School work

A sampling of some of the projects created for the IDI...

a Canadian Eco-Traveller Cookbook spread that incorporated illustration, 

photography and typographic detailing

Promotional poster celebrating Typography Day in Pune, India

that required using two opposing words in two different languages

Logo, branding and corporate collateral for an international magazine on adventure travel

Branding for a café-gallery-clothing boutique

A series of bus panel ads for '#WTF Real Food Campaign' directed at teens in the thick of all things high school (math, chemistry, biology, physics, etc), that caters to their perspective that they know more than adults do.

A Portfolio Tasting

It is always difficult to know what to show people when they ask you what kinds of work you do as a designer, as it varies so incredibly much. But this is why I love what I do: no two contracts are ever the same.

a business card that reflects the environment, traditional knowledge, and health 

a local village café that is the heart of the community

an organic, fresh-fruit popsicle company

Branding for a newly created annual Christmas market

Annual Reports for the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay

Canadian singer-songwriter's business card

Putting yourself out there: the world of self-promotion

Despite everything we have learned about the value of marketing, target audiences and branding, it is very difficult when the product you are promoting is....you. Everything from business cards to letterhead, right through to a promotional mailer. How on earth do you package yourself into something that can be mailed out?

You remain true to yourself and focus on what really matters to you.

The process was daunting but once again very rewarding. It was quite the wonderful discovery that all I had done throughout several careers all counted towards making me the graphic designer I am today. It was all about who I was and what I believed in — and getting that across to my audience. 

As a result, my self-promotional mailer reflected what I am all about. It included a healthy granola breakfast cookie, some First Nations 'energy' tea packaged in a handmade organic cotton bag, a word puzzle, and my business cards and postcard-sized samples of some of my work. I imagined the recipients of my mailer sitting at a sunny kitchen table, making themselves a cup of energising tea, munching on a healthy homemade granola cookie, maybe even tackling a light-hearted crossword, and maybe taking a few moments' break — to be inspired by what I had to offer — as they opened up their morning mail.

IDI self-directed briefs and a leap out of one's comfort zone

Over the years at IDI, there have been many many projects we have been asked to produce. Initially, they were heavily guided, with specific parameters and for focused purposes or audiences. However, these last few terms have focused on open briefs as well as self promotion. The open briefs at first seem daunting: you think you would like to have the choice of creating anything, but in fact, there is something oddly reassuring about being told what to do.

However in my case, I felt that both self-directed briefs of 2014 (level 6 of the course) have really forced me to push myself in certain areas. In the case of the self-directed brief that was completed May 2014, I needed to step outside my comfort zone. Having gone through an extremely difficult and emotional time as primary palliative caregiver for my mother, I felt the experience had actually made me stronger and more confident. The result was that, for school, I chose to push myself away from the computer, and work with my hands. I had never thought of myself as an artist (noo.....that was someone who could really draw), so wanted to tackle something tactile, cathartic and even therapeutic. I also thought it would be fitting to pay tribute to my mother's life that began back in 1929 in the highlands of Scotland, given I where I am at in my own life with the decision to return to academia.

The completed portraiture book flourished as a study in contrasts, highlighting the highs and lows of my mother's childhood via myriad materials and techniques, all of which pushed my brain to really think outside the box and beyond what I had always assumed were my limits. I learned about erasure poetry, intricate paper-cutting, paper dying, typography as art form, onion skin paper layering, the combinations of all sorts of fabrics and heavily textured handmade papers, and even the art of book binding. I thoroughly enjoyed researching while on the children's school break in Montreal, soaking up alternative books and illustrations at Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore, and studying all kinds of paper, bindings, clips, and other paraphernalia at Nota Bene, a unique paper store.

The brief was incredibly challenging and profoundly rewarding. I gained a real sense of accomplishment when I finished this brief that was a series of 'chapter' samplings making up a very unique, hand-constructed portraiture.

Side B: The trade-off (literally)

So the collecting side of the card is the one that needs to have the traditional food items. It also needs to link, visually, with the front of the card yet stand out as being the other side. So my thoughts were to incorporate some collage/texture work to match the front, but to make the composition cleaner for this side of the card because there would not just be design for the sake of design, but information. I have chosen to use Cree syllabics once again but in two different ways: artistically as a background or whitespace, and as information (highlight the specific traditional food). 

I started off with a simple line drawing of an actual moose's head and antlers, but then felt that just the antlers were more fun. I only wanted one simple outlined feature for each food item, and the antlers are what makes the moose. So it is this feature that I chose to fill in with collage/texture to link to the front of the card. After peer feedback, I chose to replace the white abstract (connoting a speech bubble or even a lake to reflect the target audience's environment) with the Cree syllabics for taapwaah, but compressed into an abstract whitespace. 

The typography for the cards needs to be clear and legible, but it must also be fun, youthful, and connote things that the target audience can relate to: scribbling, doodling, cartoons, comics, etc. I chose the font Britt's Hand for the English typography. It is fun and symbolic of kids' writing — wide kerning, uneven sizing, and all a bit wonky. For the syllabics, anything was possible. There are no multiple fonts for Cree syllabics. There are just Cree syllabics. Inspired by Chank Diesel's artistic typography, I chose to manually outline them, freehand, using the pen tool in InDesign. The question now is whether or not to leave them lined, or to fill in the main section of the lettering. 

The final element to this side of the card, is determining what makes a set. For the first set, I have chosen to make use of the nine Cree communities in Quebec; so to obtain a complete set, you would need each one of these communities. Each community would be (randomly) associated with a traditional food, and the set of nine would consist of a balanced group of foods. Collecting nine moose doesn't make sense as far as a balanced diet is concerned. The goal is to have a healthy set of meat/game, fish, berries and other things like bannock and mushrooms.

This is where the card designs stand so far, highlighting some of the different traditional foods.

Our animal hero emerges....from collage

Well. After being nearly foxed out, there seemed to be hope with the world of collage. After encouragement to experiment with collage — despite me thinking it wouldn't be appropriate for the age group — a hero or heroine was born. I am not sure why I didn't jump into collage head first to begin with, given the incredible creative worlds of the likes of Lauren Child. To quote the tutor, " you can never be too arty for children". 

Once I had determined the textures for my fox — a slight earthy, tweedy texture — the next design step to take was to enhance his character. Although I am saying he is a 'he' for now, he will appeal to both genders within the 10-13 demographic. I chose to focus on his head and face only (no body), to make him more up close and personal. But he needed more features: clothing, accessories, something quirky even.

So he started off as this:

And, with the help of more fox-like spiky hair, a pair of smart-looking (and trendy for kids these days) glasses, some intelligent and characterful eyebrows, and a cosy abstract art sweater, he morphed into this:

Our hero is now ready to lead the way into the world of traditional food trading cards. The background for this side of the cards needed to be as textured and interesting as the fox himself. I used watercolours, a salt treatment (which removes some of the paint to give a blotchy texture), and a layered effect with another abstract texture. The result is a night sky enriched with the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. Final touches include the addition of some stars from Cree syllabics. I have chosen the word "Taapwaah" which is an interjection commonly used in conversation meaning "truly, really, it is true, very, true, yes, for sure! 

And here he is!

Solving a design problem: the middle

So what would the animal hero look like?

Well, here are just of few of the many (many) ideas that were developed, tweaked, redesigned, redone, cut up, glued, re-glued, rearranged — you name it.

Polar bears...

Brown bears...

Foxes...

and more foxes...

I like the fox. He is intelligent, quick, stunning, funny, characterful and had great prominent features to play with like a pointy nose, a big fluffy tail, and black arms and legs. He isn't fragile, nor was he big and imposing.