Alumni
Grad is Digital Designer at RLab
As a creative child, Orange County, California native Jordan Kane wanted to be an artist. “For a really long time I thought that in order to make that happen I would have to go to an arts college and major in fine art,” she said. “I didn’t realize how many different ways I could turn my creativity into a career until my sophomore year of high school when a representative from FIDM came and spoke to one of my classes.” That pivotal moment led Jordan to study Visual Communications at FIDM. Since graduating in 2018, Jordan has worked as a Visual Merchandising Specialist at Saks Fifth Avenue and is currently a Digital Designer at RLab in Brooklyn, New York and a freelance Graphic Designer. This month, she graduated from New York University with a B.S. in Integrated Digital Media. We recently chatted with Jordan to learn more.
What led you to FIDM's Visual Communications program? Hearing about all of the different paths each FIDM student could take was really inspiring and I loved how many options of majors FIDM had to offer. I ended up getting accepted to the Visual Communications program my junior year of high school. I chose the program because I had always admired storefront window displays and wanted to be a part of the creative minds that created them.
Tell us about your time at Saks: Working at Saks was incredible and being able to come directly out of school into my dream job at the time was surreal. I learned so much from the Visual Team at Saks and I still consider them to be family to me. I was definitely faced with situations where I had to come up with quick, creative solutions to meet our deadlines, but I was also given a lot of freedom to express my creativity and I felt like I was heard and supported when I pitched ideas or gave suggestions.
What made you decide to continue your education at NYU? In the past I had been discouraged from applying there when a college advisement counselor told me it was too hard of a school for me to get into and that I should think more realistically. At the time, it was discouraging to hear that, but I had already been accepted to FIDM and was excited about that achievement. I knew that if I was going to pursue my B.S. degree, the only place I wanted to do it was at NYU. I did a lot of research and was looking at a few different programs when I came across their Integrated Digital Media program. I felt like this would be the perfect place for me, where I could further develop my design skills while learning new, more technical programs as well.
Tell us about your current position and responsibilities at RLab: RLab is a New York City-funded technology start-up that focuses primarily on AR, VR, and Spatial Tech. I am the company’s sole Digital Designer and I have gotten to work on a number of incredible projects that really gave me a taste for what goes into launching a new company. Some of those projects include developing the company brand guidelines, completely rebuilding the company website, creating original social media marketing templates, developing and maintaining our e-commerce site, and designing corporate brochures. I have loved the experience of working with a start-up sized team and I am so grateful for their willingness to work around my school schedule over the last year.
What are your ultimate career goals? My main goal is to eventually launch my own design firm and have a team of talented designers by my side to help small businesses get started in any capacity they may need. Additionally, I hope to continue down a career path that allows me to use my design capabilities while still getting to be a developer. I would love to work for a company like Squarespace or Google where they are so innovative in finding ways to apply design to a more technical industry.
Learn more at jordanekane.com and on Instagram @jordanekane.
Categories: Visual Communication Alumni
