This iteration of the California Institute of the Arts website was launched on Oct. 16, 2024. It was conceived, designed, and developed with input and insight from scores of students, faculty, staff, and alumni and visual design from the CalArts-alumni team at Handbuilt Studio.
The project was jointly led by the divisions of Marketing and Communications, Enrollment Management, and CalArts Information Technology, with our agency partner, NewCity.
With few exceptions, the images, artwork, video, audio, and other media presented on this site are the work of CalArts students, faculty, or alums. The content is produced by CalArts’ in-house creative team. The site is designed in compliance with WCAG international accessibility standards.
We make every effort to ensure the content on this site is accurate. If you notice an error or would like to report an issue, please use the button below. The Institute reserves the right to make changes in faculty, curricular structures, courses, schedules, requirements, and policies.
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About the visual design
When considering the visual design for this site, we turned to those who understand us best: our alumni. Juliette Bellocq (Art MFA 00), Brooke Irish (Art MFA 14), and Makena Janssen (Art MFA 22) comprise Handbuilt Studio, a small firm based in Downtown Los Angeles. Bringing their firsthand knowledge of CalArts and considerable design chops to this project, they conceived the design language you’ll find throughout these pages.
Part of their charge was to develop a look and feel for the site that conveys the experience of the full breadth of the arts that make up the Institute. What they provided is a flexible visual language kit that, in their words:
- shares the sensorial experience of learning at CalArts in a palpable way;
- invites user engagement and exploration; and
- embraces accessibility and abundance.
It is also anchored by a rich conceptual underpinning that embraces CalArts’ distinctive position as a multidisciplinary community of artists, with multiple metiers gathered under one roof.
The visual patterns you find woven throughout this site began as sound. Specifically, a passage from Ted Taforo’s (Music MFA 14) Mahmoud’s Moon Mood, featured on the CalArts Jazz 25th Annual CD (available for your listening pleasure at the CalArts Jazz Archive). Through a process of digital sound modulation, music became pattern, sound became seen, and a design language that embraces image, sound, and movement became the graphic foundation of the site.
Acknowledgements
Countless CalArtians contributed to this project in the year leading up to its launch: the Web Content Working Group, a cohort of representatives from each of the schools and divisions; CalArts’ shared-governance bodies—the Institute Council, Academic Council, Staff Council, Student Union, and Faculty Senate; the faculty, staff, and students who filled out surveys and provided interviews; the Graphic Design program faculty; the IDEA Office; the deans, program directors, and leaders who contributed the particular perspectives of each of their areas; and President Ravi Rajan.
The core project team was led by Allan Chen, Michael Elgarico, and Ann Wiens and included Daniel In, Andreea Kosa, Emily Lytle-Painter, Stuart Smith, Chevonne Totten-Garner, and Christine Ziemba, with Marketing and Communications and CAIT staff members Jen Boshers, Kris James, Dre Nelson, Denise Nelson, Debbie Stears, Lily Yeh, and Taya Zoormandan contributing.
Photography by Rafael Hernandez and videography by Nico Savignano unless noted otherwise.
This project was made possible by the generosity of a very special friend of CalArts, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Copyright
© 2024 California Institute of the Arts. All Rights Reserved. No material on this site may be reproduced in part or whole, including electronically, without permission of CalArts’ Communications office.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
CalArts respects the intellectual property rights of artists and others. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement and is accessible on calarts.edu, you may notify our designated DMCA agent, as set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). To be effective, the notification must be in writing and contain the following information:
- Your complete contact information (full name, mailing address, phone, email)
- A clear description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed
- A description of the material you claim is infringing and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material on our site, including the specific URL or other location on the site where the material is found
- A declaration that:
- you have a good-faith belief that use of the copyrighted content described above, in the manner you have complained of, is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
- the information in your notice is accurate
- under penalty of perjury, you are the owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright that is allegedly infringed
- Your electronic signature or physical signature
Notices should be sent to:
Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan, General Counsel
California Institute of the Arts
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355