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Join OCAD U for a panel discussion between emerging creatives. You’ll hear about the varied pathways available for artists, designers and media-makers in today’s context.
Take part in this panel and you can:
- Explore and begin to understand the labour market for contemporary freelance and agency-based art, design, and media professional pathways
- Begin to identify effective strategies for navigating early career growth in creative fields.
The format of the panel includes an introduction of each of our panelists, and a question informed discussion, followed by an opportunity for all to participate in a Q+A.
Meet Our Industry Creatives
Mitch Sharpe(he/him) is a Jamaican-Canadian designer and Art director working in Toronto. Graduating from OCAD U Advertising in 2017, Mitch is currently working for John St. Advertising, and has done work for: Audi, Volkswagen, Puma, NIA, Rogers and many more household brands and companies. Mitch works with a focus on bringing client ideas to life in clear communicative ways that reach outside the box of what is expected, a wide variety of mediums. Mitch aims to add a loud BIPOC voice to an under-represented industry, and change the advertising as we know it.
Roda Medhat (he/him) is a Kurdish-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on video and photography, based out of Toronto, Canada. Roda has worked in the commercial industry for years, working with clients including Corus Entertainment and Empire Canada. Aside from the commercial work, his fine art work has also reached a wide audience, having shown work across Ontario as well as in Osaka Japan and Bratislava Slovakia. Themes of identity often play a role in the works Roda creates. Combining various forms of media to invoke feelings of nostalgia and familiarity in the works.
Graham Nhlamba (he/him) is a designer, entrepreneur, OCADU alumni and avid dancer – born and raised in Zimbabwe. He merges social impact with his design, working towards building equity initiatives in and around his creative community – making considerable contributions to the development of initiatives such as OCADU's Black Youth Design Initiative & Anomaly's Equal Advantage. He has also helped build holistic brand identities and experiences for clients like Budweiser, Sea-Doo, Sportchek, We Rise Experience and Kai XR.
Mary Anne (Mare) Garcia (she/her) is a Canadian Filipinx product/furniture designer and creative director behind Space Queen Studio - a Toronto-based home goods studio where cute 'n kitschy meets pop culture but with a succulent green twist. Garcia’s creative practice is guided by her fascination with building, experimentation, and material exploration. She is a recipient of COFO design’s inaugural design challenge, and an advocate of slow and ethical design. Her work looks to transform ordinary interactions through playfulness and movement.
Maddie Alexander(they/them) is a trans artist, arts facilitator, archivist, and educator. They hold a BFA in Photography from OCAD University, an MFA from NSCAD University, and are currently a guest on the unceded territory of Miꞌkmaꞌki. Their work examines representations of queer and trans experience in pop culture and mass media. They approach this through a community-oriented practice and utilize DIY techniques to produce environmental experiences. They pull from sourced materials, as well as personal narrative to explore themes of desire, failure, connection, and dissonance. They have exhibited locally and internationally, have participated in numerous residencies, panels, artist talks, and lectures.
Delisa Clarke (she/her) is an aspiring set/interior designer raised in the spice isle of Grenada and currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. She holds an Architectural Technology Advanced Diploma from Humber College and is a recent graduate of OCAD University’s Environmental Design program – with a specialization in Interior Design. Her creative practice is informed by her passion for sustainability and smart technology. Considering the pandemic and the mental/physical obstacles it has heightened in our home environments, she hopes to solve these problems through thoughtful design and holistic integration of home infrastructure, space orientation and accessibility. In her downtime, she enjoys travelling, reading, listening to soca music, and (of course), watching historical movies and entertainment.
Emerging Creative Panel
Access the panel recording here.
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