Center for Creative Imaging
Encyclopedia
The Center for Creative Imaging (CCI) was a short-lived Camelot
located in the renovated Knox Mill complex in Camden, Maine
from about 1991 to 1994. The Center was an Eastman Kodak Company facility designed to teach digital imaging and related subject matter to artists, design professionals, photographers, and production staff.
The 27,000 square foot (2,500 m²) facility sat on the Megunticook River
, and contained what was then state-of-the-art equipment, including over 100 Macintosh IIfx computers, hard drives of up to 500 Mb of storage per machine, and an array of scanners, digital cameras, and output devices.
Classes ran from one to five days in length, generally three, and covered digital imaging areas like publishing, photography, and illustration. Several invitational and special events brought artists and experts like Paul Davis
, Milton Glaser
, Gary Panter
, Graham Nash
, Edward Tufte
, and dozens of others to lecture and teach. Many of the leading photographers of the day using cutting-edge digital techniques taught there; other well-known artists came to take classes.
The Time Man of the Year cover for 1991 of Ted Turner
was assembled by photographer Greg Heisler
at the Center with the assistance of staff. The creation of the cover took long enough to nearly delay the printing of the issue.
Kodak chose to sell the Center in 1993 to a local businessman who, without the vast resources of a multinational company behind him, was unable to transform it into a profitable teaching facility, despite expanding its focus to include conventional photography in competition with the long-running Maine Photographic Workshops down the road in Rockport, Maine
.
The Center's building was purchased by MBNA
, the credit card company, and all of the fixtures, including polished granite and hard woods, were removed, and the brickwork and exterior of the building painted the drab gray and green corporate colors. MBNA left Camden before its merger with Bank of America in 2005.
The Center is still remembered around Camden
quite well, as many people from the area had jobs there as teaching assistants and other staff, and many locals took classes and changed their careers. The many dozens of expensive Steelcase chairs, even after more than a decade, can still be found throughout local businesses who bought them at the closing sale.
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...
located in the renovated Knox Mill complex in Camden, Maine
Camden, Maine
Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,254 at the 2000 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is a famous summer colony in the Mid-Coast region of Maine...
from about 1991 to 1994. The Center was an Eastman Kodak Company facility designed to teach digital imaging and related subject matter to artists, design professionals, photographers, and production staff.
The 27,000 square foot (2,500 m²) facility sat on the Megunticook River
Megunticook River
The Megunticook River is a short river in Camden, Maine. From the spillway of Megunticook Lake , the river runs southeast through the town to West Penobscot Bay.-References:**...
, and contained what was then state-of-the-art equipment, including over 100 Macintosh IIfx computers, hard drives of up to 500 Mb of storage per machine, and an array of scanners, digital cameras, and output devices.
Classes ran from one to five days in length, generally three, and covered digital imaging areas like publishing, photography, and illustration. Several invitational and special events brought artists and experts like Paul Davis
Paul Brooks Davis
Paul Brooks Davis is an American graphic artist.-Biography:Paul Brooks Davis, better known as Paul Davis, was born in 1938 in Centrahoma, Oklahoma...
, Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
, Gary Panter
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
, Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, Edward Tufte
Edward Tufte
Edward Rolf Tufte is an American statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University. He is noted for his writings on information design and as a pioneer in the field of data visualization....
, and dozens of others to lecture and teach. Many of the leading photographers of the day using cutting-edge digital techniques taught there; other well-known artists came to take classes.
The Time Man of the Year cover for 1991 of Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
was assembled by photographer Greg Heisler
Greg Heisler
Gregory Heisler is a professional photographer known for his evocative portrait work often found on the cover of magazines, such as Time, for which he has produced a number of Man, Person, and People of the Year covers....
at the Center with the assistance of staff. The creation of the cover took long enough to nearly delay the printing of the issue.
Kodak chose to sell the Center in 1993 to a local businessman who, without the vast resources of a multinational company behind him, was unable to transform it into a profitable teaching facility, despite expanding its focus to include conventional photography in competition with the long-running Maine Photographic Workshops down the road in Rockport, Maine
Rockport, Maine
Rockport is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census. Rockport is a popular tourist destination and art colony.-History:...
.
The Center's building was purchased by MBNA
MBNA
MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006...
, the credit card company, and all of the fixtures, including polished granite and hard woods, were removed, and the brickwork and exterior of the building painted the drab gray and green corporate colors. MBNA left Camden before its merger with Bank of America in 2005.
The Center is still remembered around Camden
Camden, Maine
Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,254 at the 2000 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is a famous summer colony in the Mid-Coast region of Maine...
quite well, as many people from the area had jobs there as teaching assistants and other staff, and many locals took classes and changed their careers. The many dozens of expensive Steelcase chairs, even after more than a decade, can still be found throughout local businesses who bought them at the closing sale.