Student Spotlight: Lea Johnson

We spoke with Lea Johnson, a second-year Interactive Media Arts student, in this Student Spotlight.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? Where did you attend high school?

My name is Lea Johnson, pronounced like Star Wars’ Princess Leia, and I’m a second-year Interactive Media Arts student in the Interactive specialization. I’m looking forward to graduation in June. I grew up around Forest, Manitoba and went to École secondaire Neelin High School. I’m also currently the VP of Events & Marketing on the ACC Students’ Association.

How are you enjoying your time here?

ACC has been a blast; being a part of college and community events as a member of the Students’ Association has been really fun.

Can you tell us a bit about your role on the ACCSA?

I get to plan and help run student events. A big role is spreading the word about upcoming events and getting other students involved.

What made you decide to come to ACC? Why did you choose your program?

Originally I wanted to move out west to attend a design school. It wasn’t until my brother, who was taking the ACC Business Administration program at the time, suggested I take a look at the Interactive Media Arts program. I like to draw as a hobby so I was interested going down the Interactive path. I did a little research and decided to try it out. Now, here I am!

Can you explain what you do in Interactive Media Arts?

When you first come into the program the first year you get to learn a bit of everything—video production, photography, animation, coding, and design. It’s hard work and a lot to take in at first but it really lets you get experience in many different areas and helps you find the career path you want to pursue.

After the first year, you get to decide if you’d like to focus more on development or design. You still take all of the same courses but depending on which path you choose your assignments or projects have a different focus. The program is great because you get experience in many different areas but are still able to focus more heavily on the things that you are really interested in learning. When graduates get into the workforce we can actually say we’ve had experience in a lot of different areas, which is pretty unique and makes flexible and able to fill more than one role.

What do you enjoy most about the program?

I personally like working with HTML, CSS, and everything part of front-end development. It’s more fun for me, I get to take these flat designs and actually make them real and add interaction.

Has anything surprised you about the program so far?

The most surprising thing so for me has been my experience working with clients. It’s one thing to read and be told about interacting with them but in the program we actually get experience working with real clients and businesses. It’s been pretty eye-opening and lets us get our feet wet with business and client interactions. It’s been really fun.

How has your experience been so far in the program?

My time here has been great. It’s kind of funny, since joining the program I’ve shifted my focus to development and coding more than the design. I really enjoy the front-end development of websites and being involved in bringing websites to life.

Did you do anything to prepare yourself coming into the program? Do you have any advice for other people looking to take IMA?

No, not really. I’m the type of person that likes to jump straight into things and learn as I go.

I would recommend the Spend-A-Day program that ACC offers and ask lots of questions! I have hosted many Spend-A-Day students during my two years at the college and most of them didn’t ask too many questions. The hosts enjoy answering questions so don’t be shy! Know what you’re getting into.

Every year the program holds the Iron Web competition. What is this?

When you first come in you get a briefing from a client. We don’t actually know who the actual client is until the morning of. The client gives us a breakdown of what they are looking for and provides some details about what they are trying to achieve. We split off into teams and assign roles to each member. We have a limited amount of time to finish the website and prepare a presentation to hand-in to the client by the end of the day. We’re judged on different areas of the project and given a final score.

My team actually placed first this year; better than my second-place finish last year.

Did you go on any class trips?

We just recently went on a class trip to the FITC conference in Toronto. FITC is a large conference where experts and industry leaders are brought in to share information on their creative process, technology, and provide inspiration.

We were also able to visit some cool creative agencies and get to experience what it’s like to work in the industry first-hand. We were able to ask real professionals in the industry questions, it was really cool. They all had very awesome and unique offices.

Do you have any plans for after graduation?

Not yet. I’m doing my practicum with a company called Red Space in Nova Scotia. I was actually able to meet the CEO of the company at the FITC conference during our class trip. I’m excited to go and it sounded like he was excited to have me out there as well. I can’t wait to tour around and get to work on some projects.

What type of applications, software, or even coding languages do you learn in the program?

We use a few different code editors, applications such as Adobe Dreamweaver. It all comes down to preference.

As far as coding languages we learn HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, PHP, and MySQL. For those reading this; if you don’t know what these are, don’t worry! When I started the program I had zero experience and now I’m going to be using them every day in my career. The program will teach you everything you need to know.

For design, we use most of the Adobe software, applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Premiere.

We touch on many other things as well. Using 3D programs and Unity (game engine) was pretty cool. We made 3D assets and environments in Maya, brought them into Unity, and were able to explore them in virtual reality.

What’s something about you that would surprise people?

I’m a loud person. To clarify, when you first meet me I probably come off as pretty shy but I eventually open up.

Are you involved in any activities outside the college?

Not currently, my schoolwork and ACCSA position tie up most of my free time.

What’s your favorite food?

Perogies.

Do you have any favorite TV shows, movies, or hobbies?

I like to draw anime and my favorite movie is The Avengers. I’ve watched that movie so many times. My favorite TV show is SpongeBob Squarepants. Don’t judge me, you can never be too old for cartoons!

Thank you for speaking with us Lea.

Thank you!