Lionel Gadoury RGD and the team at Context Creative designed stamps for Canada Post to commemorate Canada's most notable haunted sites.  

Challenge: Telling a story at the size of postage stamp is a unique design challenge, and when it comes to commemorating Canada’s most notable haunted sites, it becomes an even bigger thrill. This second set of stamps (released in September 2015) features illustrations by Sam Weber and custom photography by Peter Bregg. Context Creative collaborated with Canada Post once again to select stories and creatively interpret accounts of paranormal activities from across the country. The resulting print pieces and lenticular coin have proven to be immensely popular with collectors, selling out quickly every year. A holographic foil enhances to eerie effect details that can only be appreciated in physical form. Canada Post has announced that 2016 will bring the "third and final offering in the series before it comes to a dead end," so watch for more thrills and chills to come!

Jessica Glemnitz RGD and the team at Anthem Design created branding for YouLaunch, a program at The Innovation Centre in Sault Ste Marie. 

YouLaunch enables aspiring young entrepreneurs to start or grow successful businesses by providing connections to business development resources, mentors, networking events, funding opportunities and other support services in Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District. YouLaunch connects teachers, students and adult allies to the tools and resources needed to spark innovative and entrepreneurial interests and attitudes in the community, offering interactive programs for elementary and secondary school students.

Ben Hagon RGD and the team at Intent created visual identity, branding and materials for WGSI's Open Access Energy Summit.

1.4 billion people in the world do not have access to reliable, affordable electricity. How can scientists help local people create low voltage, affordable and reliable electricity? If we can find viable solutions we could revolutionize the lives and societies of so many countries around the world. This could literally change the world. The Open Access Energy summit will attempt to set roadmaps on how to fix this in a bottom up manner.

Challenge: The Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI) at the world renowned Perimeter Institute challenged Intent to create a brand, a visual identity, print materials, signage and more to bring this concept to life. Our team worked in close collaboration with our client to create the Open Access brand in time for the Paris Climate Conference in November 2015. The brand symbolizes “Global Change”; the O of Open references the globe, the Delta symbol of Access references change. The design was brought to life using dynamic colour gradations and real life images found using Creative Commons on Flickr.

Result: "Intent's design for the OpenAccess Energy Brief really set that tone with inspiring colours, active graphics and images that evoke agency and growth. These elements were beautifully translated to building signage and theatre elements for our Summit event and are mirrored in the complementary brand, Power Shift, that Intent created for our public-facing energy literacy events. Easy and ongoing communication with Intent's team made the process seamless for our team. Fantastic designs and products were delivered on time and on budget. As we continue working on the outcomes of OpenAccess Energy and look ahead to future WGSI projects, we see Intent as a key, long-term partner in creating engaging and evocative communication tools." Hayley Rutherford,  WGSI Content and Programming Manager 

William Hum RGD and the team at Clear Space designed a new event brand for JDRF, the leading global organization funding type one diabetes (T1D) research.

Challenge: Change before you have to. Since 1988, JDRF’s premier fundraising event was a stationary bike ride aimed at a corporate audience. Over the past three years, they’ve seen a declining trend in participation. They needed to engage a broader audience, strengthen the event's connection to the cause and create a feeling of pride among participants. We rebranded the event and named it JDRF Revolution – Ride to Defeat Diabetes. Revolution plays on the act of pedalling, evoking excitement and action, while also inspiring people to stand up together against T1D. The result is a reinvigorated event brand – one that both participants and JDRF employees can rally behind.

Michael Zavacky RGD created a series of editorial illustrations for the McMillan creative agency in Ottawa, Ontario.

McMillan had just launched a new brand to celebrate their 20th anniversary.  A new feature on their website was a weekly blog column of articles written by McMillan staff members. They needed illustrations to accompany each weekly blog post.
Challenges: There were a few challenges with this project, including coming up with an illustration style that aligned well with the bold, fresh new McMillan brand. That involved a lot of playing around until I finally landed on something that met with team /client approval. I used a limited colour palette drawn from the McMillan graphic standards colour palette to help establish that consistency with the brand. Another challenge was reading each article and trying to come up with a striking illustration that would summarize the story and hopefully attract readers and pique their interest. I tried to keep the illustrations somewhat fun and whimsical, simplifying each image as much as possible in order to get to the core essence of the article. And finally, time was a big challenge as each illustration was due in less than a week.

If you are a Member of RGD and have a project you would like considered, email news@rgd.ca.