The digital arts labs at Selkirk College’s Tenth Street Campus was full of students this week as they prepared for their year end show titled Geekshow.
For two second year students, Kelsey Kotzian and Brandon Wynnchuk, this is the last class assignment they have to complete before graduation.
Kotzian — who is originally from Penticton — applied for the Selkirk Digital Arts Program after discovering her passion for web design and development in high school.
“I used to do it when I was younger — kind of — in school we learned how to do it and I always wanted to pursue it more but no one in the Okanagan really knew anything about it, so that’s what really got me excited,” said Kotzian.
There was a school closer to home in Kelowna that offered a similar program but after seeing the $20,000 a year cost for a program that offered the same as Selkirk, Kotzian made the choice to move to Nelson.
“It was nerve wracking,” she said. “Moving to a new city and going to school makes most people nervous, but I was really excited because I love web and I was looking forward to actually learning it.”
On Monday, Facebook announced that they would be purchasing the mobile phone application Instagram which allows iPhone, iPad and smart phone users to take and post pictures to an online gallery sharing them with their friends and other followers.
“It is very, very relevant,” said Kotzian about the program and the job market. “With all the new technology with the iPads, iPhones and the androids having everything, traditional art is very big but more digital and graphic arts is huge because that includes movies, websites and apps.”
Brandon Wynnychuk — who is from Trail — applied to the program after becoming interested in animation in a multimedia class in high school.
Wynnychuk said it he found animation fun and it was a natural choice to apply to Selkirk.
“A lot of the tools I’ve learned to use have helped us for the job world,” said Wynnychuk. “I guess the principles of design are something I’ve really learned. I’ve learned a lot of what makes design good and what makes it bad where as before I used to just put stuff on a page and that was it.”
Both grads said even though there seems to be a lot of people entering the digital arts field there is a lot of career opportunities.
“I’m feeling good about the job world,” said Wynnychuk. “I should have a pretty good portfolio and that will help a lot.”