February 27, 2008
Graphic designer loses everything in Queen Street fire
TORONTO—One week after flames engulfed her third floor apartment, Jayme Spinks is slowly coming to terms with the fire that ravaged a stretch of Queen Street and made a smoldering ruin of her professional portfolio.

“I think every day that passes it sinks in a little more,” says the 24-year-old graphic designer and visual artist. “But I still can’t fully comprehend what happened.”

At one point, she remembers thinking the fire wouldn’t reach her apartment, which reportedly began just after 5 a.m. at 615 Queen St. W. on Feb. 20. But watching alongside other residents as her building’s roof was set ablaze, it dawned on her what was about to happen. 

“I kind of just stared at it,” she says. “All of my stuff. I was on the third floor and the roof was on fire and it doesn’t take a lot to figure out what’s going on.”

Packed into her apartment were suitcases chocked full of retro gear. Lost amid the flames was a collection of Super 8 film, various cameras, projectors and old audio equipment, the sort of visual inspiration Spinks says can never be replaced.

“I’m a collector,” she says. “It’s unbelievable the stuff that I lost...”

Unbeknownst to her, a friend recently launched a Facebook group urging people to donate what source material they could – especially design books.

“It broke my heart when I found out [she] had started that group,” Spinks says. “In such a crappy situation you can’t ask for more.”

The site is also appealing to those who may have copies of Spinks’ work, which she would often take to interviews because of its tactile appeal.

“I like people to hold the work and I put a lot of focus on that when I’m designing,” she explains. “I did a lot of handcrafted stuff. I mean everything’s gone but that’s a hard one, because I’m not going to remake it.”

Spinks remains unsure whether or not she’ll re-settle in Toronto, although she intends to use her ordeal as a creative impetus.

“That’s definitely something that’s a top priority,” she says. “I just have to get my mind around things a little more, then things will start to settle down I think.” Contact: www.mynameisjayme.com

February 26, 2008
New Ivy League design conference
PRINCETON, N.J.—It would appear that graphic design has at long last assailed the ivory tower. On Mar. 1, Princeton University’s Student Design Agency (SDA) will host UDesign, the school’s freshly minted conference on design.

“There is a gigantic field out there that Princeton students aren’t really privy to,” says SDA co-founder and conference co-manager Andy Chen.

Outside of the SDA, which partners with University Communications, Princeton does not have a formal graphic design program. Chen says the conference is a way to promote graphic design as a discipline on par with the programs traditionally championed by the Ivy League school.

“If you could just change the curriculum to include one or two courses it would really help architects, sociologists, artists, economists,” he says, “anybody who wants to find a way of conceptualizing culture visually.”

The conference will examine the influence of society on design and will look at ways to make graphic design more accessible to non-specialists.

An obstacle, Chen says, lies in people not realizing what makes good design.

“People don’t really have a holistic appreciation for what design is,” he explains. “Because they have absolutely no exposure…most people see it as something that’s extremely commercial.”

Bringing together students from 15 colleges, the conference will enable students more familiar with design to engage Princeton students who have no access to formal training, Chen says.

Conference panels will address the following themes: brand identity, environmental design, web design and sustainable design.

The event’s keynote speaker is graphic designer Paula Scher of Pentagram in New York. Other guests include Israel Kandarian and Glen Cummings from New York-based 2x4 Inc. Contact: www.princeton.edu/design/conference

February 20, 2008
Masterfile layoffs
TORONTO—More news on the stock photo front. Stock image agency Masterfile laid-off 30 employees earlier this month due to “corporate restructuring,” says Masterfile president Steve Pigeon. Twenty people were let go from its Toronto head office and ten from Europe. The company’s headcount now sits at 130 employees globally (100 in Toronto and 30 in Europe).

Although there is no direct evidence that discount microstock sites are cutting into his agency’s profits, Pigeon says it is not unrealistic to assume they are affecting Masterfile’s bottom line.

“Given the fact that these guys are popping up like mushrooms and licensing pictures at very low prices, it stands to reason that some of our traditional business is going that way,” Pigeon says. “We’re assuming that’s having an affect on the industry.”

Pigeon confirms that Masterfile is considering adding a microstock component.

“We’re looking at the full continuum,” he says. “We’ve always been at the high-end of the industry. About three years ago we moved seriously into the royalty-free end of the business, which in those days was considered the low end and it’s now the mid-market. And now this ‘anywhere from a dollar to $20 a picture’ business has sprung up out of nowhere and we’re seeing a tremendous amount of transactions happening there.”

Another one of his concerns is a U.S. recession. As a 35-year veteran of the design and photography industry, Pigeon says advertising budgets are always the first to go when companies start tightening their belt. Masterfile does approximately 85% of its business in the advertising sector.

“So when there’s a downturn there, we feel it.”

But despite these negative economic factors, Masterfile turned a slight profit last year. “There wasn’t a drop in revenue but we didn’t see the growth that we were looking for. We were looking for significant growth in revenue this year and we exceeded last year but by single digits.”

According to Design Edge Canada’s calculations, Masterfile’s 2007 revenues were approximately $32.5 million. Contact: www.masterfile.com

February 13, 2008
CAPIC celebrates 30 years
TORONTO—This year marks the 30th anniversary for the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications.

Formed in 1978, CAPIC began as a rough collective of artists with a mandate to address copyright legislation and promote professional standards in photography and illustration.

“It was a reaction to usages,” says national board president Michael Kohn. “A bunch of artists met in a pub and started to talk about organizing.”

After 30 years and the widespread advent of digital technology, Kohn says it’s probably more important than ever that an organization such as CAPIC remain visible.

“Everything is up for grabs right now,” he says. “All the issues are showing up again.”

Kohn draws a parallel with the recent strike by members of the Writers Guild of America to illustrate his point. “It was about usage,” he says. “We’re going to be dealing with the same issues.”

Part of this year’s festivities includes the Xpose image contest. The winners will be showcased in a book, which Kohn says will help generate buzz for the organization.

“And we have to keep the buzz going about CAPIC’s role,” he says. “People have to notice us.”

For emerging talent, Kohn says CAPIC remains a vital tool for networking. Rubbing shoulders with older photographers and illustrators is really important, he says. “Yes, it’s a whole new ball game,” he adds. “But the process is always the same.”

Celebrations culminate with a party on May 3, where the organization will honour one of its members with a lifetime achievement award. Kohn says an individual will be chosen in the next month. “They’ll be hot names,” he says. “They always are.” Contact: www.capic.org

– Jeff Lewis

February 12, 2008
Adobe getting out of stock photo business
SAN JOSE, CA–Adobe is exiting the stock photo business, opting to discontinue its royalty-free image service as of April 1, 2008.

Citing a desire to concentrate its efforts in other areas, Adobe’s search feature will be disabled as of March 3. Customers will then have until March 31 to purchase images.

Also in stock photo news, Seattle-based Getty Images is up for sale. In a release dated Jan. 22, the world’s foremost supplier of digital images and video confirmed “its Board of Directors is exploring strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value.”

Getty says it is currently in discussions with interested parties, however, as of Feb. 11, it has yet to attract a buyer, United Press International reports. Getty’s current value sits at $1.6 billion. Contact: www.adobe.com, www.gettyimages.com

February 11, 2008
Rod McDonald hard at work in new design fellowship
LAKE ECHO, NS—Rod McDonald is up to his elbows in 100-year-old fonts. Two months after being named the inaugural design fellow at Monotype Imaging in Woburn, Massachusetts, the Canadian typographer is busy sifting through the company’s old library, rehashing forgotten fonts for a modern era.

Rod McDonald wants to improve the state of typographic education in Canada

“A company that old has a huge number of typefaces,” he says from his home in Lake Echo, Nova Scotia. Monotype’s history dates back to the mid-19th century. “Some of the fonts are great, they’re absolutely fantastic, but they’ve been sort of shunted aside.”

At this exploratory stage, the work has produced some curious results. Working with senior Monotype staff, McDonald was able to trace the origins of the company’s sans serif Grotesque first to 1926, then to a 1907 typeface.

“We’ve been able to fill in some holes in the historical records,” he says. “For me, it’s kind of neat and I think for a lot of academics and teachers it will be quite interesting to be able rewrite the history of some of these typefaces.”

Such discoveries have implications for graphic designers too – the most used typefaces in the world, McDonald says, are themselves revivals.

“People still want them,” he says. “But only if they can work in a new environment.”

Part of that entails designing typefaces that are legible across a variety of platforms.

“People aren’t just designing for print,” McDonald ventures. “Nine times out of 10 the client is saying once you’ve got the print version done take the data and put it on the web.”

In this light, a typeface that transcends mediums becomes all the more essential.

McDonald feels typographic education is so important that, backed by Monotype, he’s encouraging a triumvirate of Toronto schools to introduce scholarships for students interested in typography. Additionally, he’d like to see programs and curriculum bolstered to the benefit of the design community as a whole. 

“I’m hoping that being able to work with a school in Canada, we can elevate the teaching of typography and bring people into the future who are much better trained,” he says, adding that developments have yet to take shape.

“I think we’re about two years away from anything.”

Although it’s premature to mention names, McDonald says one school in particular holds promise. “I think we have the potential here to have a program that will be the equivalent in the U.K. or Europe,” he says. “And that’s saying a lot.” Contact: www.monotypeimaging.com

February 6, 2008
Chinese design on display at the DX

DX exhibit “Chinese Design. Everyday.” starts Friday

TORONTO––An exhibition showcasing Chinese design opens at the Design Exchange on Friday.

The show, Chinese Design. Everyday, aims to provide a foundation for understanding Chinese culture and society through graphic design.

“Modern design has a relatively short history in China compared to the Western world, due to China's later industrial development,” says a DX release describing the show. According to the release, the 1930s were the heyday of modern design in Shanghai, with a mix of Eastern and Western influences.

The exhibit includes products from Chinese-speaking societies and work from designers of Chinese ancestry residing in North America.

Dr. Wendy Wong, associate professor and chair of the design department at York University, curated the exhibition. Contact: www.dx.org

Colour launches first social media practice in Atlantic Canada
HALIFAX––Atlantic marketing and communications firm Colour has launched a social media practice. Capitalizing on the popularity of sites like Facebook and MySpace, Colour plans to facilitate online conversations between its clients’ brands and social media consumers.

“Whether or not you’re aware of it, people are talking about [your organization.] And more often than not, they’re doing it online,” said Carman Pirie, principal at Colour, who is heading up the new division. “More than ever, it’s important to not only be aware of those conversations but to also contribute to them.”

Colour plans to implement its three areas of expertise, public relations, marketing and internal communications, in the social media realm.

Colour is teaming with Fredericton, N.B.-based Radian6, a developer of social media monitoring software, to measure the results of engaging in social media for its clients. Contact: www.colour.ca

February 5, 2008
DDB brings Canada to the Square Mile
LONDON––Londoners left uninspired by the old Ontario tourism jingle: “There’s a place to stand, and a place to grow, in Ontari-ari-ari-o!” recently met with an interactive pitch designed to reflect four distinct holiday destinations in Canada.

DDB Canada and partners erected an "experiential dome" that encourages Londoners to visit Canada

Launched on Jan. 21, the Canadian Experiential Dome is part of an unusual marketing campaign coordinated by the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), in conjunction with OMD International and DDB Canada.

“This is the big difference,” says Jennifer Green, global account director at DDB. “Rather than saying come to Canada as a destination here’s what you can do, what we’re trying to highlight is the type of categorical experience you can have.”

Running until Feb. 15 in London’s Canary Wharf district, the campaign combines traditional print and online strategies with more unconventional out of home and street-level advertising.

Large images of a wolf, accompanied by the sounds of wolves howling, were projected onto buildings at 13 different London locations, including the Battersea Power Station, shown here. The images included a call to action to “Step into Canada”

The dome was developed with the help of OMD companies Fuse and Inside Live. DDB then approached the Provinces with an offer to come onboard and showcase a dimension of their travel experience. Because space was limited, just four provinces are represented – Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and an amalgamated portrait of Atlantic Canada.

A ski chalet and lodge experience depicts Alberta. “We have an actual masseuse in there giving massages away,” Green says.

Ontario’s wine region is represented while Quebec was given over to its urban centre, Montreal. There, curious passersby will hear glasses clinking on a patio and are given a Montreal Jazz Festival compilation CD.

“We’re focusing on key images that are tied to those experiences and then drawing them to life through out of home and through print,” Green says.

The print side of the campaign involves freestanding inserts placed in the Guardian and Metro that feature information and descriptions of the selected regions. This, in turn, is supported by an online microsite.

Green says the online component highlights the key visual elements of the dome. “You can click on any one of them and find if that’s the category you’re interested in.”

Initial concerns that the campaign would reach a critical peak after its first week seem to have abated. “We’re actually building week over week,” Green says. Contact: www.canada.travel

February 4, 2008
Frank Palmer talks to DEC about the closure of Downtown Partners
TORONTO—The agency behind the Bud Light Institute is closing. Toronto-based Downtown Partners, a subsidiary of Omnicom Group, will shutter its doors on Feb. 15.

The closure is primarily linked to a decision by Labatt Breweries of Canada to end its six--year relationship with Downtown Partners. Last November, Labatt transferred the bulk of its business to Publicis, which now handles the beer company’s US business as well as the Blue, Alexander Keith’s and Lakeport brands.

Toronto-based Grip Limited will take over the Bud, Bud Light, Stella Artois and Brahma accounts. 

Perpetuating considerable layoffs, the loss of the Labatt business – which represented about 40% of Downtown’s revenues – proved insurmountable.

“It was a big, big piece of the business. No question about it,” says Frank Palmer, chairman and CEO of DDB Canada, an Omnicom brand and network affiliate to Downtown Partners.

Downtown’s growth was offset by the fact that Labatt was growing at an equal pace, says Palmer. “It doesn’t matter if you’re getting bigger,” he says. “Your big client is also getting bigger.”

Cautioning against other agencies pursuing a similar eggs-in-one-basket approach, Palmer says, “I’d just be careful, if any agency has an account that represents 35% or more of your business, you better be servicing them awfully well.”

Echoing Palmer, Dan Reynolds, a marketing and communications consultant with Toronto-based Ad ROI, says the closure demonstrates the risks associated when an agency becomes dependent on a single client.

“When one client dominates that much of your landscape and leaves for whatever reason, it’s very difficult for an agency to recover.”

The company employed roughly 40 people, about half of which Palmer estimated were on the creative side.

In a statement released Jan. 24, Downtown Partners interim managing and creative director Dan Pawych said the agency was a victim of consequence and that it tried to restructure but the remaining accounts didn’t provide a strong enough revenue base for long term operation. Current clients include 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Gatorade and Prime Restaurants.

Current projects will be completed by Feb. 15, the company said. As well, ongoing discussions may see its remaining accounts moved into sister Omnicom agencies, although Palmer would not say which.

DDB has reserved the Downtown Partners moniker and Palmer says the company could resurface some time in the future.

“I’m a very competitive person,” he says. “I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to recreate the same magic all over again.”