Dylan Smith

You know how some people seem to be naturally interesting. The things they say are engaging, or have resonance, or are funny, or are just ... interesting. Dylan has that quality, and his designs and illustrations reflect it.

Naturally a part of it is, as the saying goes 'you have to be interested to be interesting', and you can see that curiosity in Dylan's work and the subjects he explores with his designs. But also he's just interesting, and I am interested in seeing what he does as he moves forward from art college.

http://www.dylanfsmith.com

Ed Kwong and Sled Island

You might have seen the sweet advertising for the upcoming Sled Island Music and Arts Festival. The wolf design was created by our own ACAD alumni Ed Kwong, Nice! http://www.edkwong.com

Marta Tomasir

In trying to come up with the right word to describe Marta, words such as energetic, passionate, and, I want to say, force of nature come to mind (although that last ones not quite right because she's good at collaboration too). I've highlighted from her own bio some adjectives that describe Marta well. "I'm an ambitious designer on the verge of receiving my B.Des in Graphic Design from ACAD. I am Looking for an opportunity to work within a team environment by learning and growing my skills as a designer. When working on projects I make sure to always have fun, while maintaining a strong concept in my work and a top notch level of professionalism."

http://www.martatomasir.com

Dylan Mason

From Dylan's website/blog: This picture is from the first classroom I stepped in at ACAD. It’s the visual communications room for my Design fundamentals class. My teacher was Karl Geist and he introduced me to the school. I remember he asked me what I was interested in and I said Swiss design. I was completely unaware of any design history or what that actually meant; at that point I was just basing everything I knew about design off some posters I had seen on the web. I sat underneath the windows and light would pour in from outside. I started my education at ACAD in that room. And last week, four years later when I finished my final critique, I walked into that room and sat down to think. I thought about where I was in the beginning and where I am now. http://dylanmason.com

Everyday (year one) from Dylan Mason on Vimeo.

Final Project

By the last month of classes, students are mostly focused on putting together their portfolios, and/or they're running on fumes (it was rubber cement fumes in my time, but things have smartened up since then). So I though it would be good to do something different for the final project. Graduating from art college is another beginning and not an end! And like a good drawing it should start with a sketch. So to begin with I gave them a short writing assignment, write a short story based on a memory from childhood, and then draw it. 

Here are the super sketches they came up with in just a couple of hours:

(1) by Joanne Leung, what lurks under the sand box, (2) by Maria Stoian, tells a tale of a recovered hat and a lost friend, (3) by Nick Johnson, depicts a common fear for kids, (4) by Lyndon Navalta, a melancholy tale about an old pet, (5) by Dylan Mason, something to do (in an abstracted way) with the game connect four, (6) by Jenny Bonar, a sweet story about a new pet, (7) by Sara Borowski, a tire swing incident. Sara didn't like this sketch much, which is something I particularly like about sketchbooks. I think it's great, an undiscovered treasure which I hope she will rediscover if she looks back at this sketchbook someday.

I've posted more here - www.randmcollective.com

Jenny Bonar

A big question for many an illustration student is, how do I develop a style? For the lucky ones, like Jenny, I think the answer can be deceptively simple - be yourself! 

Jenny mentions in her bio that she is from small town Alberta and you can see it in her work by the subjects she chooses to illustrate, the stories her pictures tell, and the emotions her brush strokes stir. There is an old fashioned sentiment in her work, but it's expressed in a way that is totally today.

Check out more at :
http://www.jennybonar.com