A Field Trip to Key Publishing Group

As much as we love the quiet beauty and serene surrounding forests that drew us to Portland, where we could live and offer a learning environment in a peaceful and safe setting, we weren’t missing the fact that it was still important to bring the industry of Hollywood to The Art of Makeup School.  One of the ways our students are able to attend a school in Portland while still making important Hollywood industry relationships and learning Hollywood trade secrets is through our internationally known guest artists, and through field trips other far away schools in other cities would envy.

Our most recent field trip, and a regular field trip to boot, was to Key Publishing Group, THEE headquarters of The International Makeup Artist Tradeshow, otherwise known as IMATS, and Make-Up Artist Magazine. This is also the office of Emmy Award Winning Makeup Artist and Key Publishing Group owner and C.E.O., Michael Key. Because Key Publishing Group is located in Vancouver, WA, The Art of Makeup School has a real location advantage in Portland which is only a stone’s throw away from Vancouver and a close field trip.

Last week we took our class of 12 Multimedia Master Makeup Artists and Character & Special FX Makeup Program students over to KPG to meet Michael Key where they could ask questions of the Hollywood veteran that I’m pretty sure has the most relationships with the most successful and academy award winning makeup artists in the entire world, while also boasting the most current information about the industry. Who else would be a better person to find out about the industry than the man in the center of it all! Mr. Key also showed students how they make the lay out of the magazine with a sneak peek of the upcoming issue which includes interviews and the insider makeup secrets to recent major block buster films! 

Students also got to see close up his personal collection of prosthetics from movies he worked on including The Grinch Who Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey, and The Coneheads starring many of the original cast from Saturday Night Live.

I was excited to bump into 2 Art of Makeup School graduates, Shannon Vincent and Brooke Burgess who are now working full time at Key Publishing Group, one of them who runs the merchandise for every IMATS show around the world! Many other students have gotten to work at IMATS too because of our relationship with Michael and our alumni now working for him.

Michael ended our trip by personally handing Make-Up Artist Magazine Pro Cards to each student, which will get them VIP pro status into IMATS with an entry discount, and discounts and special gifts from vendors, membership eligibility, and discounts from the book store.

If you haven’t subscribed to Make-Up Artist Magazine or attended IMATS, I highly recommend it, especially if you are a lover of makeup, films, or are a working or up and coming make-up artist. I will be attending the next IMATS this January 2019 in Los Angeles.

Find out more about IMATS here .

Apply for a subscription to Make-Up Artist Magazine here: https://makeupmag.com/