On Friday, April 24, 2015, Emily Carr University special guests broke ground at a ceremony marking the launch of construction for our new campus.

As part of the celebration, four Emily Carr undergraduate communication design students created and designed the seven shovels to mark this historic event.

The seven shovels were created to represent seven distinct areas within Emily Carr’s community.

1. Foundation Year – triangle motif symbolizes a pyramid, upward movement and focus, the journey students travel while pursuing their undergraduate degrees

2. Faculty of Culture + Community – the circles represent the group, and the connection we all share with one another, which forms the fabric of culture

3. Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media – the cube and rectangle motifs symbolize building blocks and problem-solving as well as the edgy, graphic, industrial and geometric nature of design thinking

4. Faculty of Visual Arts + Material Practice – the swirls are evocative of movement, flow, and the gestures involved in the physical making of art, they also symbolize free thinking and the conceptual nature of artistic practice

5. Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Department of Research – the design element symbolizes lava, breakthrough and power, representing the ideas of “breaking the mold”, expansive thinking and pushing past perceived boundaries into new territories and ways of thinking

6. Faculty of Continuing Studies – the design element used here is the staircase, suggesting exploration, stepping up and raising our skills and practices to new levels

7. University Alumni – the design elements are diamonds, representing transformation, refinement and the enduring nature of the students’ accomplishments as they become graduates of Emily Carr .

The Emily Carr students who created the shovels:

Karim Kadi is a third year Communication Design student at Emily Carr University. He is passionate about rethinking design problems into new unconventional spaces. His objective is to to produce creative and innovative solutions through a diverse range of print and digital media.

Prateeba Perumal is a third year Communication Design student at Emily Carr University. Born and raised in Malaysia, she is passionate about visual communication and her goal is to design effective and engaging visuals for a wide range of audiences.

Taysia Louie is currently studying as a third year Communication Design student at Emily Carr. She is enthusiastic not only to create compelling print and digital materials, but she is also passionate about the power of group collaborations using design as a platform for change.

Claudia Pasaribu is an Indonesian designer who studies as a Third Year Communication Design student at Emily Carr. In her practice she combines consideration for both design and usability. Her objective is to create works that are visually beautiful and that also solve problems.

In addition to the shovels, a graffitti artwork and wall was also created to mark the occasion and to give our guests an opportunity to make their own mark as part of the celebration.

The wall was created by Emily Carr staff member, Jeremy Wong and Emily Carr Alumnus, Jackson Butchart. The two have been painting murals together for more than a decade and together collaborated on creating the graffiti wall art piece used to mark the groundbreaking ceremony at Great Northern Way.

Jackson Butchart graduated in 2010, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is now enrolled in Emily Carr’s Design Essentials certificate program, run in conjunction with BCIT. Jeremy Wong has been an important member of the Emily Carr community as a staff member since 2000. Jeremy was also recently involved at TED Vancouver where he was one of two creators of the Harmonograph Swingset.