Capilano Courier gives IDEA students the opportunity to hone their craft and showcase their art
The Capilano Courier, Capilano University’s newspaper, has a longstanding tradition of working with students and alumni including IDEA School of Design students who get paid for spot illustrations and covers.
“Here at the Capilano Courier, we take pride in being a free university paper that pays for every single contributor. We welcome illustrators from all throughout Vancouver, but the majority of our illustrators come from the IDEA Program. Illustrations are assigned via email on Monday and Tuesday nights and artists have until Friday at noon to finish. Throughout this week, they’re welcomed to email me to run through any drafts or concepts. Then the rest is theirs to have fun with! Capilano Courier is always open to having new illustrators join the team, simply email your portfolio to me at artdirector.capcourier@gmail.com”
Alison Johnstone (IDEA21) recently illustrated for Naked and Not Afraid: Woman is a Word in the October 24, 2018 issue written by columnist Scarlett Vanderwoodsen.
by Alison Johnstone (IDEA21)
First I receive an e-mail from Cynthia Tran Vo (IDEA19), Art Director at Capilano Courier and fourth year IDEA student, who provides me with a description of dimensions, what column it is for, and what the story is about.
Sometimes I get the full story but sometimes it hasn’t yet been finished by the writer. Once I’ve got a description of the story in my head I start writing down words that relate to the subject. For example, I received a story about burlesque dancing so I started with words like “flashy”, “sultry”, and “feminine”.
I then started sketching out ideas. I started with a feather headpiece, then transitioned to female figures (shown below).
My final piece (shown above) consisted of a woman wearing a bikini-like outfit holding large burlesque feathers.
Overall I have a blast working on these spot illustrations.
“Because illustration is a field that rarely offers work – much less paid work – for young artists, every opportunity becomes a learning experience. I’m thrilled to say I’m working full-time as an illustrator. I owe much of it to the opportunities from this newspaper and its staff.
Not only did the Courier give me chances to hone my craft, the publication also provided a platform to showcase my art. I was surprised to hear that art directors from national publications like the Globe & Mail and the Walrus discovered my work by perusing through student press publications. ”
“I loved my time at the Capilano Courier, it was such a transformative job for me. I really used my time there to figure out the basics of layout design and start exploring how to make that more creative. It’s also a great way to figure out if you can work well under pressure, which you certainly need to be able to do!”
For more, see capilanocourier.com
