Back Cover Art

“Reality Check”

2011, Two-Sided Posters, 11" x 17", Candice Nagel ’12 (top)

and Willy Bravenec ’12 (bottom)

By Nicole Miller

Candice Nagel '12

“Design isn't about making one cool thing,” says Willy Bravenec '12. It's about exploring every facet of an idea. “There's a lot of sketching, a lot of white-boarding and anticipating problems.”

It's a lesson that Bravenec, a graduate of Seattle Pacific University's visual communication design program, picked up on the job during his internship at design agency Hornall Anderson. Creating a communication system for a client that works across multiple platforms &#mdash; from posters to postcards, banners to billboards &#mdash; requires collaboration, he says, and lots of revision.

Willy Bravenec '12

The creative search for practical solutions also appeals to fellow graduate Candice Nagel '12. “I really love articulating concepts to people and helping them work out their goals.”

Both Nagel and Bravenec created promotional materials for Reality Check, a portfolio review session held each spring for Northwest design students. Sponsored by SPU and AIGA, the professional association for design, the event gave students practice presenting their work outside the classroom, with industry professionals offering them feedback. “It was a little like speed dating,” says Nagel. These posters ended up taking a place in their professional portfolios.

Now, degrees in hand, these two are finding their place in the design world. Bravenec is working for Tether, a Seattle-based design firm. Nagel is working as a designer at Microsoft in Redmond on the
Windows Phone Marketing team.

How does their faith impact their work? “It's in my devotion to detail,” says Nagel, “and the way I strive for excellence in my design.”

For Bravenec, the integration of faith and work means honoring the needs of the client and finding satisfaction in a job done well, rather than in praise from others. Then again, he says, “Those ethics
don't apply just to design.”