All in Practicums & Internships

Emily Rose—illustration and design practicum at Chairman Ting Industries Inc., Vancouver, BC

Emily Rose—illustration and design practicum at Chairman Ting Industries Inc., Vancouver, BC

James Neufeld
Practicums & Internships

"So many promo packages!" writes Emily Rose regarding her practicum at Production Road working under the owner of Chairman Ting Industries Inc., Carson Ting. Emily never thought she’d be part of an email chain with over 100 emails, working on a project from all different countries and different timezones!

Her practicum included designing icons to be animated, an album cover, learning different ways to apply her illustrations and even transferring domain names for a website client.

Check out Emily's practicum story!

Joelle Lawrence’s practicum journey at Will Creative in the DTES of Vancouver’s Strathcona

Joelle Lawrence’s practicum journey at Will Creative in the DTES of Vancouver’s Strathcona

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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!

Natalie Heaman—practicum at Citizen Relations, a PR agency in Yaletown

Natalie Heaman—practicum at Citizen Relations, a PR agency in Yaletown

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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!

Industry Practicum take-over stories start today on @ideanineteen's Instagram feed

Industry Practicum take-over stories start today on @ideanineteen's Instagram feed

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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—Practicum in the advertising department at DDB Vancouver

Lillian T Zhang—Practicum in the advertising department at DDB Vancouver

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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!

Shanene Lau (IDEA18)—Junior Designer at Cossette Communications

Shanene Lau (IDEA18)—Junior Designer at Cossette Communications

James Neufeld
Grad Spotlight, Graphic Design, Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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!

IDEA alumni at Will Creative offer career advice to IDEA19 as they prepare for industry Practicums

IDEA alumni at Will Creative offer career advice to IDEA19 as they prepare for industry Practicums

James Neufeld
Grad Spotlight, Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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).

4th year Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication students share their excitement for upcoming industry practicums

4th year Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication students share their excitement for upcoming industry practicums

James Neufeld
Student Life, Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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.

Rethinking® summer—Brynn Staples’ 2018 summer internship

Rethinking® summer—Brynn Staples’ 2018 summer internship

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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.

Amanda Siegmann—Graphic Designer and Advertising Support at Canada Wide Media

Amanda Siegmann—Graphic Designer and Advertising Support at Canada Wide Media

James Neufeld
Grad Spotlight, Practicums & Internships

Making lifelong friends through the IDEA program is a huge highlight for Amanda. She originally graduated from the three year diploma program in 2015. After two years of working at a signage company, she wanted to switch gears and focus more on branding so she decided to go back to school to revamp her portfolio, brush up on her skills, and earn a degree. Amanda returned in fall 2017 to complete the fourth and final year of the new degree program. IDEA School of Design was one of the most challenging things she’s ever done, filled with lots of work and many late nights, but Amanda says it was so worth it and that she loved every minute of it! She encourages anyone who is interested to apply. Early Applications for Fall 2019 open on November 2, 2018. Catch up with Amanda!

Amsterdam-based artist Kathy Ager: Freelance graphic designer and painter

Amsterdam-based artist Kathy Ager: Freelance graphic designer and painter

James Neufeld
Grad Spotlight, Practicums & Internships

Kathy Ager is a Canadian-born artist based in Amsterdam who graduated from IDEA School of Design in 2007. She was encouraged by instructor Kiff Holland and has recently transitioned into painting mixing the classical with pop contemporary. Represented by Thinkspace Gallery in LA, her first group show in the US opens June 9, 2018 at Antler Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Check out her interview with us.

Pamella Pinard | First Month at Will Creative

Pamella Pinard | First Month at Will Creative

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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.

Alex Maertz | First Month at Danica

Alex Maertz | First Month at Danica

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

“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.

Danielle Vallée – First two weeks at Tealeaves feeling "super supported"

Danielle Vallée – First two weeks at Tealeaves feeling "super supported"

James Neufeld
Industry Connections, Practicums & Internships

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.

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