OCAD University’s virtual convocation on June 20, 2020 will include the presentation of Governor General’s Academic Medals to two Class of 2020 students. The awards are given annually to the undergraduate and graduate students who achieved the highest academic standing.
The silver medal will be presented to Rebecca Wilkinson, Bachelor of Design, Graphic Design and Craig Rodmore, Master of Design, Interdisciplinary Art, Media & Design, will receive the gold medal.
Congratulations to both on their outstanding achievements!
Rebecca Wilkinson
Bachelor of Design, Graphic Design
Valuable experiences from my time at OCAD U:
- At OCAD U I had access to several truly inspiring, supportive instructors in the Graphic Design program who volunteered extra time and space outside of the classroom to mentor me and provide me with the resources (both material and intellectual) I needed for my practice to really evolve.
- In addition to the mentors who went out of their way to support my intellectual development and professional design career, I learned a lot from fellow students who were deeply dedicated to their own design education and keen to participate in all kinds of experiments and creative collaborations. It was a refreshing and humbling experience to work with and learn alongside people who were much younger than I am — they also taught me about life and culture here in Toronto.
- I also learned that graphic design is just another way of interfacing with the world. It’s a way of thinking and communicating visually, and it can be about much more than making corporate logos. But it’s not a discipline that exists in a vacuum. In order for a piece of graphic design to be interesting and thought-provoking, it needs to be in dialogue with interesting or thoughtful things, ideas, people, and other artworks. A huge part of the process of making good work is spending a lot of time thinking about why you’re making it, and what it is that you really want to say.
Lessons I learned at OCAD U:
- I’m glad I took the time to research the courses before I registered for them. I don’t think I ever took a course at OCAD U before looking into the person teaching it. Because of this, I think I had a much more meaningful experience in the program overall than I would have if I had chosen my courses simply to suit my schedule.
Advice for future Graphic Design students:
- Do the work. Your education is your responsibility. To get the most out of your design education, you have to think of it as a full-time job even if you have a part-time job, family or side career. I don’t think talent is really that important. Ultimately, to do well in design school, and to eventually become a good professional designer, you have to be willing to work harder than everyone else.
- Website: https://rebeccawilkinson.me/
Craig Rodmore
Master of Design, Interdisciplinary Art, Media & Design
Three reasons I loved studying at OCAD U:
1. I applied to OCADU because the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media, and Design (IAMD) was the one Master of Design program that seemed to me to be truly interdisciplinary—even combining the MFA, MA, and MDes degree options within the one program.
2. The faculty, especially my incredibly generous and dedicated thesis committee and the professors whose first-year courses either shaped the direction of my work or helped me develop and focus it. I was very lucky: when I applied, I wrote a list of faculty I hoped to study with and why, and I ended up getting to work with just about all of them.
3. My peers in the program: I collaborated with at least a third of my cohort at one time or another, and a few of us ended up working collaboratively on many projects over the last four of the five terms.
Two lessons I learned at OCAD U:
1. I started the program with the goal of reorienting my practice. I had been spending too much of my time doing things I didn’t like doing, and not enough doing the things I was interested in, and I wanted to move more towards design, or some kind of art-design hybrid. I came in with a diverse collection of interests, questions, objectives, things I liked, things I disliked, and so on, and over the course of the program I was able to work through a lot of those things, encounter a lot of new things, and begin to define a kind of practice I could live with.
2. “You cone it, you own it.” (Thanks Michelle.)
One piece of advice for future IAMD students:
1. Work all the time. Make things continually, show them when you can, consider what you hear in critiques (you don’t have to act on everything, but take everything in, and trust the people you came to work with and learn from), reflect, make more, repeat.