O-Launch Spotlights Student Talent with Campus-wide Exhibition, Fashion Show, and Open Studios

Otis College of Art and Design presented its annual O-Launch weekend on May 10–12, 2024. The event included a campus-wide exhibition of student work, and culminated with a commencement ceremony celebrating graduating students and this year’s honorary degree recipients, artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby and architect, urban planner, and Los Angeles Dodgers executive Janet Marie Smith.

Graduating students from Otis’s nine BFA programs—Animation, Environmental Design, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Game and Entertainment Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Product Design, and Toy Design—were present to discuss their work, which was displayed in galleries, showrooms, interactive displays, and digital presentations, as well as a runway show. In addition, MFA Fine Arts and MFA Graphic Design students hosted open studios during O-Launch weekend, offering an intimate view of their workspaces and creative output. Graduating MFA Fine Arts students, who each had solo exhibitions earlier in the year, also presented a selection of works in a group exhibition.

Friday night ended with the annual fashion show, which featured the work of junior and senior Fashion Design students in a full runway show of projects for mentors including Mike Amiri, Revolve, J. Crew, Blizzard Entertainment, and Katherine Ross/LACMA. The fashion show demonstrated the mastery of skills developed under the tutelage of these seasoned industry professionals over the course of the academic year.

Recruiters from such companies as Sony Pictures Animation,  Mattel, Solstiss, and NBC Universal ascended Ahmanson Hall, Galef Center for Fine Art, Mei-Lee Ney Design Studio, and the Anne Cole Building to meet and mingle with Otis graduates—future toy designers, illustrators, product designers, architects, fashion designers, painters, game designers, and more. 

Below are photos highlighting this year’s special event. 

All images photographed by Gina Cholick/Otis College of Art and Design.

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