Leave it to polymath Jack Powers to inspire students with a quipu, the string of “talking knots” used by the Incas as a data recording device hundreds of years ago.

Wielding a quipu knotted with the major events of his own life as a metaphor for personal development, Powers accepted the 2014 Champion of Education Award from the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) at its 12th annual scholarship awards presentation ceremony on June 19. He directed his quipu lesson mainly at 28 students who shared $56,000 worth of study grants from GCSF, which has presented a total of $416,000 in scholarships to 116 students of graphic design and production since the fund’s inception in 2002.

GCSF is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation that has grown from a back-of-the-envelope project into one of the industry’s most noteworthy sources of funding for professional education. Its donors include printing companies, technology suppliers, publishers, trade associations, and individuals. Under the supervision of David Luke (DAL Consulting), its current president, GCSF remains an all-volunteer initiative that has no paid staff, no overhead expenses, nor any mission other than channeling 100% of the money it raises to deserving students.

The presentation ceremony, which takes place at the Hearst Tower Atrium in Manhattan, sees the addition of new scholarship grants almost every year the event is held. This year, GCSF trustee Diane Romano (Hudson Yards) introduced the John Tempest Memorial Scholarship Award, co-sponsored by the Advertising Production Club. It becomes one of more than two dozen scholarship programs now administered by GCSF, which establishes criteria for receiving the grants and evaluates student portfolios submitted in application for them. Applicants, who must be New York City metro area residents, can attend any college or university with an accredited graphics program.

Tempest scholarship donors include the DEER Foundation of IDEAlliance and Printing Industries Alliance (PIAlliance), both of which counted the grant’s namesake as a board member during his lifetime. The two groups are sponsors of the combined Franklin Luminaire Awards event in the fall, which will donate its net proceeds to fund GCSF scholarships.

Diane Romano (r.) presents the first John Tempest Memorial Scholarship Award to Vanessa Lora (High School of Graphic Communication Arts / Syracuse University)

At the ceremony, GCSF also inaugurated a mentoring program to provide career-focused learning experiences for New York metro area college students pursuing careers in graphic communications. The four-year plan includes one-on-one coaching, workplace assignments, plant tours, participation at trade shows and events, and other activities designed to streamline their entry into the industry.

In all of these ways, GCSF serves high school, college, and graduate students throughout the New York City metro area who are preparing for or are enrolled in some of the country’s most prestigious graphic studies programs. GCSF scholarship recipients—many of whom have earned more than one yearly grant—attend or soon will attend The School of Visual Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, Parsons the New School for Design, and Rhode Island School of Design, among others.

First-year grant earner Tasnima Tanzim, a freshman at Pratt, said she spoke gratefully on behalf of all GCSF scholarship recipients who, like her, once feared that they couldn’t afford to attend the colleges of their choice. SVA senior Elizabeth Zalewski, a four-time recipient, said that the grants had been vital to her development as a creative and to the shaping of her future career.

The students owe their progress in no small way to the activism of Powers, a booster and a fundraiser for GCSF from the beginning. Powers has been a one-man army for graphics education in the metro region for more than 30 years, lending his time and talents to the area’s most important public and private efforts for training in the field.

Tristate industry veterans also know him as an evangelist for digital production workflows long before the terms “evangelist” and “digital production workflows” even existed. Although, as a technologist and a consultant, he has moved on to other areas of interest, Powers continues to be the advocate most strongly identified with changing the metro area’s mindset from analog production to the digital solutions its graphic service providers use now.

Powers got an introduction almost as singular as he is in an adaptation of the classic show tune “You’re the Top,” with personalized lyrics by Frank Romano (RIT) and a zingy rendition by GCSF co-founder Mark Darlow. Romano hailed Powers as, among many other things, “the most brilliant marketing person you have ever met.”

Using his quipu, Powers makes a point about life and the value of education.

He illustrated the trajectory of the honoree’s early career by displaying a punched paper tape that he said Powers had coded to drive typesetting equipment in 1978. According to Romano, Powers—the son of a Jersey City, NJ, printer—was the first observer to recognize the enormous significance of the Internet for the printing industry.

Powers’s quipu had knots for the launch of his consulting business, his marriage and the birth of his daughter, his recent attainment of a master’s degree, and his receipt of the Champion of Education Award. He pointed out that the string still had ample room for further milestones he intends to tie in.

Education largely determines how many knots of achievement a person’s lifeline will contain, Powers told the students. He also counseled them to “write stuff down”; to be skeptical of “free” amenities from social media and the cloud; and to “remember the people” who helped on one’s way up.

Above all, never forget that everyone’s quipu is finite. “You don’t know how long your string is going to be,” Powers said. “Be sure that your knots have value.”

Metro Graphics Reporter thanks Dona McKenzie (M.A. in Graphic Communications Management and Technology, 2014) for covering the event and providing the following post.

On June 17, more than 300 graphic communications and media professionals came together to raise funds for New York University’s Graphic Communications Management and Technology (GCMT) M.A. program at the 28^th Annual Prism Awards Luncheon. In a departure from years past, Cipriani 42 was the newly chosen venue, a space that was both elegant and monumental in scale. The lively crowd mingled and networked at the opening reception as tuxedo-clad waiters passed around a never-ending supply of Bellini cocktails and sumptuous hors d’oeuvres.

After an hour of conversation and connections, the guests were gently ushered into the main dining area for the start of the program. There, William “Buzz” Apostol and Jennifer Bergin, Prism Committee Co-Chairs, welcomed everyone and thanked them for their continuing support of the GCMT M.A. program. The crowd enjoyed a tricolor salad of roasted beets with green beans and goat cheese while Dennis Di Lorenzo, Dean of NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS), took to the stage. Di Lorenzo praised the GCMT M.A. program for providing students with a “competitive skill set” learned under the guidance of working professionals in the media landscape.

Next, Dr. Joseph P. Truncale, GCMT professor and Advisory Board Co-Chair, gave a warm introduction for alumna Tina Powell, ’13, recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award for 2014. Powell, currently the Director of Business Management at Beacon Wealth Management, thanked her professors and former GCMT M.A. program director Bonnie Blake for their inspiration and their encouragement. She singled out faculty member Dr. Greg D’Amico for opening the most “important doors of all.” Powell finished by acknowledging the profound support of her family and friends. She graciously thanked her mother, saying, “to my mother, you will know my gratitude by the depth of my service.”

Scott Dadich, Editor-in-Chief of Wired, who accepted the 2014 Prism Award on behalf of recipient Charles H. Townsend, CEO of Condé Nast; and Tina Powell, recipient of the GCMT Alumni Achievement Award for 2014

Following lunch of prime roast filet of beef, risotto, and ratatouille, Paula Payton, Director of Strategic Communication, Marketing and Media Management Programs at NYU-SCPS, introduced Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer of Condé Nast. As Townsend, the recipient of the 2014 Prism Award for Distinguished Leadership, was unable to attend the event, monitors were placed throughout the venue so that the guests could see and hear his video thank-you. Townsend also expressed his deep appreciation to NYU for cultivating talent.

Accepting the Prism Award on Townsend’s behalf was Scott Dadich, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED. In a presentation entitled “The Future of Design, Invisible, Beautiful, Everywhere,” Dadich treated the audience to a micro- and macro-level look at the forces propelling contemporary trends in technology. He proposed that the main purpose of design is “human betterment’ and posited that “design doesn’t make things better, it makes them work.” Dadich argued that because of good design, “technology will fade into our everyday experience, instead of pulling us away from it.”

He said that the trends to watch are wearable computers, ultra high definition television (UHD TV), the game console wars, biometrics, and “quantified cars” that gather and share driving data. Mr. Dadich went on to say that all of these trends are data-driven, bandwidth intensive and individually focused, creating a potential “Hawthorne Effect” on society.

From left, Prism guests Junmian Sun (GCMT M.A., class of 2009); Bonnie Blake, past director of the GCMT M.A. program; and 2014 GCMT M.A. graduates Michael Patrissi, Melissa Pitts

Presented annually, the Prism Award recognizes distinguished leadership in the graphic communications media industry. The net proceeds of the Prism Award Luncheon help to fund student scholarships as well as student and program support for the NYU-SCPS GCMT graduate program, which prepares the next generation of media communications industry leaders. Since its inception, the Prism Award Luncheon has raised millions of dollars for scholarships for students in the GCMT program.

Previous NYU Prism Award recipients include Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media LLC; Thomas J. Quinlan III, president and chief executive officer of RR Donnelley; Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, former executive vice president, HP’s Imaging and Printing Group; Cathleen Black, former chairman of Hearst Magazines; Antonio M. Perez, former president and CEO of Eastman Kodak Company; Anne M. Mulcahy, former chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation; Janet L. Robinson, former president and chief executive officer of The New York Times; and Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox.

The Advisory Board of the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) Graphic Communications Management and Technology (GCMT) graduate program has selected Charles Townsend, chief executive officer of Condé Nast, as the recipient of the 2014 Prism Award. Presented annually, the Prism Award recognizes distinguished leadership in the graphic communications media industry.

Sponsored by the NYU-SCPS Master of Arts in Graphic Communications Management and Technology program, the 28^th Annual Prism Award Luncheon will take place on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 at Cipriani 42 in New York City. Scott Dadich, editor-in-chief of WIRED, will accept the award on Mr. Townsend’s behalf and discuss future trends at the nexus of design and technology.

“We are honored and delighted to recognize Charles Townsend, an innovator in the media industry, with the 2014 Prism Award,” said Dennis Di Lorenzo, dean of the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies. “His leadership qualities and his ability to anticipate and to navigate change in a continuously evolving business environment are an inspiration to us all. We are equally fortunate to have Scott Dadich to serve as our Luncheon chairman and to have him accept the Award on Mr. Townsend’s behalf.”

Charles Townsend; Scott Dadich

Previous NYU Prism Award recipients include: Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation; Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media LLC; Thomas J. Quinlan III, president and chief executive officer of R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company; Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, former executive vice president of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group; Cathleen Black, former chairman of Hearst Magazines; Antonio M. Perez, former president and CEO of Eastman Kodak Company; Anne M. Mulcahy, former chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation; and Janet L. Robinson, former president and chief executive officer of The New York Times.

“It is a source of great pride for Condé Nast to join this esteemed group of former recipients in supporting the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies,” said Townsend.  “Talent is at the cornerstone of what makes all our organizations successful—I can think of no better investment in our future than growing these scholarship programs.”

“WIRED is where tomorrow is realized,” added Dadich.  “I’m thrilled to be part of an event where ideas and innovation are fostered and to be accepting this prestigious award on Condé Nast’s behalf.”

The net proceeds of the Prism Award Luncheon help to fund student scholarships, as well as student and program support for the NYU-SCPS GCMT graduate program, which prepares the next generation of media communications industry leaders. Since its inception, the Prism Award Luncheon has raised millions of dollars in scholarship funds for students in the GCMT program.

“Over the years, hundreds of talented and deserving students have benefitted from Prism Award scholarship funds, graduating from the M.A. in Graphic Communications Management and Technology program and launching their own highly successful careers in an industry that continues to grow and thrive,” commented William “Buzz” Apostol, Prism Award Committee co-chair and vice president, sales – Americas at X-Rite/Pantone Inc.

Tickets for the Prism Award Luncheon are priced from $750 per person to $6,000 for a sponsor’s table of eight and $10,000 for a co-chairmanship (which includes a dais seat as well as a table of eight). Tables, ticket reservations, and additional information are available through the NYU-SCPS Office of Development. Contact Melissa Malebranche at 212-998-6950, by fax at 212-995-4039, or by e-mail at melissa.malebranche@nyu.edu. Visit www.scps.nyu.edu/prism to learn more about the Prism Award Luncheon and Scholarship.

 About Charles Townsend
Charles H. Townsend is chief executive officer of Condé Nast, the premier media company renowned for producing the world’s highest quality content for the world’s most influential audiences. Attracting 164 million consumers across its industry-leading print and digital brands, the company’s properties include some of the most iconic titles in media: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Brides, Self, GQ, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Details, Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Wired, W, Lucky, Golf Digest, Golf World, Teen Vogue, and Ars Technica. Condé Nast also owns Fairchild Fashion Media (FFM) and its portfolio of comprehensive fashion journalism brands:  WWD, Style.com, Footwear News, NowManifest, Beauty Inc., M, and Fairchild Summits. The company’s newest division, Condé Nast Entertainment, was launched in 2011 to develop film, television, and digital video programming.

During Townsend’s 20-year tenure at Condé Nast, the company has reached record profits, tripling its topline growth and exponentially expanding its distribution platforms. In just the past five years, Condé Nast’s footprint swelled by more than 100 million consumers and in 2013, the corporation was named one of the fast-growing companies in the digital video business. Earning a record 107 National Magazine Awards in the past 20 years, Condé Nast also led the industry as one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Most In-Demand Employers in the World. In late 2014, the company will relocate to its new global headquarters at 1 World Trade Center, where it will play a leading role in the resurgence of Lower Manhattan.

Before being named CEO in 2004, Townsend served as Condé Nast’s chief operating officer after joining the company in 1994 as publisher of Glamour. Earlier in his career, he served as president and CEO of The New York Times’ Women’s Magazine Publishing Division and as publisher of various Hearst Magazines titles. Townsend is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

About Scott Dadich
Scott Dadich was named editor-in-chief of WIRED in November of 2012.

Prior to being named editor-in-chief, he served as vice president, Editorial Platforms & Design for Condé Nast. In this role, he oversaw the creative efforts to bring Condé Nast’s storied brand portfolio to emerging digital channels.

From 2006-2010, Dadich was the award-winning creative director of WIRED, where he initiated and led the development of WIRED’s groundbreaking iPad app, which was introduced in May 2010, one month after the introduction of the revolutionary device. Building upon that success, Dadich and his team have led all of the company’s brands into monthly tablet publication across multiple digital platforms.

Collectively, Dadich’s work has been recognized with eight National Magazine Awards, including three General Excellence Ellies (Texas Monthly, 2003; Wired, 2007 & 2009). He is the only creative director ever to win both the National Magazine Award for Design and the Society of Publication Designers Magazine of the Year award three consecutive years: 2008, 2009, and 2010. Additionally, he has received more than 100 national design and editorial awards from organizations such as the Art Directors Club, American Photography, American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators, and the Type Directors Club. In 2011, Fast Company named Scott Dadich one of the 50 Most Influential Designers in America.

Prior to joining Condé Nast, Scott was creative director of Texas Monthly, which was nominated for 14 National Magazine Awards during his tenure and won for General Excellence in 2003.

Dadich graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

The Graphic Communications Scholarship, Award and Career Advancement Foundation (GCSF) will present its 2014 Champion of Education Award to Jack Powers, technology strategist and longtime public education advocate. Part of GCSF’s 12th Annual Scholarship Awards Celebration on Thursday, June 19, the Champion of Education Award honors exceptional individuals in the graphics field who have helped to prepare its next generation.

For over 30 years, Powers has explained each step of the digital revolution for media professionals on six continents. Beginning with electronic composition and pagination, moving on to desktop publishing and evolving through computer graphics, digital imaging, interactive multimedia, and the World Wide Web, Powers has evaluated the big steps in media technology for private clients and public audiences in books, articles, web sites and videos.

He chaired his first national conference in 1985 for the National Composition Association and worked with many associations and commercial conference developers internationally. He was chairman of the breakthrough Internet World conferences in 24 countries during the dot com boom. Along the way, he produced innovative education programs in electronic commerce, ebooks, artificial intelligence, pervasive TV, digital photography and healthcare IT.

Powers is the director of The International Informatics Institute (IN3.ORG), a Brooklyn-based technology education, consulting, and research organization he founded in 1982. The firm’s research associates advise clients about issues and opportunities in media, technology, business, and society.

In support of public education, Powers has served on the New York City Department of Education’s Graphics Industry Advisory Commission since 1986, leading the volunteer group’s teacher training, curriculum review, and mentoring activities and producing the long-running citywide Graphic Arts Competition. At the Commission, he helped to launch the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation and has served as a trustee and officer of GCSF for years.

In 2010, Powers was appointed by the New York City Schools Chancellor to the city’s Advisory Council for Career & Technical Education, the all-industry coalition of business leaders, employers, trade unions, and community organizations that support more than 140,000 technical education students and their teachers in the New York City school system. Voted chairman of the CTE Advisory Council by his colleagues, he has helped develop innovative career-oriented education programs in many fields beyond graphics.

A longtime supporter of CUNY’s New York City College of Technology, Powers serves as the chairman of the Advisory Commission for the Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts (ADGA). He also is a member of the advisory councils for Virtual Enterprises International, Thomas Edison High School, and Queens Vocational & Technical High School. He has taught at the Pratt Center for Computer Graphics in Design and at New York University, and he is completing a master’s degree in politics and urban education at the City University of New York.

The award to Powers highlights “The Future of Graphics,” a special program paying tribute to the latest recipients of GCSF scholarship grants. The event also will feature the inaugural presentation of the John Tempest Scholarship Award in memory of its namesake, a print sales executive with a long record of service to industry trade associations.

GCSF’s 12th Annual Scholarship Awards will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 19 in the 3rd-floor Atrium and Joseph Urban Theatre of the Hearst Tower, 300 W. 57th Street in Manhattan. Admission is free, but all attendees must pre-register by e-mailing a request for entry to Jerry Mandelbaum at jmandelbaum@601west.com.

The Graphic Communications Scholarship, Award and Career Advancement Foundation is an all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides financial support to New York City metro area students pursuing careers in graphic communications. Since its founding in 2002, GCSF has given financial support to more than 108 students in graphic studies degree programs at leading institutions in the field.

Its name—the Graphic Communications Scholarship, Award, and Career Advancement Foundation, Inc.—may be a mouthful, but this education-promoting industry group has a heart even bigger than its moniker. The breadth of its generosity was on full display last night as GCSF presented a record number of scholarship grants to students training for careers in all areas of graphic communications.

The ceremony, hosted by Hearst Magazines at its atrium and theatre in Manhattan, also featured the presentation of GCSF’s Champion of Education Award to a metro area print company president described as someone “who never stops in his pursuit of helping the kids.”

Last night’s “kids” were 37 high school seniors and college students who collected $47,000 in scholarship grants from a network of private funds coordinated by GCSF, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation started by a small group of industry professionals in 2002.

Initially meeting in borrowed space and keeping handwritten records, the founders raised and distributed $5,000 worth of grants in the first year. They also consolidated a number of existing scholarship funds that were not being actively managed.

Since then, the program has awarded more than $360,000 to 95 students enrolled in or about to enter graphics studies degree programs at schools including New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Parsons School of Design, University of Michigan, Pratt Institute, New York City College of Technology, Fashion Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and Rochester Institute of Technology.

The most important thing to know about the grants, said David Luke, GCSF president and last night’s MC, is that 100% of all money donated goes directly to the recipients and their schools. GCSF, operated exclusively by volunteers, has no formal management structure and does its work entirely without overhead.

GCSF accepts scholarship applications from metro area residents pursuing studies in graphic communications at any college or university offering such a program. To qualify for grants, students must submit portfolios, academic transcripts, and letters of recommendation to a GCSF scholarship selection committee. More than a third of last night’s recipients were in their second, third, or fourth years of receiving assistance from GCSF.

Two of the students were the beneficiaries of something special: grants from cash raised by a former GCSF recipient and a friend who organized their own scholarship fund, “Big Apple Big Hearts,” as a way to assist those whose lives and career plans were disrupted by superstorm Sandy last year. Another of the evening’s highlights was the unveiling of the results of a student design competition sponsored by Trend Offset Printing (see related posts below).

At the annual award ceremonies, the stipends traditionally are supplemented by gifts from companies and organizations that support GSCF. Last night, the students went home with certificates entitling them to receive free copies of QuarkXPress, color specification tools from Pantone, and one-year memberships in IDEAlliance.

GCSF also announced the launch of a mentorship program designed to offer scholarship recipients practical career guidance from freshman through senior year. Those taking part will gain real-life experience and exposure to varied disciplines within the graphic communications industry, said Jerry Mandelbaum, GCSF treasurer.

Howard Weinstein (left) accepts the Champion of Education Award from GCSF president David Luke. (photo: GCSF’s Thaddeus B. Kubis)

Howard Weinstein, honored with the Champion of Education Award, provides that kind of experience when he hosts visits by student groups to Candid Litho, the large commercial printing firm that he and his family operate in Long Island City. He also is a prodigious fundraiser on behalf of GCSF and other industry causes.

At one point during his acceptance remarks, he brandished a fistful of envelopes containing donation checks and said of the givers, “I don’t give these people any choice—they have to support the industry.” For this relentless activism, Luke called him “incredibly deserving” of the Champion of Education Award.

Weinstein thanked numerous family members and colleagues for helping him succeed as a printing company president and as a friend of the industry. Among his pieces of advice for students was a warning against becoming complacent or being satisfied with results that are merely good enough.

“Never be comfortable. Always be uncomfortable,” he said. “The minute you get comfortable, you’re screwed.” Weinstein also announced that Candid Litho will host a career day and open house in September in a joint effort with GCSF and the Advertising Production Club of New York. (Watch Metro Graphics Reporter for additional details.)

From left: Joshua Martinez, Mark Andriella, Nick Patrissi, Monique Sterling, Maggie Nielsen, Natalie Alcide, Jessie Murphy, Jerry Mandelbaum.

This year, the annual presentation ceremony of the Graphic Communications Scholarship, Award, and Career Advancement Foundation (GCSF) showcased something new: a design competition that brought together five motivated and talented students to work on a real-world marketing project.

With the sponsorship of Trend Offset Printing, design students from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Hunter College, and SUNY Purchase worked with Nick Patrissi, Trend Offset’s director of marketing, and professional designer Michelle Ratzlaff on the project under normal deadlines. After several rounds of review based on submitted designs, work created by Joshua Marz FIT was selected for use in a live marketing campaign.

According to Patrissi, Trend Offset was impressed with the quality and professionalism shown by all of the students. “We got  a lot more than we expected,” he said. “A beautiful poster design to use for a promotional campaign for clients and staff, and a chance to work with some very motivated and gifted young professionals.”

Patrissi said that GCSF is considering making the competition part of its new mentoring initiative. This program aims to provide a venue for career-focused learning experiences by connecting students and industry professionals.