Design Week / LA is an annual celebration of design that inspires and brings together Los Angeles’ abundant and vital design communities by promoting a wider awareness of design through initiatives and programming that highlight the richness and diversity

AIA/LA Design Awards Exhibition 2010

China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910-1970

Start:October 9, 2010
End:October 17, 2010
Venue:Pacific Asia Museum
Phone:(626) 449-2742
Address: Google Map 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA, United States, 91101

China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910-1970 demonstrates how political ideologies and cultural values are transmitted via everyday objects, with a selection of over 100 iconic pieces. The exhibition focuses on the creation of advertising images, along with commodities, and things made for the modern home in two main periods: ‘Cosmopolitan Capitalism: Shanghai Under the Republic, 1910-1949? and ‘A Revolution in Culture: Designing the People’s Republic, 1949-1970?.

Viewers will start at the late Qing Dynasty, when there were New Year woodblock prints in every household. From there, they will journey through the streets of Shanghai, the commercial/cultural center of the Republic Era, where western-style modernity was embraced by the elite and started to influence Chinese cinema, music, advertisements, fashion, and publishing.

Next, they will move on to the People’s Republic of China and explore how the Communist Party used popular culture as a mean to spread the new ideology and consolidate power. Propaganda posters, plays, and operas were used to promote political campaigns, such as the “Hundred Flowers Campaign” or “The Long March” The campaigns peaked during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when the image of Chairman Mao could be found everywhere from the Politburo to everyday household items, such as teapots. This section will begin in a town square setting where political slogans and propaganda are mounted. Then, viewers will be invited into a household where day-to-day items, such as eating utensils, appliances, and toys, are displayed.

After learning about these two main periods in 20th century graphic design in China, the exhibition will invite viewers to consider the period from the end of the 1970s to the present. Designers have propelled the known popular vocabulary to a new height: the image of Chairman Mao is no longer used merely to promote political ideology but to promote products, and Shanghai modern beauties have been revived to sell teas, cosmetics, and fashions.

Guest Curator: Kalim Winata

Through February 6, 2011, at the Pacific Asia Museum
http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org

California Design Biennial 2010: Action/Reaction

Start:October 9, 2010 12:00 pm
End:October 10, 2010 5:00 pm
Venue:Pasadena Museum of California Art
Address: Google Map 490 East Union Street, Pasadena, CA, United States, 91101

Building on the success of previous biennials, the PMCA presents a new format for the 2010 California Design Biennial (CDB). Whereas past CDBs were juried competitions, this year, the PMCA invited a notable design professional to curate each category in response to a theme, Action/Reaction, which describes designs that respond to current events, whether sociopolitical or economic, in a creative or innovative way. Rose Apodaca curates Fashion; Stewart Reed curates Transportation Design; Louise Sandhaus curates Graphic Design; Alissa Walker curates Product Design; and for the first time in CDB history, Architecture is included as a category, curated by Frances Anderton.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

http://www.pmcaonline.org/exhibits/52/index.html

10th Annual International Powers of Ten Day

The Eames Office announces with pleasure the Tenth Annual International Powers of Ten Day on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10). Powers of Ten Day promotes and encourages Powers of Ten Thinking, a form of rich, cross-disciplinary thought that approaches ideas from multiple interrelated perspectives, ranging from the infinitesimal to the cosmic—and the orders of magnitude in between.

http://www.powersof10.com/

Canstruction LA

Start: October 15, 2010 8:00 am
End:October 16, 2010 6:00 pm
Venue:Directly across from LACMA
Address: 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

Teams of architects, designers, builders, and engineers design and create huge structures made only out of cans of food. After the exhibit the cans are donated to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank.  

When: October 15th to November 6th
Monday – Sunday, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.

How: One can at a time
The public is invited to view the structures and encouraged to cans of food and/or monetary donations. The structure with the most monetary donations will win the Cheri Melillo People’s Choice Award.

Why: To fight hunger and raise awareness.
Los Angeles Regional Foodbank is a nonprofit, charitable organization that has been serving the disadvantaged of our community since 1973. The Foodbank is at the heart of a charitable food distribution network that includes over 550 charitable agencies with more than 900 sites in Los Angeles County.