All in Industry Connections
One of the reasons Natalie Heaman chose to do her practicum at Citizen Relations is because it seemed to be the farthest out of her comfort zone, but also the offer with the most self-direction and room for opportunity. “Having learned about advertising in school, it was interesting to compare and contrast that to PR perspective.” she writes.
Read her blog story about her first two weeks of practicum!
Fourth-year students at Capilano University's IDEA School of Design in Vancouver, British Columbia have been placed in a wide range of Vancouver companies. They will begin posting stories about their eight-week practicums starting today on Instagram.
Stories this week include: Charmaine Cheng at Cossette (Mar 11), Jominca Engelbrecht at Porchlight Press (Mar 12), Lillian T Zhang at DDB (Mar 13), Jackie Duck at Bazoof! Magazine (Mar 14), and Malcolm Buitenhuis at BAM Communications (Mar 15).
Lillian T Zhang’s practicum is in the advertising department at DDB located in the heart of Downtown Vancouver. ‘Look at this view tho’ she writes in her blog story. Lillian is currently working on ideations and mock-ups for a SkyTrain station ad takeover for a lottery company and is loving every minute of it!
Read her Week 1 practicum story and find out more about Hot Dog day and Shout out Fridays!
Thank you to IDEA18 alumni Annie Chang, CK Papilla, Vivay Li, Danielle Vallée, Angela Schmold and Juliana Vieira for their words of wisdom to IDEA19 as they begin their industry practicums.
Their advice includes cracking some jokes, keep asking for advice, meeting new people and socializing!
4th-year practicums starts Monday, February 25, 2019! Laura Pummel will be taking Vancouver agency 123w for a spin. Practicum supervisor, Judy Snaydon, visits studios that are hosting for the first time and was especially looking forward to stopping by 123w. 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!
Five of our grads work at Vancouver’s Will Creative. We asked them to share some career advice for our 4th year students as they prepare for their practicums.
Shown left to right above: Will Erickson (Grad 2015), Allison Chambers (Grad 2013), Jennifer Hicks (Grad 2006), Briony Crane (Grad 2006) and Rory O'Sullivan (Grad 2005).
IDES 490 Industry Practicum is an experiential learning course that takes place primarily off campus. Students work within a studio/agency environment or with a personal mentor in a capacity related to visual communication.
We reached out to the busy IDEA19 graduating students to see how they’re feeling about their upcoming 2-month industry practicums and share a bit about the process of choosing their practicum hosts last Fall.
Feedback ranged from equally excited and terrified to SUPER STOKED!
Shown above: 4th year students prepping their business cards and grad materials.
2nd year IDEA student Alison Johnstone shares her story illustrating for student press publication, Capilano Courier. Illustration shown above for Naked and Not Afraid: Woman is a Word in the October 24, 2018 issue written by columnist Scarlett Vanderwoodsen.
This past summer Brynn Staples (IDEA20) landed a job at Rethink as a design intern. She got to work on updating A&W’s menus, WestJet’s rebrand and more including building presentation decks, client calls and meetings. Read her story! Shown above: Branded ice cream/beer cart by Brynn Staples and fellow IDEA student/art direction intern Ashley Visvanathan. “Yes, it was delicious. Pictured here with our awesome accounts intern, Natalie.” she writes.
Shay Klassen (IDEA18) started off as a concept artist her first 3 months at Vancouver’s Gámomo Creative Lab and recently art directed an animated short for HOPR Bike Share and Scooter Share. Her advice to anyone wanting to work in the animation industry: “USE YOUR SKETCHBOOK DUMMY. For real.” Catch up with Shay!
“In IDEA I failed, a lot. I failed constantly. I’m so glad I failed so much, because I really learned and grew from those experiences.” says Syd Danger who graduated from Capilano University’s IDEA School of Design in 2015. We caught up with her after her recent SADCAST interview about her time working at Capilano Courier to Adbusters, Geist and now SAD. Read our full interview with Syd!
Instructor, Leanna B Crawford took IDEA20 students on a tour of Noise Digital on Friday March 16th, 2018 for IDES212. From left to right: Rebekah Maurice, Mann Kacharath Chalermwat, Jennifer Panata, and Sydney Toews. Check out more photos!
Surrounded by a healthy serving of IDEA grads (Briony Crane, Allison Chambers, Rory O’Sullivan, Will Erickson, and Jenn Hicks), the transition from school to agency has not been too overwhelming for Pamella Pinard. Quiet by nature, her biggest challenge has been being more vocal as there is always someone laughing about something or at someone at Will. She's worked on an infographic, event posters, presentation materials, brand guidelines, assisted Creative Director Lisa Lebedovich on concept preparation for a project, supported others, and did some moodboarding for a project with a flower company. She's found herself sketching faster and more efficiently by the end of it all. Read her story.
“With discomfort and change come new opportunities, connections, and learning experiences” writes Alex Maertz who is in practicum at Danica Imports. Her first day was overwhelming but she knew that she was in the right place. In her first month she has explored server files and Basecamp discussions, went through client lists, converted artwork into JPEGS, worked on Instagram Stories, pattern creation, organizing, sat in on a 3 hour design meeting and helped them move their studio! Read her story.
IDEA18 student, Danielle Vallée has been blogging about her practicum at Tealeaves, a luxury tea company with offices in Seattle, London, Guadalajara, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Vancouver. She's been working on new product dielines, planning the company Instagram, sketching illustration concepts, research, moodboarding, a "nerve-racking" presentation, planning product photoshoots and editing some images. Read her practicum story.
IDEA18 student, Max Littledale has been blogging about his practicum at Carter Hales. He's been working on a website redesign, email layout, an annual report layout, sat in on a client conference call and is enjoying learning Sketch. Read his practicum story.
Shown above from left to right: Laura Pummell, Ryan McDiarmid, Mark Pilon, Michael Wenninger, Emily Powers, Ashley Loo, Jominca Engelbrecht, Jacqueline Duck, and Cynthia Vo. Photo by Dacosta Bayley.
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!
Sometimes, a pen, some post-it notes, and two productive hours can do more for you than technology ever can.
