Fourth Year Industry Practicums
Graduates are highly sought-after in the industry and can be found in many top studios and agencies, both in Vancouver and around the world. Others form start-up companies or enjoy their own freelance practices.
Capilano University's IDEA School of Design has a strong connection with the Vancouver creative industry including fourth-year practicums. The final course in our four-year degree program—IDES 490 Industry Practicum—is an eight-week full-time placement in a local Vancouver company.
We hope some of these practicums will end in job offers. We expect that all placements will give our students' résumés a boost and provide some excellent professional references.
Check out this practicum story by Vylan Tran (IDEA Grad 2024) at Minivillage!
Capilano University's IDEA School of Design has a strong connection with the Vancouver creative industry including fourth-year practicums. The final course in our four-year degree program—IDES 490 Industry Practicum—is an eight-week full-time placement in a local Vancouver company.
We hope some of these practicums will end in job offers. We expect that all placements will give our students' résumés a boost and provide some excellent professional references.
Check out this practicum story by Imogen Pettyfer (IDEA Grad 2024) at We The Collective!
IDEA Grad 2023 is at their eight-week practicums at companies across Vancouver! Industry can meet the IDEA Grads on April 3, 2023.
Shown above: All the Clubs Day posters pinned up on the wall in the office.
Check out this story by Mia Canderan at hcma.
IDEA Grad 2023 has begun their eight-week practicums at companies across Vancouver! Industry can meet the IDEA Grads on April 3, 2023. Check out this story by Harlen Bertrand at Jesters Animation.
Imogen Pettyfer (IDEA Grad 2024) interned at INDOCHINO last summer working predominantly on campaigns for multiple platforms such as email, Instagram, Facebook, and direct mail.
“I’m sure the team at INDOCHINO would love to have more IDEA School of Design students intern with them in future summers to come,” writes Imogen.
Check out this story by Imogen Pettyfer!
Mikaela Johnson (IDEA Grad 2022) was just offered a permanent position as a designer at Native Shoes several weeks ago and is 🤙 “feeling pretty good about it!”
Congratulations, Mikaela!
Check out this grad spotlight!
It’s that time of year at IDEA School of Design—practicum time! Many applicants list the practicum as being one of the key reasons they choose our school. When they leave, most graduates tell us that this Work Integrated Learning experience was a highlight of their time in the program.
Every March the Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication program’s 4th-year students head out on a 240-hour placement before they graduate.
Check out this industry practicum story!
Alina Sandu (IDEA Grad 2022) shares her Week 3 blog post about her practicum at Johnnie Christmas, a Vancouver-based graphic novelist.
“One must be ready to just churn out progress to daily get the comic done, let alone meet the deadlines.” writes Alina.
Alina has been putting together social media posts and drawing in background characters on spreads.
Check out Alina's practicum story!
IDEA Grad 2022 have begun their practicums!
"I’m really enjoying my time at Chairman Ting so far, there’s lots to do, the people are wonderful and I don’t feel nearly as stressed as when I’m in school." writes Annika McFarlane regarding her practicum at Chairman Ting.
Her first week included help with production tasks like creating mural mockups, moodboarding, ideation, and some merch design.
Check out Annika's practicum story!
We asked IDEA Grad 2021 to share with our readers the top 3 things they learned during their practicum. Here is what they wrote.
“Fail hard, fail fast, fail often. Don’t make assumptions. Be Proactive.” — Sara Nguyen
“Trust the process. Trust your instincts. Listen to John Lau!!!” — Alison Johnstone
Check out this story!
IDEA Grad 2021 began their in-person (and virtual) practicums this month with companies across Vancouver. Shown above: Naomi Evers (IDEA Grad 2021) at Porchlight Press.
Students are working in a wide range of branding, packaging, digital design, interactive, advertising, illustration, gaming, motion graphics, animation and retail in-house firms including 123w, Anenome Hug Interactive, Baro Drywear Jackets, Chairman Ting Industries Inc., Danica, Gamomo, If Communications, Jesters Animation, Little Mountain Animation, Metalab, Monday Creative, Pivot & Pilot, Porchlight Press, Pound & Grain, PS Brand, Rethink, Triumf and Will Creative.
Check out some highlights from their first two weeks!
IDEA School of Design Grad 2020 students are now in their 4th week of industry practicums. Noah was happy to be put to work soon after arriving at Will. His work has included icon development, map design, magazine ads, and digital ads. He has worked on brands in tourism, building development, entertainment and more. This week Will transitioned to working remotely, doing their part to slow the spread of covid-19.
FUTURE GRAD TIP: Think about icons every now and then. You may end up making a lot during your career.
Check out Noah’s practicum story!
Fourth-year students at Capilano University's IDEA School of Design in Vancouver, British Columbia began their practicum on Monday, February 24, 2020! The final course in our four-year degree program is an eight-week full-time placement in a local company. They have begun posting stories about their eight-week practicums @ideagradshow.
Follow them on Instagram for more!
IDEA School of Design Grad 2020 students are now in their 2nd week of industry practicums. Nada's first brief at Rethink was for The Canadian Men’s Health Foundation. She was briefed on the concepts for the campaign and was tasked with creating moodboards to accompany a few separate visual directions for them. Check out Nada's practicum story!
IDEA Grad20 are ready for practicum lift-off! 4th-year practicums starts Monday, February 24, 2020! The final course in our four-year degree program is an eight-week full-time placement in a local company.
We hope some of these practicums will end in job offers. We expect that all placements will give our students' résumés a boost and provide some excellent professional references. Shown above: IDEA Grad 2020.
We wish our students all the best as they transition from school to work and will keep you abreast of how our students are getting along in their new roles in the coming weeks.
Two of our grads work at Vancouver’s Cossette Creative Marketing and Communications Agency in Vancouver. Many thanks to Janice Callangan and Shanene Lau for providing us with some fun photos and for giving our students invaluable career advice!
Shown left to right: Janice Callangan (IDEA Grad 2017), Shanene Lau (IDEA Grad 2018).
Six of our grads work at Vancouver’s Rethink Communications, an independent creative agency. Many thanks to our talented alumni for sneaking onto a set during someone else's shoot to provide us with this amazing group photo and for giving our students invaluable career advice!
Shown left to right: Alex Bakker (IDEA Grad 2014), Charmaine Cheng (IDEA Grad 2019), Max Littledale (IDEA Grad 2018), Jake Gauthier (IDEA Grad 2013), Pamela Rounis (IDEA Grad 2010) and Ashley Visvanathan (IDEA Grad 2018).
IDEA School of Design encourages students to do as many internships as they can before they graduate. But how do you land one? That’s what we explored in our Saturday Ready, Set, Intern workshop. How do you dip your toe into industry for the first time without too much anxiety?
Check out three important steps to landing an internship!
Three of our grads work at Vancouver’s One Twenty Three West. Thank you to our talented alumni for the great group photos and career advice for our 4th-year students!
Shown left to right above: Kim Ridgewell, Creative Director (IDEA Grad 2007); Taeyeon Kim (IDEA Grad 2016), Designer; and John Larigakis, Creative Director (IDEA Grad 2010).
Jessica Peng (Grad 2019) interviews her practicum host and IDEA alumna Diana Castañeda (Grad 2014) about her role at TRIUMF, Canada's particle accelerator centre, and her take on graphic design as a career.
"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 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!
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!
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.
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.
Vancouver companies that employ our grads include: 123w, Rethink, St. Bernadine, Hangar 18 Creative, Will Creative Inc., DDB, Spring Advertising, Clou, Toolbox Design, Taxi Advertising, Camp Pacific Advertising, BrandFX, Rainmaker, Town Hall Brands, BAM Communications, Wasserman + Partners Advertising, Elevator Strategy, Advertising & Design, Kaldor, Lululemon Athletica / Kit & Ace, Carter Hales Design Lab, Cossette, Idea Rebel, A Thinking Ape, and Brandever.