Stephanie de Beer
Like most students starting out, I had no idea where I wanted to position myself within the broad creative industry. I still don’t, but I feel much more comfortable with it now.
I decided to major in Communication Design. During my second year, I started an internship at a digital agency, Aqua Online. If I could go as far as to give future learners advice; take as many different internships as you possibly can. This is the perfect opportunity to explore what you enjoy, without the pressure of a ‘real job’.
After my first internship, I came to the realisation that I want to pursue a digital career and decided to major in Interaction Arts. The double major, although a challenging workload, definitely helped refine my skills, and confidence therein.
Majoring in Communication Design helped my type and layout crafting skills, which I could still apply to digital. The Interactive course is extremely conceptual, comprehensive, and like its industry, ever-changing. It deals with content/ technologies that are parallel to the real-world industry. The structure of the course undoubtedly allows students to create a holistic, relevant and impressive portfolio.
I’m currently a full-time Digital Designer at Ogilvy, Johannesburg. Confident that the future is uncertain, I’m open to learning and evolving with the industry.