Recent Alums on How Otis College Prepared Them for Thriving Art and Design Careers

96% of Otis College students acquire jobs within a year of graduating.

Career preparedness is a hallmark of an Otis education and is woven through every discipline and course. It is also demonstrated by a 96% employment rate for recent alumni within one year of graduation. A recent panel of alumni from the classes of 2000 through 2023 gathered to speak to prospective students and their families about how Otis prepared them for rewarding careers in product design, graphic design, and toy design. 

The panel included Reanna Brown (’23 BFA Product Design), an assistant designer for home accessories at URBN, which encompasses Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, and Nuuly; Lorenzo Crump (’20 BFA Toy Design), a senior designer in girl’s products at MGA Entertainment, which makes Bratz and LOL Surprise! dolls; Kayla Dang (’22 BFA Communication Arts, Graphic Design), a digital content designer for Adidas’s accessories line; Nia Harris (’22 BFA Communication Arts, Graphic Design), a junior designer at Rare Beauty; and Javier Luna (’20 BFA Product Design), a creative manager at the U.S. House of Representatives. 

The alums shared insightful tips on how to prepare for careers in the creative economy and how Otis College helped them on their professional journeys. 

On The Value of Career Services in Preparing Them for Careers

Javier Luna ’20 BFA Product Design
Creative manager, U.S. House of Representatives

“Career Services has a wonderful team of people who give so much specific feedback and one-on-one opportunities to go over your resume and cover letters and conduct practice interviews. They help with expanding your Linkedin presence and looking for jobs, and make sure that you’re presenting yourself in the best way. Before graduation you’re looking for internships, so Career Services is a resource that you should be using as soon as you start at Otis.”

Kayla Dang, ’22 BFA Communication Arts, Graphic Design
Digital content designer, Adidas

“Big shout out to Career Services. They hold an Internship and Recruitment Day every year. I applied for interviews during my sophomore year and that’s how I was able to get my first internship, which eventually developed into a permanent position. Having that experience and working with real clients on real projects prior to graduating made it so much easier to apply for jobs after graduation, versus starting at base zero. You develop skills quickly because there are deadlines, changes, and iterations. It really helps you develop those skills before you graduate.”

On the Role of Networking in Landing Their First Jobs

Reanna Brown, ’23 BFA Product Design
Assistant designer, URBN

“While I was at Otis I had the pleasure of being in Design Lab, which is Otis’s in-house design consultancy made up of students. That was extremely helpful for networking. I also got a mentor in Emily Carlson, who runs Design Lab and has been extremely helpful to me even now. Emily has always been one of the first people I consult when I don’t know what to do or need help with something. When I was applying for my current job she did mock interviews with me. Building relationships with people along your journey is really important. A lot of people say ‘Make sure you’re networking.’ I feel like sometimes, as artists and designers, we can be so busy that that gets swept under the rug, but it’s so important to prioritize and do little things to show that you’re interested in maintaining the relationship.”

Nia Harris, ’22 BFA Communication Arts, Graphic Design
Junior designer, Rare Beauty

“Networking and mentorship had a huge impact on my career. I would even say to look outside of school, maybe a friend of a friend might work somewhere and it might be a great mentor relationship that can help you—just like the job that I have now at Rare Beauty. I got it because of our senior showcase at Otis. My boss is an Otis alumni. I found her on LinkedIn and just asked if she had time to chat over coffee and talk about design. That led to getting my job.”  

On Valuable Otis Lessons That Helped Their Careers 

Javier Luna

“In product design they teach you to design to solve problems and not focus on a specific solution—keeping your mind super open. Approaching design in an open-minded way gives you the opportunity to learn different skills in the process. That has been a really good way of approaching life, not just work. Sometimes you can hyper-focus on one specific way of targeting a certain issue in the work that you’re doing, but there are different ways of approaching it. And of course technology and the industry and the tools that you have available are always changing, so if you get boxed into one specific way of solving something you’re going to fall behind.”

Kayla Dang

“One of the most valuable lessons I received was from one of my graphic design professors who said something along the lines of, when you design it’s always important to have a “why?” Like, “Why is this the color palette? Why is this the typeface? Why is this the imagery?” A lot of design can become too subjective. If you don’t reel it in and get down to the specifics someone else in the room will say, “Well, I like the color purple, not blue. I like Comic Sans, Helvetica is so boring.” If you don’t nail down the exact reasoning why you made a conscious decision to make something the best option for the design there’s going to be a back and forth that wastes a lot of time. I always explain my reasoning behind my decisions and that practice hasn’t failed me.”

Reanna Brown

“Most likely all of the candidates that are applying to a job have similar skills to what you learned within your major, such as having internship experience and knowing certain software, how to do design-thinking, how to draw and sketch. Those skills are almost a given if you’re a candidate for a certain position. I feel it’s the things beyond that that can make you stand out. In Design Lab I did a lot of copywriting. At the time I was like, “Why am I doing this? I don’t know if it’ll be useful to me.” Working at Urban Outfitters, we’re always writing something funny on everything. It’s been interesting to see other people on my team turn to me and be like, “Hey, Reanna, what do you think of this?” Or  “What should we write on this?” That extra skill is always turning out to be extra useful.” 

On What Helped Them Get Their Current Job

Kayla Dang

“When I was interviewing with the current company I work at I mentioned that I had some previous internship experience with photo shoots and photography. Being able to dabble in a lot of stuff during my time at Otis and doing an internship was really helpful because now not only do I do graphic design at my current job, but I’m also the on-site producer for photo shoots and do some photo editing. Having that prior experience really helped me have a leg up.” 

Lorenzo Crump, ’20 BFA Toy Design
Senior designer, MGA Entertainment

“I did a lot of research on the company that I was interviewing for and they saw that I had a lot of interest in them, especially because I named one specific toy brand that people usually don’t mention. It got me to the second interview, where I actually met someone who was the head of that brand. They took notice of that.”

Reanna Brown

“I had interviewed for an internship at URBN that they ended up cutting, which was super frustrating for me. But it turned out that a year later, when I graduated, they actually remembered me. Part of the reason why, I believe, is because I kept in touch and would send emails with updates of my work—like my senior show—just so that they wouldn’t forget that I was interested in working there. It led to them asking me to apply before there was even a position open. I think showing genuine interest and keeping in touch is really key and will help you stand out.” 

Nia Harris

“I had two or three internships and freelance jobs before I got this job. I maintained the relationship with my boss that I have now and we would meet up once a month so that I could ask her about design things and show her what I was working on. Keeping in contact with her and doing internships to try to figure out where I wanted to be with my career was really helpful in getting me where I am now.”

On Advice for  Someone Considering an Art and Design Career

Lorenzo Crump

“Some great advice that I was given while I was at Otis was that it is OK to start over. There was a lesson in a class where we drew a 20-minute life drawing. Our teacher told us to place it on the floor and step on it and then start over. He wanted us to get used to re-doing something. And our drawings actually came out better than the first ones because we understood what we were trying to do. I do that a lot at my current job because I have to do a lot of iterations of things.”

Nia Harris

“Design is a tool that can be used to amplify diverse perspectives. I work in the beauty industry, and, like anybody, I can access beauty and use beauty regardless of my gender or skin color. Whenever I’m designing something I try to keep that in mind about being inclusive.”

Kayla Dang

“Don’t throw in the towel without giving it a shot. When I started thinking about going to art and design school everyone around me said it was a bad idea, that it’d be hard to find a job, and design wouldn’t be practical as a career. To be fair, they aren’t entirely wrong. Some people do face challenges trying to find stable work in creative fields. But I think that applies to any career. You owe it to yourself to see where your creative journey takes you, so my best advice would be to just keep moving forward and then tune out all the other stuff that people tell you.”

Register for Creative Futures: Careers in Gaming, Sports, and Toys

Are you ready to explore your creative future? Join us for our Creative Futures panel, It's All Fun and Games, where you’ll learn from Otis College alumni who have successfully made the leap from art and design school to careers in the creative industries focusing on gaming, sports and toys.

On Wednesday, April 2 at 5:30 p.m., connect with recent graduates making their mark at iconic companies like the NFL, Pokémon, Warner Brothers Animation, Riot Games, HUF, and Spin Master. Hear their stories, discover how they built their portfolios, landed their first roles, and carved out a path in competitive creative fields.

Register Now