PCA&D’s Career Day in late April was a chance for students to learn more about careers that are their end goal after art school, to explore other options they may not have considered, and to make connections with potential employers.

And, in at least one case, to immediately snag a great summer work experience.

Rising Illustration senior Aidan Thackray is spending her summer in an in-person Design/Photography internship with Lush Bazaar. The ethical and sustainable fashion brand is immersing her in new photography and graphic design skills, she says, and she’s “learning so much from the founder of Lush Bazaar, Timbrel Chyatee, about the world of entrepreneurship.” Overall, she says, “this internship has already been such an amazing experience and I’m so thankful to have been able to participate in the PCA&D Career Day that introduced me to this opportunity.”

The advice shared during the actual event is ongoing too. Staff from the Registrar and Career Success offices recorded many of the presentations and lectures, and those recordings are available online for easy access and as an archive of support:

Employer presentations

Georgetown University Medical Center: The Neuroethics and Medical Humanities Programs of Georgetown University Medical Center seeks talented young artists for short- and intermediate-term visiting fellowships, and to serve as “artist in residence,” working to develop artistic depictions of emerging discoveries in the brain sciences that have an important influence in ethical, social, and cultural discourses. The artist’s work can be used as a translational medium, to provide insight into the science and its social meanings and relevance. Click here.

Get the Picture Corp.: Based in Pennsylvania since 1987, Get the Picture Corporation (GTP Corp.) focuses on designing and operating state-of-the-art digital photography systems for theme parks and the tourist and retail industries. Click here.

Lush Bazaar: Click here.

Mystery Egg Games: An indie videogame company working together across the globe, Mystery Egg has released its first game through Steam Greenlight. Click here.

Schell Games: Based in Pittsburgh, this is the largest full-service education and entertainment game development company in the United States. Click here.

Whitethorn Games: This Erie, PA-based company publishes accessible, inclusive games that don’t require special skillsets to play. Click here.

 

Speakers

Gökhan Ersan, Keynote Speaker: Ersan’s design history scholarship has produced articles, review articles, and book chapters on political iconography (pub. 2007), regional and national design languages (pub. 2013), product design (pub. 2015), industrial production (pub. 2012). Moreover, his activities across design and textual scholarship have been recognized in his having been invited to serve as an advisor to Victor Margolin’s World History of Design, Volume 2, 2013. Consequently, he was invited to participate as panel chair and commentator for “Image / Text / Tech,” at the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) conference, 2015, Albuquerque, N.M. You can find him at gokhan.ersan.org/ . Click here.

Karen Dardarian: Dardarian is a merchandise manager at Paper Source and a part-time lecturer in Fashion Marketing Innovation at Eastern Michigan University. She has additionally worked with Plum Hollow Country Club and apparel and accessory trade shows. You can discover more about her experiences at linkedin.com/in/karen-dardarian-509b6136/ . Click here.

Mike Hawthorne: A member of PCA&D’s faculty, Hawthorne is an artist, designer, and cartoonist whose work has been nominated for both an Eisner and Harvey awards. Some of his clients include FOX Films, Universal Studios, the 76ers, Marvel Comics, Illuminatio, Epic Games, DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse Comic, IDW Publishing and more. He’s currently an exclusively Marvel artist, best known for his work on Deadpool & Spiderman. You can find him at mikehawthorneart.com/ . Click here. 

Crystal Mills and Monica Miller: Mills has been an esports writer and editor for more than 10 years, working with organizations such as OpTic Gaming and providing freelance work for companies like Esports Insider, The Loadout, Benzinga, and theScore. She began to dive into the business side of the industry with Esports Insider, and then the financial side with Benzinga. From there, she helped provide educational, long-form content with Supernyx, and became an advocate for women trying to break into the industry. Soon after, she became a Women in Games Ambassador and began to create other forms of content. She then created a gaming podcast called Power Level and began streaming a variety of titles on Twitch. You can read more about her journey at ritualmotion.com/articles/introducing-our-vp-of-content-crystal-mills/.

Miller has been around the world and back again when it comes to her job responsibilities. She has answered phones in a call center; recruited for HR and college admissions; written copy and press releases for places like the Federal Reserve Bank; managed content production and distribution; and more recently has been focusing her attention on building a personal brand to help gamers see their potential and grow into their true selves. The glaring and energetic passion she shares for what she does in any of her ventures is rooted in being the “adult” she needed when she was younger. Working with and for young adult gamers to help them uncover their passions and true potential is something that she feels fulfills her. You can find out more about her experience at linkedin.com/in/monica-miller-2501a7103/. Click here. 

Michael Molla: Currently President at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, having formerly been the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Molla earned his BA in Arts Education from Anna Maria College, Paxton, Mass., and his M.Ed. in Creative Arts Education from Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, Mass. Click here. 

Justin Phillips: A member of the PCA&D faculty, Phillips’ work explores meanings and nuances that are embedded in his formalist mixed media works where he incorporates elements of drawing, painting, and collage. He employs a range of creative methodologies such as chance elements, intuitive mark making, conjuring rhythms, erasure, as well as personally established rules and systems. Phillips’ work ranges from drawings created in one sitting to deeply layered works where he explores sustained and deep efforts to form complex and contemplative works, he is deeply inspired by the energy and dynamics of daily life and the inner workings of the world in which we live. He earned his MFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and his BFA from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.  Find his work at https://www.justinphillipsart.com/. Click here. 

Matt Roop: Roop is a NYC-based Graphic Designer currently working at &WALSH and previously Foreign Policy in Singapore. He’s a graduate of the legendary Typography Summer School in Brooklyn, NY, and founder of the “Normal Blog.” You can find his work at matthewroop.com/ . Click here.

Lauren Schouten: An illustrator and textile designer based in Philadelphia, Schouten is currently working as a print Designer at Anthropologie and has previously worked with Piece & Co. Printfresh Studio, and La Colombe Coffee Roasters. You can find out more about her experience at  linkedin.com/in/lauren-schouten . Click here.

James Ward and Carly Cerquone: Ward is currently the Senior Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks. He received his diploma in Advanced Character Animation Studies from Indiana University in 2009. Some of his most recent film projects include Connected in 2020, Love, Death, and Robots: Lucky 13 in 2019, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse in 2018. He was awarded the Sony Imageworks Applause Award in 2013 for his work on Edge of Tomorrow. For more information on his works, you can find his IMDb page at imdb.com/name/nm4433149/ . Click here. 

Cerqone is a VFX artist, motion graphics designer, and motion picture engineer currently working as a VFX Artist for Cantina Creative. She has previously worked with RIT production Services and RIT SportsZone Live as both a Motion Graphics Artist and a Live Graphics Operator respectively. Some of her VFX/Design projects include Spider-man: Homecoming, The Fate of The Furious, and Central Intelligence. You can find her work at carlycerquone.com. Click here. 

Douglas Witmer: A Philadelphia-based artist, Witmer is internationally known within the field of reductive geometric abstraction. Over the course of the past two decades, he has steadily pursued a personal inquiry into the materiality of the painted object, refining his processes to a set of consciously chosen, direct and economical actions. His ongoing interest is making a visual situation that invites someone into an open but very personal experience of seeing and feeling. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions including the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, MoMA PS1, The Curator Gallery, and The Painting Center (all NYC), and many others. His work is held in the collections of The Woodmere Art Museum, The Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Georgia and The Fellowship of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as numerous corporate and private collections internationally. You can find his work at https://www.douglaswitmer.com/about. Click here.