This is where Kensel Tracy comes in from the very popular “BMG” or Byward Marketing Group. I was given a chance! A chance I never rely fully understood at the time. In 2003 Kensel called me into a meeting and asked me to present my portfolio and what my plans were in the future. I guess it would have been ok to just say I wanted to be a designer and work in a cubical for the next while, but after much thinking I decided to take a new approach. I said to Kensal that I wanted to lead, generate new clients, design and take charge of the design that was required of BMG. Well people it worked and I had a job working for one of Ottawa’s highest recognized marketing firms…  Bla Bla Bla….

The story gets sideways along the way and even a little vertical but Kensel and I remained friends and worked on small and large project for the next 7+ years. Kensel was forced to close BMG after a large fire that nearly destroyed everything in his possession and he was to start again from scratch climbing back to a place of comfort and positivity. After years of trying to convince him to get back into his own game and make people inspired and grow businesses, Kensel has finally put the mask back on and the super marketing hero has returned to the great city of Ottawa to fight for better branding and results based marketing.

I am so proud to call myself a friend of Kensel as he is one of the most inspiring individuals in my life. He is now and will always remain my mentor my inspiration and my friend.  Kensel and Strongvine have developed a new name for his business and are no working on the nuts and bolts of the strategic planned website. Look out Ottawa there is a new kid on the block and Strongvine in here to back them up… The name will be recognized and remembered as “Stratejis” Results Based Marketing Solutions.

To be continued…

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day. The film was shot in high-definition on location in the United States, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium.

Interviewees in Helvetica include some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Müller.

Helvetica had its World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2007. The film subsequently toured film festivals, special events, and art house cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries. It received its television premiere on BBC1 in November 2007, and will be broadcast on PBS as part of the Emmy award-winning series Independent Lens in fall 2008. The film was nominated for a 2008 Independent Spirit Award in the “Truer Than Fiction” category, and was shortlisted for the Design Museum London’s “Designs of the Year” Award. An excerpt of the film was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Helvetica was developed by Max Miedinger with Edüard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland. In the late 1950s, the European design world saw a revival of older sans-serif typefaces such as the German face Akzidenz Grotesk. Haas’ director Hoffmann commissioned Miedinger, a former employee and freelance designer, to draw an updated sans-serif typeface to add to their line. The result was called Neue Haas Grotesk, but its name was later changed to Helvetica, derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland, when Haas’ German parent companies Stempel and Linotype began marketing the font internationally in 1961.

Introduced amidst a wave of popularity of Swiss design, and fueled by advertising agencies selling this new design style to their clients, Helvetica quickly appeared in corporate logos, signage for transportation systems, fine art prints, and myriad other uses worldwide. Inclusion of the font in home computer systems such as the Apple Macintosh in 1984 only further cemented its ubiquity.

Example:

Graphic Design (wrong)

Graphic Design Ottawa (right)

Website design should be the main focus for everyone with a Ottawa business. Website design is crucial in today’s technological age. Think of how much local Ottawa business you could be missing when the majority of your market hits the Internet to search for your specific industry in Ottawa?A properly developed website can elevate your Ottawa business to a whole new level. It can make you appear larger than life; it can even make you taller, thinner and more attractive to the opposite sex. It’s all about the design and making that design speak to your Ottawa audience.

Website design should be the central force behind all of your marketing. It’s where the bulk of your marketing budget should lie, and where you should push the hardest to get not only your local Ottawa clients, but your other national clients as well. It’s where you can measure your results, where you can easily adjust your messaging, your branding and your imagery.

It’s where you can effectively and efficiently make changes and not have to empty your wallet every time you do so. You can launch and test special initiatives on your website, virtually experiment with different tactics, even communicate local Ottawa specials, all the while not having to worry that you’re going to blow the budget for years to come. Why spend thousands of dollars on immeasurable, untraceable Ottawa print campaigns when you can put that budget towards your website and actually determine what you got for it?

Your website is where you can present your brand, image and message to a world of potential clients all day and night long not to mention all the local Ottawa clients. To put it simply, your website works harder and smarter for you than any other form of marketing and for a lot less cash than any other form of marketing found in Ottawa.

These obvious reasons alone are why you need to have your website designed, developed and maintained by a professional team. If this team doesn’t exist in Ottawa, then you need to search for web design professionals outside of Ottawa.

The difference in cost between hiring a freelance vs. an established web design company is knowledge. Knowledge of a collective group of professionals all with their own level of expertise in particular fields, from Market Research, Graphic Design, Web Design, Programming and Database, to Ecommerce and the list goes on and on.

One person can wear many hats but it doesn’t mean that the hats are all going to fit. A professional web design studio in Ottawa should have more heads than hats in order for the client to get a great looking, well functioning out performing website. You need to call on a team of professional web designers- not an individual.

These are the main inspiration for thousands of designers all over the world. These “simple”, grided pieces were a true revolution in an industry that was seeking new life. If you didn’t know it, I recommend you to research more about it. We hope you all find it useful and inspiring. Cheers!

The graduating class of 2011 has developed an exciting new concept and branded the entire event to ensure it reflects the personality and creative ambition that has bound them together over their three years of study.

“This year’s show is an excellent opportunity for industry professionals to connect with a group of talented graphic designers entering the industry. With the latest software skills and a fresh approach to design challenges, they’re prepared for careers in both multimedia and print design. Visitors to the show will be impressed with the caliber of their work.Algonquin College offers one the leading graphic design programs in Ontario. Through hands-on training in the most current software and tools students are taught to develop visual solutions and creative concepts for clients’ communication needs.

Past graduates of the program have gone on to work with clients such as Pepsi, General Motors USA, music artists the Killers and many more.