Annake Vande Brake ’21

With skills she learned studying film and media at Calvin, Annake is helping Grand Rapids nonprofits spread the word about their work in the community.

Vande Brake graduated in 2021 with a film and media major. She minored in studio art, learning graphic design techniques she now uses daily in her work at Scott Allen Creative.

She works a lot with print pieces, creating newsletters, brochures, posters and flyers. But she also works on social media and website design, and with her background in film, she is able to do some video editing as well.

Scott Allen Creative works exclusively with nonprofit organizations like Family Promise of Grand Rapids, Mel Trotter Ministries and Paws with a Cause. She said her work feels unique because the designs she creates are not trying to sell something, they’re educating people about the work the nonprofits are doing.

“You can really see immediate results,” she said. “You know you’re helping people in a way you might not if you were working for a marketing company that’s working with corporations.”

While in college, Vande Brake honed her graphic design skills not only through her classes, but also while working on Dialogue, Calvin’s arts and writing creative journal. She was layout manager for three of the four years she worked on the journal.

She said one of the most important skills she learned while studying graphic design was the importance of accepting critiques of your work.

“Being able to have other people alongside you doing the same thing and having critiques was very helpful,” she said. “Doing that in classes is super important because once you get a job, you’re going to get critiqued all the time and you need to learn to handle that.”