Lunch & Learn Panel
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
12 – 1:30pm
ArtCenter Library, Hillside Campus

Join us for a fun Lunch & Learn Panel on Hillside, where you'll have the opportunity to enjoy a midterm lunch break while gaining invaluable career insights from accomplished alumni from Product Design, Illustration, and Environmental Design. All students are invited to this discussion on the following topics:

Importance of Building Your Creative Community
Learn the significance of fostering connections within the creative community. Our alumni will share stories of how building a strong network played a crucial role in their professional growth, providing you with insights on leveraging relationships for success.

Designing Your Own Box
Explore the concept of thinking outside the box by actually designing your own box. Our speakers will share how they embraced individuality, harnessed their unique strengths, and crafted personalized career paths that set them apart.

Creative Resilience
Gain practical tips on cultivating creative resilience in the face of challenges. Our panelists will delve into their experiences of overcoming obstacles and bouncing back stronger, offering you valuable lessons for navigating the twists and turns of a creative career.

Panelists

Estella Tse graduated from ArtCenter’s Illustration department in 2016 and is now a Virtual & Augmented Reality Creative Director and Artist. She integrates emerging technologies and visual storytelling into a new art form. She inspires new ways to connect, educate, and build empathy with her creative innovation work. Estella has been an XR artist-in-residence with Google, Adobe, Snapchat, Cartoon Network Studios, and performs and speaks internationally. Her work has been featured on Forbes, CNet, The Australian, and more. She draws her inspiration from lived human experiences, nature, and the cosmos.

Lori Nishikawa, founder of Quovadis Design, a creative design and strategy studio, began her journey at ArtCenter College of Design, excelling in Product Design and Social Impact Design, earning her a Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation. Following graduation, she worked as a Senior Strategic Designer at BCG Digital Ventures, collaborating with Fortune 500 startups to launch innovative products, honing her skills in blending creativity with business strategy. Driven by her passion for social impact, Lori's global travels have led her to work on diverse projects, from financial inclusion to reimagining healthcare service design, positively impacting communities worldwide.

Therese Swanepoel is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary Insights Strategist with nearly two decades of experience in research, branding, architecture, and innovation. Therese has been able to work with Fortune 500 companies, consulting agencies, and startups alike. She has carefully curated her career as an explorer, builder, and collaborator. Seven years ago, Therese co-founded the workplace innovation team at Nike: an in-house supporting function for all the Nike corporate offices across the globe. A few years later, Therese was able to rethink and help build the way REI delivers impact using strategic insights to build an AI platform that will inform and shape product design/decisions for decades to come. Today, Therese is the Senior Manager of Beverage Innovation at Starbucks, it is her responsibility to de-risk the future by acquiring and leading the right team for the job. Therese is particularly passionate about and actively co-creating purpose-driven and ethical AI at Starbucks and beyond. She believes this to be the biggest challenge and opportunity for moving the needle forward in our society.