Lincoln, Neb.--When Carlos Velasco arrived in New York City as a young designer, he quickly realized there was an entire creative world he hadn’t yet encountered. Now, the School of Art, Art History & Design alumnus is bringing that world back to campus through a summer course designed to push students beyond traditional boundaries of design.
Velasco (B.F.A. 2018) will again teach “Creative Chaos,” an eight-week course that simulates the fast-paced, idea-driven environment of a New York professional agency. First launched as a five-week pilot last summer, the class returns expanded and refined, offering students a deeper dive into creative strategy, collaboration and career exploration.
At its core, Creative Chaos is less about perfecting technical skills and more about cultivating a mindset.
“This class is about thinking,” Velasco said. “It’s about how you come up with a big idea and bring it to life visually through art direction.”
Rather than following a traditional lecture format, Creative Chaos is structured to mirror the workflow of a contemporary creative agency—particularly those in New York City, where Velasco has built his career.
Students are placed in a simulated professional environment, responding to a real-world style request for proposal (RFP) from a client. In last year’s course, that client was a Google account. Over the course of the term, student teams dissect the brief, develop a campaign concept and ultimately pitch a fully realized, 360-degree creative campaign.
That process includes everything from generating a “big idea” to developing supporting tactics across platforms—social media, visual design, experiential elements and more. At the end of the course, teams present their campaigns in a competitive pitch setting, where one concept is selected as the “winning” proposal.
“It’s very much like a real agency environment,” Velasco said. “One group of creatives wins, and the other ones unfortunately don’t. That’s a competitive kind of thing.”
In addition to group work, each student also develops an individual campaign concept throughout the course, culminating in a smaller presentation deck. Weekly modules introduce specific skills—ranging from ideation and storytelling to deck building and social content creation—ensuring students leave with both conceptual and practical tools.
The inspiration for Creative Chaos is deeply rooted in Velasco’s own journey.
As a student at Nebraska, he immersed himself in a variety of creative experiences, from design courses to advertising competitions and film classes. But it wasn’t until he participated in a national Most-Promising Multicultural Student program through the American Advertising Federation—visiting agencies in New York—that he began to understand the distinction between design and art direction.
“I had built a portfolio I was really proud of,” he said. “But when I got to New York, people kept telling me, ‘You’re an art director.’ And I didn’t even fully know what that meant.”
An art director internship at FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding) helped clarify his path. On his first day, Velasco recalls being told to “make famous” work—an expectation that underscored the scale, ambition and creative risk-taking of the industry.
“I started to fall in love with that world of ideas, and I had the best mentors ever that summer that taught me so much,” he said. “It started clicking for real in me.”
After graduating, Velasco went on to work at major agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and Grey as well as roles at Edelman and Twitter. He currently serves as an associate creative director at Praytell, working on national campaigns for major brands.
Those experiences exposed him to a wide range of creative environments—from large, highly structured agencies to smaller, more agile teams—and reinforced the importance of adaptability and idea-driven thinking. Working across different types of agencies has helped shape not only his approach to creative leadership but also the lessons he brings into the classroom.
“I realized there were so many things I didn’t know when I was a student,” Velasco said. “The agency world is completely different, and the expectations are different. I wanted to give students a glimpse of that.”
Graphic design senior Tyler Hays, who took the course last summer, said the class was structured like what students would find at an agency.
“Carlos structured the class exactly how he would spend a day in one of his agency jobs in New York. It felt like we were all new interns at an agency, and that is how we were to structure our time,” he said. “I think the name of the class is appropriate for what the class kind of feels like. It is a little chaotic, but chaotic in a way that felt more like real life than any other class I have taken at UNL.”
Hays said the class was special.
“Carlos makes this class something special,” he said. “Without Carlos and his associates, this class would not be what it is. The things I created in this class under the direction of Carlos are some of the things I feel proud enough to show off in my portfolio to get a job after I am done here. I cannot thank Carlos enough for who he is and what he taught me during this class.”
Graphic design senior Megan Linguist also took the course last summer.
“The course was unlike any other I’ve taken,” she said. “It was structured with lectures and real-world scenarios, such as faux campaign projects, slide decks, handling clients, and we had amazing guest speakers.”
Graphic design senior Autumn Weaver also took the course last summer.
“I think it did a wonderful job of challenging my thinking while not making me want to smash my keyboard,” she said. “For being only five weeks, he did a great job of balancing our workload so I didn’t feel like I was drowning but was still doing enough to feel like I genuinely learned something."
Weaver said she learned new career pathways.
“I learned a lot more about how the industry works, not only from him, but from the guest speakers he brought on,” she said. “I feel like I have a much broader understanding about my options for a career outside of college now, and it doesn’t scare me as much anymore. It’s like every day I discover a new use for my degree and a new path, and this course greatly helped with that.”
The course gave her a broader experience.
“I liked that it felt like I was in an internship, like I was genuinely looking into the industry instead of just hypotheticals and distant projects for very specific scenarios,” Weaver said. “From the way the class was structured on Teams to our projects, it felt like I was getting more experience than ‘Here, put this in your portfolio.’ I kind of wish I could take it again.”
Linguist said the course expanded her view of design.
“I think the greatest thing I learned in this course was that anything is possible if the budgets are big enough,” she said. “I think I naturally put myself in a box because of resources, but after taking this course, I realized nothing’s really impossible so why not dream big.”
Linguist said the course made her think more with an art director mindset.
“I had never considered that being a real possibility, or even wanting to do anything like that, but this course changed my mindset completely,” Linguist said. “I learned that there are so many possibilities with your career and not to limit yourself to one medium but rather incorporate all of them.”
She recommends the class to other students.
“It completely changed me as a person, as a designer and as a creative,” Linguist said. “I got to do things I never thought I would do, like learning how to write copy for a short film. I’m so glad I could try it because it opened a whole new world I never thought of exploring, and I’m so fortunate that I had Carlos’ guidance. You will learn so much in this course and have so much fun doing it. Carlos is a great mentor and someone you definitely want in your corner.”
After the success of its initial run, Creative Chaos has been expanded from five weeks to eight this summer, allowing more time for skill development and exploration. One of the most significant additions is a dedicated focus on presentation design, or “deck building,” a critical skill in the creative industry.
“Whether you’re a designer, art director or copywriter, you need to know how to build a strong deck to sell your ideas,” Velasco said. “It’s a craft in itself.”
Another new component centers on social media and how that integrates into campaigns, reflecting the growing importance of digital platforms in modern campaigns. Students will experiment with translating big ideas into engaging, platform-specific content—an increasingly valuable skill set for emerging creatives.
The course also features guest speakers from across the creative spectrum, including photographers, production designers, creative directors and filmmakers. These sessions are designed to broaden students’ understanding of potential career paths and demonstrate how foundational skills in visual communication can translate across industries.
“Students often think their path is linear,” Velasco said. “But with the foundation they get at UNL, they can really go in a million different ways in their career, and it’s really exciting.”
For many students, Creative Chaos becomes more than just a class—it’s a turning point. Velasco said one of his primary goals is to help students uncover aspects of themselves they may not yet recognize.
“I hope that they see a version of themselves they haven’t seen yet,” he said. “I love to get to know students and creatives that I work with and understand what their core motivating passion is and what they really want out of the career or what they’re studying. I love to tap into that.”
That discovery can take many forms. In last year’s course, some students found clarity in their career goals, realizing they wanted to pursue art direction, motion design or other creative fields. Others uncovered entirely new interests, such as voice acting, after experimenting with storytelling and performance within their campaigns.
“It’s really amazing to see that happen in real time,” Velasco said. “Students start to unlock career paths they haven’t really necessarily thought about in the past.”
The class also emphasizes that success isn’t defined by technical polish alone. In fact, Velasco intentionally shifts the focus away from execution and toward ideation.
“The best-looking thing is not what wins at the end,” he said. “It’s about the thinking behind it.”
That philosophy makes Creative Chaos a distinctive offering within the design curriculum. Unlike traditional studio courses that prioritize craft and execution, this class invites students from all skill levels and disciplines to engage with creativity in a broader sense. Whether a student excels in illustration, writing, filmmaking or strategy, there is space to contribute and grow.
“You don’t have to be the best designer in the class,” Velasco said. “This is a class about how to think differently. You just have to be curious, open-minded and be interested in challenging your thinking.”
For Velasco, returning to Nebraska to teach the course is both a professional endeavor and a personal one.
“It’s a labor of love,” he said. “It’s not your typical course.”
GRPH 391-401 (4898) Creative Chaos: The NY Agency is offered during the first eight-week summer session and will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-8 p.m. Graphic design majors can enroll without a permission number. Non-majors should contact School of Art, Art History & Design advisor Sam Segrist at ssegrist2@unl.edu for the permission number.
