Krista loves graphic design almost as much as she loves cats (which is A LOT). During her time at North Island College, she’s learned to take that passion and turn it into some pretty cool stuff. She’s also learned lots of new skills like web programming and drawing, which is definitely shown in the progression of her work.

Krista McAllister studied under the Communication Design - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Adobe InDesign CC
• Adobe Illustrator CC
• How to use a pencil (Illustration/drawing)

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Matthew Boucher spent nearly a decade in masonry work before deciding to pursue a career in graphic design. After completing his first year at North Island College, Matt has received a Dean’s Honour Notation of Academic Excellence.

Matt Boucher studied under the Communication Design - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Adobe Illustrator CC
• Graphic Design
• Cascading Stylesheets (CSS)

Where to Find Him:

• Facebook
• Instagram

Brittany began the Communication Design Diploma with absolutely no idea of what she was getting herself into. Two years into the program, she continues to be amazed by what she learns and surprised by how (and what) inspires and motivates her. Brittany is intrigued by people and their experiences, and LOVES being around very cool people making very beautiful things.

Brittany King studied under the Communication Design - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Adobe InDesign CC
• WordPress Development
• PHP Software Development

Where to Find Her:

• Roaming the streets of Courtenay

From a young age, Park has had a passion for creativity and art. During her time at NIC’s Interactive Media program, she fell in love with web design and front end development; skills that will secure employment in the growing tech industry. Upon graduation, Park created a portfolio website that acts as a resume to aid her in securing fulfilling work in Gothenburg, Sweden. Because of the transferability of web design and development skills across nearly every border, Park has been able to follow through with her dreams of moving to Europe.

Park Hargrave studied under the Web Design – Interactive Media Certificate.

Favorite Tools:

• Typography
• Communication design
• Front end development

Amanda gets really excited about design, like REALLY excited... or maybe that’s just the caffeine. Either way, she’s loved being creative for as long as she can remember, so going into design just felt like the right fit.

Amanda initially began her studies at North Island College in the Web Design - Interactive Media Certificate. After experiencing what the program had to offer, she continued on to take the Communication Design - Interactive Media Diploma. Amanda was hired by Medium Rare Interactive in the Comox Valley shortly after graduating from the Communication Design diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Adobe Illustrator CC
• Video/sound editing
• Wordpress Development

Where to Find Her:

• LinkedIn

Lindsey grew up in Ontario, has travelled and lived from coast to coast and enjoys brush lettering, baking, sports and the outdoors. Her multitude of talents in marketing, social, digital and design have opened up opportunities in all parts of the country, which has fueled her passion for Canadian travel.

Lindsey currently works as a Graphic Designer for Sun Peaks Resort/Tourism Sun Peaks. She has a Bachelor of Design in Advertising from OCAD University and over ten years of experience in design communications. Previous work experience includes Marketing Manager at the University of New Brunswick, in Saint John, Marketing (Design & Web) Coordinator at Marmot Basin Ski Area in Jasper, Alberta, and Communications Coordinator at Sport Nova Scotia in Halifax.

Recently, Lindsey spent a year in the Comox Valley enrolled in the Web Design - Interactive Media Certificate.

Favorite Tools:

• Wordpress Development
• Interactive Design using Adobe InDesignCC
• Video/Animation design with Adobe Photoshop CC

Where to Find Her:

• Professional Portfolio
• LinkedIn

Lucas has said: “I always saw myself as a code guy, but studying at NIC definitely opened my eyes to how important design is, even for programmers. Especially if, like me, you love working on your own projects.”

Lucas joined NIC as part of what Brazilians call a “sandwich graduation,” which refers to a type of graduation that is offered by the Brazilian government, giving students the ability to complete a portion of their credentials abroad. After finishing University, Lucas worked in Brazil for a Brazilian startup company, called Carreira Beauty, as an Android Developer. Later, he was hired to be a mobile developer by Canadian company SkipTheDishes, one of the largest tech companies in the country. Lucas continues to work for SkipTheDishes in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Lucas Storti completed the Mobile Application Development Certificate through North Island College, before returning to Brazil.

Favorite Tools:

• Ruby on Rails
• Android Development
• Typography design (From Lucas: “Pretty random, for a programmer, but Susanne [Sampson] surprised me being a truly amazing teacher”)

Where to Find Him:

• LinkedIn

Aggregate is Ian’s favourite word. He likes to take cool things and assemble them in a fun and interesting way. Computer programming and graphic design are great tools to enable him to do this; Ian has fallen in love with everything the Interactive Media program has taught him.

After starting classes as a Mobile Application Development Certificate student, Ian McKenzie has been taking electives in graphic and print design and will be studying under the Advanced Communication and Interactive Design - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Adobe Illustrator CC
• Typographic Design
• Ruby on Rails framework development

Where to Find Him:

• Professional Portfolio
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Behance
• Dribbble
• GitHub

Gregory Tinga began his studies at NIC under the Mobile Application Development Certificate, with the goal of transferring to Vancouver Film School. During his time at NIC, he enjoyed building a foundation for his programming skills, while helping fellow students with their coding, as a peer tutor. Upon completing his certification, he was accepted to VFS; Gregory has since been thoroughly engaged in the creation of fun, and original game development.

Gregory completed his Mobile Mobile Application Development Certificate through North Island College, as a stepping stone to further his education at the Vancouver Film School.

Favorite Tools:

• Self direction for development of applications and the process in designing them
• How to find information for myself and learn from it in order to help me program better
• Insight into deploying an application on multiple platforms and the minor differences between said platforms

Where to Find Him:

• Professional Portfolio
• LinkedIn

Taylor was passionate about front end web development and graphic design since middle school; alongside this, Taylor spent time hacking and working with iPhones, and rooting and jailbreaking to create custom functionality. More recently, and through his schooling at North Island College, he's come to love developing for mobile environments; Taylor is gearing himself towards a career in that field. Taylor has said, “Leveraging my design skills, and combining that with my continuing programming based education, should ideally land me a job working on some exciting, and hopefully innovative, mobile applications!”

Taylor Leach studied under the Web & Mobile Application Development - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• iOS development using the Swift programming language
• Git software version control and using terminal commands
• Ruby on Rails framework development and understanding the Model-View-Controller (MVC)

Where to Find Him:

• Professional Portfolio

Meet Sid Parmar: a cool nerd, with a great sense of humour, a personable personality, and design skills. Yes, as an engineer he does see things as boxes, lines, arrows, and diagrams; however, he can definitely design them with good UI/UX.

Siddharth Parmar (Sid), aka Captain Steve Rogers, is a huge Marvel fan and Potter head, with an engineering background in Computer Science. Sid completed the Web and Mobile Application Development Diploma in 2017.

Sid Parmar studied under the Web & Mobile Application Development - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• iOS/Android development
• User Interface and User Experience Design
• How to thrive by gaining more knowledge and practice

Where to Find Him:

• Professional Portfolio
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Dominic is a NIC Graduate from the Web and Mobile App development program, and is currently working as a junior developer for Medium Rare Interactive. Dominic specializes in Wordpress, Rails, JS, ReactJS, and mobile development. He has been part of many site builds, through his work with Medium Rare Inc. In his spare time, Dominic enjoys spending time outdoors, practising piano, and dabbling in game development.

Dominic Yarmie studied under the Web & Mobile Application Development - Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• iOS/Android development
• Ruby on Rails framework development
• The fundamentals for web design

Ian grew up in Brighton, Ontario, where he played drums and too many video games. He now works at The Update Company in Cumberland, British Columbia as their Designer.

Ian Quinn studied under the Advanced Communication and Interactive Design – Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Visual Design Theory
• Editorial Design & Branding Practices
• UX / UI design & Front end development

Where to Find Him:

• Professional Portfolio
• The Update Company
• Instagram

Nathaniel was home-schooled from Kindergarten through to grade 12. He then proceeded to graduate from NIC in 2013, with the Advanced Communication Design Diploma. During, and even after his time in the NIC program, Nathaniel provided tutoring to other college students of all ages and skill levels, in programming, design, photography, and general computing assistance.

Nathaniel has worked locally as a freelance graphic designer, developer and photographer, before being hired at Medium Rare Interactive Inc. After working as a contractor, followed by a position as junior web designer and developer, Nathaniel is now a full-time developer at Medium Rare Interactive Inc.

Currently, Nathaniel works primarily on custom WordPress and PHP development for a variety of clientele and scenarios, with a bit of Ruby and Linux web-server management thrown in the mix, as well. In the future, Nathaniel aims to continue improving and broadening his skills in the computer science field; he looks forward to where that may lead, in the years to come.

Nathaniel Tubb studied under the Advanced Communication and Interactive Design – Interactive Media Diploma.

Favorite Tools:

• Advanced web development skills working with the PHP and Ruby languages
• A solid design foundation to understand and appreciate the creative and user experience side of development
• Web server management in Linux and Windows Server environments (the program has since been restructured and no longer offers this)

Where to Find Him:

• Professional Portfolio

Become a valuable part of a talented student body, and make cool stuff! Perhaps you’re looking to study abroad, or looking to change careers? Maybe you hope to upgrade your expertise?

Whatever your personal experiences include, the North Island College Interactive Media program will help to equip you with the skills necessary for you to be in-demand in a rapidly growing technology industry. These skills will include a healthy blend of analytical thinking and creativity to empower you to start a business, join a team, or bolster the work you’re currently involved in.

Check out the Advanced Communication and Interactive Design – Interactive Media Diploma.

Future favorite tools and skills:

• Illustration
• Graphic design
• Web programming
• Mobile programming
• Web and Mobile design
• Everything else in between!

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