This Saint John Company Couldn’t Find The Talent They Needed, So They’ve Created A School
SAINT JOHN— A digital design firm in Saint John couldn’t find the talent they needed locally, so they’ve decided to create their own school to develop it.
The Creative Art Multimedia (CAM) Institute was started last year by Kamran Mohammed and Winston Mendez out of Connexionworks. The two men run a company called Ikar, a digital design firm that offers everything from branding, video editing, 3D design, web/software development, and more.
The idea came from a conversation Mohammed and Mendez had with Connextionworks co-founder Heather Acker earlier last year. Ikar’s business was picking up and they were looking to add another person to their team who, like them, could also do 3D design.
“We were like, ‘Heather, do you know anybody who could help us support [this new work]?” said Mohammed, in an interview with Huddle. “Heather was like, ‘I don’t think so, but guess what, we can start an institute.'”
“If we don’t have it, we can make it,” said Acker.
The CAM institute currently offers several short three-month courses in graphic design and online advertising; photography and design; and digital art. But their most intensive course, the one they are focusing on growing, is Advanced Graphics and Multimedia Course which is two years.
The course, which is hosted at Connexionworks after business hours, aims to walk students through the fundamentals of sketching by hand and clay modelling, to executing those designs on various types of industry software. Students don’t need any prior experience, even in the more extensive two-year course.
“We have a two-year course where we educate students on the basics such as how to hold a pencil, to rendering and modeling characters and building design interior and exterior,” said Mohammad.
CAM’s team brings more than 15 years of industry experience and students get hands-on experience too by working on assignments for Ikar clients.
“My goal is to give the students the real-time experience of how it’s going to be in the outside world,” says Mohammad. “As they go through this course, we help them make their online portfolio where they use the project they worked on for Ikar and put it on their portfolio banner and they can sell their services.”
The two-year course is currently open to anyone 16-years and older.
“If you drive, if you can get here, then you can take the course,” says Acker, who is also CAM’s advisor and facility director. “They’re really flexible with people’s times and schedules, so a lot of the courses can be taught in the evenings, so somebody could be going to school or have a full-time job and still take one a whole new career or a side hustle.”
Acker said having the institute based out of Connexionworks also means students will be able to use its network to connect with potential employers.
“The importance of having the Connexionworks banner connected to it is the connections,” said Acker. “For instance, with a graduated student, not only will they have a beautiful portfolio that is prepared during their courses … but I will be doing all these connections to make sure that people coming through the institute will have landing opportunities already.”
The first round of the course started in November, with the second batch of students starting this month. Right now, they are only taking five students per round. This is due to Covid-19 restrictions, but to also give students the attention that they need.
The two-year course costs $25,000, which includes a laptop that students keep once they graduate. The CAM Institute is currently starting the process of becoming a privately accredited college in New Brunswick, a process they expect to have completed by the time their first group of students graduate.
“We’re heading towards that goal, and at the end of the day we’re looking for growth and have other future plans,” said Mohammad.
Though there are some graphic design courses in Atlantic Canada, the CAM Institute says none go as in-depth as their two-year program, as it takes students from the fundamentals like drawing and clay modelling, to digital and 3D modeling. They say the program also stands out because it’s job-oriented, with the student working for real-world clients through connections with Ikar.
One the institute goes through the process of becoming a certified private college in the province, Mohammad said their big goal is to increase their student base.
“Once we get going … we’re aiming to bring in more students from all over the world. We want to have international students taking this course,” he said. “We designed the course such that they get a very quality education and that brings a lot of people in Saint John as well.”
Down the road, they’d like to see the CAM Institute become the go-to place for design education in the region.
“I want to make Saint John the best city for designers,” said Mohammad. “We want to put Saint John on the map through hiring the best that we’re going to train.”