Opinions
One great thing about what we do as brand and interactive designers is the variety of clients and projects we get to work on, each very different needs, goals, and audiences. One day it’s a brand and collateral aimed at investors or a website for a Japanese bistro, the next it’s a complicated website for a large engineering firm. Enter Chatwin Engineering.
With over 25 years as a leading engineering and planning firm in BC, Chatwin hired Industrial Brand to completely revamp its online presence to more accurately reflect who they are as a company. Their old website had become dated, cluttered, and ineffective. The outdated technology was cumbersome and the content wan’t easily updatable. It was time for a fresh start.
Continue reading "Chatwin Engineering Website Launches"
Posted by Mark Busse
After an absence in last year’s competition, Industrial Brand teamed with Best Buy Canada Ltd. for Canstruction 09. After months of designing, planning and visiting to grocery stores, the design was finally executed over the two day build on April 25th and 26th. Based on this year’s theme: “From Caveman to Spaceman: Throughout History”, we decided to build a honeybee because of it’s importance to man and role in food chain. Integral to the world’s food production through pollination, honeybees have made their way into the news due to their recent decline in population. With this in mind we concluded that the honeybee best represented the event’s theme while communicating the message of hunger as a global problem.
Continue reading "From Caveman to Spaceman: Canstruction 2009"
Posted by Alex Leynes
We really enjoy working with architects. The simple fact that we speak the same language of design and work in the creative field, often immersed in a similar processes makes it all the more appealing. Last year we were fortunate to be asked by Vancouver-based Henriquez Partners Architects to recreate their online presence. Their goal was to showcase their studio, some of their recent projects, and the ideas behind them via a clean, modern web interface.
Continue reading "Henriquez Partners Architects Blog and Website Launched"
Posted by Mark Busse
Personal Branding is not a new concept (see Tom Peters’ great primer called The Brand Called You). As personal identities move online, managing them becomes increasingly important. As online personal identities evolve they leave a trail called a Digital Shadow. Want to know what your Digital Shadow is? Google yourself. And you can be sure others are Googling you. Prospective employers, prospective employees and even first dates! With that in mind here are a few relatively simple lessons to managing your Digital Shadow.
Continue reading "Managing Your Digital Shadow"
Posted by Steve Mynett
Choosing the right partner to expand your design business can be just the thing you need to survive and grow, especially in these uncertain economic times.
Recently we published a short article about partnerships which was well received, leading our friends at FunctionFox to asked us to create a more comprehensive presentation called Partnership: Choosing the right person to expand your design business with and host one of their popular webinars on February 12th, 2009 at 11am PST. We’ll try to jam all our thoughts into a concise 30 minute presentation followed by a 15 minute Q&A session. You can view our webinar online at FunctionFox’s website, and below is the text version of our presentation:
Continue reading "Industrial Brand Hosting FunctionFox Webinar on Choosing the Right Partner"
Posted by Mark Busse
Mark Busse, GDC/BC President 2007/08
I made a deal with myself, my wife and my business partner when I accepted the nomination for Presidency of GDC/BC back in 2006, promising that I would work hard for one term and hand the reigns to a qualified successor.
Well, here we are at the end of my two years and it’s time to reflect on what we accomplished together. And I say “together” because without the committed group of talented individuals I’ve had the fortune to serve with, none of it would have been possible.
Continue reading "Final Message From Mark Busse, GDC/BC President 2007/08"
Posted by Mark Busse
Mark dropped something on my desk and asked me to answer five questions about my job for a friend of his who was doing a grant application. I find I rarely stop to articulate why I like what I do, and questions like this make me slow down, step back and figure it out. I’m not sure if this will be any help for the person who needs this, but had fun filling it out:
Continue reading "Why I do what I do?"
Posted by Steve Mynett
I was recently asked to submit an article about partnerships for the Small Business section of Business in Vancouver (BIV) magazine. The article, called Is a partnership the right choice for your business to weather these stormy times?, found in the Small Business section of this month’s issue is reprinted below:
As the economy sags many business owners are starting to think pretty radically about what they can do to preserve and prosper. Some will look for ways to reduce spending or downsize. Others might consider merging with a competitor. And still some wonder about taking on a partner to share the burden. But is a partner the right choice for you? This choice comes at the cost of giving up ownership of the company you worked so hard to build, so be very careful, do your homework and protect yourself.
Continue reading "Partner for good times and bad"
Posted by Mark Busse
Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World
The follow review by Mark Busse was originally published on TAXI Design Network:
David B. Berman has been demonstrating inspired design leadership for nearly three decades and this book is no exception. After decades of volunteer work as an international ambassador for the communication design industry, Berman’s book Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World is another fine example of his tendency toward helping others—and not just graphic designers, but all of us.
The book presents a well-researched and clearly articulated argument that design matters—more now than ever before—and like the First Things First manifesto referenced in Erik Spiekermann’s foreword, Do Good Design serves as a call to action to designers everywhere to stand up, take our seat at the boardroom table and start changing the way the world looks at design.
Continue reading "David Berman’s New Book Do Good Design"
Posted by Mark Busse
As President of the BC chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), I recently wrote an article on behalf of GDC called How to Use Communication Design to Weather a Recession for Business in Vancouver (BIV) Magazine. The article, which can be found in the special How To Book coming out early 2009, is reproduced below:
Continue reading "How Design Can Help You Survive a Recession"
Posted by Mark Busse
If you are a business owner working on the development and growth of your own company it can be a challenge no matter what industry you are in. This can range from generating more sales, creating or finessing your marketing plan, sourcing manufacturing or creating a new brand for your business. It is your business, your baby, you want to make the right decision and you often question what the right decision or direction is. And, at the end of the day, it’s your bottom line that is affected so you’ll want to make a good decision.
So when Industrial Brand Creative choose to re-brand we knew it was going to be an interesting journey.
Continue reading "Branding a branding company"
Posted by Matt SamyciaWood
I was recently honoured to be invited to sit on an expert panel at a CAPIC event for their Portfolio Series called Your Body of Work: Launching a Creative Vision for your Photography. The event was about how image makers such as photographers and illustrators can best promote themselves using portfolios, websites and marketing initiatives.
The panel was made up of me, Anya Lewise and Cathy Mullaly from Canada Wide, John Edmonds from Grey Vancouver, Tim Hoffpauir from DDB and Chris Peacock from Cossette—all experienced in choosing and working with photographers. We were all asked to consider some key questions which we then later discussed in an open forum, sort of townhall meeting style. The questions plus my notes and thoughts are reproduced here now:
Continue reading "CAPIC: How to sell your work as a Photographer"
Posted by Mark Busse
When you know the germs are out to get you, inspired product and packaging design can make feverish hand-washing a joy.
I’ll admit it: I’m a germaphobe.
I squirm when in the presence of germs and even talking about bacteria can cause a spat of feverish hand washing. So, you can imagine my love/hate relationship with soap. I have a hard enough time touching faucets or door handles in public restrooms, so slimy soap dishes and stained, gooey pump dispensers are so…<insert heebie jeebie shiver here>… disgusting.
Enter Method Home to save me from this plight.
I was in love the first moment I saw the bowling-pin shaped soap bottle Method design with the help of Karim Rashid. The bold shape and color made the product stand out in a category plagued by sameness, but it was more fun and easier to use with its bottom dispensing system. Later I discovered their refillable foaming hand wash dispensers with their clear, smooth, subtly curved conical shape. I was inspired and since then they’ve been my constant companions, sitting next to my sinks and home and at work.
Continue reading "Method Home: Design for Germaphobes"
Posted by Mark Busse
