Meet the student who designed her way to California
Design student Dominique Salvatore created an emoji that scored her a trip to Disney Interactive in California!
Dominique’s story
I heard about the Disney Emoji as Told by You Competition through a Swinburne faculty email from Dr Samantha Edwards-Vandenhoek while on break earlier this year.
Disney, art and design have always been a major part of my life, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work around a brief where I could explore many of my most-loved characters and reimagine them in the context of an emoji.
I chose Heimlich from A Bug’s Life – there’s something about that chubby German caterpillar that never fails to make me smile!
I couldn’t believe it when I got the email announcing my grand prize win. Because of how far-reaching the entrant pool was, I imagined the competition would be fierce.
Discovering that out of approximately 2400 entries from seven countries that I had been judged and specially chosen by Disney and Adobe as one of the five best entries was an incredible honour.
A magical journey
Most of my week was spent at Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media’s Grand Central Creative Campus located in Glendale, California. This campus is the hub for all of Disney’s consumer products and interactive media.
Over the three and a half days, I listened and spoke to many professionals working there – the developers, artists, storytellers, technologists and more.
We also met the team behind Disney’s as Told by Emoji video series, as well as the creators of Disney’s Emoji Blitz game. They guided us through the many stages of their design process and how they make their concepts come to life.
I found it intriguing to see the similarities to the ways we’ve learnt to develop our designs at university and how designing at Disney works. It really demonstrated how vital the skills we learn at this stage of our career are in professional practice!
One area that stood out was their publishing department. This division of graphic design has been my niche, so being able to observe their work had me incredibly excited.
The opportunity to view decades old, original hand-painted artwork, made for their classic storybook publications really stuck with me. I was in absolute awe at the pure amount of talent behind the artists who work with such precision in traditional mediums.
Adobe also conducted Creative Cloud coaching sessions during our time there, specifically exploring Illustrator and After Effects and its possibilities towards design. I can certainly see these skills enhancing the work I make in future projects.
We were also lucky enough to be surprised with a trip to the Disneyland Resort in California! We were given the full VIP experience, with a personal tour guide, ride fast passes and the best view possible for the night-time show. They really aren’t kidding when they say it’s the happiest place on earth!
A bright future
I started my Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) at Swinburne in 2015. However, I had no formal training in any of the industry standard design programs and was self-taught through trial-and-error.
Looking back to where I started, it’s overwhelming to see not only all the skills and knowledge I have acquired from my tutors and classes at Swinburne, but also how much it has improved my design work and now allowed me to gain recognition from leading companies like Disney and Adobe.
Visiting the Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media office was an incredible, life-changing experience that I’ll never forget, and I anticipate that this is only the beginning of what’s in store for me.
Written by Dominique Salvatore, Bachelor of Design (Communication Design), Swinburne.
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