Design & Develop
  • Design
  • May10th

    Being a Canadian company in an international marketplace is both an asset and a challenge: our natural tendency to play nicely in the global sandbox tends to kick in at exactly the wrong moment, sometimes causing our non-Canadian counterparts to wonder what our problem is and where we went!

    While I’ve been struggling lately with turning off the passive-Canadian and getting to the meat of the subject, PPC expert Maple North was ready to accept and display some of that classic Canadiana to start their branding and identity work.

    Let me introduce Big Tim:

    Maple North

    Big Tim plays on the Canadian woodsman theme, and in the near future will reveal his full backstory to build a history and context for a small Canadian company that’s making a difference in the PPC, SEO, and online marketing market place.

    What I love about this particular brand is the playfulness that the client has introduced to an idea of what it means to be stereotypically Canadian. We’ll turn that on its ear, of course, but it’s a fun, comfortable visual to introduce the concept.

    Meanwhile, if you’re ready to cut the deadwood out of your online marketing campaign and get serious about generating traffic and leads, go talk to Maple North.

  • March17th

    Dynamic ad insertion and metadata management solution provider This Technology made the leap into the open source world on February 14 this year with SpotLink.

    This Tech

    Now, while something as unique and sexy as facilitating video-on-demand advertising would lead most people to assume a slick marketing engine behind it all, This Technology is about as anti-marketing as they can be. Their original website was a do-it-yourself roll out of a simple WordPress template.

    (PRO TIP: Need to get your website started quickly and missing the budget line item? DIY WordPress website! You can add the unique look and functionality later.)

    Our job was to design and develop a new WordPress template that looks clean and professional, focuses on the audience and products, and stays true to This Tech’s no-BS approach to business.

    The catch?

    Them: “I need it live on Monday”

    Us: “I think I’m running a fever…”

    Though not the smoothest website development cycle I’ve experienced – nothing like the ‘flu to scramble a brain and make things more complicated than necessary! – the end result achieves the goals quite handily.

    Website: http://thistech.com

  • March4th

    On January 25, 2011, President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union address. Usually this would have little or no impact on our work day, however, a particular segment of his speech stood out to one of our clients and spurred a flurry of projects.

    What did the American President say that was so exciting?

    We live and do business in the Information Age, but the last major reorganization of the government happened in the age of black-and-white TV. There are 12 different agencies that deal with exports. There are at least five different agencies that deal with housing policy. Then there’s my favorite example: The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater. (Laughter.) I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked. (Laughter and applause.)

    Department of Smoke Salmon

    I know that it’s hard to picture me getting excited about salmon, but when it comes to smoked salmon, Bradley Smoker happens to be a lot of fun. When Adam from Maple North pitched the idea of the Department of Smoked Salmon and his rough drafts at us the day after the State of the Union, the three of us started on what might go down in the books as the project of the year.
    Department of Smoke Salmon buttons

    We created a landing page, press release, banner ads, official seals & buttons and launched the Department of Smoked Salmon less than 8 hours later.

    I won’t lie, the tagline “Don’t let bureaucracy blow smoke on your salmon!” might still be making me laugh over a month later. See, proof that work can (and should!) be fun.

    Meanwhile, the badges and buttons have become a Bradley Smoker forum favourite. You can spot them in board signatures!

  • February23rd

    As a general business philosophy, a client that comes back for more work is a happy client. Which means that TenBareToes Entertainment must be one of the happiest clients we have!

    The fledgling theatre group is gearing up for its second production, The Odd Couple, and needed the advertising, website, and assets designed and in production when auditions began.

    TenBareToes production asset design

    When talking about The Odd Couple, the theme of opposites and opposition generally comes into play. The artwork for the production touches on these themes with the positions of the main characters, the reversed colours, font choices, and the props.

    The artwork also had to remain generic enough to fit the yet-to-be selected cast.

    Theatre production tickets designTickets were a new item for TenBareToes – and a necessity. The company’s first production The Taming of the Shrew used e-tickets, which we all thought would be widely accepted by the technology-loving audience in KW.

    Boy, were we wrong!

    Though the e-tickets saved paper and expense, the theatre crowd loves hanging the tickets on the calendar or fridge in hot anticipation of the production; EIGHTY PERCENT of the audience mentioned that they wanted the paper tickets back.

    The tickets are a simple solution, using a business card size and leaving the show details area blank. TenBareToes will print stickers for each production or use a stamp to fill in the  details, allowing us to order a larger batch for cost-effective tickets.

    Speaking of tickets … don’t forget to order your tickets for TenBareToes’ production of The Odd Couple before it sells out!

  • January24th

    Meiby Baby is the brain-child of Mom and Artist Karen. With two little ones and a third on the way, Karen’s decided to take her funky and functional take on the classic Chinese Mei Tai baby carrier to the North American market.

    Step one was coming up with a logo and business cards that establish her brand and explain the product.

    Meiby Baby Business Cards