, Jonathan Lasker, Gerhard Richter,
Brice Marden, Elizabeth Peyton, Mark Rothko and on. - Poets: Dan Chiasson, Sarah Manguso, Albert Goldbarth, Bill Knott, Jennifer Knox, Bob Hicok and Frank Bidart.
- Directors: Eric Rohmer, Ingmar Bergman and John Cassavetes.
- Musicians: Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, Radiohead, The Remains, Bonnie Prince Billy, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Zombies, The Fall, and more.
- Media Critics and Philosophers : Sut Jahlly, Jean Baudrillard, Naomi Klein
and Slavoj Zizek.
Last updated: <11/7/09 • Webmaster: Paul Young