Festival of The Kite

Image by Sumiko Yamashita 2012by: Jonathan TaylorFor over forty years Los Angeles has brought local as well as traveling families to its sandy beaches for the annual Festival of the Kite. This event is completely free of charge and will be held at the Redondo Pier on Sunday March 9th 5pm. As this is one of the longest-running kite festivals in Southern California, the Sunshine Kite Company and the...

App Review: Venmo

The Smartphone's Paypal It's 2014 and we are still awkwardly fumbling for cash when splitting checks or paying back friends; sometimes it's too tiring to remember a debt after ten separate excuses of, “I haven't been to the bank yet.” In an age when we're doing everything on our phones, isn't it about time to dust our hands of IOU's as well? Now, there's an app that seeks to remedy the hassle of cheques...

Game Review: Flappy Bird

The 28 Day Wonder Even with its removal from the App Store, Flappy Bird remains a prominent hot topic around the world, perhaps even more so due to its untimely death.  It was part of an amazing phenomenon swirling around simple game mechanics, simple visuals--simple everything--that had millions hooked internationally.Dong Nguyen, creator of the international hit game, says that he took the...

A Few Memories of Shirley...

“My mom had me in curls because of Shirley! All 56 curls!” “I love that she kept such a level head. No Lindsay Lohan meltdowns.” “I can still hear the Lollipop song in my head!” “When my parents had a cocktail before dinner, I had a Shirley Temple." “I remember putting animal crackers in my soup…but it didn’t taste very good.” “My grandma had a Shirley Temple...

The Creative Economy Breakdown

Since 2007 Otis has produced an annual presentation and report on the state of the economy in regards to creativity in the job market. A selection of very large companies attend these presentations including Nike, Mattel, Apple, YouTube, etc. Los Angeles is home to more people working in the creative industries than any other city in the United States and the world. In recognition of this, the goal...

Art & Drugs?

Honest thoughts and questions of a design student on the drug use and abuse in the creative field. On the morning of Sunday, February 2nd, I woke up to sorrowful news: The actor Philip Seymour Hoffman had been found dead in his New York apartment. First, I couldn’t believe that this amazing, talented, Oscar-winning actor’s life really came to an end after only 46 years. I was sure it was just a hoax...

Happy New Year!

Preparing dumplingsLast Thursday, theChinese and Korean community welcomed another new year. Lunar New Year or Spring Festival. It is now the Year of the Wooden Horse! Chinese and Koreans have historically used animals to mark each New Year. There are twelve of them: rat, oz, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. There are many fairy tales that provide an explanation...

CALLING ALL LOVE STORIES!

Valentine's Day is all about love. But a good love story is timeless. Where would we be without Romeo & Juliet or Katniss & Peeta or Kim & Kanye?So, whether you are happy because you've met your soul mate and you'll never have to troll another meat market or sad because you've lost the only person who'll love you even when you're having a tantrum worthy of a toddler, we are calling...

Are We Really Doing Plus Size Couture?

Isabel and Ruben ToledoJoin us as we journey through the Otis Fashion Campus and explore the new concept of designing for plus-size models instead of the idealized model.  That’s right no more, skinny, everything fits models. This time they must face reality. Do you remember this yellow outfit worn by Michelle Obama in 2009 during Obama’s inauguration parade? This outfit was designed by Isabel...

Single on Valentine's Day?

As art and design students, we are taught to walk around with our eyes open. At Otis, there is always a lot to observe: art in progress, interesting people, different languages and much more. But let me be honest with you guys: all I see on campus are couples everywhere! And of course, all of them are just so happy.As one might guess, I am single. Most of the time, I don’t really care about my or...

Sisters Before Misters : A Crit of Frozen

Disney has been criticized in the past for their extremely conservative and traditional values. Values that say woman are reliant on men for their identity and romantic love is something that one must "fall into." However, recently Disney has taken a turn for the better with the addition of a new princess film, the Academy Award nominated Frozen. Before Frozen came out, I found one of their promotional...