“Tale of Two Sisters,” 2017, by Sydney G. James (‘01, Illustration).
COV E R TO COV E R An Entertainment Arts alumna breaks down what it takes to perform CGI movie magic. An Advertising Design alum reveals the social value of social media strategy. A Photography alumna takes intimate photos of immigrant communities. An Illustration alum creates paintings that are poignant and powerful. And six Product Design alumni put their best foot(wear) forward — including shoe designs for Dwyane Wade and Usain Bolt.
T H E S E A R E CC S A LU M N I . O N E DAY, YO U W I L L B E O N E O F T H E M .
COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES offers 12 undergraduate majors and a Teacher Certification program, but as you’ll see, the possibilities are limitless.
CO LLEGEFO RCRE ATIVE STU DIE S . EDU
SYDNEY AMINA G. HOROZIC JAMES INDEPENDENT PAINTER/MURALIST DESIGNER
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SARAH BROMLEY BUILD TD DOUBLE NEGATIVE VFX
REAL TALK WITH CREATIVES ABOUT WHAT THEY DO AND WHY THEY LOVE IT.
THE If SARAH BROMLEY (’14, Entertainment Arts) does her job well, you’ll never know she was there. She came to CCS from South Africa as a Fine Arts major in 2010 but changed majors after watching a professor doing CGI (computergenerated imagery) on a screen. Bromley now works in London as a Build TD — Technical Director — for Double Negative VFX (DNEG). The first film she worked on was DC Films’ Justice League (2017) and, recently, she did work on the global blockbuster Black Panther (2018).
Stills from the film Black Panther. © Marvel Studios, 2018.
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WHAT IS A BUILD TD? We construct anything in a film that has to be made. I could be doing anything from trees and rocks to actual characters. The build department needs to be really spot on – a lot of clothing, any assets like rings, watches, the lot. A LOT of clothing! When we do our job right, people can’t tell. If it’s going to be too expensive to shoot something, it’s up to us to replicate it on the CG side, especially in the fantasy genre. Sometimes, if something is not realistic, or there’s no way to get to that location, or the location doesn’t exist or, with actors, a stunt person can’t perform the action or if it’s a difficult scene, then we do that as well. WHEN DO BUILD TDS COME INTO THE PROCESS? The number of people involved in one show or one shot is a lot. Build happens early on, and nothing else can happen until we’re done. So DNEG gets all the raw footage from the film. Then someone sits down and looks at what we need to do and how much, then they tell us, “This shot, this scene. This is what’s happening, here’s the footage, and we need you to make this object.”
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CAN YOU SPILL THE TEA ABOUT FILMS YOU’VE WORKED ON? I’m allowed to say that I worked on the films, but I can’t go into specifics. On Justice League, I was lucky enough to build some assets, do some environment stuff, which I love. I do modeling, texturing and what we call look development. I can do all three, but I’m strongest in modeling. I do a lot of technical work, which was a lot of what I did on Black Panther. SOOO … BLACK PANTHER. DID YOU SEE THAT COMING? When Black Panther came down, I was super excited because I knew it was going to be a really big film. I want to work on a film that’s cool, but I also don’t, in a way, because I don’t want to ruin it for myself. Films still have magic for me, and I want to keep the surprise.
a whole lotta likes BRUNA CAMARGO SOCIAL MEDIA CREATIVE ORGANIC, INC. ccs_detroit • Follow
A N ATO M Y OF A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Know your audience. Figure out what connects people to brands, how it fits into their lifestyles and concerns, and do it in a way that feels authentic, and fun.
Bruna Camargo • Follow
BRUNA CAMARGO DEMONSTRATES THE SOCIAL VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
BRUNA CAMARGO (’11, Advertising Design) is a boss.
The thing is, you have to integrate product into social media content
While still a student at CCS, she interned for three national
in a way that isn’t jarring for the audience. Ads need to feel like the rest
ad agencies — BBDO, Campbell Ewald and Leo Burnett —
of your feed. For Go Red for Women, we worked hard on building the
where she learned the inner workings of campaigns for big
‘why’ and the ‘how.’ In the case of heart health, we know why, but we
brands like OnStar, Chevrolet, GMC and former Chrysler
need to convince the client (AHA) of these things. We did research on
Group. By graduation, Camargo had scored her first pro-
the colors people respond to, for example. And we built everything
fessional gig with Doner Advertising. But it was at Ignite
from the ground up, from strategy to creative. Because of that,
Social Media, one of the first agencies of its kind, where she
more than 80% of the content people see is created far in advance.
learned the nitty gritty of advertising via online platforms. “I was thrown into the deep end of social media strategy: how to write and manage social media channels, the backside, the analytics and, of course, the creative content,” says Camargo. Eventually a Senior Content Producer and Social Strategist at Ignite, Camargo worked on campaigns for Fortune 500 beauty brands and Go Red For Women ® , a social initiative of the American Heart Association (AHA) that raises awareness about the number-one threat to women’s lives and health in the United States: cardiovascular disease. Now at Organic, Inc., Camargo — who has a triple-threat skill set; she can write, shoot and design content — leads social creative for the brands U by Kotex® , Poise and Depend. Here’s a glimpse of Go Red For Women’s #RedDressCollection as well as what it really takes to tweet, snap and pin for a living.
Bruna Camargo • Follow
ccs_detroit • Follow
Social media strategy doesn’t have to be connected to traditional advertising campaigns. It can thrive all by itself, even though a social media strategist can’t. Live events like the #RedDressCollection fashion show have a lot of moving parts. You need a plan, spontaneous content creation, and all hands on deck. #teamworkmakesthedreamwork
Bruna Camargo • Follow
Bruna Camargo • Follow
At live events, you run into situations in which, if you’re not prepared for them, things can go really wrong. You have to be prepared enough to handle things but also be on your toes enough to catch spontaneous things when they happen. For the #RedDressCollection fashion show, we built so much excitement. We scoured the Internet and found a vendor who could broadcast the entire thing on Facebook Live with a complete professional setup. Because ‘live’ sounds as if everything can be spontaneous, but how do you maintain the momentum you’ve built? We took a team of people to New York. I was doing ‘agile’ content — photographing and interviewing celebrities who were walking the show — and posting to Instagram and IG Stories. Then we had another team that was stationed at the desk monitoring and responding to everything I was doing as well as posting live. That’s a classic example of how to divide roles and play up people’s strengths. #werk
ONE TRUTH
L E A DS TO A N OT H E R
AS ALI LAPETINA DEEPENS HER RELATIONSHIP TO PHOTOJOURNALISM, SHE IS ALSO CREATING A MOVING DOCUMENT OF IMMIGRANT AND CITY LIFE. Whether for her own projects or
moments of life in Detroit and beyond: The Bengali immigrant
for commercial assignments and
community in Hamtramck, Michigan; Detroiters going about
commissions — including the Detroit
their daily lives in the wake of the city’s bankruptcy a few years
Free Press, National Geographic,
ago; and Rohingya Muslim refugees in Rogers Park, Chicago, who
The Washington Post, Le Monde and
are rebuilding community after fleeing genocide in Myanmar.
others — Photojournalist ALI
Showing the truth of someone’s life can be powerful.
LAPETINA (’13, Photography)
And elusive. Getting there requires time, patience and the
has for the better part of the last
willingness — of both the seer and the seen — to be vulnerable:
decade captured the more intimate
go deep but tread lightly.
Previous page: “Rohingya Wedding,” 2017. This page: “Chandler Park,” 2016.
“It’s a big deal to have access and share time with people,”
immigrant communities in the
Lapetina says. “There’s a balance you strike between
U.S. but, ultimately, just basic
pursuing the work and being a human. I explained to the
human rights,” she explains.
Rohingya Culture Center [in Chicago] that ‘I want to put my
Perhaps it is Lapetina’s own story
energy into telling the story of your people, but I need your
that draws her and — by extension —
help to gain trust with your community if the people are
her camera’s lens closer to those
willing to let me in. And that takes time.’”
who have become unmoored from
Currently, Lapetina is in the middle of a three-year advanced
a previous life, culture or country.
mentorship with James Estrin, co-editor of The New York
She was 16 when her parents
Times’ Lens section, and renowned photojournalist Ed Kashi.
divorced and her middle-class life
She’ll continue to develop her project on Rohingya immigrants,
disintegrated: her father left, the
which was the subject of a Times photo essay in October 2017.
house almost went into foreclosure,
Why the experiences of refugees and displaced peoples
and for three months Lapetina and
hold such profound personal meaning is a question Lapetina
her mother lived in a transitional
has considered many times before. “I’m interested in
home for women.
“Stop Rohingya Genocide,” 2017.
“I wasn’t a refugee, but I was having a similar experience,
So in 2014, she founded Women of
that lack of stability. I think that’s why I’m drawn to those
Banglatown, an organization that
stories,” Lapetina says. “Even things I’m working on now, the
empowers immigrant women and
underlying questions are, ‘What is home and what is your place?’
girls via free art and educational
I think that’s why I’m so drawn to Detroit and haven’t left. I love
programming, as well as social and
it here. And because of what I’ve experienced, this is home.”
income-generating activities. “How
Lapetina’s photographs feel intentional yet organic: deeply
does a photographer’s work help
concerned with the broader social justice issues surrounding
realize a need in the community,
many of her subjects but also attentive to the nuances of
instead of just photographing them?”
private moments and human connection. She has often spent
Lapetina took her time, however,
months or years getting to know and gaining the trust of the
before publishing the Banglatown
people whose stories she tells.
photographs. “I was shooting a while —
While volunteering at a farm in Hamtramck, Lapetina was
six years — before I even realized what
introduced to the Bengali community. She noticed that the girls
the story was. I just kept asking
and women lacked a way to gather socially outside of their homes.
myself, ‘what is your intention?’”
“Rajna,” 2015.
C R E AT E L I K E YO U MEAN IT
A promising artist since the age of three, SYDNEY G. JAMES (’01, Illustration) started taking extension courses at CCS at seven. By the time she was an undergraduate, she already had an emerging aesthetic and the work ethic to make it happen. That’s the who, the what and the how. The why, however, wouldn’t come until much later. After graduation, James spent three years as an Art Director for multicultural advertising legend GlobalHue. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she eventually worked as an illustrator and painter for film and TV shows, including the ABC Family series Lincoln Heights, for which she created the paintings for Cassie, a teen art prodigy. But if James arrived in LA as an illustrator, she left as a fine artist. “One of my first jobs in LA was working at Utrecht Art Supplies,” James explains. “Don’t be too proud to take on certain opportunities. If you’re a
WHEN IT COMES TO PAINTING,
fine artist, get a job at an art supply store. If you’re a fashion designer, get a job at Macy’s or Nordstrom or as a wardrobe stylist. That way, you can more
SYDNEY G. JAMES MEANS BUSINESS.
easily maneuver to advance your career.” This particular opportunity put her in the path of a local publicist, who announced one day that she had
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SYDNEY G. JAMES PAINTER/MURALIST
James collaborated with Askew One on the mural “Our Issue,” Eastern Market, Detroit, 2017.
gotten James a slot at a local hotel that hosted art shows and pop-ups.
up on the scaffold, her jaw hit the
whether to walk on the drawings.
“I just painted as much as I could — painted anything — because I didn’t
floor! She’s thinking, ‘You’re not
“I made a figurative doormat a literal
know yet,” she says. “But the transition happened because someone
supposed to be up there, but you’re
doormat. Some people, mostly
forced me to paint. The more you paint, the better you get. The act of
up there.’ I think it’s really important
women, were hesitant. But a lot of
painting wasn’t new, but I was experimenting and developing a different
that girls see me doing what I’m
men treated the drawings as if they
mindset around painting.”
doing — the action of painting.”
were supposed to be walked on.”
Back in Detroit in 2011, the opportunities continued to flow. Community
People had begun to recognize
James had finally discovered her why.
art projects, in particular, created a domino effect within her career:
her signature paintings and murals,
“I don’t paint pretty pictures.
collaborations with the Grand River Creative Corridor, an artist’s residency
which explore black life. Her 2015
Every crevice in a face is a plane
with the Red Bull House of Art and the inaugural public art celebration
series of graphite drawings,
or a landscape.” James’ paintings
Murals in the Market (2015). In 2017, she was named a Kresge Artist Fellow
“Appropriated Not Appreciated,”
feel entirely self-possessed yet
in the Visual Arts.
was created in the wake of several
reveal a shared human struggle.
James’ work has been shown in venues around the country, as well as inter-
national incidents of police brutality
They are also clear evidence of her
nationally, and she recently returned from a mural project in Accra, Ghana.
against black women. The drawings,
philosophy as an artist. “Treat a $50
“I didn’t realize the power of doing murals until a woman saw me up on a
intimate female nudes, were
job like a $2 million job. Create like
scaffold painting at Murals in the Market. She had taken a wrong turn and
displayed on the floor. Gallery
you mean it. That’s not just my
was with her daughter, whose name was also Sydney. When Sydney saw me
attendants faced the dilemma of
philosophy. That’s my practice.”
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Fact! Designed by a CCS alumnus, worn by Dwyane Wade.
Fact! Designed by a CCS alumnus, worn by Usain Bolt during his third gold-medal winning 100m sprint at the 2016 Olympics.
GUERCY EUGENE
CHRIS VELLA
DUANE LAWRENCE
EDMUND HOLMES
BOLT EVOSPEED DISC
ZEROGRAND PERFORATED
WADE 3
LUNAR VAPOR TROUT
PUMA
COLE HAAN
CONVERSE
NIKE
Fact! Designed by a CCS alumnus,
Fact!
worn by Kyrie Irving.
Designed by a CCS alumnus, for the 2014 MLB All-Star Game, including baseball greats MVP Mike Trout, Derek Jeter, Yu Darvish, Mark Buehrle, Glen Perkins, Jose Bautista and Miguel Cabrera.
P R O D U C I N G R O C K STA R S H O E D E S I G N E R S I S K I N D O F O U R T H I N G . W H E T H E R I T ’S FO R WO R L D - C L AS S AT H L E T E S, W E E K E N D WA R R I O R S O R YO U, CC S P R O D U C T D E S I G N A LU M N I K I C K O U T T H E JA M S .
CORI STEELE
ZACH COONROD
BENJAMIN NETHONGKONE
SPEEDGOAT 2
SPEEDFACTORY AM4LDN
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COVER ARTWORK Stills (on front cover and pp 2 — 3) from the film Black Panther. © Marvel Studios, 2018.
The College for Creative Studies is a nonprofit, private college authorized by the Michigan Education Department to grant bachelor’s and master’s degrees. CCS is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Documents regarding accreditation are available in the Executive Office upon formal request. The College for Creative Studies subscribes to the principle of equal opportunity in its employment, admissions, educational practices, scholarship and loan programs and other schooladministered programs, and strives to provide an educational environment and workplace free from unlawful harassment or discrimination. Discrimination, including harassment, because of age, race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, physical attributes, marital or familial status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law is strictly prohibited.