Industrial Brand is looking for the next member of their communication design team. If you think that’s you, visit this job posting on GDC.net and convince us you’re the right choice.

Before you send us that cover letter and resume PDF you have at the ready, please note the requirements and instructions in the job postings. You might also want to read this first and take it to heart.

The next Likemind Vancouver event will be held at 8am on Friday, August 20th and hosted by Kafka’s Coffee & Tea House at 2525 Main Street (at Broadway) (Click here for directions).

Free coffee and snacks will be generously provided to those who come early, so come join a group of like-minded creative professionals and start your day with some good conversation over a cup of good coffee.

Remember to confirm your RSVP on the Facebook group page so we can estimate how many people are coming (sometimes well over 60 attendees). If you don’t use Facebook, you can join our LinkedIn Group, or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on upcoming events.

Invite a friend, and bring your travel mug. See you there!

PS – If you bring your camera along, please upload your shots and share them with the 70 other Likemind groups in cities around the world!

The journals have countless pages of inspirations and ideas in them. My favorite part of this whole project is that the pages are created by ordinary people, not artist or designers. Allowing new ideas and unique and unusual concepts to emerge. It is simply brilliant.

There are still 1,000 journals circulating around the world… who knows, you could find one.

Check out 1000journals.com or buy the book with Amazon

Last year our brand identity project for Yaaway was featured in BIV’s special AdPages issue in an article called Logos Stick written by Jill Lambert. This year we are proud to have some of our work and opinions featured by BIV again, this time in an article in the AdPages 2010 20th anniversary edition called What Meets the Eye.

Written by Noa Blouberman, the article is a look at some of the key aspects behind effective visual design solutions with some tips for business, and features a recent ad campaign we created for Bikram’s Metrotown Yoga as well as the identity and campaign we developed for Amacon’s District real estate development project on South Main.

Click here for a PDF of the article in question without downloading the entire e-book or 10MB PDF.

Matt recently wrote a great article about why he was excited about the upcoming Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 conference.

This week Icograda released this animated promo video about the theme of Design Currency created by Rethink, Giant Ant Media, Todd Smith Design and Wave Productions—all studios in Vancouver, BC.

The coolest thing for me is that the video is old school flipbook animation, not computer trickery. The production team literally printed and photographed 2,180 custom bills to create the effect. Here are some behind the scenes photos showing how they did it.

Pretty cool work guys—well done!

After a lengthy search resulting in dozens of portfolio reviews and interviews, Industrial Brand is proud to announce the newest member of its growing communication design team.

Joanna Ambrosio was born in Mexico City and raised in Guadalajara and graduated with honours from the ITESO before finishing her Masters of Design in Vancouver at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where she was chosen as class valedictorian. As Industrial Brand’s newest Communication Designer, Joanna brings over six years of international experience working as a Communication Designer in Canada, Indonesia and Mexico.

Joanna’s passion as a designer is exploring the different possibilities that hybrid design brings to a stream of creative discipline, and how this diversity can be used as a tool to expand the relationship between space, culture and creativity.

A co-founder of the creative collective Gámomo Creative Lab, where she served as Head Designer overseeing the publishing of Mátika Magazine for the past six years, Joanna’ strong background in identity and print design is complimented by her abilities in strategy development, design research, web interface design, and environmental installations.

Joanna loves working with people from around the world and different perspectives on collaborative projects, and is committed to a life-long learning experience both in and outside the job. Like most Mexicans, she’s crazy about good food, so she’ll fit in easily at Industrial Brand.

Welcome Joanna! We’re looking forward to seeing your work and your contributions to this blog!

“We need a Facebook page and a Twitter account, right?” ask many of our clients these days. Much like clients who want news sections or blogs as part of their websites, our answer is always “It really depends.”

If social media channels are where a majority of your audience is spending their time, then yes, you should probably consider making it part of your marketing and communications plan. But if you don’t formulate a strategy and stick to it, you could make a mess and even undermine your brand in the minds of that same audience.

Many of our clients have jumped into the “Twittersphere“, convinced there is benefit in engaging an audience using this new form of communication through micro-blogging. However, some take on this activity without the aid of a formal strategy to guide them and as a result get caught up in tweeting often instead of tweeting well, risking turning off the new audience they’ve attracted.

One of our clients recently engaged the services of two PR & communications professionals and challenged them to build their brand presence online using Twitter. They came out of the gate strong, using some clever posts to get the attention of dozens, then hundreds, of followers. But as they got more comfortable with this new voice, and others in the group joined in the publishing of tweets, they began to post too frequently (and at the wrong times) and the content of their posts were increasingly less relevant to their business and its audience.

Our advice? Focus. It was time to re-examine the strategic plan outlining why they were using social media in the first place. A social media plan is terribly important if you want a tool like Twitter to work for you.

One of the fundamental issues behind a decision to engage in social media with business has to be the goals and objectives. As with any marketing initiative, it is imperative to consider who your target audience is, how they are using social media and most importantly the core message you want to share with your audience. Lastly, some thought toward how success in this new realm will be measured is highly recommended to avoid endlessly investing time with no notion of what positive impact the effort is having

Our client stated that they were expanding their tweets beyond their niche focus to integrate others’ posts (retweets) and local events to establish community relations. This might be a smart strategy if used wisely, but could undermine the whole effort if it resulted in a drift away from the core message and numerous tweets which ultimately serve to annoy their audience.

As much as social media can be a fabulous way to create large ’social’ networks, when used in the service of business, it works best when focused on expressing or reinforcing that ONE THING that a business does best.

For example, a restaurant may choose to use Twitter to foster a genuine relationship with an online community–especially if there is something unique about the restaurant that people may not know about from existing channels. This audience might be grateful to read posts about location openings, new dishes, special offers, contents, events, even customer polls, but that same audience might not appreciate being inundated by frequent, irrelevant or even confusing tweets.

Many social media experts will argue that using Twitter is about creating a conversation, which we agree with, and having a human tone and friendly interactions can be a good way to engage a community in a dialogue, but one should remember that this is still a business/consumer relationship. A corporate Twitter account isn’t probably the best place for chit chat with strangers, clogging others’ Twitter stream.

It’s a good idea to remember that you’re not buddies, and keep casual conversations to a minimum—just enough ton invite or welcome new members to your tribe. If tweets are meaningless gibberish without clicking on “In Reply To…”, or merely retweets of some local Twitterstar with little relevance to your core message, then you are risking annoying your audience and might suffer the dreaded “unfollow”.

Our experience has shown that personalized, original content wins over repurposed content every time, so when tempted to reply, quote or retweet anything, our advice is to pause to recall your strategy, asking yourself “Is this the right tone or relate to our core message?” or “Will our audience understand or even care about this?”

Another risk when tweeting for business is too frequent of posts, which is a common reason for users to unfollow an account. If you have a lot to say, stop to ask yourself “Have I tweeted too much today?” or “Should I schedule this for later?” knowing that there are spikes in Twitter activity in late morning with the peak actually between 3–4pm. Avoid posting a flurry of tweets in a row if you can help it.

Using the restaurant example, perhaps tweets about offers or specials could be scheduled for late afternoon or early evening, resulting in the highest revenue return as people consider where to dine that night.

One company who we think does a tremendous job of using social media to build their business is Rouxbe.com, a Vancouver-based online cooking school and recipe website. They know exactly who their audience is and what they are interested in, and they never stray from their core message.

They tweet original and relevant content just frequently enough to stay top of mind and at strategic times during the day. They also use a variety of online media tools such as Netvibes to track mentions of key words and phrases that appear in the Twittersphere so they can respond to them strategically. They’re cunning in fact.

When someone posts a tweet that says something like “I wish I new how to cook”, they engage them by following them, followed up with a short greeting along with appropriate links to pages on their online cooking school. If someone posts something specific, like “I’d love to learn how to make pad thai,” they respond with a direct link to that recipe with video instructions.

“We hope to do more on the social media side, and for me it’s all about providing a service to others—even if this just means reading, comment or contributing to others.” says Rouxbe founder Joe Girad. “What we try NOT to focus on is “pitching” Rouxbe too often.” This strategy is results in a quick, inoffensive and effective way of engaging people, and their social media efforts have not only helped create a large community, but more importantly a highly focused one that actually spends money on the  company’s website!

Going back to the restaurant example, perhaps the chef decides to do create a special dish? This is a terrific example of what to feature on their Twitter channel! Heck, they could even link to info on the qualities and characteristics of the ingredients and done well, this will compel people to engage in conversation, others to come to the restaurant to try it out.

Of course a restaurant doesn’t want to sound desperate, but some have even started using Twitter to offer special discounts to users and post information on waiting time for tables. Useful and relevant to that audience, making them feel like they have a genuine relationship with the business—like they are part of their tribe.

There are a couple key things to keep in mind when using Twitter. Twitter is just a tool—in fact, it’s a very easy thing to learn how to use—but it takes training and practice to become an effective Twitter user. Also, there is a huge difference between people AT a company and the way they tweet versus the way the company itself tweets to its audience. Forget that and things can backfire quickly.

To summarize, using Twitter can be a powerful business tool used to attract a broader audience when used cleverly as part of a social media strategy, but it can also be a risky proposition if not done well.  When focused and on message, Twitter can help build a business and increase the value of its brand, but used haphazardly and in an unfocused manner, a business runs the risk of annoying and even alienating consumers, causing potentially irreparable damage to the relationship. The key to success is a well-considered strategy resulting in a set of rules understood by all participating in social media outreach.

Now consider all the other social media tools you can use, such as Blogs (yours and others), Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, Tumblr, Foursquare, Gowalla…the list goes on. The  reality is that unless you employ a dedicated, full-time  marketing person to create and maintain a comprehensive program, you’ll not likely want (or need) to engage in all of these channels—but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go secure accounts in all of them before someone else does!

Our very own Matt SamyciaWood was featured in a recent issue of Business in Vancouver with his article A Home Business is Still a Business. Addressing some of the more common mistakes with branding a business, Matt shares insights into how those very same lessons can guide a home-based business to consistent messaging and success.

The Olympic Games would not exist without sponsors, that’s a fact. They bring the millions, they make it happen. But since early January, Burrard Skytrain station has turned into a giant ad for McDonalds and I hate it. Really, it is everywhere: platforms, corridors, walls, floors… It is so tacky and I don’t like being brainwashed! I guess I could stop at Granville station for a change, but there it’s all about Coke…

I believe there is always room for every person to grow, personally and professionally. But as an Art Director (and father of a two year old) my ‘spare’ time for a conference is very limited. I have been in this industry for 15 years and without sounding arrogant, I know a lot about this industry. If I am going to take five days to attend a conference it better be something significant that will make a positive difference for my career. I also want to see speakers who are funny, intelligent and poignant. I have no interest seeing presentations that are nothing more than monotone portfolio overviews with little or no relevance to the conference theme.

So, why should I get excited about Icograda’s Design Week Vancouver being hosted by GDC in April of this year?

Well, there is the fact that it is hosted in the convention centre in my beautiful hometown of Vancouver. An international conference on my doorstep of this calibre (which would normally involve air-flight and hotels adding extra expense) is a wonderful opportunity, I would be a fool not to attend for this reason alone.

I enjoyed watching this presentation recently given by GDC President, Rod Roodenburg, where he said “we don’t have the answers but we have ideas, and so do you. Lets create the value of design together”. That one statement alone inspires me to want to attend this conference. Going to a conference to truly participate and contribute on a global level sounds refreshing.

I am hooked by the theme ‘Design Currency: Defining the Value of Design’. Working in a service-based industry we often bump up against the value of design. How do you put a dollar value to a service for a client? What impact will the completed design work have on your clients business? What parameters does the client use to judge that impact and how does that translate into value for them or their clientele? Also, in a world where you can buy a logo for next to nothing on certain ‘generic logo’ sites, or use a myriad of crowd sourcing sites, how do we educate a client on the value of strategic design and the process behind it?

The conference is an international event organized by Icograda (International Council of Graphic Design Associations), the world body for professional communication design. The conference will host speakers who are all world-class design experts from countries around the globe (Canada, US, France, Denmark, Hong Kong, and India to mention just a few).

I believe many creative designers are multi-disciplined in their thinking but lack the skills to implement these ideas. Personally I am a wanna be architect, interior designer and car designer but unfortunately my buildings would probably collapse and my cars would never start. That being said, I am excited that the speakers at the conference will be from varying disciplines of design with experts from the fields of architecture, industrial design, branding, strategy, and interactive design.

At the same time as the conference there will also be a trade fair where you will get to meet lots of industry suppliers and network with top management from leading design agencies, design media, design students and design educators. Additionally, there will be lots of wonderful printed samples for our greedy design fingers to flip through, admire, critique (“I can’t believe they used that typeface” or “look at that leading”), and to smell the wonders of printed ink (slight personal obsession).

On the Friday the day will be divided into workshops and an education symposium. Thursday night the conference will host the Graphex 2010 awards gala, celebrating and acknowledging the best of Canadian design over the past two years. I attended the 2008 awards gala and was impressed by the whole night (the MC Ze Frank was a hoot, this year it is Debbie Millman). It was an opportunity to connect with my design colleagues and meet admired designers from studios across Canada. Did I mention the cocktail reception and three course plated dinner?

The world has many currencies but the GDC and Icograda felt there was one missing—a ‘design currency’. One that could transcend different economies but could still represent monetary value on a balance sheet. Hence the ‘Design Dollar’ icon used as the conference logo mark. I am intrigued by the logo for the conference. There is a logo for the conference, how cool is that? It has me instantly ask questions. What is this currency? Where is it used? How is it used? What is the value? What is the Canadian Dollar and Design Dollar exchange rate? It acts as a vehicle to start asking questions drawing you in and enrolling you into the topic of the conference. Rather than the conference title set in just Helvetica (as many conference often do), strategy and thought have been put into not just the logo but into other promotional materials and brand elements. I am excited to see the full extent of which this graphic theme will be incorporated throughout the conference and trade fair. I have seen people at local design events recently wearing Design Currency promotional t-shirts that states ‘This shirt is worth 150 Design Dollars’. Inviting people to engage in dialogue about the value of design, actively promoting the conference but more so the topic of the conference. It is truly a great PR campaign.

One of the conference events that I am most keen to attend is the ‘Dinner With a Side of Design”, April 25, 26 & 28. A long table series at Irish Heather (great beer and food) combining local leaders and designers in collaborative conversations focused around the complex themes of sustainability, culture and economics. i have never heard of such an opportunity where my thoughts and ideas would have an actual impact on our city.

I’ve heard that speakers have been encouraged to avoid portfolio presentations in favour of theme-focussed dialogue and that there will be panel discussions and break-out groups. Collectively (speakers and the attendees) will come to conclusions together to include the following: What is the true value of design? How can graphic designers contribute to positive change in the world? What is the impact and value that your design has on the bottom line socially, environmentally, economically and culturally?

By attending this conference I believe the global perspectives learned, relationships made, practical lessons learned will benefit my career (and yours) not only for the next short while but continuously long term.

I encourage you to join me and register online by visiting the design week website www.designweekvancouver.ca.