University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

MEDIA RELEASE

CSUN’s Viscom Center’s Approach to Design: Young, Fresh and Green

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Oct. 29, 2007) — Barely two months old, Cal State Northridge’s Center for Visual Communication (Viscom) is moving directly into the fast lane of art design in the San Fernando Valley.

In fall 2007, Viscom had just opened its doors to clients seeking innovative design concepts when it entered a first-of-its-kind student competition—conceived and directed by Dailey and Associates Advertising of West Hollywood—to create commercials for the launch of the redesigned Ford Focus automobile.

The ad firm had approached CSUN and other regional private and public universities with an intriguing idea: each would create 30-second commercials for the Southern California launch of the Ford Motor Company’s youth-oriented Focus vehicle. Commercials are due in April 2008, and the winning concept will be aired during spring 2008 on local and regional television stations.

The project appealed to Viscom managing director Dave Moon and creative director Joe Bautista—even without the added plum of the $25,000 bright red 2008 Ford Focus CSUN will receive regardless of the competition’s outcome. Ford also will contribute a $2,500 scholarship fund to the center, Moon said.

Viscom’s young designers accepted the challenge with gusto, devoting long hours to brainstorming and storyboarding. "Ford is reaching out to us for a reason," said senior Chris ONeill of Chatsworth, one of the center’s core student members. "It realizes there’s something going on in schools; a fresh, unrestrained school of thought."

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen other projects from both on- and off-campus clients keep the creative sparks flying in the new studio. In approaching each one, the entire Viscom team applies a "green thought process." For the design of a Los Angeles City Fire Department brush clearance program information brochure, students are asking: Can it have a life after mailing, perhaps as a paper trash can? Can it be a self-mailer?

"We want to be known as the creative agency that is the San Fernando Valley’s sustainability provider," said Moon.

Money earned from client projects is plowed back into as many scholarships as possible for current students, and for outreach to community college transfer students and high school students, Moon said.

Viscom also hopes to act as a vehicle to "inform, educate and collaborate" with K–12 educators, eventually offering workshops to explore teaching "the possibilities of art."

To serve the center’s San Fernando Valley client base, Moon and Bautista are preparing globally competitive graduates by "adding another layer of skin to their repertoires" in the form of communication and presentation skills. Their formula: "nudge and prod and push," provide creative freedom and set expectations high.

Viscom students delight in exceeding those expectations. For a project commissioned on a Monday morning by The Illusion Factory in Woodland Hills, a gung-ho team came up with nearly 20 expertly formatted concepts by noon the next day. The pleased client’s check is on the way, Moon said.

"It’s not about the money," said senior Tiffany Olay of Canyon Country, though students receive a small fee as well as college credits for their work. "It’s about the experience. A year ago, I would have said ‘Wow! I’m graduating in December ’07 and what do I know?’ But now I feel I have all this experience and I can hit the ground running."

Like most of the Viscom core members, junior David Mascarina of Canyon Country is a major league multi-tasker. An experienced Web and graphic designer training at Viscom for a career as an art director/manager, he maintains the center’s Web site, leads all of its Web-based projects, holds down a campus job and still finds time to mentor other Viscom students.

"I feel great helping students achieve their educational goals," Mascarina said, "as well as being part of their career paths."

For more information, visit www.viscomcenter.com or call (818) 677-3022.

California State University, Northridge has 35,200 full- and part-time students and offers 62 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.