Fast Lines

Junior Alexandra Leon and senior Saif Khan feast their eyes on a Ducati 1098s

For the Museum of Design Atlanta's grand-opening exhibit in its new gallery space at 1315 Peachtree St., sleek post-World War II Italian motorcycles - Ducatis, MV Agustas, Bimotas and Moto-Morinis - serve as elegant examples of their manufacturers' passion for the confluence of utility and art.

But the installation doesn't end there. For the display, titled "Passione Italiana: Design of the Italian Motorcycle," students from associate professor Stan Anderson's design class were called in to create a mixed-media backdrop to further showcase the ingenuity, creativity and evolution of Italian motorcycle design

"The curator for this exhibition at MODA wanted the visitors' heartbeats to, perhaps, race a little more while visiting this motorcycle exhibition," Anderson said.

The students produced a variety of concepts and narratives in video form. For example, Mario Reid, a junior design major, blended animation with photography to take the viewer on a trip from the city to the countryside, and back again, on a Ducati.

"When you're riding a bike, you're one with your environment," Reid said. "You're feeling everything. You're sensing everything. You feel the wind, and the bugs are hitting your helmet. We used a video in juxtaposition with animation to tell that story."

Anderson said he was impressed watching his students create videos that so effectively evoke motion and excitement. "They wanted visual elements that would elicit the sense of speed or motion," Anderson said. "When you're in a museum and see a great red Ducati in person and then see a beautiful video in the background, it adds to the entire visual experience."

Static imagery associated with the exhibit also needed to yield motion. Shivani Kapoor, a senior design major, designed a poster and T-shirt to highlight the excitement of the bikes using a bold pop of red with white and black.

"I really wanted to show how streamlined and fast the motorcycles are, because that's what people are attracted to," she said. The School of Art and Design's partnership with MODA has given students an opportunity to create designs for other exhibitions as well, including posters for the exhibition "Love Nest: Photographs and Objects," and for MODA's summer camp.

"It's just wonderful," said Brenda Galina, executive director of MODA. "It's good for the students, and we get such unique ideas from them."

For the students, having their work shown in a museum feels pretty good.

"I think the payoff is really cool - a museum in our city has our work in it," said Tiffany Forrester. "I don't know how many other times I will have the experience of having my work in a design museum in the real world."