Alumni Profile: Jon DiVenti, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design

“My education at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design was a whirlwind of creative and technical growth, each course playing an integral part. The head of the department’s passion for illustration was contagious and was instrumental in my development as an artist. My education taught me to appreciate the heritage of American illustration and the defining principles of visual storytelling. It helped me to uncover and develop my own strengths and to improve my areas of weakness. As an educator, I only hope to have the same impact on my students.”

Jon DiVenti, PCA&D Alumni class of 1998, returned to Pennsylvania to teach Digital Media at his alma mater in 2016. Now, as Department Chair of Digital Media at PCA&D, he is thrilled to be a part of this innovative program where he provides curriculum leadership, career guidance and the benefit of his professional experience to PCA&D students. Before beginning his teaching career at Ringling College of Art and Design in 2007, Jon worked as a freelance illustrator and as a character artist at Animated Storyboards in New York City, creating animatics for TV commercials.

Jon leads his Digital Media students through introductory and advanced studies in this integrative and technology-driven field. Through lectures, demonstrations and studio work, students gain mastery in the principles of visual development, 3-D modeling, story development, digital animation, digital audio production, time-based media, and other production skills. Focused on career-oriented projects and developing professional skill sets, the Digital Media program prepares students to meet the demands of a diverse and expanding job market in the most pervasive and popular modes of connection, influence and communication in today’s world. Digital media, the world of content transmitted over internet or computer networks.

Following his professional career and his faculty experience, first at Ringling and now at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Jon finds he’s energized by his work with these gifted students and notes that many of his former students are employed in some of the animation and gaming industry’s top studios that include Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Blue Sky Studios and Blizzard Entertainment. And, of course, Jon continues to work as a freelancer in character design, illustration and art direction. Most recently, Jon has provided visual development work for CBN’s animated series, Superbook, and he is currently developing a children’s book idea (or two) which he hopes to pitch to publishers in the near future.

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