If you’ve considered studying at Shillington, you’ve probably been to one of our Info Sessions and spoken to our graduates. We recently hosted a Graduate Panel in New York, where we invited a selection of our graduates to speak about their experiences of the course and life afterwards as a Shillington graduate.
We noted down a few quotes from our inspiring graduates who kindly joined us for the panel. Read on to hear honest extracts of their experience.
A bit more about our panel:
Anika George worked as an Account Executive in Midtown when she decided to enrol at Shillington to pursue her dreams of a creative career. As a graduate Anika is now part of the design team at Nelson Cash in Dumbo. Her sister Amanda George also completed the part-time course at Shillington and now works at R/GA. Read more about both George Sisters’ design journeys as well as Anika’s recent Guest Author post.
Courtney Capone enrolled at Shillington to escape the clutches of mundane office life and since graduating from our part-time course in 2011, she’s taken the design world by storm— working as a designer for Equinox alongside developing her own impressive surface pattern business. Read more about Courtney and her pattern skills.
Hanna Park is a recent graduate from the full-time course, completing the course just this year. Hanna made the choice to enrol after discovering that having software skills would greatly enhance her current job running a school learning center for children. It was actually her sister who studied at Shillington first, paving the way for Hanna.
Cecily Moore studied full-time in 2015, following a degree in Fashion Design but unable to source the jobs which sparked her passion and creativity. After channeling her creative energy into her ‘scrapbooking blog’ The Paper Curator she realised Graphic Design was the discipline for her. Since graduating from Shillington Cecily is now a designer at New York’s Lincoln Center, alongside the running of her blog and shop. Check out Cecily’s awesome Instagram feed!
Raffael Paciti has embarked on an illustrious design career since graduating from the part-time course in 2012. His initial reason for enrolling was to gain the skills needed to become a freelancer designer and he’s definitely reaslised his ambition as he’s worked for lifestyle brands such as Clarins, Donna Karen and several titles at Conde Nast publishing. Raffael is currently based at Juice Pharma Worldwide as a Senior Art Director where he’s worked on an array of global brands.
Cat Addo Previously provided all of the creative for an independent music publisher as Marketing Director but decided to enrol at Shillington on the part-time course to expand her skill-set. Cat now works as a Senior Strategist at Purpose where she drafts creative briefs for the Creative team acting as liaison between them and the client, as well as guiding the execution of the branding and campaign strategies through identity and activation/roll-out assets, and any copywriting requirements. Cat also keeps busy as a freelance designer on branding projects and album artwork.
“Short cuts. Literally my Art Director will come and ask me about them.”—Cecily
“Efficiency and problem solving. Knowing what questions to ask, how to put together a brief, how to extract references—when a client sees the thoughtfulness behind the design process it validates you as a graphic designer and makes you feel empowered.”—Catherine
“I’m one of the fastest designers in my in-house team. I’ll be specifically assigned projects cause they know there’ll be a quick turn around.”—Cecily
“One of the most helpful ways Shillington is set up is that there’s deadlines for briefs—you just have to ship it and get it done, that makes you feel a whole lot more prepared for the workplace.”—Hanna
“You learn a great balance of creativity and technical skills. You have to have both.”—Raffael
“It’s maybe not right for everyone, but I can’t think of a person it wouldn’t work for.”—Cecily
“Don’t feel like you have to be Picasso. You don’t—you just have to be open to learning.”—Raffael
“If you think you’re not great at the beginning, you will improve, you just have to apply yourself.”—Catherine
“Don’t be afraid of how you can apply it to where you are in your life right now.”—Catherine
“Every time I look at those couches I have such good memories—Shillington feels like how school should be. People are here because they want to learn something. They’re applying themselves 110% and there’s so much support. This made me realise what a network is supposed to be.”—Hanna
“The teachers are young professionals that are bringing you into their industry. After the course they’re still happy to help you, they still care.”—Cecily
“Everything you put out is really professional. There’s great people at Shillington who help you work out what professional means”—Cecily
“I got hired at my current position solely from my website. My boss said he invited me in because he thought the work was so professional.”—Cecily
“Confidence to walk into an interview and say, I’ve got this”—Cecily
“Getting an interview is half the battle, it means they liked your work enough to get you in.”—Anika
“Don’t limit yourself when applying for jobs when you first graduate—you need to try things to work out what you like and don’t like.”—Catherine
“I think when I first started my job I was a little nervous that I was going to feel not as confident because I didn’t go to art school—but it took a week of being there and I realised I knew all the same stuff as everyone else.”—Courtney
“Make yourself invaluable by pushing yourself and continuing to learn things.”—Cecily
If you’re looking at a change of direction in 2017, we’re currently enrolling for our full-time course in New York starting on January 9th 2017.
And don’t forget we also offer the M1 visa for international students wanting to study in New York. So if you’ve always dreamt of living like a New Yorker, get in touch for more details.
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