That’s where Lindsay Curicio, Attorney at Law and Adjunct Professor, New York Law School, can help clarify the process, identity common problems and mistakes and provide strategies on how best to navigate an at best anxious experience. If this sounds like you, you need to be at this last Breakfast Club of the season: your career depends on it!

Lindsay A. Curcio, Attorney
Lindsay  has practiced immigration law since 1990. She is a sole practitioner in Brooklyn, New York and an adjunct professor at New York Law School. Her practice includes employment-based and family-based nonimmigrant and immigrant visas as well as waivers, removal defense, U.S. citizenship issues and naturalization. With Lenni Benson, Veronica Jeffers and Stephen Yale-Loehr, she is a co-author of Immigration and Nationality Law: Problems and Strategies (LexisNexis). She is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and serves on committees for the national office, New York Chapter and Rome District Chapter.  She was co-director of New York Law School’s Justice Action Center’s Safe Passage Immigration Project from 2007 to 2012. Lindsay has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Northwestern University, a juris doctor degree from IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law, an MBA (concentration in marketing with international business designation) from Fordham University and an LLM in Transnational Commercial Practice at the Center for International Legal Studies/Lazarski University. Lindsay may be reached via her Facebook page or Twitter @lindsayvisa.

To learn more about the specifics of the program, hear from current mentors and have all your questions answered, join us on Tuesday, June 10th for an information session.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Founded in 1993, the AIGA/NY Mentoring Program’s mission is to provide creative youth with opportunities and tools to achieve their goals. The program pairs volunteer chapter members with talented students from the New York City High School of Art and Design.

The Mentoring Program kicks off every fall and gives professionals the chance to make a difference in the life of an ambitious young artist. Mentors and students are asked to make a 3-year commitment — with pairs meeting in the student’s sophomore year and continuing through graduation. Mentor student pairs meet one-on-one with a goal of spending four hours together every month. Pairs are invited to participate in planned programming but are also encouraged to meet independently to develop a relationship that is uniquely suited to them. The program provides opportunities for students and mentors to attend unique events with leaders in the industry. Past partners have included, Debbie Millman, Michael Bierut, James Victore, Triboro Design, Etsy, The Green Patriot Poster project and World Studio.

The High School of Art and Design is one of New York City’s many specialty high schools. Students are accepted to the school after submitting a portfolio at the end of middle school. The students that elect to participate in the program are driven and excited by the arts. The high school has a wide range of majors from Graphic Design, to Illustration, Fashion Design and Architecture. The AIGA/NY Mentoring Program works with students in all majors.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

New mentor applications are due on June 30th, 2014. You can jump start the application process by filling out and submitting your application at the event.

RSVP HERE

At Carbone Smolan Agency, we believe big challenges are solved through design, and we pride ourselves on being an invaluable partner to the growth of great brands. For over 35 years, CSA has crafted identity and design systems that balance substance with style for a world class clientele.

Invitation design by: Carbone Smolan Agency

JUNE 4 MIX IS HOSTED BY:

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR!

We will resume our regular posts in the Fall Season to bring you the latest and greatest happenings in the NYC design community. Get in touch if you’d like to suggest an event. Have a great summer! See you in the Fall!

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Pecha Kucha-style, students from MICA MFA Graphic Design, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, Parsons MFA Design + Technology, Parsons MFA Transdisciplinary, Pratt MFA Comm-D, RISD MFA Graphic Design, SVA’s MFA Design, MFA Interaction Design, MFA Design Criticism, and MPS Branding, Cranbrook MFA Design, and Yale MFA Graphic Design will gather at the Parsons auditorium and take five minutes to dazzle the audience and each other with wonders from their graduate projects.

Jesse Ragan and Juliette Cezzar will co-host. This year, like the last four, it’s a date on the AIGA/NY calendar not to be missed!

STUDENTS PRESENTING:

Chiara Bajardi, SVA Design
Amy-Nicole Dosen, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Sameer Farooq, RISD
Su Hyun Kim, NYU ITP
Alejandro Largo, SVA Branding
Or Leviteh, Parsons Design & Technology
Martha McGill, Yale
Anne Quito, SVA D-Crit
Emma Sherwood-Forbes, MICA
Alexander Todaro, SVA IxD
Lauren Wong, Parsons Transdiciplinary
Diego Zaks, Pratt Communications Design

THIS LECTURE SERIES IS SUPPORTED BY:

Be sure to check back every Monday for a fresh list of events.

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May 25–May 31, 2014

1/ Validating Product Ideas with Quick and Simple Experiments
Grace Ng, Co-Founder of Javelin.com, will share a structured process for designing effective experiments, and talk about some of the common pitfalls and challenges teams face when running experiments in their companies.
When: Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 6pm–9pm
Where: Etsy 55 Washington Street, Floor 7, Brooklyn, NY
Price: $10 NYCUXPA members, $5 students, $20 general public

2/ Dan Rhatigan / Gill Sans after Gill
Dan Rhatigan is a type director at Monotype, based in New York. He works on custom type development projects and consults on typographic issues with customers, and from time to time he gives talks about type and typography.
When: Thursday, May 29, 2014, 6:30pm–8:30pm
Where: Type Directors Club, 347 West 36th Street #603, NYC
Price: Free and open to the public

3/ See, Make, Sip
A multi-sensory experience where you travel through the galleries. Make art along the way, then sip custom-mixed cocktails while listening to live music.
When: Thursday, May 29, 2014, 7pm–9:30pm
Where: Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
Price: $15, includes museum admission

4/ A Party for Bob Newman
The Friends of Bob Newman community is pleased to announce an online benefit auction featuring the work of dozens of top illustrators and photographers, with all proceeds going to benefit Bob Newman and his family.
When: Thursday, May 29, 2014, 6:30pm–8:30pm
Where: Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NYC
Price: Free and open to the public

5/ Bruce Nauman: The True Artist Book Launch and Conversation with Peter Plagens and Carlos Basualdo
Celebrate the release of Bruce Nauman: The True Artist , one of the most innovative, provocative, and influential artists working today. Always questioning the role of the artist and the very definition of art, Nauman’s pioneering explorations of sculpture, performance, sound, video, and installation have broken new ground and inspired innumerable artists’ careers.
When: Thursday, May 29, 2014, 7pm
Where: The New Museum Theater, 235 Bowery, NYC
Price: $8 New Museum members, $10 general public

6/ Introduction to Robofont
Dan Rhatigan is a type director at Monotype, based in New York. He works on custom type development projects and consults on typographic issues with customers, and from time to time he gives talks about type and typography.
When: Friday, May 30, 2014, 9:30am–5pm
Where: Type Directors Club, 347 West 36th Street #603, NYC
Price: $275 TDC members, $350 general public

Working within the art and culture sector, their multidisciplinary practice focuses on publications, custom typography, graphic identities, and websites. Recent clients include BOMB magazine, Cabinet magazine, Studio Voltaire, Studio Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Verso Books, and Futurepoem. In 2012, ‘Curiosity and Method: Ten Years of Cabinet Magazine’ was featured in book and cover categories of Design Observer’s 50 Books / 50 Covers. Tom currently teaches a Senior Thesis class at Parsons, The New School.

OWNER AT SELF: ADAPTIVE AND INNOVATIVE DESIGN PRACTICES
Economic and technological upheavals of the last few years have challenged traditional notions of the design office. The Great Recession has made overhead a liability and long-term contracts less accessible; social media and the proliferation of image blogs allow designers to gain sizable followings overnight; and the desire to create meaningful and self-directed work has encouraged designers to look beyond billable hours to other forms of recompense.

In addition to showing their work, the designers featured in Owner at Self will share the adaptive and innovative strategies they’ve developed that allow them to make the work they want to make. Some initiate their own projects while others form geographically dispersed partnerships; some seek out alternative funding sources while others adapt their professional lives to their personal ones; all are taking the entrepreneurial risk to build practices that new conditions require.

THIS SERIES IS PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH:

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May 18–May 24, 2014

1/ International Contemporary Furniture Fair
International Contemporary Furniture Fair is one of the largest and the most important show that showcases a wide and exclusive range of furniture and home decoration accessories. Events survey contemporary design’s current best and brightest.
When: May 17–20, 2014
Where: Jacob Javits Convention Center, NYC
Price: Various admission prices

2/ Positioning Strategy with Jennifer Rittner
Jennifer Rittner leads a positioning workshop in which participants will work collaboratively to develop the positioning strategy for a model design firm.
When: Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 6:30pm–8:30pm
Where: School of Visual Arts Branding Studio, 132 West 21st Street, 11th Floor, NYC
Price: Free Spark members, $25 general public

3/ Anthony Casalena
Networking and fireside chat with Anthony Casalena, the Founder and CEO of Squarespace, which he started from his dorm room in 2003.
When: Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 6pm–9pm
Where: AOL, 770 Broadway, 4th Floor, NYC
Price: $20 general public

4/ Snøhetta’s Design by Social Democracy
Snøhetta is an international design firm with offices in Oslo, Norway and New York City. Since its inception, the practice has maintained its original trans-disciplinary approach, integrating architectural, landscape, graphic design and interior design in all of its projects.
When: Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 6:30pm–8:30pm
Where: RAB Lighting Studio 535 West 24th Street 6th Floor, NYC
Price: $10 AIGA members, $30 general public

5/ MicroVisions
Richard Anderson, Steve Belledin, Nicolas Delort, Eric Fortune, Robert Hunt, Greg Manchess, Iain McCaig, Tran Nguyen, and Karla Ortiz are featured in an exhibition and an auction to raise money for the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Fund.
When: Opening Reception Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 6pm–10pm; ongoing through May 24
Where: Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NYC
Price: Free and open to the public

6/ Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself
A presentation and book signing of Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself, illustrated by Allen Crawford.
When: Opening Reception Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 6:30pm–8:30pm
Where: Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NYC
Price: $10 SI members, $7 students/seniors, $15 general public

7/ Dare2Draw
Dare2Draw is a mentoring and networking platform for all artists, an opportunity to connect with each other, face-to-face and to encourage good health and business practices for cartoonists. Special Mentoring Guest Artist: Bill Plympton. 90 minutes of dynamic figure drawing with live-action models and props.
When: Thursday, May 22, 2014, 6pm–9:30pm
Where: Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NYC
Price: $15 in advance, $20 at the door

8/ Kelly Hoey: WIM, Women Innovate Mobile
Networking and fireside chat Kelly Hoey, co-founder of Women Innovate Mobile (WIM), the first seed stage startup accelerator program for mobile tech ventures with gender diverse founding teams.
When: Thursday, May 22, 2014, 6pm–9:30pm
Where: Startup Grind, NYC
Price: $20 general public

Blechman was as a winner of the Rome Prize, a fellowship awarded by the American Academy of Art in Rome, “the Rome prize means you get five things…room, board, excellent food, a stipend, a studio, and freedom — freedom from all the chores that make up daily life,” Blechman explained.

Blechman’s wife and five-year-old son traveled to Rome with him, and all three treasured being somewhere different, away from their repetitive life in New York City. Instead of a quick sandwich at his desk, Blechman lunched at a long table in the American Academy’s arched courtyard. Blechman’s cluttered office was replaced by a huge studio space. And in contrast to New York’s hum of modernity and constant change, the city of Rome was infused with its connection to antiquity. “It felt like we were in a time machine going in only one direction — into the past,” said Blechman. “There’s always a story, and there’s always a past, to everything in Rome.”

Blechman’s primary project during the fellowship was to research and visualize food chains. “The food chain has become extremely complicated, because every time we eat something it sets off another chain of events. I wanted to somehow map this out,” he said.

His first endeavor was a study of how olive oil is made. He made his own olive oil straight from the olives growing on trees at the American Academy. Blechman described the process of harvesting olives from the trees and transporting them to a small, family-own mill to be cleaned, crushed, and separated into oil, water and pits. The pits were burned in the furnace to heat the building, and the excess water was used to water the trees outside. “It’s a completely self-sustaining,” said Blechman. “They don’t do it because they want to be tagged as ‘green’ — it’s just a more efficient way of working.”

Next, he studied industrial-scale olive oil making, a process rife with imported olives, and questionable oil blends. He turned these findings into a New York Times op-art piece, Food Chains: Extra Virgin Suicide.

Next, Blechman shared Food Chains: Planet Pasta about the Barilla, the world’s largest pasta factory, and illustrations of his research into Parmesan cheese production in Parma.

Lastly, Blechman showed off his two children’s books: Night Light is a guessing game, a counting tool, and a set of graphic illustrations of vehicles, and Animal Kingdom, a compendium of illustrated facts about animals. Following the talk, attendees who had pre-ordered copies of Animal Kingdom had the opportunity to have their books signed by the author.

When asked whether he planned to turn his ‘Food Chain’ work into a book, Blechman answered, “I have no idea!. That would be awfully nice, but right now I’m just focused on creating as many of these as possible, and on doing more research. That was the fun thing about working on this project in Rome: I had no idea how it would be used. It was more about creating a body of work around a certain topic.”

Additional Information:

Nicholas Blechman
The Rome Prize
Food Chains: Extra Virgin Suicide
Food Chains: Planet Pasta
Night Light
Animal Kingdom

Event Details:
AIGA/NY Nicholas Blechman: Food Chains

Event Photos:

Click here to view all photos from AIGA/NY Nicholas Blechman: Food Chains on Flickr.
To view additional photos, or to contribute your photos, visit our AIGA New York Flickr group.

Special thanks to contributing writer Karen Vanderbilt for the AIGA/NY Breakfast Club: All the Tricks in the Book event recap and photos. Karen can be found at karenvanderbilt.com, @k_vanderbilt and Studio Kudos.

Red Hook team
Presenting: Alicia Cheng and Anke Stohlmann (designers)
Community Partners: TBD

Rockaway team
Presenting: Danielle Aubert (designer) and Daniel Latorre (community engagement strategist)
Community Partners: Sophia Skeans (Rockaway Artists Alliance) and TBD (Rockaway Youth Task Force)

Seaport team
Presenting: Yeju Choi (designer) and Francesca Birks (community engagement strategist)
Community Partners: Catherine Hughes (Community Board 1) and Sheri Signer (South Street Seaport Museum)

DESIGN/RELIEF INITIATIVE IS SUPPORTED BY:

THIS EVENT IS PART OF: