Grad Spotlights
Featuring success stories from IDEA School of Design Grads.
As an illustrator, Natasha Lee found herself questioning the meticulous nature of the graphic design courses during her first year in the Bachelor of Visual Communication and Design degree in the IDEA School of Design.
Check out this grad spotlight story!
Congratulations to Anna Tsybulnyk and Lera Kim (IDEA Grad 2021)!
Battle of the Brush brings in multiple teams of artists who compete in a time-limited competition before their spontaneous collective works are displayed and judged by you, our local art connoisseurs! Battle of the Brush 39: Season 8 Episode 2 was held at Heritage Hall on Main Street in Vancouver, BC on Friday, 23 September 2022.
Check out this grad spotlight!
About 50% of graphic designers spend their time working on projects for multiple clients: they might be designing packaging for vegetarian sausages on Monday, coming up with logo ideas for a new housing development on Wednesday, and redesigning a website for a pharmacy on Friday. The other 50% of graphic designers work in-house. This means that rather than working for an agency or studio that serves many businesses, they work directly for a brand that produces and sells products, or provides services.
Check out this IDEA alumni story by Judy Snaydon!
Mikaela Johnson (IDEA Grad 2022) was just offered a permanent position as a designer at Native Shoes several weeks ago and is 🤙 “feeling pretty good about it!”
Congratulations, Mikaela!
Check out this grad spotlight!
Some say you can’t teach it, but renowned pop surrealist painter/graphic artist and CapU IDEA School of Design grad Camilla d’Errico thinks you can.
The colouring pages represent Camilla's journey at IDEA School of Design at CapU, which she credits with teaching her how to be both a designer/artist and build a business like a boss.
Download one – or all – of the colouring pages to join. You can either post the finished colouring image on Instagram and tag @capilano and @camilladerrico, or you can email a picture of the results to marketing-digital@capilanou.ca. Winners will be announced on May 17, 2022.
We recently caught up with Charmaine Cheng (IDEA Grad 2019), for a grad spotlight as an Art Director at Rethink in Vancouver. As she moves up in her career and gets ready to mentor junior creatives, she figured a good place to start would be offering words of wisdom in a grad spotlight for the IDEA School of Design blog.
In Part 2, Charmaine shares advice for current IDEA School of Design students, her experience in the program, and how proactive networking helped launch her career as well as meet some of her design heroes.
Check out Part 2 of this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with Charmaine Cheng (IDEA Grad 2019), for a grad spotlight as an Art Director at Rethink in Vancouver. As she moves up in her career and gets ready to mentor junior creatives, she figured a good place to start would be offering words of wisdom in a grad spotlight for the IDEA School of Design blog.
“When it came time to hire me full time, there simply wasn’t any room on the design team. So I was hired as an Art Director, which at the time, was terrifying because I had no idea what that meant. But 2 years later, I’ve learned a lot and gained much more confidence in my abilities.” she writes.
Check out Part 1 of this grad spotlight!
Here’s a holiday illustration by Anna Tsybulnyk (IDEA Grad 2021) with a brief update on life after graduation.
Early Applications for the Fall 2022 Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication close January 26, 2022. Late Admission opens Friday, January 28, 2022, and closes Wednesday, April 13, 2022. No submissions for Fall 2022 (IDEA Grad 2026) will be accepted after Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
Mark your calendars! Our next Open Studio is Saturday, February 12, 2022!
We recently caught up with Megan Seely (IDEA Grad 2007), for a grad spotlight on her new life in Montreal working for a bleeding-edge software company.
“Now that I'm working in a field that didn’t traditionally embrace user experience design, I feel I can make a real difference. I’d encourage designers to consider specializing. Do something no one else is really doing, and you'll have a great impact.” she writes.
Check out Part 2 of 2 of this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with Megan Seely (IDEA Grad 2007), for a grad spotlight on her new life in Montreal working for a bleeding-edge software company.
“Industry 4.0 is the revolution of data and connectivity. Updating to embrace smart manufacturing is a big deal, and manufacturers know they must do this or be left behind.” she writes.
Check out Part 1 of 2 of this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with Brynn Staples (IDEA Grad 2020) for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design.
“I went into IDEA School of Design thinking naively that it would give me a more focused career path. I was so wrong – but that’s turned out to be just right for me. Now, a few years and walls later, I still get to paint murals with my IDEA School of Design besties.” she writes.
Catch up with IDEA School of Design alumna and her switch to working as an independent graphic designer and muralist.
Check out this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with Jaime Gervais (IDEA Grad 2013), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design while she’s in between shows and doing some personal work, creating art for her own art book.
Jaime Gervais loves her job working on fantasy and sci-fi TV shows including the hit Marvel/Hulu show Helstrom, where she designs everything from really cool weapons, costumes, artwork, signage for walls, and significant props that are key to the show’s story. Time management, organized workflow, and staying focused are a huge part of her job.
Catch up with IDEA School of Design alumna and her immersion into the fast-paced world of film. "It's absolutely worth every bit of energy, time, and education that has led me here," she says.
This is a showcase highlighting different areas of Jaime’s work from when she was in school until today.
Check out this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with independent designer Henry Slaughter (IDEA Grad 2013), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design. Portrait of Henry (shown above) by Lauren Zbarsky.
In Part 2 of our interview find out about Henry’s private Slack channel where he works with a writer, web developer and fills gaps with other talent including Max Littledale (IDEA Grad 2018), Nicole Shewchuk (IDEA Grad 2020), and Ata Ojani (IDEA Grad 2020).
We recently caught up with independent designer Henry Slaughter (IDEA Grad 2013), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design. Portrait of Henry (shown above) by Lauren Zbarsky.
“I remember dreading the idea of more school after four years at UVic but as I got closer and closer to “graphic design” I was fascinated and excited to create a foundation for myself and build a proper skillset.” writes Henry.
Check out Part 1 of 2 of this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with art director, photographer and artist, Christopher Winter (IDEA Grad 2014), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design.
“Europe was always calling my name,” he writes. Chris has been in his current role as Art Director at aeyde for almost 3 years. aeyde is a women’s direct-to-consumer fashion company in Berlin, Germany.
“IDEA School of Design really taught me that being a generalist is actually quite an asset.” he continues.
Check out this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with designer, photographer and graduate architect, Shy Smardon (IDEA Grad 2016), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design where he won 10 student awards! He considers himself quite lucky to be living in New Zealand.
“It definitely wasn’t part of the plan to skip out on a pandemic, but that’s what I feel has happened.” writes Shy. Shy is currently a Website Designer at the University of Otago in New Zealand, a freelance graphic designer, and undertaking a full redesign of an early 1900s villa that he and his partner purchased.
Check out this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with George Lin (IDEA Grad 2009), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design. Congratulations to George on his new job as Associate Creative Director at john st. advertising agency in Toronto!
“It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t cut out for Fine Arts.” writes George. “I realized that I enjoy solving specific communication problems, so I took a year off to prepare my portfolio to apply for programs in the commercial arts field.”
Check out this grad spotlight!
Congratulations to two IDEA School of Design grads for their amazing illustrated office mural collaboration project where every dot in the composition makes mathematical sense!
Last August, Diana Castaneda (IDEA Grad 2014) art directed a piece conceived and illustrated by Lillian T. Zhang (IDEA Grad 2019) for a shared office space for the Physical Sciences Division of TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre.
“Connected” was created for the co-sharing space occupied by researchers and scientists of the Physical Sciences department at TRIUMF. The concept for “Connected” draws from the work culture and people at TRIUMF, each has its own very focused disciplines that contribute to the same purpose of innovation.
Check out this Grad spotlight story!
IDEA School of Design hopes you are having a wonderful start to the New Year so far! 'To A Hopeful New Year' is a digital illustration by Juliana Vieira (IDEA Grad 2018) shown above. Her beautiful illustration is a sign of the times.
Early Applications for the Fall 2021 Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication close on Jan 20, 2021. Late Admission opens Jan 25, 2021, and closes April 14, 2021. No submissions for Fall 2021 (IDEA Grad 2025) will be accepted after Wednesday, April 14, 2021.
We recently caught up with Daniel Pauhl (IDEA Grad 2019) for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design. Many congratulations to Daniel on illustrating a new children’s book by author Nikki Hedstrom! “A Thought is a Thought” is available at Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
“It's the best feeling to see my work out in the real world.” he says.
Check out this grad spotlight!
We recently caught up with Ryan (IDEA Grad 2019) about life after IDEA School of Design and landing a permanent role as Game Designer at Anemone Hug Interactive where he did his practicum.
While he loves design, he says “most of the ways that you can apply it to make a living aren’t very appealing to an anti-capitalist.” His advice is to "think outside the box and find a way to make yourself useful".
He adds, "You may be inclined to zone out during web design and front-end coding lessons, but you will find those tools incredibly helpful someday. During my practicum, I was able to easily solve a problem that no one else on the team could, simply because I knew how to edit an SVG via text editor."
Check out his Grad Spotlight!
Many congratulations to Fiona Dunnett (IDEA Grad 2018) on finding a publisher for her illustrated book project! Fiona started working on the project with a friend/writer in California a couple of years before entering IDEA School of Design. She was able to work on it with a mentor during her Professional Development class during her time at IDEA and has since found a publisher!
Travesía comes out on April 1, 2021, in Canada and April 13, 2021, in the US. Check out this grad spotlight story!
Jocelyn Wong (IDEA Grad 2015) paints under Something Yellow Studio, a passion project. An Art Director by day, illustrator/letterer by night, Jocelyn overcame a bumpy start to bring a message of love and community to Marpole with her mural ‘Love ALL Your Neighbours’.
The mural was part of the 5th Annual Vancouver Mural Festival showcasing 60+ murals in nine neighborhoods over three weeks. The Lead Curator this year was Drew Young, also an IDEA School of Design graduate.
Check out the story and photos!
IDEA School of Design Grad 2019 learned a lot during their 4 years at @capuidea. Here are some words of wisdom to our first year selves.
In Part 2 of our interview with Mustaali Raj (IDEA Grad 2014), find out about his life after graduating from IDEA School of Design at Capilano University including buying a one-way ticket to Thailand with his wife, joining the GDC BC Board as Communications Director, his latest projects and advice for our students.
Hint: Play around with the Adobe Suite (or other software) on your own, even before you apply to IDEA School of Design. Don’t wait till the grad show to get your work online.