Meet first-year student, Nuha Thayyib (IDEA Grad 2024)! Her self-portrait for IDES 133 - Visual Studio taught by Jay Bassan is shown above.

Read Nuha’s story and check out some of her other work for a glimpse into first-year student life at IDEA School of Design at Capilano University.

Self Portrait by Nuha Thayyib (IDEA Grad 2024)

The Self-Portrait project was very challenging. Mainly, my biggest challenge was figuring out how to reflect myself through this single image. I brainstormed many different set-ups, props, etc. However, I finally decided that I wanted to stay true to my cultural roots and background. One thing that came up in my interview process for getting into the program was if I believed that cultural background or experiences influence design. The concept behind my self-portrait brought me back to my answer. I believe that cultural background and your life experiences do shape who you are as a designer and how you create or view art. The beauty of texture, patterns, colors, and much more are reflected in this piece. I also placed my arms upward to create a sense of growth or expanding my creative mind.

“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.

Experience so far in first term at IDEA School of Design

The IDEA Bachelor of Design program has been an amazing and rewarding experience so far. I’ve learned to push past my limitations of producing work and idea generation in a short period. For anyone looking into the program, it is a very work-heavy course with a lot of material to get through. It does compare to an industry experience as well, because of how all the projects are formatted and have very strict deadlines. Although it can be draining at times, it allowed me to explore many different forms of mediums and design styles that I wouldn't have if not for this program.

Featured Work

“Temple Seeds” Branding Project

Temples seeds was a branding project I received for a small start-up company. They reached out to me to design a logo for their company as well as packing for their products. They're planning to sell seeds and grains such as chia, flax, and quinoa. They wanted the packaging to stand out from similar competing products. After some research, I realized all competitive brands were using lots of brown and green. That's when I developed these black bag packages. I wanted to create that similarity with keeping the underlaying design consistent but changing the colors to identify the different products.

“The Forest of Dragons” Illustration Project

I drew this illustration for a project in our life drawing class (IDES 133 Visual Studio) where we had to take our life drawing model and place her in a creative background. I wanted to create a magical and luring scene that was filled with dragons and I was very pleased with the outcome.

“Alice in Wonderland” Book Design

I've redesigned a cover for Alice in wonderland before, however, when we got assigned this project in IDES 142 Survey and Principles of Design II, I wanted to re-do it with a more minimalistic style and monotoned colour scheme. I used expressive type and a font that I thought fit the theme of the novel very nicely. I also played around with a lot of shades and tints of blue since it is Alice's iconic dress colour.

Why did you choose IDEA School of Design over other schools?

During my interview process, I asked the professors that were interviewing me why I should choose Capilano over any other school. Their answer gave me the confidence that the program was perfect for me and aligned with my future goals. I would say the IDEA program is well equipped with making their student's industry ready for when they graduate. I also enjoy being part of a select cohort of students as I’ve been able to create close bonds with my peers. The small cohort also encourages students to collaborate and build strong team working / collaborative skills. IDEA just aligned perfectly with where I wanted to direct my career in the future.

What advice would you give to those considering applying?

Don't stress out, I believe that as long as you're putting your best work forward it will make the impact you want it to. I advise presenting a diverse portfolio that highlights your strengths; shows the use of different mediums, techniques and displays a range of experimentation. Personally, I used paintings done in both acrylic and watercolour, digital work including product branding and logo design, pencil drawings, and henna. Another tip is to use the descriptions, I cannot stress this enough but never present your work without a brief summary of your process, pieces are way more recognized when viewers understand the story and process behind the final piece.

"Breakthrough moment" at IDEA School of Design

One breakthrough moment I’ve had so far in IDEA is that a lot of great work stems from collaboration. That’s why all the group discussions and critiques have been extremely helpful. Getting an outside perspective and feedback doesn’t mean you aren’t a strong designer. IDEA has taught me the real strength of collaboration and how two minds are always better than one. I guess you could say the more the merrier!

What’s one of your favourite songs or music videos?

My favourite song right now is, It's You by Ali Gatie.

For more on Nuha follow her on Instagram @nuhathayyib.