11 01 2015 AAU Newspaper

san francisco | academy of art university |

November 2015 volume 2 | page 17

Style Digital tools for fashion media instructor Kate Nakamura. Courtesy of Kate Nakamura.

INSIDE

Digital tools: New course teaches students digital techniques to help them get ahead in the fashion world. Page 18.

Cynthia Durcanin: Straight from the Parisian fashion world, the founding editor of ELLE.com helps launch students into the world of fashion journalism. Page 19.

page 18 | November 2015 volume 2 | academy of art university | san francisco

STYLE DIGITAL TOOLS FOR FASHION MEDIA

Fashion journalism course teaches digital style

By Sasha Leon Digital tools are having a moment. With the speed of the Internet and its ever-growing dimensions come new ways to implement digital tools into new outlets—from the social media campaigns we see everyday in our Instagram newsfeed to fashion magazines, e-commerce sites and the lookbooks we drool over.

FSH 168 Digital Tools for Fashion Media is a new course offered by the Academy of Art University fashion journalism program designed, in partnership with the fashion styling program, to teach students how to execute and apply the digital techniques needed to accomplish solid and appealing fashion spreads for portfolios, magazines, lookbooks, fashion editorials and other fashion media using industry-staple programs like Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

As the main creative supplier for print media, Adobe programs now serve a bigger purpose than magazines and posterized advertisements.

“A future career in fashion media for a journalist or a stylist requires a strong foundation of digital tools that are widely used across the industry. This course will help students understand design aesthetics and practice showcasing creative works via impactful media spreads,” explained Timothy Harrison, online instructor for the FSH 168 course.

Harrison worked in design and advertising for years before taking on a teaching

career at the Academy. Art direction for various agencies, big and small, is something he enjoys. He has contributed to advertising campaigns for Barack Obama’s first presidential run, Kraft, Post’s Honey Bunches of Oats, Dupont, JP Morgan Chase, Depesha magazine, Strivectin, College board, UNICEF, Coca-Cola and many others.

“More and more these days we are seeing fashion campaigns with additional visual design elements that add energy and an added level of creativity, that together tell a powerful story,’’ Harrison added. “Employing typography, illustration, colored shapes or other graphic elements transform the fashion spread into [a] much more visually engaging presentation. Knowing programs like InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, and how they can contribute to creating design centric work, is imperative for professional success.”

Technology is taking fashion content production by storm, making a beautiful juxtaposition of the virtual and physical characteristics of the fashion sphere. From the text to the photography and everything in between (shapes, text size, decoration boxes) the layouts created for fashion—whether it’s an editorial, a magazine spread, an advertising campaign or a sale banner—work together to create a visually appealing story that makes sense from beginning to end: artistically and tastefully inspiring.

“In regards to design, the way that titles and copy are placed on visuals (be it illustrative/fine art or pho-

Digital tools for fashion media instructor Kate Nakamura. Courtesy of Kate Nakamura. tographic) can either emphasize or change the mood of the overall piece. Letters are art forms in their own right, and carry their own moods and associations,” said Kate Nakamura, onsite instructor for digital tools for fashion media.

Having studied fine art before getting her bachelor’s degree in web design and new media at the Academy, Nakamura, who considers herself a visual designer and illustrator, found a correla-

tion between the conceptual and the digital world. She is also the main layout designer for 180 Magazine, the flagship publication produced by the Academy’s School of Fashion.

Nakamura emphasizes the reality that all School of Fashion majors can benefit tremendously from this course. Today, not only fashion journalists and stylists can profit from a technical course like this one; it potentially benefits everyone involved in the fashion industry.

“I see digital tools being used everywhere,” Nakamura said.

The digital tools for fashion media classes emphasize the creative expansion that the Adobe programs have incorporated into the fashion scene. Adobe programs work together as one umbrella of suite programs that complement one another to form a cohesive digital work of art— moodboards, look-books, magazine articles, fashion editorials, advertising campaigns, the giant W letter on the cover of W magazine—all have one thing in common: the place they were created and designed in.

Beyond the techniques acquired in this invaluable course are the experiences, advice and mentorship that the instructors at the Academy provide. Nakamura sums it up: “I think knowledge of digital tools is extremely important for all avenues of fashion. Especially with the emphasis placed on digital/social media in today’s culture, being able to translate your fashion sense into a visual design is key.”

Sign up today for FSH 168 Digital Tools for Fashion Media onsite or online by visiting: https://catalog.academyart.edu/catalog?0

Digital tools for fashion media online instructor Timothy Harrison and his pug, Russell. Courtesy of Timothy Harrison.

Sasha Leon is a B.A. fashion journalism student.

san francisco | academy of art university |

November 2015 volume 2 | page 19

STYLE CYNTHIA DURCANIN

Founding editor of ELLE.com joins the Academy’s fashion journalism program

By Faye Harris

Cynthia Durcanin, who began teaching this fall at Academy of Art University as an on-site, part-time instructor, has reported for Esquire, The Wall Street Journal Europe and Travel & Leisure magazine.

After many years in news reporting, she then moved into the world of Parisian fashion as the founding editor of Elle.com.

One of Durcanin’s goals teaching at the Academy is to provide as much real world experience as possible, preparing students for demanding editorial situations. In class exercises such as writing on a deadline and collaborative role playing allow students to overcome fears, think on their feet and be persuasive. “Knowing

the fundamentals of good reporting and writing will empower you to write about anything,” she said.

Durcanin journeyed into the world of Parisian fashion, working at ELLE magazine, where she launched the publication’s first international, English language website, Elle. com. This was when the Internet was still in its early days. However, Durcanin’s career hasn’t always been in fashion. She reported on Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and covered the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Newspaper reporting is where she learned her foundational skills. Her editors “were demanding and always pushed for more,” she said.

“Just when I thought my story answered every conceivable

question they asked even tougher questions!”

Durcanin’s class, FSH 617, can be seen as a launch pad into fashion journalism, whether students desire to be a fashion journalist, blogger, editor or public relations professional.

Current student, Tyler Drinnen said, “Cynthia is a perfect fit because her professional experience and inspirational background helps guide students towards their dream careers.”

Q&A with Cynthia Durcanin

Q: What’s important about fashion journalism today?

A: Today’s fashion journalists are still obsessed with design, but are also addressing questions of race, politics, technology, ethics and gender.

The course provides the

necessary skills to work in the industry, but also looks at fashion from a cultural perspective beyond the runway and why that matters.

Q: How did you discover that you wanted to be a journalist?

A: As a child, I loved reading the newspaper and knew at age nine that I wanted to be a journalist. I began writing for my high school newspaper, then college paper, basically for anyone who would let me. I wrote my first “real” article during an internship at a tire trade magazine. I knew absolutely nothing about tires when I accepted the internship and ended up writing a cover story on all season radial tires!

Q: Working as a content director for LVMH allowed

you to attend some major fashion shows in Paris and New York. What was that like?

A: When I worked at eLuxury, an upscale e-tail site owned by LVMH, I accompanied buyers on trips to New York and Paris. We would see John Galliano’s over the top collections for Dior on the runway, then go to the boutique the next day. The buyers would then dissect the collection for market, selecting looks for real women. They were like number crunching psychologists; it was absolutely fascinating and so educational.

Q: You were the founding editor of Elle.com in Paris, what a dream position!

What were the fashion dotcom sites like back then?

A: The magazine was king and many people at the helm did not think a website could be taken seriously.

And yet a small division at the company had the vision and knew we had to be there.

I worked with Elle editors in 32 countries sharing content and had a lot of editorial freedom because there was no existing road map.

For the first time, readers could go to a universal Elle website and read in English about trends in Sweden, Argentina or China. Today the pendulum has swung and print magazines depend more than ever on their websites.

Q: What was it like to work as a fashion journalist in Paris? Did you speak French?

A: I spoke bad high school French when I arrived in Paris, and I spent my first month taking an intensive language class at Alliance Francaise. At home I listened to a lot of dubbed episodes of Peter Falk as Columbo. At work I sat in on meetings where I only understood half of what was happening, by the end of day I was exhausted. So I can really empathize with our ESL students. You just have to get over your fear of seeming stupid and ask the “stupid questions.”

Q: Do you have a mantra you live by?

A: True happiness lies just outside your comfort zone.

Academy of Art University instructor Cynthia Durcanin. Photo by Tina Chen, M.A. fashion journalism student.

Faye Harris is a M.A. fashion journalism student.