ArtCenter College of Design history

By 1940, enrollment had grown to nearly 500 students representing 37 states and several foreign countries.

In 1947, the post-war boom in students caused the school to expand to a larger location in the building of the former Cumnock School for Girls in the Hancock Park neighborhood, while still maintaining a presence at its original downtown location.

In 1948, our renowned Automotive Design Department—now Transportation Design—was founded.

One of the turning points came in 1956, when the Japanese External Trade Recovery Organization began sending students to ArtCenter.

Many different typefaces have been used in ArtCenter’s promotional materials through the years, but until 1965, when the College began a long institutional relationship with Helvetica, no one typeface could be said to have been a part of ArtCenter’s graphic identity.

The school expanded its programs, including a film program in 1973.

The school moved to the Hillside Campus in Pasadena in 1976.

Remarkably, the 1986 Hinrichs logotype was the first.

In 2003, ArtCenter was granted Non-Governmental Organization status by the UN Department of Public Information.

ArtCenter opened the South Campus in Pasadena in 2004.

In 2006 a graphic identity designed by Takaaki Matsumoto (BFA 80) was introduced, and use of Univers was encouraged in promotional materials.

Additionally, the College partnered with Claremont University’s Drucker School of Management to offer a dual MS/MBA degree in Innovation Systems Design in 2014.

Matsumoto’s identity was retired in 2015.