IDEA School of Design Alumni in da house! In House Designers: Jennifer Tri Emely, Max Littledale and Diana Castañeda by Judy Snaydon
About 50% of graphic designers spend their time working on projects for multiple clients: they might be designing packaging for vegetarian sausages on Monday, coming up with logo ideas for a new housing development on Wednesday, and redesigning a website for a pharmacy on Friday. The other 50% of graphic designers work in-house. This means that rather than working for an agency or studio that serves many businesses, they work directly for a brand that produces and sells products, or provides services.
Check out this IDEA alumni story by Judy Snaydon!
“Some of Canada’s Most Successful Retailers are Headquartered in Vancouver”
According to retail-insider.com, some of Canada’s most successful retailers are headquartered in Vancouver including Aritzia, Lululemon, Article furniture, Herschel, Native Shoes, Save-on-Foods, Purdy’s Chocolatier, Saje Natural Wellness, Pharmasave, and London Drugs. These companies provide great opportunities for young graphic designers.
Most larger retail brands like those listed above, banks, and even universities will have a communications and marketing team that includes at least one graphic designer. These companies can provide practicum placement opportunities for IDEA School of Design students and jobs for our graduates. What is life like on the inside? Working for the same client all the time—isn’t that boring? Not according to the in-house alumni we talked to.
Here's what our insiders had to say:
“I used to be the sole designer in my first year, so I handled everything. I started out doing packaging artwork and technical sheets. A few months in, I pitched the idea of refreshing the brand so I worked on revamping the Pearl brand and then later rebranding our smaller sub-brand from scratch, which was fun! Now I do everything from our yearly catalogue, social media content for both brands, filming for advertisements, photographic products, etc.”
Jennifer
Jennifer Tri Emely graduated from the Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication program in 2020. She is currently a graphic designer at Pearl Canada. (Pearl makes a wide range of luxury products for kitchens and bathrooms.) Her role includes a wide range of projects including packaging, advertising, styling photo shoots, and creating content for the company website and social media channels. Like many IDEA grads, Jennifer found her job through a former classmate.
What do you like most about working in-house?
I find that it's nice to be working for (basically) one client that you know very well as opposed to cycling through different clients with different expectations. I’m also very close with the rest of the team and it's interesting to gain insight into other sides of the business besides just the marketing angle.
What has been one of your favourite projects so far?
Last year, we decided to create an inaugural magazine that I got to create from scratch and had a lot of creative freedom with. I got to be more experimental with the layout and visuals, so it was very fun to do! Our dealers loved it, so now we do the magazine twice a year.
What does Pearl look for in a young creative, or what advice would you give a young creative who would like to work there?
One of the most important traits that we look for is the ability to thoroughly understand the brand and our audience. This foundation acts as a beacon you should always come back to when you want to be more experimental/creative so you can have fun while still keeping the deliverables friendly and functional to the end-users.
“I work on a huge range of different tasks so I’ve learned a lot about what goes on in a brand beyond design. ”
Max
Max Littledale graduated from the Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication program in 2018. For the last 18 months, he has been working remotely for Arvin Goods in Seattle.
How did you get the gig?
I heard about the position through a contact I do freelance work for. I was accepted for the role because I was excited about the brand values and have a shared taste in design with the Creative Director who hired me.
What sort of projects do you work on?
I work on social media, packaging, advertising, newsletters, web design, product design, and general brand work (press releases, presentation decks, collaborations with other brands, etc.). I also do a decent amount of illustration and animation if a particular task could benefit from it.
What do you like most about working in-house?
Getting familiar with a brand over a long period of time and watching it grow. It's really satisfying being able to touch so many different parts of the brand and to see it evolve over time. I also work on a huge range of different tasks so I've learned a lot about what goes on in a brand beyond design.
What has been one of your favourite projects so far?
Making the material icons. It was fun developing them and it satisfied the "design systems" part of my brain. We made them bright and colourful as the main standards of the brand feature a lot of black, white, and grey.
What does Arvin look for in a young creative?
I'm not sure because we are a small team, but I would say having similarly shared values and aesthetic tastes. Also, being eager to learn new things and try tackling anything is always a bonus.
Diana Castañeda At The Lab: Is a pic of myself posing at the ISAC II Experimental Hall
Diana
Diana Castañeda graduated from the IDEA School of Design in 2014. She is the senior graphic designer at TRIUMF (Canada's particle accelerator centre).
How did you land your role at Triumf?
Five years ago, before even knowing about TRIUMF I had three friends working there, in different divisions. They all shared the job post with me (and I took that as a sign of destiny). When I checked the website I knew why they needed me. The frustrated astronaut in my inner-child made me realize how much Canadian science needs visual nerds too. After I applied I was in three different interviews before I got the offer.
A few days after I started I asked the colleagues that interviewed me “what was it you liked about me?”, and they said: “We liked how you pitched your work.”
All the soft skills and presentation training I learned in IDEA paid off.
Interactive Time Tunnel: is a crop of the interactive historical timeline of TRIUMF
CREDITS (Aaron, Mustaali, and myself are IDEA Grads 14):
Creative and art direction, Diana Castaneda
Graphic Design, Diana Castaneda and Mustaali Raj
Illustration, Aaron Campbell and Mustaali Raj
Animation and HTML coding, Mario Forero and Santiago Forero
See: timetunnel.triumf.ca
What kind of things do you work on?
I am the brand manager, which means I oversee all the visual communication pieces that represent the particle accelerator centre, at the national and international levels. I led the rebrand of the laboratory four years ago and set up the standards for templates, as well as the standards for creative procedures. I often have to illustrate diagrams and infographics, or layout promotional pieces for print and digital that include social media campaigns as well as designing books for operational reports.
What do you like most about working in-house?
I find fascinating the challenge of having to balance being the ‘brand police’ with being the 'creative person’ in a non-creative workplace. It is a very nurturing job where one has to be careful of rules, be a good example of procedures, but also inspire new ways to present ideas.
Governor General: is a photo (from 2018) of the creative team greeting former Governor General and astronaut Julie Payette, during her visit to TRIUMF.
From left to right: Jenny Oakley (IDEA Grad 18, and Practicum at TRIUMF), myself, and Carla Rodrigo, Community Manager
What has been one of your favourite projects so far?
At TRIUMF I have worked on many projects that have brought great collaborations (and a couple of awards!). One that is very dear to my heart is the TRIUMF Time Tunnel, because it has had many phases. First, in 2018 my team and I dug into TRIUMF's history and collaborated with IDEA grads Mustaali Raj and Aaron Campbell to generate an infographic illustrating the complex timeline of milestones for the laboratory. In 2020 my team turned the Time Tunnel art into an interactive digital experience with the launch of timetunnel.triumf.ca, aiming to expand our audience reach when the pandemic started. Lastly, in 2021 we started a video series of TRIUMF History Minutes, following the art direction established in the Time Tunnel in 2018! This is a great example of how the strategic use of illustration strengthens a brand, it is the gift that keeps on giving.
What advice would you give a young creative who would like to work at your company?
IDEA students stand out because they are industry-ready. My only advice would be to live up to the high expectation the local industry has from IDEA grads, and stay curious.
Virtual Tour Site: presents 3 different crops from the Discover Our Lab website, a site with the content delivered at the TRIUMF public tours. In this image there are illustrations from Lillian T. Zhang (IDEA Grad 19), and Anna Tsybulnyk (IDEA Grad 21, and Practicum at TRIUMF)
