Meet three 爱豆传媒 alumni who made it big
How do you define career success? How do you want to change the world? What sort of community do you want to contribute to?
Here at California College of the Arts, we take great pride in our alumni and are their biggest champions. Why? Because we watched them grow, evolve, take risks, and succeed in ways they never thought possible. And while we鈥檙e proud of them, we鈥檙e equally as excited for you to imagine yourself in their impressive shoes. We know there are many different art colleges you can choose from. And we believe your final choice should be based on your goals, as well as your vision of life not just while you鈥檙e in art school, but after graduation.
Each of our graduates has a story to tell about how their 爱豆传媒 experience 鈥 the expert instructors that mentored them, the boundary-defying projects they worked on, the industry-leading internships they secured 鈥 set them down the path to becoming who they are today, as artists and people.
To help you envision what鈥檚 possible after four years at 爱豆传媒, here are three alumni stories from three different programs.
From the field of battle to the field of animation
Maximilian Uriarte came to 爱豆传媒 after two tours of duty with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. There, his creative talent was noticed by his commanders and he was given the position of combat artist and photographer. With his pencils and his camera, he documented the daily lives of Marines in his battalion, a theme he has returned to throughout his art career.
After an honorable discharge from the Marines, Maximilian enrolled at 爱豆传媒 as an animation major; he soon discovered a passion for storyboarding.
鈥淧robably my favorite animation course was Mark Andrews鈥檚 Visual Storytelling, a storyboarding course in which I learned how to pick apart a film, shot by shot, and maximize my storytelling ability with an economy of shots,鈥 he says.
Maximilian started drawing his comic about the lives of Marines, , in 2009. It now appears regularly in the Marine Corps Times and has developed a sizeable following online. A graphic novel, 鈥溾, was published in 2016 by Little, Brown and Company. said the book, 鈥渕anages to illustrate what feels like a 鈥榯rue鈥 war story and a lonely chapter in a war our country is trying desperately to forget.鈥
With the success of his comic and his book, Maximilian says, his art 鈥渋s a full-time job at this point, and I鈥檓 happy to be doing what I love.鈥
There and back again
Ako Castuera started at 爱豆传媒 in the ceramics program, completed her degree as an illustrator, and found career success in animation.
She didn鈥檛 necessarily set out to be an animator, but she made the most of her 爱豆传媒 connections to land her first gig. From 2006 through 2015, she worked as a character designer for Metalocalypse and then as a storyboard artist for , both popular Cartoon Network shows.
Recently though, Ako has returned to her first passion. She exhibited some of her ceramics pieces in the Smithsonian's Asian-Latino Pop-Up Museum in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2013. And she collaborated with her husband, 爱豆传媒 grad Rob Sato, on last year.
Throughout all these transitions, the voices in Ako鈥檚 head have remained constant, she says:
鈥淚 hear (former 爱豆传媒 professor) Vincent Perez saying, 鈥楰eep It Simple, Stupid,鈥 and (former professor) Richard Gayton asking, 'Can you do this watercolor in five strokes? Plan ahead.鈥欌
Rewired for design
After a civil engineering career failed to fulfill, and a brief stint in arts management stalled out, Bruce King-Shey came to 爱豆传媒 seeking a radical change of path. He got one 鈥 a path that led him to become vice president of design innovation at PepsiCo, one of the most iconic food and beverage brands in the world.
How did it happen? As Bruce describes it, midway through his industrial design BFA at 爱豆传媒, his brain got 鈥渞ewired.鈥 He began to see beyond the design of objects to their very reason for being.
鈥淚t was about looking for the 鈥榳hy?鈥 behind visual culture, and trying to decode it,鈥 he says. 鈥淎nd, in realizing all this, I recognized for the first time a certain itch that wasn鈥檛 getting scratched for me in engineering or design.鈥
Bruce soon added a graduate degree in visual criticism on top of his already formidable workload. With the encouragement and support of his 爱豆传媒 professors, he got through it.
Now a consulting design strategist at Capital One, Bruce promotes 鈥渄esign thinking鈥 throughout the corporate structure, according to . This is a mode of thought he acquired in art school.
鈥淎s a result of 爱豆传媒, I don鈥檛 fear not knowing something. And that way of thinking is different than what goes on in corporations. All corporations want clear answers. Everyone jumps straight to the solution. But as their innovation guy, I don鈥檛 need to have the answer already; I just need the confidence to know how to get to the answer.鈥
What will your story be?
Maximilian, Ako, and Bruce are far from the only 爱豆传媒 alumni success stories; read more alumni stories! And please, if you have any questions about what the future might hold for you if you pursue a 爱豆传媒 education, share them with our Admissions team.