Alumni Profile: Stefanie Shank, Kansas City Art Institute

After graduating with a B.F.A. from Kansas City Art Institute, Stefanie interned at American Greetings where she illustrated and animated e-cards.

Later that year, she moved to Boulder, Col. to work for Moxie Sozo, an international advertising agency, where she built her experience designing and illustrating for packaging, web and print.

Two years later, hungry for more, Stefanie moved to New York City and got a job as an animator and designer for the Nickelodeon On-Air team. Soon, she was creating the TV interstitials and promotional packaging for the network.

In 2012, she became an Art Director and helped lead projects for the team. In 2016, she joined Nickelodeon’s newly growing social media team to ramp up their digital and social platforms.

She was quickly promoted to Senior Art Director of Nickelodeon Social, which encompasses all of the social media accounts for the network including, SpongeBob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teen Nick, Nick Rewind and Nickelodeon’s Viacom Digital Studios.

Stefanie credits KCAI with teaching her that the marriage of concept and design are key. Her work within the Illustration department taught her the value of clarity and storytelling through a single image, which has helped her thrive in an ever-evolving social media industry.

“Working at Nickelodeon was a longtime dream,” Stefanie says. “I love working here as you have new and unexpected challenges every day and you get to work on playful and creative projects with an inspiring team who are all Nick kids at heart.”

In her role at Nickelodeon, Stefanie uses a wide range of skills that were developed during her time at KCAI. Her projects range from graphic design, film, photography, animation, stop-motion and sometimes making slime.