This year's crop of First Year students designed some fabulous international shopping bags for their last big project of the year. There were some innovative typographic solutions as well as some very graphic and illustrative takes on countries and cities.

Check out a few of the standout projects from IDEA School of Design Grad 2023 students including ‘New York City’ (shown above) by Marko Jones.

Two of our grads work at Brandever Strategy Inc. in Vancouver. We asked them to share some advice to IDEA School of Design students as they prepare for summer internships (3rd year) and industry practicums (4th year).

Many thanks to Emily Pedriks, Creative Director at Brandever (IDEA Grad 2014) and Claire Tam, Graphic Designer + Illustrator at Brandever (IDEA Grad 2015) for the stylish photos and for giving our students invaluable career advice!

Congratulations to Charmaine Cheng, Art Director & Designer at Rethink Communications Vancouver (IDEA Grad 2019) for winning the RGD Award for Concept Development with her Rosedive Skateboard School for Teen Girls brand identity and art direction project. Check out her multiple award-winning project!

Garret Schauteet (IDEA Grad 2015) spent 3 years in Vancouver with the incredibly talented team at 123w while collaborating with partner agencies and a vast amount of freelancers from all over the world.

From there, he moved to BASIC® and spent 2018 embedded at Google in San Francisco, where he helped elevate Made by Google’s digital retail and product experiences on a global scale.

He’s recently transferred to BASIC®’s HQ in San Diego, where he continues to work on new Google initiatives and other global brands like Coach and Airbnb. Catch up on Garret!

Congratulations to Sharleen Ramos (IDEA Grad 2021) for gaining the RGD Honourable Mention for Logo Design for her “Wilder Tales Brewing” project. Shown above: Additional enamel camping mug collateral that fits with the brand. Instructor: Dominique Walker. Course: IDES 249, Brand Identity. Check out her logo and packaging design project.

Many congratulations to Sara Nguyen (IDEA Grad 2021) for winning the 2019 GDC Foundation Ray Hrynkow Scholarship for “Cheers: Craft Sparkling Water” brand identity. Instructor: Dominique Walker. Course: Branding IDES 249. Check out her winning project!

Joelle really enjoys the general atmosphere of Will the most. Tucked away in the DTES of Strathcona, Will is a mid-sized creative studio that focuses on branding.

For the past few weeks Joelle has been working on creating a brand audit presentation for a university among other projects including creating accessible documents.

She says it's given her good practice at presenting and learning how much information to go over depending on your audience. She has learnt that it’s valuable to be extra clear and concise with what you’re saying, and check in with the client to make sure they’re following along. "It’s also valuable to be able to adapt and remain professional because shit happens!" she writes.

Read her story!

Shanene Lau’s practicum last year turned into an internship and then a job as a Junior Designer. In this Grad Spotlight, Shanene shares her advice to art school students regarding “paralyzing fears”, making decisions and concludes “Remember that you already have everything you need, in here *points to heart*”. Catch up with Shanene!

Alex Maertz graduated from IDEA School of Design last year, got married and moved to Cumberland, BC. She is currently finishing off illustrating her first children’s book, The Girl and Her Sun, coming out late Spring 2019.

In this grad spotlight, Alex shares her process illustrating children’s books and how she is growing her own little business on Vancouver Island at her makeshift standing desk in her kitchen using a cardboard box from Costco for ergonomics. Catch up with Alex and her dog!

Freelance designer Rachelle Hynes graduated from IDEA School of Design in 2009. Her advice to design students is to “trust your gut” and “integrate YOUR uniqueness into whatever path you choose”.

We recently caught up with her about her journey as creative director, designer and thought-leader in Vancouver to her “deep passion to do something more and something with a richer purpose”.

Read Rachelle’s story about her new Zesty Life in Squamish, BC!

Students have been placed in a wide range of Vancouver companies including branding-focussed firms, digital firms, motion graphics and animation firms, publishing firms and retail in-house environments. Oooh, how lovely to spend your days in such a colourful environment!

Taeyeon Kim wins q30 design Award for Brand Design and Jesse Ellingson gets Honourable Mention for Intent Award for Print Design at RGD's 2017 Student Awards.

IDEA students won Salazar awards in the Print and Branding categories. Many congratulations to Katie Maasik (Branding) and Alex Bakker (Print).