April 24, 2007
AmoebaCorp shares advice on how to stay inspired
TORONTO—Regardless of whether you share Mike Kelar’s attraction to birch trees and bad hair cuts, he and fellow Amoeba Mikey Richardson had some good advice for fellow designers at FITC Design & Technology Festival, which wraps up today.

Their Sunday seminar shared ways in which designers can stay motivated and generate ideas. One way is to collect things, they suggested. The Mike’s collect everything from old Sears catalogues and car doors to medical equipment and stuff squirrels. “It’s amazing what makes its way into our design,” says Richardson.    

They also enjoy collecting vinyl records, a great source of design inspiration. They also encouraged the audience to create a library. “It’s tempting to go to the design section of the book store,” said Kelar, “but that’s probably the last place you want to be.” They suggested reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink on intuition, which ties into another way to get creative—looking inside yourself and using your gut.

Other creative exercises include travelling; taking long walks and bathroom breaks; people watching; using your hands; experimenting; and getting bad hair cuts. “A bad cut makes you humble,” said Kelar. Contact: www.amoebacorp.com

Type doc's Canadian premiere screens to sold-out audience
TORONTO—More than a hundred designers, design enthusiasts and font fans lined up outside the Royal Cinema on Saturday night for a chance to see the Canadian premiere of Helvetica. Only fifty of those people waiting in the rush line were lucky enough to get into the sold out show at Hot Docs, Toronto’s annual Canadian International Documentary Festival, on until Sunday.

“I think it is criminal that there has never been a documentary on design and type before [now],” said Helvetica director Gary Hustwit, who was on hand to introduce the film and answer questions after the screening. When asked how he was able to find so many examples of Helvetica, he explained that “it was never a question of finding it. It was a question of finding it in a cool context.” He said you can go to any major street corner in any major city in the world and find dozens of examples of the font. “We have hours and hours of Helvetica…I’m sick of looking at [it].” 

Helvetica is screening in Montreal at the Logo Cities Symposium, May 4 to 5 at Concordia University. It will also be showing in Vancouver and Calgary, details are yet to be announced. Calgary-based design agency and type foundry Veer helped finance the film. Contact: www.helveticafilm.com

April 18, 2007
Alcuin Society honours best-designed books of 2006
VANCOUVER—The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 25th annual awards for excellence in Canadian book design. Thirty-four winning titles were selected from 252 entries; 96 publishers from nine provinces participated.

L'Appareil wins bronze at international book design competition

There are seven first-prize winners in eight categories. They include Robin Mitchell for the design of children’s book When You Were Small; Jim Roberts and Robert Majzels, designers of the limited edition Apikoros Sleuth; George Vaitkunas for pictorial book B.C. Binning; Jessica Sullivan, designer of prose fiction winner A Good Death; Andrew Steeves and Robert Bringhurst for their design of prose non-fiction title The Tree of Meaning; and Peter Cocking and Naomi MacDougall, who were awarded first prize for their designs of prose non-fiction illustrated entry Saltwater City and the reference title Vij’s: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine. 

The books will be exhibited across Canada and internationally at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs in 2008.

Four winning titles from Alcuin’s 2006 contest were shortlisted at this year’s Leipzig competition, Best Book Design From All Over the World, in February. Designers Jessica Sullivan, Apollonia Elsted and Crispin Elsted were honoured, as well as Anouk Pennel and Raphael Deaudelin of Feed who took home a bronze medal for their design of L’Appareil. Contact: www.alcuinsociety.com

A new muse on graphic design
CALGARY—Local design studio Elbowroom Design has launched a new design blog, Elbowruminations. “We’re using our site as a means of educating non-designers, business people and designers alike about the need for creativity in business, with a focus on the local and Canadian industry,” Elbowroom’s Kevan Gilbert tells Design Edge Canada.

A recent feature analyzes a new 2007 Calgary Stampede promotional poster, which features work by local artist Paul Van Ginkel. Contact: www.elbowroomdesign.com/musings

April 11, 2007
A modern new look for a 163-year-old newspaper
TORONTO—Not since it added colour to its news and features page in 1998 has The Globe and Mail made major changes to its look. In what publisher Phillip Crawley is calling a full-blown redesign, Canada’s oldest national broadsheet is getting a make-over.

“The paper has changed a lot in the past 10 years and this change that we’re going to make in (mid-)April is a full-blown redesign – a new typeface, new body text, and a new style of presentation. It’s going to look like the Globe, but a significant evolution from where it has been,” Crawley told Media in Canada.

Although Globeandmail.com just received a major update last year by in-house designer Adrian Norris, there will be more changes unveiled online later this month.

According to the Media in Canada, this rebranding will be seen across all of the Globe’s print and online properties. Approximately 20 new journalists, photographers, and graphic and web designers have been brought aboard to help execute the redesign. Contact: www.theglobeandmail.com

April 9, 2007
Young Canadian illustrators are making headlines
TORONTO—Sheridan College’s illustration class of 2007 is exhibiting its work at the Steam Whistle Brewery from April 26 to 28.

The exhibit, entitled HEADlines, is a collection of “witty and provocative” illustrations that probes today’s front-page news, targeting everyone and everything from Paris Hilton to the healing power of pomegranates. Contact: www.sheridaninstitute.ca

April 4, 2007
The best of the best in magazine ad creative
TORONTO—The Canadian magazine industry association, Magazines Canada, has launched an online exhibit of award-winning magazine advertising creative from around the world.

Of the 172 creative concepts are winning entries from the Cannes Lions Festival, Folio, Epica, Kelly, and D Global awards, as well as Canada’s own Marketing, Créa, and Grand Prix awards.

Viewers of the physical exhibit, Best on Page, voted on their favourites. The top winner was an ad from Y&R Buenos Aries in Argentina for Bayer, the analgesic for children’s headaches.

Following behind, in second place, was an ad for Legends condoms by Clemenger BBDO Sydney in Australia and third place, a tie, went to 42Below Vodka from Saatchi in the U.S. and Sara Lee Branded Apparel by Ogilvy Frankfurt. To see the entire exhibit, click here.

Test your magazine ads
TORONTO—Also from Magazines Canada, in conjunction with Starch Research of Toronto, is a new magazine creative testing program for advertisers and their agencies to measure magazine advertising communication performance.

magWorks is designed to help advertisers assess overall ad impact and communication value of its print ads by using online survey methology that can quickly offer critical feedback for testing advertisements.

”magWorks is about helping magazine advertisers succeed,” says Gary Garland, Magazines Canada’s executive director of advertising services. “We want to help advertisers wring every last percentage of performance from every ad so that they achieve maximum results from their magazine buy.”

“magWorks helps to strengthen that all-important connection between advertiser and consumer,” adds Brian Hickey, president of Starch Research. Contact: www.magworks.ca

April 2, 2007
Overdue for a new look, North Vancouver library updates
VANCOUVER—To coincide with the opening of its new Lynn Valley main branch building, the North Vancouver District Public Library identity has been redesigned.

Matt Warburton of Emdoubleyu Design in Vancouver created the new circular logo with its three book-shaped panels. In addition to books, the panels can also represent a line of monitors, CDs or video tapes, which are also available at the library.

Matt Warburton designs new look for library

The typeface is Chevin, a modern sans serif with rounded corners and endpoints designed by U.K.-based typographer Nick Cooke. According to Warburton, this font was chosen for its warm friendly appearance, and for its wide range of weights that will work in a variety of mediums and sizes, from library cards to directional signage.

The colour blue links the library to the North Vancouver District, which uses blue in all of its branding and communications. The lighter blue, says Warburton, has a brighter, more upbeat personality and will be complemented with an equally inviting colour palette on its website and branch signage. Contact: www.emdoubleyu.com