Madeleine Heaven

This year marks a full decade since I graduated from OCAD University, and looking back has brought up a lot of emotion. Curiosity lives at this school, and what I valued most was the absolute freedom to create what I wanted. I joined OCAD U in the fall of 2012 for Drawing and Painting, but quickly found my real major was curiosity. In a space where I found myself enjoying my electives far more than a mandatory six-hour studio class. The school gave me the room to celebrate not knowing my exact path or sticking to a confined canvas.

I found my true education by stepping outside of traditional boundaries, sometimes by experimenting in the spray paint booth, cutting wood in the woodworking shop, and using the metal shop to literally burn my own work. I even took a bookmaking class. I felt comfortable taking risks, mixing odd mediums, and at times breaking the rules of assignments to craft exactly what my intuition demanded. By my thesis year, while everyone else’s booths seemed to display a consistent, highly technical body of work, my pieces were quite individual and disjointed from one another. But one thing was clear: my obsession with material exploration had thrived.

When I graduated, I didn't yet know my path would lead to advertising. The confidence I built at this school gave me the courage to make intentional creative decisions and successfully explore different aesthetics for every campaign I handle. Because OCAD U didn't push me into traditional templates, it taught me how to connect disparate mediums, navigate complex multimedia ecosystems, and challenge convention.