ArtCenter Alumni Lead Global Push for Sustainable Innovation at Microsoft, Fashion Industry

A panel discussion at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena will spotlight two distinguished alumni who are reshaping sustainability practices in the field of materials innovation and at corporate heavyweight Microsoft.

The event on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 5 to 7 p.m., will be held at ArtCenter’s Hillside Campus, at 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena. It is part of ArtCenter’s fourth annual Creative Tech programming.

The panel discussion, moderated by ArtCenter College of Design President Karen Hofmann, features Jessie Kawata, Microsoft’s Director of Sustainability, and sustainable materials innovator Vicki von Holzhausen.

“The window is closing, and we have to make sure that we are doing everything we can to look at sustainability as the most innovative approach that we can take to everything that we do,” said Hofmann.

Hofmann said sustainability is now seen “at that intersection of creativity and technology.”

“I think for many years, sustainability was not seen as something as innovative as other technical aspects of manufacturing or in developing systems or products,” she explained.

Vicki von Holzhausen, a former car designer, founded von Holzhausen, a textile material innovation company that focuses on research, innovation, and development of plant-based materials. Initially testing handbag materials, von Holzhausen has expanded to supply various industries, including fashion, furniture, airplanes, and automotive, with eco-friendly materials to combat climate change.

“There’s such great opportunity with things like leathers to look at that manufacturing process in a pure way and really put sustainability front and center in her practice,” Hofmann said about Von Holzhausen.

Jessie Kawata is a designer and artist who loves to explore the worlds of science and technology. Her background in both product design and illustration led her to become one of the first in-house creative strategists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

“[Jessie’s] first role out of ArtCenter was working at JPL, and that was about taking science and data and visualizing that for missions,” said Hofmann about Kawata. “Then she went to Microsoft where the charge for her was, ‘how does Microsoft think about their hardware and software differently with sustainability being the driving goal.’”

On Tuesday, the conversation is expected to zero in on the responsibilities designers have, and about making sure artists and designers have the tools and the understanding, Hofmann said.

Sponsored by ArtCenter College of Design and Innovate Pasadena, the event will showcase ArtCenter’s Design Matters program focusing on sustainability, social equity, and green justice.

“Those two (the panelists) represent a model of really great designers who come out of ArtCenter, go into the world, into the various organizations, and then they come back and they mentor students, they sponsor projects, they hire our students in their organizations to move forward, these kinds of philosophies and approaches,” Hofmann said.

To register for this and other Creative Tech 2024 events, visit https://www.artcenter.edu/connect/events/creative-tech.html.