Louis Yau (IDEA Grad 2026) left another career to come to IDEA School of Design
Meet third-year student, Louis Yau (IDEA Grad 2026)! His first-year self-portrait for IDES 133 - Visual Studio taught by Jay Bassan is shown above.
“IDEA School of Design stood out to me the most for producing the most ‘industry ready’ graduates compared any other school in the Vancouver area”
Read Louis’ story and check out some of his other work for a glimpse into student life at IDEA School of Design at Capilano University.
Self-portrait
Self-portrait mood board by Louis Yau (IDEA Grad 2026)
“The Assignment” by Jay Bassan, Instructor
Create a mood board visualizing your Passion, Super Power, Values, Purpose and differentiation (students can use any medium for this).
“The Goal” by Jay Bassan, Instructor
To have students think clearly about how to imagine themselves as a brand and use their final self-portrait as an expression of that. This becomes one of the more interesting projects since it happens near the end of class and students are now comfortable enough with the camera.
I remind students that similar to sketching, where you decide where to put the pencil, pen, or mouse to compose your drawing, where do you put the camera to capture a moment or tell a story?
I get some interesting work.
Louis' images are always well executed technically but where he excelled was his eagerness to experiment and provide something unique. His self-portrait creates a moody and dreamlike image.
Experience so far at IDEA School of Design
My first year had its challenges, as I didn’t expect the transition coming back to school to be so difficult after so many years away. I found myself constantly doubting myself and thinking, “what the am I doing here?” Thankfully things were much better in second and third year. I’m much more confident in my abilities and my position within this program, and that has allowed me to really enjoy being here a lot more.
Highlights from First Year at IDEA School of Design
I guess a highlight for me was just the overall experience of coming into the program—realizing this was really happening now, and that I have an opportunity to do something more with my life.
Highlights from Second Year at IDEA School of Design
I won 1st place (Gold) in my first design hackathon! It was such an intense week of work, but I guess it paid off in the end!
Featured Work
Project 1 : Beverage Packaging & Brand Promotion
Class: IDES 243 Design Studio I
Instructor: Vida Jurcic
Brief: Design a beverage package and promotional campaign for a beverage of our choice. Students were given the option to choose an existing brand, or create one of their own.
“Dog Creek Family Winery” is a fictitious winery located in the Okanagan Valley of BC.
For the label, I made five illustrations, matching the characteristics of each wine to a specific dog breed who I felt embodied the wine they represent.
My idea was to turn each wine into their own unique character.
I chose to keep the illustrations in black and white and balance the modern playfulness of the illustrations with a more traditional hatching technique. The only colour used was the colour of the wine each of the characters held in their glass.
Project 2 : Everyday Monster
Class: IDES 237 Digital Illustration
Instructor: Shayne Letain
Brief: In illustrator, create an illustration of an “everyday monster” – a common experience anthropomorphized as some sort of monster or creature.
The monster I created for this project was a “Compulsive Shopping Monster.” Although I don’t like to admit it, I have often in the past spent way too much on unnecessary purchases, so there’s definitely areas of this illustration that are relatable to me personally.
Something I learned this year was to look for inspiration from my own life and in my personal experiences. It’s something that I hope to continue to let inform much of my work moving forward.
Project 3: Portfolio Duo
Class: IDES 235 Illustration Studio I
Instructor: Pascal Milelli
Brief: This project was meant to be a pair of images that worked together, either through a unifying theme or narrative. The fundamentals of the assignment was to exercise our conceptual thinking, using symbolism or metaphor, or playing with scale to emphasize contrast and emotion.
The Mascot came about through my explorations in character design. I had already created the character before conceptualizing ideas for this project, but because of the response from my classmates regarding his “terrifying” appearance, I felt I had to include him in a project. (For the record, I think he’s adorable)
Project 4: Landing Page Design
Class: IDES 252 Digital Media II
Instructor: Christina Lee Kim Koon
Brief: Design a responsive landing page to showcase one Google Font. Examples of how the font can be styled had to be shown visually, with the goal of conveying the personality and character of the typeface chosen.
The Google Font that I chose for this project was Noto Sans + Noto Emoji. Noto Sans is short for “no tofu,” which is a term used to describe the blank boxes that appear when a specific character can’t be displayed on your device.
For my design, I wanted to add an element of intractability to the page, so one of my visual specimens is a clickable card game where you have to turn over the cards to get rid of the “tofu.”
Why did you choose IDEA School of Design over other schools?
While I was researching schools for applied arts and design, the IDEA School of Design stood out to me the most for producing the most ‘’industry ready’’ graduates compared any other school in the Vancouver area. I had left another career to come back to uni, so I really wanted to feel like I was making the best decision for myself by picking the school that would give me the most success after I graduate.
“IDEA School of Design’s Bachelor Of Design in Visual Communication is a career-oriented program for the next generation of creative professionals with concentrations in branding, illustration and interactive design. IDEA School of Design’s Interaction Design Diploma is a two-year program with career outcomes in the field of digital product design and user experience.”
“The purpose of your portfolio is to demonstrate your creative potential. We assess portfolios on drawing skill, design and creativity.”
Advice for those considering applying to IDEA School of Design
Don’t doubt yourself or be afraid of not being good enough. There’s such a diverse mix of talent within the program, and if you’re not sure exactly where you fit in, the program is structured in a way to help you figure it out.
"Breakthrough Moments" at IDEA School of Design
The only person holding you back is yourself. Realizing this helped shift my perspectives and understand my own capabilities. Learning to embrace failure as a natural part of the learning experience and knowing how much value there is in the progress.
What's your favourite music video?
I don’t really have a favourite music video (do people still watch those?). I can’t even remember the last music video I watched, but I remember being impressed by all the work that went into Kina Grannis’ music video for “In Your Arms.” I just checked and that was over 10 years ago! But, it was interesting because it was done as a stop-motion with 200,000+ jelly beans. Check it out!
