IDEA School of Design hopes you are having a wonderful start to the New Year so far! 'To A Hopeful New Year' is a digital illustration by Juliana Vieira (IDEA Grad 2018) shown above. Her beautiful illustration is a sign of the times.

Early Applications for the Fall 2021 Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication close on Jan 20, 2021. Late Admission opens Jan 25, 2021, and closes April 14, 2021. No submissions for Fall 2021 (IDEA Grad 2025) will be accepted after Wednesday, April 14, 2021.

We recently caught up with Daniel Pauhl (IDEA Grad 2019) for a grad spotlight on life after graduating from IDEA School of Design. Many congratulations to Daniel on illustrating a new children’s book by author Nikki Hedstrom! “A Thought is a Thought” is available at Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

“It's the best feeling to see my work out in the real world.” he says.

Check out this grad spotlight!

We recently caught up with Ryan (IDEA Grad 2019) about life after IDEA School of Design and landing a permanent role as Game Designer at Anemone Hug Interactive where he did his practicum.

While he loves design, he says “most of the ways that you can apply it to make a living aren’t very appealing to an anti-capitalist.” His advice is to "think outside the box and find a way to make yourself useful".

He adds, "You may be inclined to zone out during web design and front-end coding lessons, but you will find those tools incredibly helpful someday. During my practicum, I was able to easily solve a problem that no one else on the team could, simply because I knew how to edit an SVG via text editor."

Check out his Grad Spotlight!

Many congratulations to Fiona Dunnett (IDEA Grad 2018) on finding a publisher for her illustrated book project! Fiona started working on the project with a friend/writer in California a couple of years before entering IDEA School of Design. She was able to work on it with a mentor during her Professional Development class during her time at IDEA and has since found a publisher!

Travesía comes out on April 1, 2021, in Canada and April 13, 2021, in the US. Check out this grad spotlight story!

Jocelyn Wong (IDEA Grad 2015) paints under Something Yellow Studio, a passion project. An Art Director by day, illustrator/letterer by night, Jocelyn overcame a bumpy start to bring a message of love and community to Marpole with her mural ‘Love ALL Your Neighbours’.

The mural was part of the 5th Annual Vancouver Mural Festival showcasing 60+ murals in nine neighborhoods over three weeks. The Lead Curator this year was Drew Young, also an IDEA School of Design graduate.

Check out the story and photos!

IDEA School of Design Grad 2019 learned a lot during their 4 years at @capuidea. Here are some words of wisdom to our first year selves.

In Part 2 of our interview with Mustaali Raj (IDEA Grad 2014), find out about his life after graduating from IDEA School of Design at Capilano University including buying a one-way ticket to Thailand with his wife, joining the GDC BC Board as Communications Director, his latest projects and advice for our students.

Hint: Play around with the Adobe Suite (or other software) on your own, even before you apply to IDEA School of Design. Don’t wait till the grad show to get your work online.

Mustaali Raj (IDEA Grad 2014), born in India, spent his early childhood in the Middle East and grew up in Calgary, where he got a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary. He eventually changed course, moved to Vancouver and went to the IDEA School of Design at Capilano University. With some agency work under his belt and a 9-month trip overseas, he has been freelancing in Vancouver since 2017.

Check out Part 1 of his journey into graphic design!

Emily Pedriks (IDEA Grad 2014) met the Brandever team at the IDEA Grad Show and knew immediately it was going to be a good fit. She hounded them until they eventually caved and hired her. She started as a junior designer and is now acting Creative Director.

On her memories of being a student at IDEA School of Design, Emily Pedriks looks back fondly on the chaos and delight of a room full of sleep-deprived designers-to-be. Catch up with Emily!

Maria Centola moved to the UK after graduating from IDEA School of Design in 2016. Her 3-month design internship at Sennep in London became a full-time job. Maria mainly creates user interfaces at Sennep using Sketch, InVision and After Effects including new illustrations for Sennep's mobile game OLO.

Her freelance projects include editorial pieces for Montecristo, street banners for Port Moody, and postcards for the redevelopment of the Canada Post Office in downtown Vancouver.

In June 2020 she will start as a Digital Designer at an agency called SOON_. Check out Maria’s story and podcast!

Janice’s summer internship during third-year turned into a full-time job. She never planned to leave IDEA School of Design after 3 years but her creative directors assured her that she could build her portfolio at Cossette with real projects, clients and budgets and gain the experience of working one full year prior to her own classmates.

Students looking for a more direct pathway to industry may graduate after third year with an Advanced Diploma. Check out Janice’s story!

IDEA School of Design instructor, Vida Jurcic, was recently featured on GDC’s Instagram feed. Congratulations, Vida! Check out this Instructor Spotlight story and featured student projects from first and second year students!

“Good things lead to other good things.” was just one of the pearls of wisdom that Carson Ting (AKA Chairman Ting) showered on IDEA School of Design Grad 2021 during his recent guest lecture.

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!

Two of our grads work at Brandever Strategy Inc. in Vancouver. We asked them to share some advice to IDEA School of Design students as they prepare for summer internships (3rd year) and industry practicums (4th year).

Many thanks to Emily Pedriks, Creative Director at Brandever (IDEA Grad 2014) and Claire Tam, Graphic Designer + Illustrator at Brandever (IDEA Grad 2015) for the stylish photos and for giving our students invaluable career advice!

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).