Two IDEA Alumnae at Cossette Creative Marketing and Communications Agency offer Career Advice to our Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication Students
Two of our grads work at Vancouver’s Cossette Creative Marketing and Communications Agency in Vancouver. Many thanks to Janice Callangan and Shanene Lau for providing us with some fun photos and for giving our students invaluable career advice!
Shown left to right: Janice Callangan (IDEA Grad 2017), Shanene Lau (IDEA Grad 2018).
Janice Callangan, Designer (IDEA Grad 2017)
You don’t have to know everything.
Your creative team and especially your creative directors know that you are just coming out of school (or maybe still in school) and have lots to learn. They will not expect you to function at the same pace and level of excellence as the other designers on your team. Do your best and ask questions when you need to. Take everything as a learning experience and keep growing through determination to get better. If you are worried about getting in people’s way by asking too much you can always have a conversation first to let them know that you really want to understand the ‘hows’ of the agency and would love their insights if they are willing to share. Most of the time they will be!
Let your team know what other interests and skills you have.
This will make you a huge asset when you are being considered for an internship or practicum, especially when you are up against your other talented classmates. Creative directors want to know what tools you have under your belt besides just design and also what makes you different. Here at Cossette the majority of our creative team are multidisciplinary doing both design and art direction but we also have lots of talented illustrators in the mix as well. Shanene and I do a lot of photography in-house for Cossette and always pitch illustration ideas to clients for the projects that suit it. If you can do video editing, animation with After Effects or just animation with Photoshop. Stop motion—that’s great too! Even any crafty interests you may have like paper cutting, lettering, pottery, collaging, flower arranging, etc. let your team know! You never know when those skills will come in handy. One tip when you are still in the process of finding an internship or practicum is that in your interviews talk about what hobbies you do outside of design. For agencies, the client list expands over a large range (retail, beauty, education, children, gaming, travel, hearing aids, hospital foundations…), sometimes your hobbies and interests cross with a specific client and that will be something your creative directors considering to employ you will keep in mind. Also, a conversation about hobbies also makes you sound more human and approachable.
SKETCH WITH PEN AND PAPER A LOT!
Even if you did not like the illustration portion of IDEA School of Design at Capilano University because you feel more comfortable with exploring your designs on the computer, get in the habit of sketching. You HAVE to be comfortable sketching fast and ugly before you even get to touch your mouse. You can’t or shouldn’t avoid it! I prefer sketching and brainstorming ideas traditionally instead of an iPad. Drawing digitally makes the undo/delete button too accessible, so I find myself editing out ideas too early in the game. On paper I edit less and welcome in the bad ideas with open arms.
Designers, sketch out your layouts and sketch out a million options for how the branding will look for the overall identity: vertically, horizontally, repeated, in multiple formats and collateral. Having moodboards and references are great but you can’t rely on them to do all the work. Art directors, it is a MUST that you have to know how to sketch out your ideas. Similar to school, the first presentation round of a campaign to the client only consists of a tight drawn version of the ideas. This is for the clients to understand the idea in its simplest form without letting them get distracted by colour, photography style, typeface and the branding. You could be an amazing designer or art director but if your ideas can not be understood first through a drawing then you’ll never get to the next phase of the fun execution.
The transition from school to agency is not all that difficult.
IDEA School of Design really prepares you for the workforce. Everyone says it because it is so true. The 9-4 Monday to Friday structure of the program and cubicle desk settings of the classroom made it so easy for me to get into the agency’s 9-5 Monday to Friday, here’s your desk in the office environment. I still feel like I’m in school sometimes because 1) Shanene is my desk buddy and we were in the same year. But besides that, the other creatives in your department replace your classmates. Their responsibility is to still give you peer review or be your partners on projects. And your creative directors replace your teachers who oversee said projects and steer you in the right direction if ever you fall off. I found the transition to agency actually easier because I didn’t have to write my own briefs (or make up briefs) since the accounts and strategy department write the brief and talk to the real clients who have real target audiences and budgets ($$$!). And I personally love that you work with a copywriter so you do not have to stress out about the words for your designs! If you only like being a creative and were not strong with doing your own research/strategy or copywriting you will find so many benefits of working in an agency.
While you’re still in school get in the good habit of this creative process: sketching lots of ideas, peer reviewing/brainstorming with your classmates and having regular check-ins with your teachers all the way through until the end. If you can master this in school you will do fine in agencies, sweetie <3
Shanene Lau, Designer (IDEA Grad 2018)
Reality check:
Before you get there, post-grad life can feel like an obscure, nebulous fever-dream. It makes sense–you’ve worked your butt off for four years, your head is filled with all sorts of stories school has relayed, and you have no real-world design/illustration experience to ground your expectations in. Hot tip: it’s pretty normal out here. There are endless routes you can go down after grad and there’s bound to be happiness and challenge in all of them. Most likely you’ll graduate, start working somewhere, and spend some time getting comfortable doing your job. You’re not headed into anything too wild or impossible, so kill your expectations, take it one step at a time, and be nice to yourself.
New work anxiety:
Nobody talked to us about this in school, but when I started working I was wracked with anxiety. Particularly, I couldn’t sleep for 3 months because I worried so much about my ability and if everything in a day had gone as well as it could have. I brought it up to some friends and co-workers who reassured me that they’d felt the same and that it was probably normal for having a first job. In the meantime, though, I thought I was deteriorating.
Ways to help yourself:
Understand that even though you’re ready for the workplace, you are also a junior and there’s no way to accelerate that besides trying your best and gaining experience over time. You may feel like the most junior junior, which is fine. Your coworkers will understand that and their objective will only be to help coach you. Take their advice and do things to the best of your ability.
Practice separating work vs. life. This is extremely good for your mental health, and doesn’t mean that you’re lazy or not a hard worker. In school these two things were heavily melded, but now you’re able to claim 5pm-9am for yourself, and you can, and you should.
Leave your work at work, mentally and physically. If you’re able, don’t bring your work home with you even if you’ve got all the adrenaline in the world to keep going after 5pm.
Plan things after work and occupy yourself outside work hours. See friends, get dinner with family, run your errands, go to the gym, be in good company.
Meeting “the industry”:
There’s some element of cheesiness perpetuated in the idea of getting a job. Don’t try anything weird to make yourself stand out. Pretty much anything apart from a nice smart person and a nice smart portfolio is unnecessary.
When we’re meeting students for interviews, tours or portfolio reviews, I always just hope that for their own sake they’ll be comfortable, nice, and speak clearly about their work. I feel really bad if I can tell they’re super nervous or if they think we’re going to eat them alive. We’re not going to eat you alive! Only cooked. Haha. Not cooked or alive.
Anyways, show up to your interviews as your normal self, be nice, talk about your work without any BS or gimmicky tricks and you’ll be fine. If you think you’ll be freaked out afterwards, sandwich your meetings with fun stuff like friends and treats.
About Cossette
Cossette is a creative marketing and communications agency, home of creative, digital, design, content, strategy, social and super powers.
“We are a strategic partner, gathering experts across all disciplines to offer integrated brand experiences unlike any other. We play with powerful, high-potential brands, and act local, with global impact. We’ve led the way in the Canadian marketplace for nearly 50 years. We are obsessed with the combination of creativity and experience. It’s the source of everything we do and what sets us apart.”
For more on Cossette, see cossette.com.
