Otis College of Art and Design

2
Case study | Otis College of Art and Design
Preparation for real-world
art and design
Founded in 1918, Otis prepares diverse
students of art and design to enrich our world
through their creativity, their skill, and their
vision.Thecollegeoersaninterdisciplinary
education for nearly 1,100 full-time students,
awarding BFA degrees in advertising,
architecture/landscape/interiors, digital media,
fashion design, graphic design, illustration,
product design, painting, photography,
sculpture/new genres, and toy design; and
MFAdegreesinnearts,graphicdesign,public
practice, and writing.
Technologyisacriticalelementinevery
student’seducation.“Ineachmajor,weask
whatplatformgivesstudentstheexibilityto
work on a single system, to render and output
their work, with tools they will later encounter
in the industry,” explains Felipe Gutierrez,
director of Academic Computing Services
atOtis.“Increasingly,thatleadsustoHPZ
Workstations.”
Technologyhastransformededucationin
manyelds,butperhapsnowheremore
strikinglythaninartanddesign.“Tomeet
the needs of today’s students, we created a
separate Academic Computing department
focusedonprovidingthespecictechnology
required by each discipline,” explains Gutierrez.
Why? Because students intent on pursuing art
and design careers today need familiarity and
experience with digital design tools used in the
industry. Drafting tables have been replaced by
CADprograms.Flatbedlmtableshavebeen
replaced by random-access digital editing
programs like Adobe Premiere. Sketchpads
have been replaced by Autodesk Maya,
3ds Max, and similar modeling/animation
software.
Architect/designer Dave Schultze says his
classes on 3D visualization incorporate leading
3D design software running on
HP Z Workstations in order to “give my
students a very real world experience so they
canbemorecompetitive.Iamtryingtoget
them to a level of competency so they can
exceedexpectationsontheirrstjob.”
Trend toward PC-compatible
workstations
Gutierrez says the school’s approach is to
supporteachmajorwiththeappropriate
technologyfortheprogram.“Themajorityof
our faculty work as professionals who know
exactly what technology they use on a daily
basisintheireld,andtheyhelpguideusin
providing the latest technology trends for
students.”
Theschooloersseveralcomputerlabsto
supportstudentcourseworkandprojectson
campus. Historically many of the labs have
been dual platform, providing both PC- and
Mac-basedplatforms.Todaymanyofthose
labs have standardized on HP Z Workstations,
supporting the most popular software
applications in 3D imaging, animation, toy
design, product design, architecture and digital
video production.
“Thebiggestshiftwe’veseenrecentlyisinthe
worldofdigitalvideo,”Gutierrezsays.“There
issignicantmovementintheindustrytoward
Adobe Premiere, which is becoming a norm for
video production and editing.”
Digital creation and editing programs are
among the most demanding applications in
the world, so they demand some of the most
powerfulhardwareplatforms.ThatiswhyOtis
has chosen HP Z Workstations.
HP Z Workstations oer
quality, speed, exibility
“When we ask ourselves what technology
givesstudentstheexibilitytoworkona
singleplatformfortheirentireprojects,with
the ability to render and output, we conclude
HPZWorkstationsarethebestt,”he
continues.
“ We knew HP could provide
both the level of computing
we needed, along with service
andsupport.Thatledusto
move to HP Workstations in
classrooms and labs.”
– Felipe Gutierrez, director of Academic Computing
Services, Otis College of Art and Design
Theschoolrstidentiedaninstructional
need for workstation-class hardware in the
late1990s.Itexperimentedwithsomeother
models,butfoundtheminecientandcostly.
ThenitturnedtoHP.
“We were familiar with HP desktop PCs and
had a good relationship and experience with
HP service and support,” recalls Gutierrez.