2012 marked the 6th year in the history of The Sheppard East Village Business Improvement Area (SEV BIA). After 3 ½ years of work on transit issues, their focus shifted in mid 2011 to the more traditional BIA role of helping to promote all the businesses and professional offices in the area, planning ways to improve the appearance of the area, and attracting more customers and visitors to consider its offerings and attributes. They appointed K9 Design as creative agency to assist the BIA with their strategic marketing and branding efforts. SHARE SHEPPARD Campaign wins TABIA Marketing Award for Medium Budget at Recognition Awards Night.
SHARE SHEPPARD
Discover the world at your doorstep

After a year of qualitative research lead by consultant Ania from Open Communications, a range of branding and design services including the development and implementation of a new strategic brand and direction an awareness campaign took place.

The research uncovered that this neighbourhood had a story to tell. A story of culture, history and language; a passionate narrative that was begging to be told and had not yet been explored. The BIA had uncovered a unique position to present. However, the area also posed many challenges to a successful marketing campaign: physical obstructions, language barriers, cultural differences and a looming construction project coming in 2017 for the LRT, all required considerations. The campaign had to show the diversity in available services and appeal to a varied target audience.

After an identity redesign to align the brand with the new face of the BIA the recommended path was to build a campaign around the faces and real people of the neighbourhood in a very genuine and honest way. Discover the world at your doorstep became the filter through which every piece passed. Shopping local was positioned as the new norm and the BIA as the trusted source for local information. A new narrative was written about the “gems” and “success stories” of the individual members helping to increase the awareness of the SEV BIA and what the area has to offer.

Launched in October 2013, SHARE SHEPPARD – the marketing campaign centering around 9 local member’s stories captured on camera, in video, and written word is presented in transit shelters, direct mail, window stickers, way finding street banners and a very robust web site + social media strategy that promises to educate and entertain the surrounding area with a deep dive into the neighbourhood they never knew existed. Local products and services will be show-cased, area promotions/sales and profiles will be updated on regular intervals to keep the conversation going. Future plans include an ambassador campaign where local “celebs” are accessed to spread the SHARE SHEPPARD story.

Event and music strategies will be a part of year 2.
A “what’s happening” section on the web site is updated daily and provides info on area events, promotions, specials and new member services. A newsfeed details the local area news, as well as pertinent national news.

Social Media integration of Facebook and Twitter will provide social vehicles casting a wider net to those looking to capture their info via these streams. A large goal to build this community is set for 2014 with a hope for a community size of 1500 friends on Facebook and 700 followers on Twitter by Q3 of 2014.

Campaign successfully launched in market in Q4 of 2013 as planned. A social media strategy is being managed and results will be analyzed by quarter.

Tags: Strategic Brand Direction, Design, Print, Digital including web/social media, way finding.

The ideal designer sounds a little like this: crazy attention to detail, capable of building organization where none exists, comfortable being the 1st point of contact for the client and keeps the volume of projects moving. You will own and manage the entire marketing calendar and expectations of this client by yourself, through super planning and clear communication. Your pasteboard is so clean, not even a hungry bloodhound can find a trace of any stray point or errant text box. You are kind and trusting and your best friends are the ones you met in JK because relationships matter to you.

Minimum three (3) years graphic design experience.
Minimum one (1) year print production experience.

If this is you send us your resume at info@k9designco.com.

We’ll call you if we want to explore the possibilities.

By: Norm Lourenco

A few days after attending the David Bowie Is exhibit opening at the AGO, I found my mind wandering back repeatedly to the experience. It exploded with arresting memorbilia, as one would imagine it would, from an artist that was as focused on the visual aesthetic of his performance as he was on his music. But it wasn’t the outrageous outfits, or the detail of vision for his alter egos and reinventions that was so impressive. When I stepped back and looked at his body of work, the common thread that ran through everything he’d accomplished, was CHANGE. Lots of change, and all without affecting his identity.

There has been much written and said on the benefits of change – many of us would like to believe we can embrace this mantra of change, but when faced with the opportunity we often choose the familiar. Change is hard, but, as I walked through the many Bowie incarnations never once did I feel I had entered another exhibit by accident (not hard to do at a big gallery). The point is, the foundation of what makes all of Bowie’s iterations consistent is the same through and through – creative, visual story telling with incredible commitment to detail.

Change is good, as long as you don’t loose site of what makes you, you. Have faith in the strength of your brand’s core – don’t change what you do, change how you do it.

The other day I had the fortune of coming across this video below (via BoingBoing) that gave me a lot of insight into not only how I personally “tick” but how to leverage it. This is long but truly worth it, especially if you find yourself relating to anything in the first half of the talk.

As I watched this I realized, wow, I was a maker kid and my parents absolutely fostered that. Whether it was building my own micromachine city out of found objects and materials (jenga blocks, paper mache…), repainting action figures, suspending an electric slot car track from the ceiling of my room or airbrushing a black light space mural onto my bedroom wall, I was making and shockingly my parents were letting me. My childhood home had a basement full of “spare parts” (70′s junk that we never unpacked after our move from Winnipeg) and all the tools I’d ever need (power tools were handled by Dad of course). But moreover though it was their attitude about projects that made me who I am. They too were makers, unafraid to try new things, learn new skills and tackle problems from any angle.

So what does this mean in terms of my role in the design industry now? Everything. Being unafraid to learn new skills and try new ways of solving problems is something that makes us capable of keeping up with an industry that is moving faster and faster. I recall getting out of school in 2005 with a strong background in flash coding and quark and thought I was pretty well set to tackle anything. I don’t think I’ve opened either of those programs in 5 years. But what I have done is learned their replacements, and their replacement’s replacements. Innovating and learning are pretty well the only way to stay a player in this industry and I think we’re about to go through some even bigger waves of change in the coming years. Better keep learning.

If you think you’ve got a maker kid at home, may I implore you to support their creativity, and if you need help (and are in the Toronto area) check out the Maker Kids, and check out the Mini Maker Faire (sorry just wrapped up for this year) that takes places right around the corner from K9 at the Artscape Wychwood Barns.

Now go make something!

But judge for yourself:

Check out the most recent Back to School issues of Village Living Magazine. All cover art is old school and done by hand.

Watch a bit of the process and how these 2 covers came to be on our FB page.

We were so excited to be asked to design the official merchandise for the 100th anniversary of the St Clair Street Car and Carhouse, an initiative of the  Wychwood Barns Community Association. The merch celebrates a week-long series of events happening in the St Clair West neighbourhood Sept 10-14 2013 that celebrate the tracks and cars that made our community what it is today.

There was no brief. The WBCA gave us full artistic license. The merchandise line consisted of men’s and women’s t-shirts a onesee and poster.

The limited edition poster (printed at the famous Kid Icarus in Kensington Market) is a three colour screenprint on 100% light grey cotton paper. All items are on sale at the Wychwood Barns Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and in local retail outlets Ecoexistence and Acapella.

Proceeds of the items go to support the Wychwood Barns Community Association.

Celebrating our Dads and all Dads.

Happy Father’s Day.

Working with the team at Skyline Hotels and Resorts we set out to strategize and create their Summer ad campaign. Directing illustrator Marcus Cutler with our vision for a new direction for Skyline produced these unique takes on their properties. These were rolled into all advertisements in Toronto Star and on line media buys. New creative was also rolled in to their web site creative.

  ”I worked for the first time with K9 Design on Skyline’s Summer 2013 ad campaign and it was as if we’d worked together for years. They understood exactly what we needed, turned around the creative in only 72 hours from the initial brief and absolutely knocked it out if the park! It’s hard to get 5 hotels to agree on much but all five loved our new creative which not only built upon our brand icons for instant recognition but took our brand to the next level in its evolution. The new strategy has given us a platform to build upon right across the portfolio”

Tom Price  |  VP, Sales and Marketing Skyline Hotels & Resorts

 

One for Father’s Day.

Distributed as an FSI in Metro News with a freshened up look.