› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› User Journey
› App Development
› Page Layout/production

Fresh Tracks For An Old Brand

Ski Canada Magazine has been a staple in the Canadian ski scene for decades. Starting out as a simple newsletter in the 70’s before becoming the magazine that generations of Canadian skiers have turned to for everything ski.

Working as Art Director in the early days was equal parts creative and logistics. I began working with Ski Canada in 2002 as creative director, responsible for all visual aspects for the magazine, from page design, layout and production. Working closely with both editorial and sales to develop strategies to build and evolve the brand - from creating apps to developing innovative editorial packages.

In 2014, I lead my team in redesigning the magazine from cover-to-cover. The goal was to reestablish the well-respected Canadian publication as the authoritative voice of all things ski. With a delicate balance between maintaining the brand recognition of the past, and introducing new elements, we created a design to enhance the reader’s experience. We landed on a design that appeals to new and current readers and continues to dominate single sales at the newsstand by thousands year after year.

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› User Journey
› Brand/Identity Standards

Setting A Course

In true entrepreneurial fashion, this brand was created when its founder recognized the current purchasing experience being offered to customers in the market to purchase a luxury boat did not meet the level of service expected for such a high-end and bespoke purchase.

With such a long sales cycle, where an average sale takes up to 5 years, Executive Yacht found that keeping everything on brand across all their sales efforts and activities was proving to be a challenge. As creative lead, I lead my team in clearly defining and articulating the founders vision. We created a set of succinct standards that not only defined their voice and tone in both visual and written executions, but the standards also inspires every aspect of the business, helping Executive Yacht craft their customer journey.

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› User Journey
› Video
› Event Design

Getting On The Same Page

Magazines Canada is the national association at the center of the Canada’s magazine media industry. Over the years, it has developed programing and multiple initiatives to recognize and uphold the standards set out by the industry and advocate for the long-term benefit of the industry.

Serving an industry that has undergone a huge transformation—in the height of the disruption, Magazines Canada took a very nimble and reactive approach in creating initiatives that met its member’s needs as they arose. As a result, the association’s brand identity was very fragmented. As part of the lead team, I took Magazines Canada through a process to clearly articulate who they were and why they mattered. As creative lead my work helped them to streamline their offerings and create a structure that organize their programs to align better with their brand pillars as well as create a unified brand that accommodated all their current offerings and was flexible enough to allow for future growth.

The clarity gained from the brand exercise has brought new focus to projects - from event branding and design to video/web campaigns to promote and educate the Canadian magazine industry and their audiences.

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› Identity Standards

Reclaiming Baggage

For 45 years, Baxter Media has been at the heart of the Canadian Travel industry. But as times changed they found themselves in a publishing business, serving a travel industry that had seen massive disruption in the digital age. In this climate of change, the third generation of Baxters where preparing to take the helm and recognized the need to reposition themselves for the future to ensure they maintain their place at the heart of the Canadian Travel industry.

As the creative lead, I lead and participated in a number of stakeholder interviews and town halls with employees of all levels. I lead discussions and designed exercises to compile the information needed to fully understand their business. We than distilled all that we heard and reintroduce the executive team at Baxter Media to what made them unique.

I lead and directed a team of writers and designers, to articulate a clear vision for Baxter Media. We created a voice and tone for the brand as well as the visual language to help propel the company for the next generation.

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› User Journey
› Newsstand/Retail
› Identity Standards

From Activist To Activation

Redesigns are dream projects, every designer covets the opportunity to breath new life to an old brand, but few redesign projects are as embraced and used as a catalyst for organizational change as the Alternatives Journal transformation to A/J magazine.

During the consultative phase of the project, l led the process that took us deep into the organization’s history, their processes and capabilities. In the process we spoke to staff and stakeholders to uncovered many of the truths that later used to informed all the design decisions to realizing the final identity and brand. It quickly became apparent the magnitude of the opportunity - that was only matched by the clients desire to make meaningful change. Nothing exemplified the desire more than the willingness to change their name. In the process we revealed that the name was problematic for distributors who couldn’t figure out what section of the newsstand to display them. This along with the goal to attract new readers who are interested in environmental issues, but don’t think of themselves as advocates led us to the name change that would become the centrepiece of the redesign and launching pad for the new brand.

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› Identity

Casting A Wider Net

Originally launched as an upscale destination restaurant dedicated to seafood, Catch found it’s sole was in being a fun place for the neighbourhood to come and enjoy a casual atmosphere and great food and cocktails.

As creative lead, I worked with both the owner and new head chef to help put the fun back into Catch. The tone was set with the new identity that features a fish with horns, a not-so-subtle, but playful way of signalling that the new Catch offered more than fish - there was also fun on the menu (and meat). The identity also served as inspiration for items on the menu, at the bar and as tattoos!

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› Packaging
› Brand/Identity Standards

A Pinch Of New

A long time fixture in downtown Oakville ON, Boffo’s has been a favourite for many to pick up delicious food on the way home from work or on the way to the cottage. Steeped in old-school, family customer service - a tradition started with store’s namesake and original owners and carried on by its new owner.

The new owner (once an employee) decided to mark the beginning of the new Boffo’s era with a refreshed look to signal the change in ownership. I was tasked with creating a brand that would help them reintroduce themselves to their old customers and attract new ones. Our goal was to find a balance in honoring the history and not alienate the loyal customers who have made Boffo’s what it is, with a fresh, more sophisticated approach. We wanted for customers to know that the store had grown up, but was still rooted in the tradition of a family business.

Still in the early stages of rolling out the new brand, but early reactions have been positive.

› Brand Strategy
› Creative Direction
› User Journey
› Brand Standards
› Identity

Navigating A New Approach

Having been entrenched is the traditional way of doing business, this downtown Toronto boutique law firm made a bold choice and decided to take a different tack.

As creative lead, I was originally tasked with developing a website - but as often happens, what you want isn’t always what you need. In the discovery, it quickly became apparent what was needed was a branding exercise. Once the case for developing a brand was made the partners quickly jumped on board.

The brand mark came together quickly built on the firms specialty in marine law. A basic brand standards document was created and I continue to work them in further building out the brand and marketing strategies.

› Brand Strategy
› Naming
› Brand Standards
› Identity System
› User Journey

Owning The Experience

For year Experiences Canada (formerly SEVEC) has organized group exchanges between canadian youths from different parts of the country. What started out as linguistic exchanges between English speaking and French speaking high schoolers, had grown to not only language exchanges but now included exchanges to experience life in different communities within Canada.

Despite their long history few participants were aware who actually made their trip possible. This and their new mandate to expand their program offerings lead them to rethink their name and brand. As the creative lead, my team and I worked closely with the EC executive team and their board, leading them through a naming process and identity program.

Recently we’ve launched their new site - Experiences Canada is now on their path to fulfill their mandate of creating better citizens.