Last fall, Emily Carr graduate, Alex Westcott, transferred to 3rd Year (IDEA Grad 2022) of CapU’s IDEA School of Design Bachelor of Design. We just caught up with Alex to ask her about her experience at IDEA School of Design so far.

Check out this student spotlight!

How did you hear about the IDEA School of Design and the transfer opportunity?

I heard about the program from Casey Hrynknow Shewcuk, one of my former communication design professors at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD)—it sounded completely awesome and I ended up doing some of my own research. I was really impressed with the work and stories of alumni and I started thinking about it as an option for post-graduation. In the first semester of my final year at ECUAD I left a voicemail about transfer opportunities, and I got a call back from Carol. I came in for an interview (plus a complimentary tour) following Christmas holidays and was offered admission for third year shortly after—I was so stoked and accepting was definitely one of the better decisions I’ve made.

What interests you most about interaction design?

While they are valuable aspects, design isn’t just about how something looks or how something feels but is also about how something works and how we interact with it. That’s a part of the UX process that is really interesting to me. How we engage with technology is being investigated more and more and based on user research there are patterns emerging that have proven to make systems and digital products more intuitive to use. A lot of things are already very complicated in the world, and I think that there’s extreme value in creating digital tools for the everyday that don’t add to that complexity, but that could improve daily life—maybe even bring some delight.

How was it diving into Sketch and InVision?

Jumping straight into software like Sketch and InVision was a learning curve—and an exercise in resilience. Thanks to some pretty nice UI and UX (and lifeline/instructor Christina Lee Kim Koon) design though, my troubleshooting efforts were a lot less troubled.

What was a highlight from your first year as a third-year student at IDEA School of Design?

My first year in the program was fully remote-learning for IDEA School of Design. I think I may have stepped on the Capilano University campus once (beautiful by the way) to see Tamara and pick-up my laptop. The circumstances left a lot of room for things like zoom fatigue and general isolation but what made it noteworthy was that my peers and instructors met the year with compassion, connectedness, dedicated work and a whole lot of resilience. It was inspired, and we stayed creative in how we adapted to learning and making in the throws of a pandemic.

How are ECUAD and IDEA similar/different?

I’ve found that at Emily Carr there was a lot of allotted time for in-depth research and analysis within project timelines, with less focus on resolved deliverables. Whereas in third year of IDEA the turnaround is much quicker which provides an experience and understanding of how things work within industry. I feel that both institutions have served me really well in terms of learning how to design more meaningfully.

What are your idea generation strategies?

Something that I always find really helpful in the early stages of a project is creating a visual dictionary. I’ll note down a series of words whether they be adjectives, nouns or verbs, organize them a little, likely go through the notation process again, distill the list, and then use them as guiding principles. If I’m feeling a little misdirected I can go and reference them throughout each design stage. I also blast Whitney Houston or Annie Lennox.

What is the best design advice you’ve learned from a mentor, teacher or fellow student?

In third year during our Professional Development course that was taught by Judy Snaydon, we were given an awesome project opportunity in terms of both student portfolio and general personal fulfillment. It doesn't get much better than a professionally guided passion project. Getting to work with a designer in the industry was really valuable in a lot of ways and my mentor Tim Hoffpauir from 123w Idea & Design Collective gave feedback that was incredibly insightful.

One thing that I took away from the experience working together was the virtue in short and sweet. It’s really easy to get caught up the minutia when your zoom is 2,000% deep, but there’s a special craft to effectively conveying a strong meaning concisely. It’s an art, and it takes a lot of practice but when it works—it works so powerfully.

Describe a design fail that you’ve learned from?

I think I have a pretty well-rounded collection of classics in my design repertoire of shortcomings, with some additional doozies that’s for sure. Having unsaved work lost to the universe is always a little painful and doesn’t get any less disappointing with time. Something that I’ve been so unsuccessful with in the past but that I’ve harnessed for a more efficient workflow is file management. Which yeah, sounds pretty dull but has come with great satisfaction and results. Time spent trying to find (or worse yet re-create) a lost asset for yourself or someone else is better spent elsewhere.

One thing that I’ve found works well for me is creating a Master Document for outlinks like inspiration, slide decks, or references. I’m able to grant others access to the resource/s, I can make notes alongside the outlinks, and it saves me time digging through nested browser bookmarks or flip through open programs on my desktop.

Are you interested in freelance work?

I’ve done both part-time and full-time contract work intermittently throughout post-secondary, and I think it’s taught me a lot about time management as well as understanding what my time is worth—which have both been valuable lessons for sure. While those experiences so far have involved a lot of great independent learning, immediately following post graduation I’d prefer not to be my own boss. I think that I have a lot to learn yet through mentorship, and through working collaboratively as part of a team.

What advice do you have for students considering applying to IDEA School of Design?

Imagine big. Whether it be when exploring material, or accounts of feasibility—at least sometimes. There's a lot of room to experiment as a student, and exploring the realm of possibility to its very edge can glean some useful or weird insights, plus, it’s fun. Also, get nice and cozy with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. They’re great tools to bring deliverables to life or into context when there are quick project turnaround times like there are in the third year.

Sooo… what’s your favourite Whitney Houston song/video?

There’s a few! I Wanna Dance With Somebody just came to mind.

For more on Alex see behance.net/AVWestcott and alexvwestcott.com.