Amy Hanfstingl working with professor Briar Craig in the printmaking studio
Having the chance to work in an advertising firm overseas is not something that every student gets, but for Amy Hanfstingl, it was an experience that will stick with her for life.
Amy is a student at UBC Okanagan that is combining visual arts and biology in her degree. She spent the summer of 2017 in Paris as an intern at Team Creatif, an international graphic design company.
Amy working on her drawing
In order to be considered for the internship, Amy had to submit a portfolio, and was accepted based on the fact that she is studying visual arts and has amazing technical drawing skills. Amy credits her drawing instructor, Aleksandra Dulic, for pushing her to keep a journal of weekly sketches, making it so Amy was able to hone her drawing skills.
Over the last academic year, Amy took Introductory Screen Printing from Professor Briar Craig. “Amy brought the same dedication to observational drawing and to getting her images ‘right’ to the printmaking studio and as a result the technical skill level she brought to her screen prints tended to captivate her classmates with their intricacy and nuance. It is increasingly rare to see someone as technically capable as Amy who is also willing to put in the time and the focused energy to develop their work so fully.”
Amy spent three months with Team Creatif in the trainee program working in a number of different departments, including with the strategic planning team, the design team, working on a photoshoot, and working on packaging design. During her time there, Amy was even asked to create a mock-up design for packaging for a Kinder Bueno chocolate bar, where she had to create drawings, make the chocolate bar with the package out of cardboard, and present her project to the design team.
“Having this opportunity to work for a company and travel around in a different country changed the way I think,” says Amy. “As I spent a lot of time travelling alone, I was able to see things from a different perspective, see that I can focus on what I want to do, and I am more aware of my time, prioritizing myself in school. I am looking at setting my goals a bit higher than I did before.”
Amy working at the light table
Amy has always enjoyed science, and was looking to start her degree only in biology, but, because of her drawing abilities, her high school art teacher encouraged her to delve further into the study of visual art. She has aspirations to pursue medical illustration, and as a student who still has two years to go with her degree, she has time to figure out what she may want to do with the rest of her life.