Thank you to IDEA School of Design Grad 2016 alumni Virginie Menard, Stephanie Brennan, Maria Centola, Benjamin T. Stone and Lera Nyukalova (shown above) for their words of wisdom to Grad 2019 as they approach the final weeks of their 8 week industry practicums in agencies and studios across Vancouver and embark on their careers in visual communication.

Their advice includes don't let yourself stay in the comfort of being a junior, be picky about clients and job offers, try out different places and be pleasant to work with!

Meet the next generation of promising creative professionals at the IDEA 2019 Grad Show – Harbour Centre Lobby in downtown Vancouver, April 8th–12th, 2019.

IDEA School of Design’s second-year Grad 2021 graphic design class @ideatwentyone recently spent an afternoon getting their hands dirty during a workshop at Vancouver’s Porchlight Press (@porchlightpress). It was amazing to see all the old machinery still in use. IDEA students study the history of printing and printing techniques in their first year Survey of Design class. It is these same presses—some of them over a hundred years old—that are still being used by letterpress studios today!

The team at Porchlight made us feel so welcome and provided us with such a great experience.

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!

IDEA School of Design students and faculty welcomed some of our Fall 2019 Early Applicants and their guests to Capilano University for a casual social on Thursday March 21, 2019.

Entry to the Bachelor of Design program at Capilano University is competitive, and applicants must submit a portfolio and other documents through the online portal SlideRoom. Late Admission Applicants for Fall 2019 must submit a portfolio by Wednesday, April 10, 2019.

The focus of the Bachelor of Design at Capilano University is career preparation.

This year’s grad show theme is Every Type of Talent, which reflects the range of capabilities, personalities and interests of our 2019 graduates. We’re proud of their achievements and their growth since they arrived on campus four years ago.

Entry to the Bachelor of Design program at Capilano University is competitive, and applicants must submit a portfolio and other documents through the online portal SlideRoom.

Shown above: “Acrylic painting of my friends dog, Buzz.”—Janelle Momotani (IDEA22)

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!

As a third year interactive design student Evelyn Chua was challenged to redesign a popular Vancouver food blog - in only four weeks. Her case study was very successful and caught the eye of a Medium publisher & popular UX/UI website Prototypr. 

Many claps to you, Evelyn!

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!

This project was a collaboration between Communications 190 writing class and IDES 235 Illustration class. Comm 190 writers were paired with an IDES 235 illustrator to design an illustration that would visually introduce the story in a magazine. The results were impressive, and the students of both classes really enjoyed the collaborative development.

Shown above: How I Weave Reconciliation written by Cohen Isberg and illustrated by Aidan Zecchel.

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).

Every year our 2nd-year students take on a project to help them understand the challenges of reconciliation in Canada. It is an opportunity to ask ourselves how we can become stronger allies for Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This year we kicked things off for IDEA21 with a visit from Squamish designer and workshop facilitator, Michelle Nahanee.

Twice a year we invite the public to our Open Studio Day, for an overview of the entire program and to show what makes it distinctive from other schools. Plus, it’s a chance to see where the action happens, and meet both faculty and current students. Mark the date: Saturday, November 3rd, 1 – 4 p.m.

We begin at 1 p.m. with a Keynote presentation, followed by studio tours, friendly portfolio reviews, and a drawing session. Shown above: Illustration by Alice Zeng (IDEA18), Junior Designer at If Communications.

First year IDEA School of Design student, Joyce Chan is really grateful to be in such a comprehensive program where she gets to learn about creative thinking, photography and life drawing in her first year. Being a first year student in Capilano University’s Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication is both a reward and a challenge for her.

Joyce has always been interested in photo manipulation shown above in her self portrait inspired by a quote by author Mark Manson. Read her story.

Second-year students at IDEA School of Design, Capilano University's Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication degree program, design, illustrate, print and sell Valentine's Day cards each year as a fundraiser for their third-year class field trip next year. The sale starts Thursday, January 31, 2019 in the library and cafeteria at Capilano University.

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.