ROXANE ZARGHAM—PRINT
UCLA Design, Media Arts Department (Los Angeles)
Working with a student team under the direction of professor Rebeca Méndez,
Roxane Zargham developed this award-winning identity system for the UCLA
Design/Media Arts department, which explores the intersections and divisions between
the disciplines of design and media arts. “We were trying to understand
whether the department offered a dichotomy or a whole that had two parts,” says
Zargham. As the project’s junior designer, Zargham churned out a prodigious three
posters a week, making the departmental printer “my best friend and my worst enemy.”
It’s been a good year for Zargham. In addition to being featured in
Building Design
Portfolios (available June 2006, Rockport Publishers), her work was selected for
the 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition and will be showcased in design museums
and exhibitions nationally. In her senior year, Zargham plans to apply to graduate
school, work at Mendez’ studio RMCD, and grow her own newly minted shop,
R&R Design.
MICAH GANSKE—DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Graduate of Yale University School of Art (New Haven)
Master’s in Painting
“I love games,” says Micah Ganske. “But you can’t look objectively at gaming and
not see the silliness as well.” Citing a video game that requires players to show up at
9 a.m.—in the game world—in order to drive around a forklift truck, Ganske is fascinated
with the idea that otherwise tedious responsibilities become immediately
engaging when put in a game environment. His award-winning digital photography
series anticipates a world in which virtual reality stands in for the actual one.
Although his creds point more to talent than fortune, the Yale grad says that “in
the last two months, I’ve been on a ridiculous lucky streak.” That includes a writeup
on his entry in The New York Times. “Painters,” he says, “we don’t really give out
a lot of awards, so [the ADAA] was probably the last awards ceremony I’ll go to.
But seeing my work in a lobby of the Guggenheim—you can’t beat that, right?”
OLD PEOPLE IN THEIR WAY
That ramp at the Guggenheim provided a functional
advantage at the ceremony on July 21,
2005, because the zinging kind of energy you
could feel that night needed a path on which
to ping up and down. But Adobe added fuel to
the fire by taking a few cues from the Academy
Awards. For one, tag-team masters of ceremony
Bologna and de Cumptich were, by a
long shot, more entertaining than either Billy
Crystal on a donkey or Jack Palance doing onearmed
push-ups. There was also an element of
Oscar-night suspense. Unlike in prior ceremonies,
when winners were prenotified, no one but
the 2005 jury knew which nine students would
later have to convince airport security that the
unwieldy, A-shaped trophy in their carry-on
bag was not intended for use as a weapon. The
anticipation kept finalists in a virtually manic
state of happy nervousness throughout their
visit to New York. And as it happens, students
weren’t the only ones who had something to be
nervous about. Ceremony host de Cumptich
puts it best: “The work is so fresh and young
and vibrant. When you see it, you’re just bedazzled,
and you’re thinking, ‘My God, when am I
going to lose my job?’ These are the people who
are going to burst through the gates and take
the jobs of all the old people in their way.”
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