2020 DMDE Grad Ben Byrum lands Product Designer at AR startup
Ben Byrum, Bachelor of Science in Digital Media and Design, 2020
Students who graduated in Spring of 2020 found their final semester of college upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with an uncertain job market, a recent Digital Media Design graduate, Ben Byrum, found success despite the odds.
After graduation, Byrum moved to Santa Monica in Los Angeles, CA where he landed a job as a Product Designer currently focused on designing for AR with a social media startup, Octi. Originally from Franklin, Kentucky near the Tennessee border, Ben found himself drawn to LA. “I'm loving the weather, and I could see myself being here for a long time. I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity,” says Ben, who says he wants to be a resource for current DMD students. “I know how hard it is to make it in Design as a career, and I would gladly help any student that was in my position.”
What is AR you might ask? Augmented Reality (AR) is a digital interactive interface presented inside our real-world context. You see and communicate in the physical world with digital images and objects. It is mostly achieved by looking at a camera on your phone or by superimposing on the lens of a pair of glasses you look through. AR also needs an App to give the user a first-rate experience, so all social media apps have AR features built into them. Think those fun filters on Snapchat and Instagram.
“I know how hard it is to make it in Design as a career, and I would gladly help any student that was in my position.”