Bank of Canada Style Guide

I came to this project late in the game. It had been floundering for three years, languishing in a prison created by entrenched positions, power struggles and resentment. I won't bore you with the details ... I arrived as a fresh face, unencumbered by history, and ready to put this to bed.

My first step was to interview all the stakeholders. To my surprise, everyone wanted very similar things. So as I started in on the designs, I made sure to focus all my language on outcomes, kept the conversation away from the personal and always on the product.

My experience in dealing with editors allowed me to speak their language and translate their vision to the layout. The previous version had the most atrocious clip art and editorial was adamant that it stay. Moving the conversation away from the art, I had them talk about itsfunction. They wanted to break up the text and add humour and colour to the pages. I suggested we find some art that could be repurposed to our needs, creating the feeling without creating clutter. I met Hazim Jalil through iStockphoto, bought some illustrations there and commisioned the rest.

Being a reference book, it required quick and easy navigation by the reader. I colour-coded the chapters and text elements so that every usage could be instantly identified.

The text contained inconsistencies in its information architecture, providing a clear set of rules to editorial moved my changes from personal opinion to functional decisions. If one item had to be changed, all similar items would need to be changed too ... all small scale changes were checked against the big picture.

Throwing things against a wall ...

The design of an annual report can be a long and involved process. When there are many stakeholders involved in the approval of the cover, you run the risk of a negative choice ... the cover that everyone doesn't hate, the least inspiring, mediocre choice. For the Bank of Canada I tried to ensure that every cover proposal I submitted would be one that could go to print; a cover that I would be proud to include in my portfolio ... so I did.

Interior Design for Nelson Science Connections

These are some pages recently completed for Nelson Education. They are from a text book for the applied science stream in grades 9 and 10. For this job, I had to take and existing academic design and adapt to facilitate easier reading.

The text was broken into discreet sections and boxed to give students more digestible bites. Elements from Web 2.0 style design were sneaked in to give a sense of familiarity with the medium of choice.

The treatment of the page title and section introduction was taken from the magazine world, to give students an immediate overview of the forthcoming text.

Wayfinding elements have all been colour-coded, each unit has its own colour and each page, whether it belongs to a unit, a chapter or an appendix, were coloured accordingly.

Canadian Writer's Guide - Cover

These are a series of covers I submitted for the new Canadian Writer's Guide for Nelson Education Ltd. Three submissions were requested.

1) Retro style based on graphical shapes. I tried my best to channel Paul Rand and Saul Bass, with limited success. Still, I like the palette and will use it again.


2) Photographic style based on the idea of young people traveling. I used Flickr as my photo research to capture a candid/now feel. Plus it always feels gratifying to give amateurs a bit of extra cash to help in their hobby.






3) My own interpretation of the content. For this I took my cue from the Table of Contents provided with the creative brief. To me it resembled a street listing so I decided on using a map on the cover. Going with what may be the most familiar cartographic language to you people, Google Maps, I put this together, using the chapter titles as street names.


I was well satisfied when the decision-makers in this process picked submission #3. ^_^

Chick a DEE - Dr. Zed Storyboard - Writing

When the editor of Chick-a-DEE thinks of a science guy, he thinks of me. Perhaps it's because I paid attention to all my high school science classes; perhaps it's because the natural world will always be an endless source of fascination for me; perhaps it's because I know how to talk to kids in a way that credits their intelligence rather than assuming their ignorance. Either way, here's a storyboard I made for Chick-a-DEE in collaboration with the previously mentioned editor.

Ottawa Xpress - Covers/Pages

In 1998 I left Ottawa to go and live in Toronto. It was hard to leave my work as art director of the Ottawa XPress. Here are some covers and pages that I managed to scan (forgive the quality, newsprint doesn't age too well). Last time I picked up a copy, I couldn't find any evidence that I had ever directed its visual identity.

Snowball Earth - Writing

One of the highlights of creating each issue of Kayak, was the writing of its feature comic Snowball Earth, brought to life by the incredible talent of Kagan Mcleod. It was a fantastic combination of actual history, Norse mythology, controversial theory and a good deal of monster battling.
Although I could have kept this story running for years to come, the History Society wanted a comic that didn't need as much prior knowledge. So, once I wrapped this up with our heroes saving the world, I gave them the Card Shop, illustrated by John Martz.

As with all children, these characters have grown up and moved on to different things … like TVO for instance.

Keeping the Peace - Game

How do you make not keeping the peace fun in a world that glorifies war? You play Keeping Peace!

This is a game created for Kayak Magazine, Canada's History Magazine for Kids. Illustration by Remie Geoffroi.

Zyka Clothing - Catalogue

There are some projects that you throw your heart into, fully believing in the product, even wearing as much swag as the company could cough up. I gave my heart to this one, worked late, did all the photography myself. Zyka loved the results, as did I. I wonder where they are now?

Rejected! - Brochure

For a long time, I was looking for a chance to do a purely CMYK design. When this brochure dropped on my desk, it looked like the perfect opportunity; young, hip, recently ex-university student ... Sadly, the design never got past the first draft, which you see here.

Kayak #2 - Cover

This cover of Kayak's second issue, which I did the design and art direction, got dissed by some people (who shall at this time remain nameless). For me though, it is still one of the best we ever did.

Idée Inc. - Small Ad.

Sometimes working in a small space can be very rewarding. This advertisement for Idée Inc. had to deliver a lot of information on a very cluttered page of similar ads. This was achieved by curving the outer edge, to break the visual grid and by using a large area of solid colour. The message was reduced to a few key words. I wish I had a copy of the final page, the result was an island of order in a sea of chaos.