Graphic Designers of Canada, BC Chapter

Featured Project

CLIENT Graphic Designers of Canada, BC Chapter

DESCRIPTION Blog

OBJECTIVE The GDC/BC blog was developed to create an extension of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada’s brand, create an online resource centre and events calendar and facilitate online dialogue between members and friends of GDC’s BC Chapter where they can post and discuss ideas and issues in an open forum relating to its mission.

APPROACH The site is dedicated to its members with a layout focused on the conversations, events and topics relating to communication design in BC, Canada and the world. Using existing elements of the GDC’s national website www.gdc.net, we further reinforced the brand and created a site using a blog format with a full-featured CMS backend, allowing non-coders access to this tool. Images on the site are of uniform size and add to the clean, organized aesthetic. The navigation and layout was made as simple as possible, and designed with an emphasis on the conversations and topics being discussed.

RESULTS GDC Members responded very positively to the site, and traffic and subscriptions have grown quickly. The Blog has already been expanded to include the Vancouver Island Chapter, re-uniting both regions with one voice and a shared membership communication forum and resource centre. Membership applications and event attendance in BC has increased dramatically in the short time since the site’s launch and the GDC National Council has indicated a desire to enable this type of communication tool for all chapters across Canada.

Branding a branding company

If you are a business owner working on the development and growth of your own company it can be a challenge no matter what industry you are in. This can range from generating more sales, creating or finessing your marketing plan, sourcing manufacturing or creating a new brand for your business. It is your business, your baby, you want to make the right decision and you often question what the right decision or direction is. And, at the end of the day, it’s your bottom line that is affected so you’ll want to make a good decision.

So when Industrial Brand Creative choose to re-brand we knew it was going to be an interesting journey.

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Continue reading "Branding a branding company"

Posted by Matt SamyciaWood on November 14, 2008. | No Comment

Partner for good times and bad

I was recently asked to submit an article about partnerships for the Small Business section of Business in Vancouver magazine. The article, called Is a partnership the right choice for your business to weather these stormy times?, found in the Small Business section of this month’s issue is reprinted below:

As the economy sags many business owners are starting to think pretty radically about what they can do to preserve and prosper. Some are look for ways to reduce spending or downsize. Others might consider merging with a competitor. And still some wonder about taking on a partner to share the burden. But is a partner the right choice for you? This choice comes at the cost of giving up ownership of the company you worked so hard to build, so be very careful, do your homework and protect yourself.

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Continue reading "Partner for good times and bad"

Posted by Mark Busse on November 14, 2008. | No Comment

CAPIC: How to sell your work as a Photographer

I was recently honoured to be invited to sit on an expert panel at a CAPIC event for their Portfolio Series called Your Body of Work: Launching a Creative Vision for your Photography. The event was about how image makers such as photographers and illustrators can best promote themselves using portfolios, websites and marketing initiatives.

The panel was made up of me, Anya Lewise and Cathy Mullaly from Canada Wide, John Edmonds from Grey Vancouver, Tim Hoffpauir from DDB and Chris Peacock from Cossette—all experienced in choosing and working with photographers. We were all asked to consider some key questions which we then later discussed in an open forum, sort of townhall meeting style. The questions plus my notes and thoughts are reproduced here now:

Continue reading "CAPIC: How to sell your work as a Photographer"

Continue reading "CAPIC: How to sell your work as a Photographer"

Posted by Mark Busse on November 7, 2008. | No Comment