Brett Kirkpatrick, M.Ed.

Collaborated with Tony Cruz and Scott Erickson to tell the story of Big Wednesday founder, Rich Kimball. As a community organizer for Southern California VW enthusiasts, Rich loves to gather people together around their shared passions.

The heart of most narrative art lies in the characters in the story. My team and I worked yet again with Mary Jane Begin—illustrator, author, and RISD professor—to explore character design from all corners of the illustration universe, including cartoons, comics, feature animation, gaming, kid's books, and advertising. We discussed body shape, posture, anatomy, facial expression, and abstract aspects like archetypes and environment to bring a character to life.

This was a great course… Show more

The heart of most narrative art lies in the characters in the story. My team and I worked yet again with Mary Jane Begin—illustrator, author, and RISD professor—to explore character design from all corners of the illustration universe, including cartoons, comics, feature animation, gaming, kid's books, and advertising. We discussed body shape, posture, anatomy, facial expression, and abstract aspects like archetypes and environment to bring a character to life.

This was a great course to produce and I learned so much while making it. Great job to all involved! Show less

Produced in partnership with frog and taught by Turi McKinley to help design thinkers lead change in their organizations. Design thinking is all about collaboration so we integrated a LinkedIn Group - a first for any lynda course. Check out - tinyurl.com/lyndaandfrog - to expand your learning and get additional insights from other members taking the course.

Produced this online figure drawing class on-location in historic Mill Studio in Providence, RI - complete with a live model, handouts, drawing exercises, and anatomy lessons, from artist and professor Amy Wynne. Learn techniques for bringing the human form to life on paper. Amy is an inspiring artist and I'm really proud of the course and thankful to my team for the collaboration on this one. Please check it out!

When the sun goes down, landscapes take on entirely new personalities. In this course, we took a nocturnal road trip with photographer Sean Duggan to illuminate the techniques involved in capturing the nighttime landscape. Filmed on location along the surreal shoreline of the Salton Sea and in the Anza-Borrego Desert, the course offers real-world examples and insights into a professional landscape photographer's thought process and composition techniques.

Producer: Brett… Show more

When the sun goes down, landscapes take on entirely new personalities. In this course, we took a nocturnal road trip with photographer Sean Duggan to illuminate the techniques involved in capturing the nighttime landscape. Filmed on location along the surreal shoreline of the Salton Sea and in the Anza-Borrego Desert, the course offers real-world examples and insights into a professional landscape photographer's thought process and composition techniques.

Producer: Brett Kirkpatrick
Director: Aron Ives
Lead Editor: Roberto Altieri
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Think you're not creative? Think again! Creativity is a skill—one you can develop with practice. And all it takes to start flexing your creative muscles is an hour of your time and our own Creativity Bootcamp. In this fun, hands-on course shot on site at lynda.com, creative director Stefan Mumaw guides you through five interactive training exercises that will help you (and a partner!) boost your creative output and produce even more innovative ideas. You'll explore some common misconceptions… Show more

Think you're not creative? Think again! Creativity is a skill—one you can develop with practice. And all it takes to start flexing your creative muscles is an hour of your time and our own Creativity Bootcamp. In this fun, hands-on course shot on site at lynda.com, creative director Stefan Mumaw guides you through five interactive training exercises that will help you (and a partner!) boost your creative output and produce even more innovative ideas. You'll explore some common misconceptions about creativity, learn the hidden value of the "stupid idea," and, through the course of the exercises, discover the three bootcamp commands for energizing your creative process.
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Improv theater was designed to help actors solve problems on stage. In this course, facilitator, coach, and former stand-up comedian Izzy Gesell demonstrates how to use the skills, practices, and mindset of improv to develop critical leadership qualities of presence, acceptance, and trust. Izzy shares some games you can play with your team members or coworkers to "practice spontaneity" and incorporate the improv mindset into your everyday life.

Designers generate ideas every day. Some are small, some are average, and then there's the select few that are truly big ideas—the type that change behaviors, shake landscapes, and spawn copycats. But what makes a big idea? Here, Stefan Mumaw reveals the seven characteristics of ideas that resonate. He'll show you what big ideas look like, using examples from real-world companies like Dove, Volkswagen, TNT, and Google, and teach you how to unlock the potential in your own ideas and connect with… Show more

Designers generate ideas every day. Some are small, some are average, and then there's the select few that are truly big ideas—the type that change behaviors, shake landscapes, and spawn copycats. But what makes a big idea? Here, Stefan Mumaw reveals the seven characteristics of ideas that resonate. He'll show you what big ideas look like, using examples from real-world companies like Dove, Volkswagen, TNT, and Google, and teach you how to unlock the potential in your own ideas and connect with your audience in a "big" way. Show less

RISD Professor and Illustrator, Mary Jane Begin, takes us through some of her analog imaging techniques in this new art series on lynda.com. Mary Jane is a great teacher and I found myself transfixed by her techniques. She has the unique ability to paint beautifully imagery while giving solid instruction. It inspired me to break out the illustration boards.

Illustrator and RISD Professor, Mary Jane Begin, charismatically explains the nature of color and how to harness it's powers. This course offers solid instruction that every media professional or artist will benefit from. I urge you to check it out! Working with such a fantastic team on set really paid off as it's as beautiful as it is educational. This course reinforced my love of color and took me right back to spending countless hours holed up in Mrs. Tella's art room in High School.

Von takes us through the essential steps of designing a logo. Spoiler alert, it's RAD! Shooting courses for the design channel always pushes my team and I to come up with some creative solutions to an array of challenges. Von makes it easy on us, though. He's comes prepared and ready to shoot. We wrapped this course early enough to squeeze in a prototype shoot for an experimental, top-secret project that we've been wanting to try for a while. While shooting this course I learned to never show a… Show more

Von takes us through the essential steps of designing a logo. Spoiler alert, it's RAD! Shooting courses for the design channel always pushes my team and I to come up with some creative solutions to an array of challenges. Von makes it easy on us, though. He's comes prepared and ready to shoot. We wrapped this course early enough to squeeze in a prototype shoot for an experimental, top-secret project that we've been wanting to try for a while. While shooting this course I learned to never show a client a mock-up of work you don't want them to choose, because they'll choose it EVERY time!

Check out the 'Welcome' movie in the Introduction chapter and 'Communicating through mood boards' video in Chapter 2 of the link above. Show less

In this course on Wacom tablets, John Derry is as entertaining as he is informative while showing the lynda community how much more they could be getting out of their tablets. While producing this course I learned how to pronounce Wacom, (Waaaaah-com) as well as how to maximize performance when using one!

Check out the first movie in Chapter 6 to get a feel for John's irreverent form of education.

Petrula Vrontikas goes over everything you've been doing wrong in your freelance design career in this course I produced on lynda.com. She shares the best way to become successful as a freelancer. Though geared towards designers, it's equally as valuable to photographers, editors and other freelance media professionals. The most valuable lesson learned: Never work for free.

Illustrative designer Von Glitschka shares his creative process in this 2 1/2 hour course I produced for lynda.com. Von was inspirational as well as instructional. I learned a lot on this shoot, but my favorite Vonism has to be: "K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid." I think of it on set when I'm considering an epic camera move and a simple shot will suffice. This was shot on a custom built set within the lynda.com studios. The team I worked with was instrumental in this courses success. Aron's… Show more

Illustrative designer Von Glitschka shares his creative process in this 2 1/2 hour course I produced for lynda.com. Von was inspirational as well as instructional. I learned a lot on this shoot, but my favorite Vonism has to be: "K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid." I think of it on set when I'm considering an epic camera move and a simple shot will suffice. This was shot on a custom built set within the lynda.com studios. The team I worked with was instrumental in this courses success. Aron's directing, Greg's lighting and Gavin's editing really made this project come alive. I'm looking forward to more courses with Von and more days on set with this team. Show less

We never stop being students. In fact, we consider R/GA to be a campus where people come to learn and share ideas, because collaboration is at the heart of all great work. We founded R/GA University to inspire creative excellence, share knowledge, and foster individual career development. No tuition required.

Ina Saltz charmingly instructs us on the principles of good typographic usage. Shot on green screen in the lynda studios in Carpinteria, CA, we created background plates to represent an "Art Gallery of Typography" using assets from the course as art on the walls.

From the author, Valerie Sutton, Director of Career Services at Harvard University: "Collaborated with a brilliant lynda.com team, including designers, production crew, and editors to create four online courses focused on the management of careers, finding jobs, acing interviews, and salary negotiations."