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.

Check out this grad spotlight!

How is working as Art Director at aeyde GmbH and your new life in Germany? What type of projects are you working on?

It has been quite the adjustment coming from Vancouver, but nevertheless an incredible place to be a creative. I am currently working across 3 seasons, finalizing and concepting for our Fall/Winter ‘21 Campaign and already discussing Spring/Summer ‘22 concepts and executions. 

Describe your career journey since graduating from IDEA

It feels like yesterday that I was at the IDEA School of Design grad show - terrified standing in front of my body of work I had worked on relentlessly. It was actually at the grad show where my first employer found me - Kit and Ace, at the time a VERY small men and women’s fashion company in Vancouver. Here I really got to build myself as an all-around creative, working on projects such as website design, graphic design, and photography art direction. 

After 2 amazing years at Kit and Ace, I shifted gears from a “start-up” company to one of the fashion powerhouses in Vancouver, Aritzia. At Aritzia - with amazing mentorship from my Creative Director and Senior Art Director - I fully came into my strength in photography art direction, social media strategy, and product branding. Working in-studio for Ecommerce, campaign, and social specific campaigns. 

While the growth and opportunities were amazing at Aritzia - I knew that Europe was always calling my name. After 2 and a half years at Aritzia, my partner and I moved overseas and are now settled in Berlin, Germany where I have now been in my current role as Art Director at aeyde for almost 3 years.

My career and personal journey (even throughout IDEA School of Design) was always revolving around art, photography, and fashion - I always knew I was going to be in-house at a fashion label. 

Why did you choose to go to IDEA School of Design?

I always saw myself as quite a “multidisciplinary” creative and IDEA School of Design was really able to let me dabble in basically every aspect of design. This was such a pivotal step in my journey thus far - IDEA School of Design really taught me that being a generalist is actually quite an asset. 

Did you network much during school?

I networked a tiny bit during school. It was beneficial that I was also working as a photographer during my time at IDEA so I was able to network and connect through that quite a bit. 

Awards

I was one of the recipients of the Canada Type Scholarship in 2013 by the GDC. The project was focused on the idea of “Calligraphic Type in the Digital Age”.

Project Brief:

Design a poster for the exhibition Calligraphic Type Design in the Digital Age featuring a selection of works by 16 notable type designers. Include all descriptive text provided, location and dates. Any imagery used (optional) must take a subordinate role to the exhibition poster title.

Solution:

For this project, I chose to focus on the two elements of traditional and digital typography, playing on the theme of the two different typefaces (a calligraphic typeface, and a pixel typeface) and melding them into one art piece. I also chose to use a CMYK colour scheme as I felt it was most effective in pulling off the traditional/digital aspect.

I also had the privilege of being selected to have a solo exhibition of photography in Vancouver at Kit and Ace gallery space in 2016.

What are your memories and highlights from IDEA School of Design and have you stayed in touch with your cohort or instructors?

Living off Tim Hortons. Oh and of course the amazing classmates I had the privilege of working alongside - that still to this day - inspire me to push myself and my works.

A lot of tools have changed since you were in school. Please describe your process and what’s in your design toolkit these days? What new tools have you learned since graduating?

I work almost strictly with Photoshop and InDesign for all works and presentations. Illustrator isn’t a huge part of my work. That being said — I am a huge advocate for sketching. In addition – I have seen a huge surge to everything digital, and have been dabbling with programs such as Sketch and Figma for UX design to add to my skill-set, you never know when it’ll come in handy.

What’s in your communications toolkit these days and have tools changed much during the pandemic? How has your work life changed during the pandemic?

Absolutely — I have never been such an advocate for project management tools as in this current moment. Since working from home for about a year now, tools such as Slack and Zoom have become a norm - which is a double-edged sword, it’s great to be able to keep in touch so quickly but also has made this idea of “digital communication” a cultural norm.

Do you have any side projects going on?

I am working on a couple of side hustles, unfortunately, none that I can speak about quite yet but stay tuned haha. 

What is your number one idea generation strategy?

I do my best thinking in the bath. 

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

Fail often. To grow - you have to shed this idea of “comfort”.

Describe a design fail that you learned from?

I feel like most of my design fails are somehow all related .. to sending print files. It took me quite a bit of time, and a lot of trial and error, to get my files looking perfect for print and to come out the way I imagined them to.

What advice would you give to anyone considering applying to IDEA Bachelor of Design?

Whether you are a designer, illustrator, UX designer, photographer - always keep your mind open to all subject studies during your time at IDEA School of Design. Being well versed in all areas and fields in this industry is extremely important.

What advice would you give to IDEA School of Design students regarding summer internships, practicums, portfolios, and career advice?

I am a huge advocate for personal projects; doesn’t matter if you’re applying for your first job, first mentorship, or your 6th job after 10 years of experience; when there is a project in your portfolio that you can really speak from the heart about; it really speaks to your character.

After, and actually, during school, I was always working on personal projects to build into my portfolio.

Lastly; I spent a very long time figuring out what the “perfect” portfolio was to showcase my work - I ultimately went with Cargo as it was extremely simple to use and easy to update (always something I wish I did more regularly). 

Lastly, where do you see yourself in the next few years, where can people follow you, and is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

This has always been a tough question, if you were to have asked me 3 years ago if I was to see myself living and working in Berlin, I would have most likely said “there’s no way.” In the career we are in - I think it is always important to look forward and toward the new and different, and to always be open to new possibilities and opportunities. 

In the next few years, I see myself making up for all this time that we were unable to travel, I really want to go back to Japan — continuing to grow and build my skill set — and hopefully learn German.

For more on Christopher see chriswinter.ca and aeyde.com or follow him on Instagram @chriscwinter.