Noelle Webster (CEHS Class of 2012) and now a designer for Brooks Running visited Ms. Nilsen’s Digital Design II to talk about art and design.
Noelle talked about her classes at CEHS and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). During college, she took advantage of RISD’s 8-week mid-semester break and summer breaks to seek out internship opportunities. Noelle has designed for all sorts of companies: Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, Starbucks, The Met Museum and various craft breweries.
She works with textiles and does product and packaging design.
It was fun to hear Noelle talk about using chemistry in her work with dyes, programming skills to program automated textile equipment (ex. looms) and Excel spreadsheets to keep track of all sorts of things.
Her tips to high school students:
Ask for help when you don’t understand something - people are more than willing to help.
Be willing to try new things - even if you aren’t good at it or don’t think you will be good at it.
Be willing to ask for critique and don’t take it personally.
Look for internship and job opportunities with companies that do the work you are interested in
You need to balance what you want to do with where you want to live.
Portfolios tend to be dependent on the school you are applying to. Noelle suggests showing range as well as focus and passion.
Finally, Noelle encouraged anyone who is interested in pursuing art or design to look her up at Brooks Running in Seattle. Here is her website.