Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1985
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
7
Graphic artist shares ideas with students
By Jill White Of the Kansan staff
Breaking the norm and mixing contrasting elements of graphic design create a successful magazine spread, Elton Robinson, public affairs art director of Exxon Corp.'s stockholder magazine, said in a lecture last night that capped his third day at the University.
Nearly 200 people attended the Hallmark Symposium Series lecture in the Spencer Museum Auditorium. Robinson also was on campus Saturday and Sunday to conduct a lecture for visiting lecturer Rick Cusick's class, VISC 436, Publication and Editorial Design.
Robinson, who has worked for the Lamp, Exxon's stockholder magazine, for the past eight years, showed slides of his work from his early career with Horizon magazine to his current work.
"It's fun to go against the grain a little and perhaps ask a fashion photographer to photograph sea shells, or send an artist to cover something that a photographer would cover." Robinson said.
"I always try to make people look at one picture a little harder by comparing and contrasting it to what is on the other page."
Robinson said he often accomplish
ed the comparison/contrast effect by placing lifeless or colorless subjects in black and white photography next to color photographs of more colorful subjects.
Robinson was not always interested in graphic design. His first interest, which he said began as a seventh grader, was industrial design. In 1955, he received a bachelor's degree in industrial design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
He switched areas in visual communication and studied with Paul Rand and Bradbury Thompson, typography and graphic design instructors at Yale University, New Haven, Conn. He received a master's degree in graphic arts in 1957.
Thomas Allen, Hallmark professor of illustration, said Robinson was a successful art director and was "highly respected in the design profession."
"His use of image and type is outstanding." Allen said. "He's one of the best partly because his choice of artists is very good. He uses artists who bring something of themselves to their work."
Robinson's first job was with Horizon as an assistant art director. He worked next as a free-lance art director for Art in America magazine. After working as the art director for Holiday magazine he
joined Time Inc. and was the art director of Fortune and People magazines and art director of special projects for Life magazine. In 1977, Robinson became the public affairs director for the Lamp. He also designs Exxon's annual reports.
Cusick said the two workshops conducted by Robinson were interesting because they were "truly working workshops."
"The idea was to use two different approaches in design that looked complementary because of the typography and structure," Cusick
"A lot of times students get an assignment for a workshop in advance and then the artist just comes and critiques it," Cusick said. "But Robinson wanted to be in on the formative stages of the project."
Cusick said students designed two magazine spreads, using themselves as the subject matter. One spread was supposed to summarize a week in their lives and the other was a self-portrait.
said. "I thought it was very successful. "It is a wonderful experience for students and very beneficial for talk to these people like Robinson."
Duane Michals, Teresa Fasolino, John McConnell and Elton Robinson may not be household names to most KU students. But students in visual communications have become familiar with these nationally and internationally known illustrators and graphic designers.
By Jill White Of the Kansan staff
Symposium benefits students
Jerry Moore, associate dean of fine arts, said, "It has greatly enhanced our program."
But had Hallmark Cards Inc. not agreed in 1983 to finance the $90,000-a-year Hallmark Symposium Series to expose design students to leaders in visual communications, students may not have had the opportunity to meet those expert artists.
The Hallmark series sponsors seven speakers and four workshops every semester, bringing in such people as photographer Michals, illustrator Fasolo, artist designer McConnell and art director Robinson.
"Students get a picture of what it is like out there and where their talents might be utilized."
"Being here in the middle of America and away from the city where all the communication and publishing companies are, it seemed even more necessary to have input from professionals all over the world," said Thomas Allen, KU's Hallmark professor of illustration.
Hallmark first helped visual communications at the University by financing a visiting professor of illustration in 1980, Moore said.
He said KU conducted a national search for an il-
instrutor and hired John Collier, an illustrator from Pawling, N.Y., at that time.
- mink they needed help," said Collier, who now operates a studio at his home, 2309 Willow Creek Lane. "They didn't have much of a program and having exposure to someone who's working in the field is really good. All the little things you need to know to get a job, top talk, 'you just can't know unless you're in the field.'
In 1982 Collier was replaced by Allen, who had been chairman of design at Syracuse University, Syracuse.
Allen said he taught a course at Syracuse in which he scheduled well-known designers to lecture to students. He established a similar course at KU, VISC 520, Hallmark Symposium Series.
Moore said that in spring 1983, an evaluation committee suggested changes for KU's visual communications that included additional faculty, enlarging darkroom space and typesetting equipment.
Besides bringing in artists, the Hallmark Symposium Series also sponsors two workshops a semester. Elton Robinson conducted a workshop Saturday and Sunday. Bob Parker, an illustrator from West Cornwall, Conn., will conduct a workshop next week. The director of CBS, conducted a workshop last fall.
Allen said. "They not only get to hear these people, they get to have first hand workshop experience with these people. It's invaluable.
"It gives students contact with people out there who might give them a job some day. It's a connection they can use."
Kansas and Japan will discuss trade
The Associated Press
TOPEKA - In an effort to shed light on the trade relationship between the United States and Japan, a trade conference will be held Friday, Nov. 15 in Wichita, Gov. John Carl announced yesterday.
Carlin said Nobu Matsumaga, ambassador of Japan, would be a special guest at the conference, which is billed as "Kansas-Japan Agricultural Trade: Current Prospects, Future Potential." Both Matsumaga and Carlin will be keynote speakers at the luncheon.
This marks the first time Kansas has been selected.
The conference, sponsored by the Kansas Board of Agriculture and the Japan Economic Institute of America Inc., is designed to offer insights into the complex world of the job that is scheduled to last the entire day.
The Japan Economic Institute has held 16 other trade conferences and each time has invited a state to discuss significant issues related to trade with that nation.
"This conference should be of special interest because of growing importance and attention to trade relations between the United States and Japan." Carlin said in prepared remarks.
The schedule calls for a number of experts from the Japanese and American governments, and from the private sector, to take active roles in the conference.
Those tentatively expected to address the conference include: Ll. Gov. Tom Docking; William Barnds, president of the Japan Economic Institute; Kazuya Kodama, president of the Mitsui Grain Co.; Phillip Holloway, an official of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service; Adrian Polansky, a Belleville farmer; Hiroshi Usui, of the Japan Agricultural Co-ops; and Peter Stettler, executive vice president of Garnac Grain in Overland Park.
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KU zoologist praises state's heritage
kinko's
Kansans who enjoy travel must grow a thick skin to endure the insults that smug Easterners and those oh-so-sophisticated Californians use to slander our home on the range.
Joseph Collins, a zoologist at the Museum of Natural History, said yesterday that "Natural Kansas" described the land, water, weather and creatures of the past and present that compose the state's natural heritage.
A KU zoologist grew tired of all the ribbing. so he helped to write a book extolling the heritage all Kansans share, but so many ignore.
By Bob Tinsley Of the Kansan staff
"Kansas is, because of its position in the U.S. and because of its physical features, a very tranquile state," Collins said. "And because it has very
"The array of temperatures we have recorded here is just stunning." have recorded here is just stunning.
And Much More!
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The mercury topped out at 121 degrees at Fredonia and at Alton in July 1936. A bitter 40 degrees below zero was recorded at Lebanon in February 1905.
"Yeah, you Californians and New Yorkers, take a look at that monster on the plains," he said, pointing to a stunning photograph of a tornado featured in the book.
submitted photographs for the book.
Collins said selecting photos from more than 5,000 he received was the most difficult part of compiling "Natural Kansas." He took 21 of the 107 photos that appear in the book.
Anyone with an eye to the sky or an ear for the ever-present Kansas wind may be impressed by the awesome power of nature in the state. Collins said the chapter on weather was one he found particularly interesting.
Readers who open "Natural Kansas" expecting to find pheasant or carp among the wildlife included in the book will have to look elsewhere. The two species were introduced into the state and therefore are not part of its natural heritage. Kansas, he said, has its own native counterpart to the pheasant — the prairie chicken.
"Sure we're the Land of Oz, but Dorothy wanted to come back to the Land of Oz really bad," he said. "She saw the big city and didn't like it."
Obviously, he considers himself a Kansan now, clear through to the heels of his Western boots. He said many of his fellow Kansans suffered from an inferiority complex about a home they ought to be praising.
few people in comparison to other
groups, a lot of its natural
heritage intact.
"This book celebrates that hostage, and that's what I want to it."
Collins said Kansas was a place where someone could go to watch fiery sunsets in complete solitude. Varying from the arid dune country of the southwest to the undulating loveliness of the Flint Hills in the east, his description of the state is a
panorama of stark contrasts.
Collins said Kansas once was home to the mountain lion, grizzly and black bears and the gray Wolf. Some species, such as the river otter, pronghorn antelope and elk were emerging once again, he said. Others, such as the mountain lion, could be resurrected, too, he said.
The tornado photo was taken near Gove by Sheila Beougher, who was one of 27 Kansas photographers who
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