With a Graduate Degree in Architecture from Dalhousie University, Designer/Photographer Shy Smardon (IDEA Grad 2016) Navigates the Inflections of Design in New Zealand

We recently caught up with designer, photographer and graduate architect, Shy Smardon (IDEA Grad 2016), for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design where he won 10 student awards! He considers himself quite lucky to be living in New Zealand.

“It definitely wasn’t part of the plan to skip out on a pandemic, but that’s what I feel has happened.” writes Shy. Shy is currently a Website Designer at the University of Otago in New Zealand, a freelance graphic designer, and undertaking a full redesign of an early 1900s villa that he and his partner purchased.

Check out this grad spotlight!

Please give us a brief summary of your career life after graduating from IDEA and what you are doing now?

Kia ora! Hello in te reo Māori, the native language spoken in New Zealand by the indigenous Māori people. My name is Shy, and I am an IDEA 2016 grad from Halifax, currently living on the other side of the world in Dunedin, on New Zealand’s South Island.

Tunnel Beach, Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

Will Creative

After IDEA School of Design, I was recruited by the talented and good people over at Will—working on a wide range of accounts from Mark’s to TRU to Lululemon. I remember thinking how all of their work was so polished, and although IDEA School of Design does a fantastic job preparing students, there was now added pressure because the work involved real people and real money. Luckily, Jen (IDEA alumni) and Nick (Creative Founder) were really great and always had time for the smallest of questions. Ute (Strategic Founder) coloured the office with comical stories—and the most amazing Pride Day cake. The entire team worked great together. For anyone heading to Will in future, you’re in good hands; Hey, Will team 🙂

Will creative team, Vancouver

IDEA School of Design students know how demanding the program can be (albeit rewarding), so I bitter-sweetly departed Will for a much-needed break to re-connect and recharge with family in Ottawa.

I should rewind to say that I had previously arrived at IDEA School of Design after having completed grad school at Dalhousie University’s School of Architecture, and learned photography at NSCAD University. So the idea of skirting less travelled design footpaths was beginning to be my norm.

EA Interface Design team

Electronic Arts (EA)

Fast forward from my family recharge, and I found myself being recruited by Electronic Arts (EA) to become an Interface Designer on the FIFA franchise. Heading from a 15-20 person firm to 1200+ was a big change. Interestingly, it didn’t matter that I didn’t play soccer, as the team was specifically interested in a fresh design perspective to bring to the team.

EA has a massive campus — indoor and outdoor soccer, basketball courts, sand volleyball, game store, game room, slick cafeteria, gender-neutral washrooms, gym, saunas, even a well-being room where you can simply sit and be alone with your design thoughts.

“Every pixel was combed over, as the interfaces we worked on would inevitably be viewed by millions of players from every corner of the globe, and we all know how quick memes spread if something is overlooked.”

Great place, and an even better team. The one thing I didn’t love was working on a PC (which was needed in order to work alongside game engineers). I pushed the Windows keyboard button at least 10 times daily. I’ve even attempted to tape it down to avoid the Windows popup but turns out it freezes the computer, so that was short-lived. I adapted, and moved along—but still prefer a Mac.

I worked on the console version of FIFA18 and FIFA19, and it had just been announced that it was the world’s biggest game—no pressure, right? The Interface Design team was an incredible roster to be a part of.

We were directly responsible for a new Story Mode of the game that lets users play as an aspiring soccer player, Alex Hunter, and watch him rise through the ranks. Any interaction that users have with the game—menus, buttons, layout, branding, photos, navigation, visual hierarchy, were all under our team and then heavily user tested by focus groups to reduce friction points.

Every pixel was combed over, as the interfaces we worked on would inevitably be viewed by millions of players from every corner of the globe, and we all know how quick memes spread if something is overlooked. I quickly realized that all of the primary design elements that were used in FIFA were the foundations present in all good design. I learned much at EA, and a great deal by just being surrounded by fantastic design leads with razor-sharp skills.

Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

New Zealand

Fast forward again, and my partner was offered a teaching position at the University of Otago in New Zealand. After some thought, and another bittersweet consideration, we’ve decided that we’d regret not giving it a try, so I departed EA and we packed for another unexpected path.

Since IDEA sets students up to be equipped with mini freelance studios when graduating, I retained freelance clients and continued that work in NZ. In tandem to freelance, I found myself with sleeves fully rolled up on the architecture side of design, undertaking a full redesign of an early 1900s villa that we purchased as our new home.

“I’m now much more comfortable jumping into HTML and CSS than I was before, and learning from a great team makes it that much easier.”

Meanwhile, the University of Otago had recently created a new marketing department and was looking to add a Website Designer to the team. I had not worked on website design since IDEA School of Design and a summer semester at Red Academy but knew it would be a good skill to build on, and in return, could value-add with good design, so I jumped in.

The university has over 400 websites that the web team is in the process of updating. It’s been challenging learning code on such complex sites with many department shareholders, but I’m now much more comfortable jumping into HTML and CSS than I was before, and learning from a great team makes it that much easier.

Brand design and packaging project for Callia, a modern Canada-wide bouquet shop that has since landed a deal on Dragons’ Den.

What type of projects are you currently working on?

Besides website design at the University of Otago, and home renovations, a couple of projects I’ve worked on is a brand design and packaging project for Callia, a modern Canada-wide bouquet shop that has since landed a deal on Dragons’ Den; seasonal ads for Nature’s Bounty, an international wellness brand; and branding and packaging for Patent 5, a premium copper pot distillery in a historic precinct.

Seasonal ads for Nature’s Bounty, an international wellness brand.

Branding and packaging for Patent 5, a premium copper pot distillery in a historic precinct.

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

Word of mouth from friends. I then searched out student portfolios and noticed the high level of craft and attention to detail. The idea of working alongside illustrators was an interesting point of difference that (although a bit intimidating) I thought would be a learning experience. Ultimately, it was talented former students speaking very highly of the program and the skills they gained as a result that I chose IDEA School of Design at Capilano University.

Distillery Advent

Discover a new local favourite

The Distillery Advent is a seasonal product created for BC Distilled to engage Vancouverites with BC distilleries. The calendar is a sampling of 25 hand-selected spirits + shot glass with the ultimate intention to introduce local craft liquor to a new audience.

*Awarded with the Applied Arts Packaging Design Series Award.
*Awarded with the Rethink Award Honourable Mention.

Student Awards & Recognition

Credit to IDEA instructors for encouraging and supporting all students to apply for awards. Awards won:

• Canadian Regional Design Award (regional)

• YCN Student Award (international)

• Two Applied Arts Awards in design (international)

• Applied Arts Award in photography (international)

• James Lee Foundation Award (national)

• Lexus Design School Challenge Award with Monica Maher + Stephanie Brennan (regional + national)

• Applied Arts George Haroutiun Award (national)

• RDG award (national)

• Communication Arts award (international)

Seasoned [see-zuh nd]

Cover Art

Seasoned [see-zuh nd]: heightened, improved or enhanced flavour of food.
Handcrafted for custom cover art.

*Awarded with the Applied Arts Award for Photography Single.

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

Life drawing was a disaster! I had never taken a life drawing class before. I transferred from Algonquin College into year two, and by then, everyone else in IDEA seemed like pros. My drawings were horrendous, but I always tried and left class inspired by my classmates.

We had a talented class, and I learned something from each of them. There was a lot of really great randomness, and I loved how the classroom had a sense of place from personalized workstations.

I’ve been awful at social media lately, so I haven’t been in touch as much as I’d like. Mostly because I didn’t want to post from a privileged place (living in covid-free NZ) while the world deals with some very real issues. But now that things are improving, and a reminder nudge from this spotlight article, I’ll head back soon :] Hey, IDEA cohort and instructors! 🙋🏽‍♂️

Spatial Shift

Spatial Shift is a typographic study of void, light, and shadow in the English alphabet. It fuses the common medium of graphic designers (paper) and the common medium of architects (space).

Every character is crafted from 360 layers of paper and shifted -.18° from the adjacent layer and laser cut to form three-dimensional topographic typography.

Study typeface: Aery

*Awarded the Communication Arts Typography Annual Award.
*Awarded the Applied Arts Typography Design and Application Series.
*Awarded the Association of Registered Graphic Designers Forge Award for Typography.

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?

My design process always starts with thinking of the problem and then unearthing opportunities on different scales in order to arrive at the best solution. From there, it’s refining with the client with their knowledge base to arrive at a collective place. For me, this step is the most important, as it allows the client to be fully invested, and lessens any pear-shaped surprises at the end. I like to mix my understanding of the built environment with digital design and travel experience to arrive at a fuller resolution that has been thought through.

My advice for other students would be to draw upon whatever is in your back pocket, whether writing, dance, or cooking. Let your experience inform your design decisions. It’s important to bring those transferable skills to the table from a unique point of view.

I use a sketchbook, Creative Cloud, Firefox developer tools, and general internet to stay up to date with new technology and best practices—as well as random internet discord.

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?

Actually, I consider myself quite lucky to be living in New Zealand. It definitely wasn’t part of the plan to skip out on a pandemic, but that’s what I feel has happened. Besides the strange toilet paper hoarding at the beginning and no overseas travel, life has been relatively similar to pre-pandemic time (at least for now anyway). For the short time working at home, Zoom and Slack were the tools our team used for communication.

Work desk at Electronic Arts

Do you have any side projects or passion projects on the go?

A couple of freelance projects mentioned earlier, as well as a full villa reno.

What is your number one idea generation strategy?

Filtering out right away what doesn’t work and then building on ideas that have a good foundation. I then begin again from different perspectives and repeat filtering.

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

Quality over quantity.

Describe a design fail that you learnt from?

Life drawing in IDEA. I’m not very good at it, but I continued to surround myself with talented people (i.e. everyone other than me). My drawings were still awful, but I learnt to see light and shadow through their eyes. I felt very privileged to be able to witness some very talented people become more talented.

“Life drawing was a disaster! I had never taken a life drawing class before.”

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

Apply when you know you can give it 100 percent. Yes, anyone in the program will benefit by just being around great talent, but if you really deep dive to absorb as much as the program has to offer, you’ll come out the other side with skills you never knew you would gain, along with some really great friends.

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

Just be yourself. I remember being a bit (a lot) star-struck by Jen Hicks (IDEA Grad 2006 at Will) and her quick talent. I thought that I wouldn’t live up to her high expectations and that she was just really too nice to say it. The truth is she was just super nice, and the rest of the story was in my head. I think grads put too much pressure on themselves. In reality, all designers have gone through similar paths, and them reaching back in the form of internships is their way of helping new talent continue that cycle without expectations. Thanks, Jen for being so fantastic.

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?

I wish I knew. Designing of course, but if this year has taught us anything, it’s that things can move in unexpected directions. Having a diverse background and experience, my hope is that it has prepared me to be humble and flexible.

Catch up with my design and NZ adventures on IG @shy.ronn. Yes, I’ll be finally updating soon. Oh, and a NZ hello to the IDEA family 🙂

For more on Shy, see shyronn.com.