October 4, 2005 Source: Carleton University:
http://www.carleton.ca/duc/News/news10040504.html Carleton B.I.T. Student Eric Chan Wins Macromedia Innovation Award Eric Chan remembers the first time he scanned one of his drawings onto the computer and coloured it in using Photoshop 3.0. "I remember thinking to myself ‘that’s banana's!" he says. Since that day in grade 8, Chan's amazement and interest for combining artistic designs with computer programming has flourished into a serious career ambition. This Carleton University student has come a long way since junior high, beating out hundreds of entries from Canada and the U.S. as the winner of a People’s Choice Award in this year's Macromedia Innovation Awards. The Macromedia Innovation Award program for students recognizes future web designers and developers as well as students creating web content, applications and presentations using Macromedia software products. Selected entries are posted on-line where visitors to the site voted for their favourite student to win one of three People's Choice Awards while the professionals at Macromedia picked their favourites for the Editorial Awards, worth $1000. The entries were judged on creativity, design/functionality, theme/content and technical achievement. Chan entered an on-line art portfolio exhibiting his multi-disciplinary skills in developing interactive web content, experimental illustrations and print designs. "My entry is my resume. It's about my work and the type of clients I have, but it's also a piece of art," says Chan. The entry is easy to navigate, while the graphics aren't exhausting to the eye. Users can open up folders containing Chan’s art, which is organized and accessible in a variety of sizes and displays. The user can change the look, feel, and texture of the web site by choosing different background designs from a panel at the bottom of the page. Chan has also showcased the web and illustration work he has done for his clients, which include Action Canada, Bubblicity Tea Shop and Bouge, an on-line non-for profit organization founded by his brother, which allows high school students to pose questions about university to a group of mentors. Eric's portfolio site is completely propelled by code, or rather ActionScript, the coding language of Macromedia Flash. Chan says that using code, as opposed to pre-designed default templates provided by Macromedia, allows for a lot of flexibility to create very interesting user interfaces. Chan hopes his site can show people that portfolios don’t have to be completely static. It's more challenging and impressive to create something interactive, says Chan, and its becoming an increasingly more trendy way of marketing oneself in the job market, no matter what your career aspirations are. "One of my goals," says Chan, "is to become a hybrid designer, one that exhibits both technological knowledge and artistic talent. This fusion of designer and programmer is a rare trait in the industry today." With a Computer Science diploma already under his belt, Chan is honing his skills as a second-year student of the Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) Multimedia and Design program (IMD), a popular joint venture between Carleton University and Algonquin College. "There are few schools that I know of in Ontario that provide such a multidisciplinary course, " says Chan. "Carleton University understands the technological trends that are emerging in the design market." "The program is a direct response to industry's demand for a new generation of designers," agrees Benjamin Gianni, one of Chan’s professors and founding director at the School of Information Technology at Carleton University. The Interactive Multimedia and Design program combines elements of the traditional design disciplines with math, physics, database design, and computer programming. Graduates will be comfortable designing both physical and virtual worlds, applying architectural, industrial, and graphic design to new media and to interactive forms of information delivery. Chan says he not only feels comfortable in the program, but also increasingly passionate about his work. At Algonquin, he focused solely on computer science, only sketching in his black book as a hobby in his spare time. The turning point came during an apprenticeship at Corel where he got the validation he needed and decided he would never put his art on the shelf again. And after listening to the experiences of his Carleton professors, he says he is totally reassured he is on the right career path and has a feeling that awareness of art is growing in Ottawa. Just recently, Chan’s illustrations were published in University Matters, a reference book for high school grads filled with tips and advice on what to expect in university. He also designed the University Matters web site. As for his award, it wasn’t his first big-time nomination, but it was his first win. Chan was nominated for the category of Best Canadian Student last April at the Flash In The Can competition in Toronto. Whether it be entering competitions, doing freelance work in Ottawa and abroad, or a trip to New York to study at Parson’s School of Design, Chan says he is very excited and more motivated than ever for what’s to come. "There’s never going to be limits to what you can do, I’m just pushing the boundaries." -30-
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