May 28, 2008
Canadian firms win big abroad
MIAMI—Ogilvy & Mather Toronto won the prestigious Integrated Grand Clio earlier this month for its tremendously popular Diamond Shreddies campaign. The win was of little surprise, as the campaign – cooked up by intern Hunter Somerville (who is now on staff) – will surely scoop up several international awards this year.

GJP Advertising + Design takes home two bronze Clios

Other Clio Award wins for Canadian agencies include a silver and bronze for Vancouver’s Rethink in the poster category.

Another Vancouver agency, TBWA/Vancouver, took home bronze in the billboard entertainment category for its work for the BC Lottery Corporation.

In the print category, BBDO Toronto was awarded two bronzes ­– one for direct mail and another for B2B.

GJP Advertising + Design in Toronto was also awarded double bronze. Its annual report for Distress Centres of Toronto and its corporate identity project, Rush, were recognized in the design category. GJP creative director Lisa Greenberg designed the corporate identity on packaging tape for her courier, who is appropriately named Rush. Contact: www.clioawards.com

Designers discuss strategic side of social media
TORONTO—RGD Ontario had designers up bright and early at its first breakfast seminar earlier this month. They gathered to discuss the importance of social media in design, with Karacters’ John Furneaux leading a panel discussion with Eric Karjaluoto of SmashLab in Vancouver and Lionel Gadoury of Toronto’s Context Creative.

While social media tools such as blogs and networking sites aren’t appropriate for all clients, the social media sphere should not be ignored, says Gadoury. If clients are apprehensive about social media, designers need to assuage their fears. “Clients get nervous and fearful of relinquishing control,” he says. “We have to make recommendations to clients because it’s [sometimes] riskier not to be in these areas.”

The lessons and opportunities used to meet clients’ needs are changing, says Gadoury. “Design is more malleable.”

But designers are protective of their ideas, Furneaux points out. How can designers adjust to working in a medium that is in constant flux?

Outcomes are pivotal, says Karjaluoto. “It’s a matter of where we see our outcomes… Engagement, usability, those are the new outcomes.”

“[We’re changing from] designers of information to designers of communication,” says Furneaux.

But providing ROI on a project that’s user generated is not easy.

“Usually we have to come up with a list of deliverables,” says Gadoury. “It’s far less about design and more about the strategy and the approach… The tools are being conceived in a better way. Improved user interaction, that’s what people will expect.”

U.K. art director sets up shop in Toronto
TORONTO—After freelancing in Canada for two years, British designer Kerrin Hands has hung up his shingle in downtown Toronto as Hands Design.

Former Uncut Magazine art director Kerrin Hands makes Toronto his new home

“I'd heard that Toronto was a vibrant, exciting city with a great design community. I came to visit with my wife and son and we loved it so we took the step of moving here,” says the former art director of London-based music and movie magazine Uncut.

While Hands Design currently operates as a one-man shop, Hands hopes to hire a full-time designer and production manager in the near future.

His Canadian clientele includes Penguin Books, Harper Collins Publishing, Air Miles and Pearson Education.

“Presently we are working on the graphics for The Scream Literary Festival that takes place in Toronto in July,” says Hands. “We are also designing a coffee table book for a well-known interior design TV show. I am also working on a whole range of different book-cover designs for companies around the world.” Contact: www.handsdesign.ca

May 20, 2008
Karjaluoto challenges designers to be more green
BOSTON—Vancouver-based designer Eric Karjaluoto, founder of the Design Can Change website and campaign, challenged his peers at the How Design Conference in Boston yesterday to make sustainable design a higher priority and to wield their purchasing power to make a difference.

It’s not enough anymore to “slap a green logo on [your work] and feel better about it,” he told an engaged audience in a session entitled Designing Change: One Studio’s Effort to Combat Climate Change. “It just isn’t that easy.”

Karjaluoto even took a (polite) swipe the designers in the crowd, questioning their seemingly insatiable love of swag from suppliers in the nearby exhibit hall. “Are we taking it because it’s there and it says ‘Free’ on it, or are we taking it because we need it?” When one audience member pointed out that at least the swag bags are reusable cloth, he noted: “But now I have 1,000 cloth bags at home that I’m not using.”

Yet Karjaluoto said he was far from perfect himself, citing his role as the shopper in his family. There’s no perfect answer when it comes to sustainable design, he conceded. “Don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Do something.”

As an example, he referred to a project his firm smashLAB completed for a client that for several years had used a brochure bound in a vinyl binder. Eliminating the brochure completely was a thought, but was unacceptable to the client. So the designers came up with a smaller 5” x 6” brochure that was less expensive, easier to ship and avoided the use of vinyl. The new approach “is not sustainable, but is so much better than before.”

Design Can Change was launched by smashLAB last spring (see May 9, 2007 upload, “A community-minded approach to sustainable design”). The campaign’s website, DesignCanChange.org, offers resources and also includes a five-point sustainability pledge designers are asked to take. Once designers take the pledge, they can be added to the site’s membership directory, which now boasts 1,800 designers in 80 countries committed to sustainable design. The project made Time magazine’s Design 100 list in its special Design issue in April. Contact: www.smashlab.com

May 14, 2008
BrainStorm designs natural look for Taste of Nature
TORONTO—Shandiz Natural Foods of Toronto commissioned BrainStorm Group to rebrand its Taste of Nature bars. Impressed with previous work BrainStorm had done in the natural food category, including Green’s Plus and New Roots Herbal, Shandiz wanted the local agency to help its bars stand out from its crowded category.

New packaging emphasizes natural ingredients

Its previous packaging was not appetizing, says BrainStorm’s vice president, creative director Dorothy McMillan. “The names were clever but they didn’t suggest what the flavours were. They wanted something more dynamic, appealing and fresh.”

Art director Patrick Carron drew the colour schemes and imagery from the natural ingredients in the bars. He also redesigned the Taste of Nature logo by highlighting the word nature. 

“I wanted to re-emphasize the fact that the product is natural,” says Carron. A lot of its competitors in the food bar category produce a more processed product.

Carron also chose to let the bar speak for itself. Half of the bar is visible to the consumer through its clear cellophane wrapper. Contact: www.brainstormgroup.com

The previous packaging didn't visually identify the product's flavours

Astral Media Outdoor announces biodegradable vinyl
TORONTO—Astral Media Outdoor recently introduced the first biodegradable outdoor vinyl in Canada.

Bioflex performs like traditional vinyl. It can be welded, installed and stretched and then reused. According to the manufacturer, once in the ground, the vinyl disintegrates within five years, leaving no hazardous by-product in the soil. Contact: www.astralmedia.com

May 13, 2008
Leanne Shapton tops Time's Design 100
NEW YORK—A recent supplement to Time magazine highlights “the people and ideas behind today’s most influential design.” Mentioned first on its Design 100 list is Canadian graphic designer Leanne Shapton.

Time recognizes "versatile" Canadian designer Leanne Shapton Photo credit: Jason Fulford

The former art director of now-defunct Saturday Night magazine is designing and illustrating books, magazines and textiles in New York City – she illustrated the cover of the Time Style & Design issue.

In 2006, she wrote and illustrated her first book, Was She Pretty? She is also co-founder of J&L Books, which publishes art and photography books.

Other Canadian mentions in the Time article: Umbra and Holt Renfrew. Contact: www.time.com; www.jandlbooks.org

May 9, 2008
Watch for paper made from wheat waste
TORONTO—The quest for feasible non-tree fibre sources for paper should reach another milestone later this month. Markets Initiative, the Vancouver-based environmental group working with publishers to save ancient forests through responsible paper-purchasing programs, says it will soon trumpet the first magazine to be printed on paper made partly from wheat waste.

Markets Initiative executive director Nicole Rycroft made the announcement at the group’s second annual fundraising event in Toronto yesterday. Rycroft also said her organization will release an updated version of its Magazine EcoKit later this month.

Markets Initiative is a Canadian environmental success story. Its approach of working with publishers, printers and paper companies to change purchasing habits and generate demand for ancient-forest-friendly (AFF) paper has now been copied in 10 countries. In Canada, Rycroft said three out of four leading “magazine conglomerates” and more than 100 book publishers have officially adopted AFF objectives. Contact: www.marketsinitiative.org