62 Notable alumni of
Art Center College of Design
Updated:
The Art Center College of Design is 755th in the world, 279th in North America, and 258th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 62 notable alumni from the Art Center College of Design sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Michael Bay
- Occupations
- film directorfilm produceractorscreenwriterdirector
- Biography
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Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget high-concept action films with fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosions. The films he has directed include Bad Boys (1995) and its sequel Bad Boys II (2003), The Rock (1996), Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), the first five films in the Transformers film series, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), 6 Underground (2019), and Ambulance (2022). His films have grossed over US$7.8 billion worldwide, making him one of the most commercially successful directors in history.
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Mike Shinoda
- Occupations
- paintersingergraphic designerrecord producercomposer
- Biography
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Michael Kenji Shinoda is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's co-lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, primary songwriter and producer. Shinoda later created a hip-hop-driven side project, Fort Minor, in 2004. He has also served as a producer for tracks and albums by artists such as Lupe Fiasco, Styles of Beyond, and the X-Ecutioners.
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Evan Spiegel
- Occupations
- computer scientistentrepreneur
- Biography
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Evan Thomas Spiegel is an American-French businessman, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc. and VP of Product at Meta. Spiegel was the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015. As of August 2024, he had a personal net worth of $2.6 billion according to Forbes.
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Aldis Hodge
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actoractor
- Biography
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Aldis Alexander Basil Hodge is an American actor. Among his significant roles, he played Alec Hardison in the TNT series Leverage, MC Ren in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton, Levi Jackson in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, Noah in the WGN America series Underground, Matthew in Girlfriends, Jim Brown in the 2020 film One Night in Miami..., and Dr. Alex Cross in the Prime Video series Cross. He portrays Hawkman in the DC Film Black Adam and John Stewart / Green Lantern in the animated film Green Lantern: Beware My Power.
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Ariana Richards
- Occupations
- film actorpaintertelevision actoractor
- Biography
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Ariana Clarice Richards is an American painter and former actress. She is best known for her role as Lex Murphy in the blockbuster film Jurassic Park. Richards won several Young Artist Awards for her acting as a child, but as an adult has focused primarily on her art career.
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Joe Hahn
- Occupations
- rapperclub DJcomposerrecord producerdisc jockey
- Biography
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Joseph Hahn is an American musician, DJ, director, and visual artist best known as the DJ and creative director of the rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all eight of Linkin Park's albums. Hahn and bandmate Mike Shinoda are responsible for most of Linkin Park's album artwork. Hahn also directed many of the band's music videos.
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Yeon Jung-hoon
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actoractorsinger
- Biography
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Yeon Jung-hoon is a South Korean actor. He is best known for generational epic East of Eden (2008), crime procedural Vampire Prosecutor (2011-2012) and the domestically popular weekend drama Pots of Gold (2013). Outside of acting, Yeon hosted the first three seasons of Top Gear Korea, the South Korean version of the BBC show, and is a cast member of the popular variety-reality show 2 Days & 1 Night.
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Thomas Kinkade
- Occupations
- writerpainter
- Biography
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William Thomas Kinkade III was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for achieving success during his lifetime with the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products by means of the Thomas Kinkade Company. According to Kinkade's company, one in every 20 American homes owned a copy of one of his paintings.
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Franz von Holzhausen
- Occupations
- car designerengineerdesignerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Franz von Holzhausen is an American vehicle designer. Since 2008, he has been in charge of design at Tesla, Inc. He led design for the Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, Semi, Cybertruck, and Tesla Roadster (second generation). Prior to Tesla, he worked in design at Mazda, General Motors, and Volkswagen.
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Henrik Fisker
- Occupations
- businesspersondesigner
- Biography
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Henrik Fisker is a Danish automotive designer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, California, US. He is best known as the founder of Fisker Automotive and Fisker Inc, and as a designer of luxury cars. After working at BMW, Ford, and Aston Martin, Fisker founded Fisker Automotive in 2007. The company failed to meet production deadlines despite significant federal and private investment. Fisker resigned in 2013. The New York Times described the company as the "Solyndra of the electric car industry" and a "debacle". He is currently the CEO of Fisker Inc., which he co-founded with his wife in 2016; the company filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
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Syd Mead
- Occupations
- mechanical designerfilm directordesigner
- Biography
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Sydney Jay Mead was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist. He made designs for science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron. Mead has been described as "the artist who illustrates the future" and "one of the most influential concept artists and industrial designers of our time."
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Shadoe Stevens
- Occupations
- screenwriterradio personalityfilm producerfilm actorfilm director
- Biography
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Shadoe Stevens is an American radio host, voiceover actor, and television personality. He was the host of American Top 40 from 1988 to 1995. He currently hosts the internationally syndicated radio show Top of the World, and co-hosts Mental Radio, an approach to UFOs and paranormal topics. He was co-founder and creator of Sammy Hagar's rock station "Cabo Wabo Radio" which broadcast from the Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. In television, he was the announcer for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS and, as of July 2015, serves as the primary continuity announcer for the Antenna TV network. His voice can also be heard as the voiceover for "G.O.D." in the Off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz. Stevens is also often heard on Hits & Favorites, calling in at least once a week to share wisdom with his brother Richard Stevens and their friend Lori St. James.
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Chris Bangle
- Occupations
- designercar designer
- Biography
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Christopher Edward Bangle is an American automobile designer. Bangle is known best for his work as Chief of Design for BMW Group, where he was responsible for the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce motor cars.
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Bruce Sterling
- Occupations
- novelistscience fiction writerwriterfuturistliterary scholar
- Biography
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Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the Mirrorshades anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre.
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Mark Ryden
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
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Mark Ryden is an American painter who is considered to be part of the Lowbrow (or pop surrealist) art movement. He was dubbed "the god-father of pop surrealism" by Interview magazine. In 2015, Artnet named Ryden and his wife, painter Marion Peck, the king and queen of Pop Surrealism.
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Ralph McQuarrie
- Occupations
- designeractorillustrator
- Biography
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Ralph Angus McQuarrie was an American conceptual designer who worked in film and television. His career included work on the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the film Cocoon, for which he won an Academy Award.
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Drew Struzan
- Occupations
- illustratorpainter
- Biography
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Drew Struzan is an American artist, illustrator and cover designer. He is known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Harry Potter, and Star Wars film series. He has also painted album covers, collectibles, and book covers.
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Dave Goelz
- Occupations
- puppeteeractorvoice actor
- Biography
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David Charles Goelz is an American puppeteer and voice actor known for his work with the Muppets. He is best known for performing the characters Gonzo the Great, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot, and Beauregard. Goelz joined Jim Henson's Muppet team in 1973 and has been a key performer in many Muppet productions, including The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and various movies and television specials.
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Leonard Boyarsky
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- video game developergame designer
- Biography
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Leonard Boyarsky is an American computer game designer and visual artist. He is one of the key designers of the video games Fallout and Diablo III.
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Frank Stephenson
- Occupations
- designercar designer
- Biography
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Frank Stephenson is a Moroccan-born Spanish-American automobile designer who has worked for Ford, BMW, Mini, Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, and McLaren. He is best known for redesigning the Mini as the Mini Hatch.
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Ron Galella
- Occupations
- photographerphotojournalistpaparazzi
- Biography
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Ronald Edward Galella was an American photographer, known as a pioneer paparazzo. Dubbed "Paparazzo Extraordinaire" by Newsweek and "the Godfather of the U.S. paparazzi culture" by Time magazine and Vanity Fair, he is regarded by Harper's Bazaar as "arguably the most controversial paparazzo of all time". He photographed many celebrities out of the public eye and gained notice for his feuds with some of them, including Jacqueline Onassis and Marlon Brando. Despite the numerous controversies and claims of stalking, Galella's work was praised and exhibited in art galleries worldwide.
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Floyd Norman
- Enrolled in the Art Center College of Design
- Studied illustration
- Occupations
- animatorscreenwriterstoryboard artistfilm producer
- Biography
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Floyd E. Norman is an American animator, writer, and cartoonist. Over the course of his career, he has worked for various animation companies, among them Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar.
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Sam Liu
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- animatorfilm directorillustratortelevision directorcharacter designer
- Biography
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Sam Liu is an American animation producer, director, storyboard artist and character designer. He is best known for directing animated superhero films at both Marvel Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation.
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Marla Frazee
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writerillustrator
- Biography
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Marla Frazee is an American author and illustrator of children's literature. She has received three Caldecott Honors for picture book illustration.
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George Rodrigue
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
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George Rodrigue was an American artist who in the late 1960s began painting Louisiana landscapes, followed soon after by outdoor family gatherings and southwest Louisiana 19th-century and early 20th-century genre scenes. His paintings often include moss-clad oak trees, which are common to an area of French Louisiana known as Acadiana. In the mid-1990s Rodrigue's Blue Dog paintings, based on a Cajun legend called Loup-garou, catapulted him to worldwide fame.
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Yves Béhar
- Occupations
- entrepreneuruniversity teacherdesigner
- Biography
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Yves Béhar is a Swiss-born American designer, entrepreneur, and educator. He is the founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm. Béhar is also the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of August Smart Lock, a smart lock company acquired by Assa Abloy in 2017; and co-founder of Canopy, a co-working space based in San Francisco.
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Neville Page
- Occupations
- costume designermake-up artist
- Biography
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Neville Page is a British-American film and television creature and concept designer. Born in England, he was raised in Manchester, and Chicago, Illinois. He was inspired by science fiction, including Star Wars, and makeup artist Rick Baker's work in An American Werewolf in London. He graduated from Santana High School, Santee California, in 1983. Page moved to Hollywood at the age of 17, and gained roles as an actor. He graduated with honors in 1990 from the Art Center College of Design with a degree in industrial design, and went on to teach students in Switzerland. He focused his work on design consulting along with business partner Scott Robertson.
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Doug Aitken
- Occupations
- television producerprintmakerfilm directorcinematographerfilm editor
- Biography
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Doug Aitken is an American multidisciplinary artist. Aitken's body of work ranges from photography, print media, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to narrative films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, installations, and live performance. He currently lives in Venice, California, and New York City.
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John Hubley
- Occupations
- directorfilm directoranimator
- Biography
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John Kirkham Hubley was an American animated film director, art director, producer, and writer known for his work with the United Productions of America (UPA) and his own independent studio, Storyboard, Inc. (later renamed Hubley Studio). A pioneer and innovator in the American animation industry, Hubley pushed for more visually and emotionally complex films than those being produced by contemporaries like the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers Animation. He and his second wife, Faith Hubley (née Chestman), who he worked alongside from 1953 onward, were nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three.
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Sabo
- Years
- 1968-.. (age 57)
- Occupations
- musicianmuralist
- Biography
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Sabo is the pseudonym of a street artist formerly active in Los Angeles, California. His name derives from sabot, a weapon most commonly used in firearm or cannon ammunition. According to a 2015 interview with Adland, Sabo had been involved in street art since 1999, though he began to take his activity in the scene more seriously around 2008. Sabo's works have been critical of left-wing politics (and its prominence in the entertainment industry) and America's Democratic Party, claiming that "leftism is a mental disorder."
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Derek Jenkins
- Occupations
- car designer
- Biography
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Derek Jenkins is an American automobile designer. He is currently the senior vice president of design and brand at Lucid Motors. He is known for his contribution to the design of the Mazda MX-5 as well as the Lucid Air.
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Matthew Rolston
- Occupations
- directorwriterphotographermusic video directorcamera operator
- Biography
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Matthew Russell Rolston is an American artist, photographer, director and creative director, known for his lighting techniques and detailed approach to art direction and design. Rolston has been identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour.
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Richard MacDonald
- Occupations
- sculptor
- Biography
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Richard MacDonald is a California-based contemporary figurative artist known for his bronze sculptures and his association with Cirque Du Soleil.
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Miguel Galluzzi
- Occupations
- designer
- Biography
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Miguel Galluzzi is an industrial designer specializing in motorcycle design. Galluzzi currently heads Piaggio's Advanced Design Center (PADC) in Pasadena, California, where he manages the design of the Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi and Gilera motorcycle brands, working closely with the company's styling headquarters (Piaggio Group Style Center) in Italy as well as its research and development centers in China, India and Vietnam.
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John Glenn
- Born in
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United States - Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directorfilm producer
- Biography
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John Patrick Glenn is an American screenwriter, producer, and director.
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Dick Dean
- Years
- 1933-2008 (aged 75)
- Occupations
- car designer
- Biography
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Dick Dean, born Richard Dean Sawitskas [Sa-WITS-kas], was an American automobile designer and builder of custom cars.
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Anders Warming
- Years
- 1972-.. (age 53)
- Occupations
- car designer
- Biography
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Anders Warming is a Danish automotive designer who is the Director of Design at Rolls-Royce. He started his new job in July 2021. Formerly he has been the Chief Design Officer of Borgward. He was the chief of Design for the Mini division of BMW, but resigned in July 2016. Many 1st and 2nd Generation Mini owners disliked his styling approach for the third generation cars. The most often criticized design element was the front end, something many people called a 'fish mouth' due to its large oval grille and lip-like black plastic trim. Before working at Mini, he was the chief of exterior design for BMW from 2007 to the end of 2010. After leaving Mini, he joined Borgward and later started his own design firm. In 2020, he was invited to draw Hengchi 1,2 and 4, which the cars going to be produced next year. Hengchi is the brand of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Limited (a subsidiary of Evergrande Group)
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Michael Lin
- Enrolled in the Art Center College of Design
- In 1993 graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- video artistpaintertextile artist
- Biography
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Michael Lin is a Taiwanese artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium and Taipei, Taiwan. He was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Taiwan and the United States. Lin is considered a leading Taiwanese contemporary painter and conceptual artist.
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Wayne Fitzgerald
- Occupations
- designer
- Biography
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Wayne Fitzgerald was an American film title designer. Over a career that spanned 55 years, he designed close to five hundred motion picture and television main and end title sequences for top directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, John Huston, Mike Nichols, Robert Redford, Roman Polanski, Arthur Penn, Michael Cimino, Warren Beatty, Herbert Ross, John Hughes, and Quentin Tarantino.
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Saman Kesh
- Occupations
- film director
- Biography
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Saman Kesh is an Iranian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California, United States. He is known for his narrative music video work for notable artists such as Basement Jaxx, Calvin Harris, Kygo, Placebo,!!!, Vitalic, Apparat and Porter Robinson.
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Ko Rentmeester
- Occupations
- photographerphotojournalistwar photographerrowersports photographer
- Biography
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Jacobus Willem Rentmeester, nicknamed "Co" or "Ko", is a Dutch rower. He later became a photojournalist and covered the Vietnam War among other newsworthy events.
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Sharon Lockhart
- Occupations
- photographerfilm directorartistdocumentary filmmakervisual artist
- Biography
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Sharon Lockhart is an American artist whose work considers social subjects primarily through motion film and still photography, often engaging with communities to create work as part of long-term projects. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991 and her MFA from Art Center College of Design in 1993. She has been a Radcliffe fellow, a Guggenheim fellow, and a Rockefeller fellow. Her films and photographic work have been widely exhibited at international film festivals and in museums, cultural institutions, and galleries around the world. She was an associate professor at the University of Southern California's Roski School of Fine Arts, resigning from the school in August 2015 in response to the continued administrative turmoil at Roski to take a position at the California Institute for the Arts. Lockhart lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
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Satyendra Pakhale
- Occupations
- industrial designerarchitect
- Biography
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Satyendra Pakhalé is an international designer, artist, industrial designer, and architect.
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Zhenya Gershman
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
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Zhenya Gershman is an American painter and portraitist. She is known for her "dramatic monumental portraits of iconic public and private figures" and interest in art history.
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Andy Denzler
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
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Andy Denzler is a Swiss artist. His distinctive technique of distorting the freshly applied surface of his paintings has shaped his entire oeuvre in painting, printmaking, sculpture and drawing.
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AJ Dungo
- Born in
- United States
- Occupations
- surfercomics artistillustrator
- Biography
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AJ Dungo is an American surfer and illustrator known for his 2019 graphic novel In Waves. While writing In Waves, Dungo was a CMF designer for a footwear manufacturer. The book was originally an art school project about surfer Tom Blake, but expanded to include information on Duke Kahanamoku in what Surfer magazine calls "the creeping face of the commercialization of Hawaiian surf culture." While working on this project, Dungo's partner of eight years died from cancer and Dungo weaves his own grief into this surfing history book.
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Allen Kay
- Occupations
- manager
- Biography
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Allen Steven Kay was an American advertising executive and businessman. He created a television advertisement for Xerox that aired during the 1976 Super Bowl, featuring a monk called Dominic Kay is also known for his "See Something Say Something" advertising campaign for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Kay co-founded Korey Kay & Partners advertising in 1982 and served as its Chairman and CEO for 32 years. Kay was active in several advertising industry associations.
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John Casado
- Occupations
- photographerdesignergraphic designer
- Biography
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John Charles Casado is an American graphic designer, artist and photographer, best known for designing logos for the first Macintosh computer, Esprit, and New Line Cinema, as well as numerous album covers for the Doobie Brothers, Carole King, and others.
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LeUyen Pham
- Years
- 1973-.. (age 52)
- Occupations
- illustratorwriter
- Biography
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LeUyen Pham is a children's book illustrator and author. She has illustrated and written more than 120 books. In 2020, she won a Caldecott Honor for her illustrations in the book Bear Came Along.
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Lucky Kuswandi
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Lucky Kuswandi is an Indonesian director and screenwriter.
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Antigirl
- Occupations
- graphic designerpainter
- Biography
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Tiphanie Brooke, known professionally as Antigirl, is an American multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer, best known for her series of heart paintings, street art and collages.
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Roger Schlaifer
- Occupations
- inventordesignergraphic designer
- Biography
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Roger L. Schlaifer is an American graphic designer, writer, inventor and licensing agent. He is best known for his creative development and worldwide licensing of Cabbage Patch Kids and the name and works of Andy Warhol.
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Joe Doucet
- Occupations
- architectdesignerartistcontemporary artist
- Biography
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Joe Doucet is an American designer. His work has been displayed in the London Design Museum and the Sainte-Etienne International Design Biennale. He was the recipient of a Good Design Award in 2008 and the 2010 World Technology Award for Design. Doucet was also selected the first AvantGuardian for Design by Surface Magazine in 2009. He holds over 30 patents for designs and inventions.
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June Korea
- Years
- 1982-.. (age 43)
- Occupations
- photographer
- Biography
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June Korea is a New York–based visual artist and photographer. Sometimes, his works feature his sex doll Eva. He lives with Eva, his silicon sex doll for his photographic project. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He and his sex doll have attracted attraction from the media and has been featured in different media publications worldwide.
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April Lee
- Years
- 1982-.. (age 43)
- Occupations
- illustratorartist
- Biography
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April Lee is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games, collectible card games, and PC games.
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Gordon Smedt
- Occupations
- artist
- Biography
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Gordon Keith Smedt is an American painter from the San Francisco Bay Area. Smedt is known for his Pop art portraits of inanimate objects. His work is characterized by bold, colorful depictions of everyday objects on large canvases. He lives and works in Los Gatos, California.
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Ferne Jacobs
- Occupations
- artisttextile artist
- Biography
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Ferne Jacobs, who is also known as Ferne K. Jacobs and Ferne Kent Jacobs is an American fiber artist and basket maker.
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Rebeca Mendez
- Enrolled in the Art Center College of Design
- Graduated with Master of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- artistdesigneracademic
- Biography
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Rebeca Méndez is a Mexican-American artist, graphic designer and photographer. She is a professor at UCLA Design Media Arts in Los Angeles, California, and since July 2020 is chair of the department, as well as the founder and director of the Counterforce Lab. She has won the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Communication Design in 2012, the AIGA Medal in 2017, and induction to the One Club Hall of Fame in 2017. Rebeca is the only woman ever to have received all three of these awards, while Bob Greenberg from R/GA is the only man to have received all of them.
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Shirley Tse
- Occupations
- visual artist
- Biography
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Shirley Tse is a U.S. contemporary artist based in California. Her art is often installation-based, employing sculpture, photography and/or video that may function as stand-alone works or in relation to one another. She explores conceptual themes including plasticity, multiplicity and multi-dimensional thinking, balancing attention to the physical attributes of raw materials, craft, form and socio-political issues such as global mobility, social negotiation and sustainability. Critic Doug Harvey wrote that Tse has "continually produc elegant and idiosyncratic artifacts that engage the audience formally, while producing a convincing mash-up of late modernist sculptural concerns and something between identity politics and autobiography."
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Bobbie Moline-Kramer
- Occupations
- artist
- Biography
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Bobbie Moline-Kramer is an American artist, lecturer, teacher, and illustrator. Her work includes Japanese Shunga style paintings, gestural abstraction, animal symbolism, and realism.
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Denise Gonzales Crisp
- Biography
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Denise Gonzales Crisp is a graphic designer, writer, and professor of graphic design at North Carolina State University College of Design, where she currently directs the graduate program. She holds a M.F.A. in graphic design from the California Institute of the Arts and a B.F.A. from Art Center College of Design.
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John Parra
- Occupations
- illustrator
- Biography
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John Parra is an American illustrator. Parra's books have received awards including the Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book Award, Golden Kite Award, Christopher Award, and an International Latino Book Award. He has additionally worked as an illustrator for corporate marketing campaigns and as an art instructor.
