RT @bengarf: Bit old now so maybe you've seen, but Banksy is brilliant (Link)
RT @COURAGEOUSb: 'Branding is giving an idea not just to the customer but to the company itself, of who they are, a sense of themselves' ...
RT @MarkBusse: Doing design research for nutrition/fitness client looking for examples of brands with gritty/intensity + human/simplicit ...
Congrats to Porte Development for selling over 30% of the @OriginSFU units on Burnaby Mountain in the opening weekend. http://liveorigin.com
Slow motion will always be cool (love the ones using humans) (Link)
We recently launched a new brand identity and website for our client Gramercy Developments. Great job team! (Link)
Beautiful chocolate packaging (Link)
Nice to be recognized by @Icograda for the District South Main identity & campaign we designed for Amacon. (Link)
Industrial Brand is looking for the next senior member of their communication design team. (Link)
RT @interestingvan: Interesting Vancouver website is now live & tickets are now on sale. Buy yours today! http://interestingvancouver.com
Congrats to our client Porte Development for the official launch of Origin, their new project on Burnaby Mountain: http://liveorigin.com
RT @MarkBusse: @GuyKawasaki read article "Welcome to the Era of Creative Meritocracy" by Behance's Scott Belsky called (Link)
@markbusse & @bengarf talk about www.Foodists.ca w/ Randall Mark on CKNW's The World Today Weekend Sunday at 5:30 (Link)
Likemind Vancouver August event to be hosted by Kafka’s Coffee & Tea House at 2525 Main Street (at Broadway) (Link)
Great to see @ElysianCoffee (Broadway) listed on Living Social's website as the best neighbourhood coffeehouse. (Link)
Jim Rimmer died last week and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to post anything online after writing a tribute post for my recently deceased friend Leo Obstbaum. Losing people takes the wind right out of your sails. Then I found the following letter which was part of the nomination a group of us submitted for the Order of British Columbia last year. Unfortunately Jim was not selected as a recipient.
Happy New Year! The first Likemind event of 2010 is scheduled for 8am, January 15th and will be hosted by W2 Community Arts at the W2 Culture + Media House at 112 West Hastings Street (the Perel building across the street from the fancy new Woodwards building).
Coffee and treats are being provided by Salt Spring Coffee this month, so come join a group of like-minded creative professionals and start your day with some good conversation and a cup of quality, fair trade and organically grown coffee.
Remember to confirm your RSVP on the Facebook group page, invite a friend, and bring your travel mug. See you there!
PS – Can some of you remember to bring a camera and take some updated shots we can share with the nearly 70 other Likemind groups around the world?
We just received the Call For Entries for Graphex 2010—GDC’s biennial national design awards. The concept is “A Reflection Of The Best Designers In Canada”, so I photographed myself reflected in the shiny mirror postcard. Does this mean I’m now among the best designers in Canada? No, but maybe it’ll bring some luck as we get ready to submit a bunch of work from the past couple years. Fingers crossed!
I see GDC has created a public Graphex 2010 group on Flickr, so hopefully more designers across the country will post similar photos of themselves.
Being involved in the development of District was a great experience.
Working closely with our clients Amacon and Mac Marketing I truly feel that we have all contributed to the South Main district by creating not just a great building but also a brand and lifestyle and an expectation for the type of people who will soon belong to the local community.
If you are serious about your career as a designer, and want to learn from the world’s top experts while participating in an important dialogue about the nature and value of our industry, leaving you better equipped to tackle social, environmental and economic challenges, then you should attend Design Currency: Icograda Design Week in Vancouver 2010.
Continue reading "Design Week Vancouver 2010 – Registration Open!"
The Industrial Brand team circa 2009—no contractors included.
I recently spoke with a client who expressed his frustration with design firms who include associates on websites or in proposal responses without clearly expressing that they are external contractors and not employees. Does it really matter? Is it a personal choice or a question of professional ethics?
Continue reading "Freelance Contractors Or Employees? Does It Matter?"
Mark Busse gives his final speech as President of GDC/BC in January, 2009.
GDC/BC’s President, Marga Lopez, recently asked me to submit an overview of 2009 from my perspective as a GDC Executive. After a little thought, I jotted down the following, which I thought I’d share here.
Continue reading "Looking Back at 2009 as a Design Association Volunteer"
IMPORTANT UPDATE – See amendment below for some good news.
I love living in Vancouver for a myriad of reasons. The more I travel, the more I realize how good we have it here. But I have to say, as a creative professional who makes his living in the communication design field, my city’s lack of support for creative industries leaves me frustrated. I feel a personal rant coming on.
Continue reading "I Wish Vancouver DOES Supported the Design Industry"
More competition than ever. Arts funding cuts. An industry in collapse. These are the challenges Canadian musicians have faced for years. I don’t envy any young artist who decides to make a career out of music these days.
When I was a much younger man studying fine art in university, we spent a lot of time practicing how to interpret and describe artwork, its meaning and how it made us feel. Later, during my business administrations studies, writing essays, case studies and briefs emerged as a key component of a successful business professional’s toolkit. So why then is writing proficiency—even very rudimentary grammar and spelling—such a surprise to so many young design students I meet?
While visiting China recently to attend Icograda’s World Design Congress, I was honoured to be invited to lecture at four of the top universities in the country, each with respected design programs. Not surprisingly, their emphasis on art and craft is without compare, and their technical prowess is reknowned, but their design curricula seemed lacking much training in business, strategy, or communication. There was no shortage of calligraphy training—a beautiful craft I adore and wish I could do—but writing (in English certainly) was not emphasized in their programs.
