First-year students (IDEA Grad 2025) offer their advice and experiences applying to IDEA School of Design
Early Applications for Fall 2022 at IDEA School of Design close January 26, 2022!
Entry to the Bachelor of Design is competitive, and applicants must submit a portfolio and other documents through the online portal SlideRoom.
First-year students (IDEA Grad 2025) offer their advice and experiences applying to the Bachelor of Design (BDes) program at Capilano University. We hope a first-hand student perspective will give you more insight and direction on the application process.
Shown above: “Depersonalization - Red” by Liza Borissova (IDEA Grad 2025) as part of her application to IDEA School of Design.
“Cat in fairy tale” (11"x17") by Stacy Zhang (IDEA Grad 2025 Student Application)
This is a surreal cat portrait that represents me: it reflects my carefree personality and my desire to live in an idyllic castle. I used thick acrylic paint to show the fuzzy texture of the hat and the cat’s face. I tried to use more contrast on the cat figure to create some space between the character and the background.
“Mendel's Peas planning” by Y. Loker (IDEA Grad 2025 Student Application)
Series: Small Thing, Big Impact.
For Austrian Scientist Gregor Mendel, small pea plants were fundamental in him discovering the large idea of how traits are inherited between parents and offspring. Revised different pea pod designs utilizing blue and red for the peas, as those colours are typically associated with DNA.
“Chaos Dogs” by A. Thompson (IDEA Grad 2025 Student Application)
“When You're Hot n You're Cold” by P. Verdon (IDEA Grad 2025 Student Application)
This is a fruit bowl study done using acrylic paint. I wanted to play around with colour theory, so I decided to contrast the warm fruits with cool background colours.
“Augmented Reality Figma Prototype” by Tolan Greyhaven (IDEA Grad 2025 Student Application)
This page is the opening page of the slide deck used to present my final project for Term 1 of the Interaction Design Class. A fully interactive prototype with Figma. A few of the screen mockups are seen on the page as well as my own personal branding logo "TG" in the bottom right.
Seen on the page is the Eye-Logo I designed for the Social Media platform. The link that is shown on the page and below in this description will open the interactive prototype in a browser.
“Futura Poster” by Angela Aguilar (IDEA Grad 2025 Student Application)
A typographic poster made to inform the viewer of and to showcase Paul Renner's typeface, Futura. Complimentary colours and basic shapes with negative space were used to compliment the sans-serif geometric typeface and to accentuate the portrait of Paul Renner in the background.
“Baileys bottle” by Riley Simmons (IDEA Grad 2025)
An acrylic painting of Baileys Irish Cream bottle.
“Flower Shop Poster Design” by Shruti Karthikeyan (IDEA Grad 2025)
This is a flower shop poster that I designed by incorporating a variety of shapes and lines. I layered and changed the opacity of each shape, text, flower and leaves to produce a more three-dimensional effect.
Important Note: Candidates must first apply to Capilano University at capilanou.ca/admissions before applying to the Bachelor of Design.
See also:
For full details on how to apply, including what is expected in a portfolio, please visit our website at capilanou.ca/idea.
Early Admission: SlideRoom closes Wednesday, Jan 26, 2022.
Late Admission: SlideRoom 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.
Find more portfolio advice at capilanou.ca/idea.