Letters Spring 2023

Spring is a celebratory season at Otis College. While students finish classes and their final projects, the entire campus is preparing to showcase their achievements during O-Launch, a weekend of festivities across the College including Annual Exhibition, Fashion Show, and Commencement.

O-Launch kicks off on Friday, May 12 with an industry preview connecting graduating students with employers in Los Angeles followed by an opening reception to celebrate and experience the work of our graduates. The evening culminates in the Fashion Design department’s annual Fashion Show, presented in the Commons of our Goldsmith campus in West Los Angeles. 

On Saturday, May 13 the College will welcome students, families, and the general public to Annual Exhibition. This campus-wide event showcases the work of graduating students across the College’s BFA and MFA programs in Communication Arts (Illustration/Graphic Design), Digital Media (Animation/Game and Entertainment Design), Environmental Design, Fine Arts, Fashion Design, Product Design, and Toy Design. 

O-Launch concludes with Commencement on Sunday, May 14, when we will bestow honorary degrees on this​ year’s inspiring special guests: entertainment executive Miky Lee, who is the Vice Chairwoman of CJ Group, and architect Kulapat Yantrasast, the founder of WHY Architecture. (Be sure to read The Otis Interview with Lee in this issue of GRID.) The commencement ceremony will take place at El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium and will be livestreamed on our Commencement website. 

Earlier in May, we will host the second annual Otis Atelier fundraiser. The event will honor celebrated fashion stylist and creative director Jason Bolden and includes a fashion show featuring select work by Otis Fashion Design seniors created under the direction of renowned professional mentors. All proceeds from the fundraiser directly support scholarships for first generation students. 

We look forward to seeing you at O-Launch! As this issue of GRID at Otis College illustrates, we have many exciting developments on the horizon. We’re grateful for our alumni and partners who are committed to advancing Otis, and we hope to celebrate the next generation of artists and designers with you! 

Sincerely, 

Charles Hirschhorn, President

Jiseon Lee Isbara, Provost

It doesn’t take much to realize that spring is upon us—the superblooms are so big they can be seen from space!—and this is abundantly apparent in the studios and classrooms at Otis College, where seniors are furiously working toward the finish line that is O-Launch weekend, when their final projects will be displayed for all to see. 

It’s also been an exciting year at Otis due to several partnerships with industry leading companies and creatives that are providing students with real-life experience before they graduate. Writer Lisa Butterworth spoke with several key people behind these collaborations for the spring issue of GRID at Otis College and wrote about how mutually beneficial these relationships are. “Partnering with these students is a great way for us to find inspiration and helps us think differently,” says Heidi Gonzalez, Director of Product Development at furniture company Jonathan Louis, which expanded its partnership with Otis to the Product Design department after first working with Otis Design Lab on several projects. 

The Access: A Netflix x Otis Entertainment Certificate Program is another remarkable project years in the making that will enroll its first cohort of 18 students this Fall. At the heart of the program is providing students the practical, technical, and creative experience needed for jobs in entertainment marketing, a field where alumna and Trustee Dawn Baillie (’86 BFA Communication Arts, Illustration) has thrived as co-founder of creative agency BLT Communications. Baillie spoke to writer Eva Recinos about this amazing program, which you can read in this issue of GRID. 

Also not to be missed in this issue is my interview with Miky Lee, this year’s commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, who, as vice-chairwoman of Korea’s CJ Group, has been instrumental in bringing Korean music, film, and culture to the United States. The Hollywood Reporter calls her the “most important mogul in South Korean entertainment.” “I want to support talented artists who are able to share their voice with the world. I always want to say to people, ‘Here is the bridge I have built, use it, and reach the other side,’” says the visionary in our interview. 

This spring issue of GRID is also brimming with essential new work featured in Alumni Spotlights, including Melanie Abrantes (’12 BFA Product Design), Asia Eng (’07 BFA Communication Arts, Illustration), Gajin Fujita (’97 BFA Fine Arts), Marsha Hopkins (’97 BFA Fine Arts, ’02 MFA Writing), and Danh Tran (’06 BFA Fashion Design). We hope you are inspired by their ingenuity and vision. 

Thank you for taking a moment to read this Spring issue of GRID. In the fall, look out for a new home for our longform storytelling. Until then, enjoy spring and see you at O-Launch!

Anna Raya

Editorial Director