Direct Impact Media is event production company located in Vancouver, BC which specialize in creating unique event experiences using video and multimedia.  Their design and brand were already quite good and well established but DIM ran into a similar that most companies do: a website not in a CMS and to much flash.  So the goal was to tweak their brand to give them a new look, and to put their website into Wordpress.

TELUS Day of Service is a national initiative to encourage TELUS employees to give back to their community.  On May 29, 2010, 30,000 volunteers from TELUS signed up to various charitable organizations and donated over 100,000 volunteer hours on that day.  This website was created as a picture book of sorts, to show what happened that day, and hopeful show that the spirit of corporate community investment.

Holly Conway is local DJ here in Vancouver for The Beat 94.5 FM.  I wanted to create something fresh, hip and exciting for her since she’s fresh, hip and exciting! I actually saw this font treatment on a poster and felt that it’s very catchy (and blingy) but also very straight forward to recreate in Photoshop.  I definately would love to do more of these types of projects.  Mostly because they are easy to do with lots of latitude for creativity!

You can follow Holly at twitter.com/hollyconway

Coach Kevin (Kevin Lawrence) is a strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams across North America and internationally.  Driven by a relentless passion for helping business leaders get what they really want, in business and life, Kevin has coached clients across a wide range of industries, including consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, luxury retail, media, automotive and professional services. He deeply believes that CEOs and entrepreneurs can have tremendous business success along with an enriching, adventurous and fulfilling lifestyle, taking their professional and personal accomplishments to an entirely new level.

We designed this document as a feature for his website.  A downloadable PDF is the perfect example of “knowing your audience”.  Though we lean on social media outlets for these types of communications, the average CEO and executive do not stay on the bleeding edge of online communications.  They still print or save documents, and they read on the road or in the plane.  The downloadable communication document makes for a handy tool for the Coach Kevin’s users to digest easily.

download the PDF

I drew this as a request for a Glee fan.  If you haven’t seen Glee, and you like music, where the heck have you been?  This as painted in Photoshop CS4 and Inked in Illustrator on a Wacom tablet.

This is a digital painting of Rory Gilmore from the TV show The Gilmore Girls.  This particular scene was from Season 4.

I decided to post some of the artwork that I’ve created over the years, for myself or for commission.  This was inked in Illustrator CS4 and painted in Photoshop CS4.  If you want to see more of this just give me a bark!

Victoria Corporate Games is a new sporting event for 2010 which will allow corporate teams to compete against each other in a variety of sports and games.

Waterfront Toronto is the public advocate and steward of waterfront revitalization.  Created by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, Waterfront Toronto is mandated to oversee and lead all aspects of waterfront revitalization.  Consultation and collaboration with the community and public and private sector partners play a central role in transforming our waterfront into an extraordinary public asset.

This mockup design was created with Sixty4Media to help leverage their news by using social media such as facebook, flickr, and YouTube.  This design was created to be unique from the main site, yet still maintaining the brand elements as provided by Waterfront Toronto.

Do you recognize this pattern?  “Yippee, I landed a big contract with Corporation X!” – “OMG, this is taking forever and it’s getting nowhere!” – “Phew, we’re finally done finished Corporation X’s project” -  “Woot, look how nice Corporation X looks on my portfolio.  I’ve made it!” – “It’s over a year, I wonder if Corporation X will ever call me back?”  Let’s be honest we all love to have corporate clients.  It’s nice to work on projects with big budgets instead of individuals who uses their grocery money to pay your invoice.  Not to mention that corporate designs make your portfolio instantly very appealing.  But there’s a big difference between landing a a big fish, and being a fisherman.  Seeing that I hate eating fish, I’d rather be the fisherman thank you very much.  I do many small fish projects, but maintaining my corporate clients is what puts the bread on the table.  If you’re starting out as a freelancer, designer or otherwise, I have some suggestions for adjusting your methodology and attitude, so you can make corporate work part of you daily diet (All this fish talk is grossing me out).

1. You are not that important.

In the grand scheme of things you are not important.  Designers like to keep our egos in a pretty box and show people every chance I get…I mean we get….err… they get (Freudian slip).  But you will need to check that at the door when you start working with your client.  You are just a piece of a great big puzzle.  You are a pimple on an ant in an anthill in a sandbox in the desert.  You are a cog in a wheel of a watch on the wrist of an ant in an anthill… you get the idea.  It’s not that you’re worthless and demeaning, far from it!  Your client has approached you because they need you to design one particular project.  And that one particular project is a component of a bigger project, that will be announced in a bigger event, that supports a bigger strategy that aligns with an even bigger corporate value.  So your email, though very important, is part of many important emails.  Or the design you send will not be approved in the next 10 minutes because it’s not the only thing that’s going on in the company.

2.  Hurry up and wait.  The approval process.

One of my good freelance friends received an urgent call one Monday morning to have a project done asap.  After sending the draft off in record time, he waited several days for a response.  Finally, at 4:35pm on Friday afternoon he got an email with a list of revisions marked urgent.  After a couple colorful words, his rant ended with “Working on projects would be great if they didn’t come with a client”.  He didn’t mean it, but I know how he feels.  Let me tell you what happened between Monday and Friday that my friend did not realize.  Monday morning, someone sat on his client’s head demanding this project which is why they contacted him.  His client was extremely thankful of the wonderful job the freelancer did in a timely manner.  This client sent it to his project manager who has been in panicking all day long.  The project manager then forwards his draft to the brand police, the internal web team (who is unhappy the job was outsourced), and the communications department.  The communications department questions why it’s all in Swedish (Lorum Ipsum), the internal web team responds back in spite with revisions  and the brand police starts quoting their brand bible and pointing out the ’sins’ of the draft.  On Wednesday a meeting is called and all three teams that bring their thoughts together and starts compiling a list of the edits with the draft.  Now the communications department already forwarded the document to the legal department before this meeting so they return back a long memo with their suggestions (and I use the term ’suggestions’ loosely).  On Thursday afternoon, the VP of his client’s department is given a progress report and is presented with the draft.  The VP adds his two cents just before he leaves for the weekend which contradicts the original list of edits, and finally, on Friday afternoon, you have your revisions.  In summary, your client had to go through a million hoops to get back to you.  And if you never did your job in a timely manner, then the rest would have never happened.  So before you get your panties in a bunch, remember rule #1!

3.  Attention to details.

I’ve worked in several corporate environments so I’ve seen the gerbil cage spin around and around several time.  The long-winded explanation I gave in rule #2 as serves another purpose.  The entire approval process can be summed up as this:  groups and teams supporting other groups and teams, who report to more groups and teams who are all accountable to groups and teams.  The trickle down effect will mean that your client will be asked a million questions and will receive a million comments about things that he will know nothing about; but luckily you do!  So be very thorough with your drafts and communications.  Leave no stone unturned.  Explain the who, what, when, where and how.  Explain your methods to your madness.  And for goodness sake, don’t submit incomplete work.  If your client has questions, be quick to respond.  Your attention to details will be a bulletproof vest for your client, and make them look good to their peers and superiors.  Ultimately they will thank you and their confidence in you will grow.

4.  Your client is very smart.

Have you ever applied to a job in a large company?  It takes a million interviews, aptitude tests and references to get past the door.  And if you don’t have an education, don’t bother applying for a position above minion.   So based on this information, when I start my relationship with a corporate client, I always assuming that they are smart individuals (because they were selected out of this grueling process).  “But, but they ask so stupid questions!!!” you say!  Yes they do.  Yes they do.  They ask stupid questions because they are not design smart.  But they are communications smart.  And they are marketing smart.  And they are corporate strategy smart.  And they are very business smart.  In fact, they are so smart  that they hired you to do this job for them!

5.  Corporations are not people (but they are run by people).

This is the great secret which helped me work successfully for corporations.  Do not expect faithfulness, thankfulness, care, consideration, loyalty, compassion, kindness, forgiveness or any of other lovey-dovey emotions from a corporation.  They are bottom-line profit orientated entity and you are trading your expertise and skill for their dollar.  Isn’t that why you freelance in the first place, to escape the ratrace?  Well that being said, there is still a human being on the other end of the telephone or responding to your emails and that human being works for the corporation.  They choose to work for the big, bad corporation nine-to-five/five-days-a-week so they can go home, and enjoy their life, raise a good family and have a glass of wine with some friends.   In fact, if it weren’t for the security and stability that the corporation provides, these very smart people would (throw caution to the wind and) freelance just like you.  They might even envy you a little.  So try to be kind.  Try to be funny.  Try to be real.  Try to be understanding.  Instead of treating your client like a corporate drone, try to bring in some light into there lives and they will be your clients forever (regardless of which corporation they work for).

So if you want to succeed in retaining your corporate clients, you should understand that there’s a corporate culture of approvals, strategies and kudos behind every project.  It’s not just good enough to do good work to get noticed.  If you prove to be a valuable asset in navigating the through the murky waters of the corporate process, you will find that you can turn a one-off project to ongoing success.

The other day I was all excited to watch The Soloist on Blu-ray because Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx are two exceptional actors, and I was told the sound and music was outstanding.  Unfortunately, when I pressed play on my Blu-ray player the disc just wouldn’t spin.  Strangely enough it worked fine in my desktop so I threw on my headphones and decided to watch the movie in my desk chair.  Normally, being a web designer and all, I don’t like to sit at my desk any longer than I need to, but in this case I made the exception.  Was I in for a treat.  The movie was pretty good, probably not for everyone, but I stumbled upon an unbelievable listening experience.  Back in film school, my audio teacher told us that some movies are heightened by listening through a great pair of cans, but I really never understood till now.

Music and sound are the icing on the cake of any film.  Most people think that the movies are a visual art medium, but sound is just as important part of the entire package.  Good sound adds a layer of texture and emotion which makes a scene, or entire film great.  (Cake?  Icing?  Layer?  I’m getting hungry).  So I thought I’d compile a list of movies that has great sound if you listen through your headphones.  After all, I’ve been a sound technician and film student in my past!

DISCLAIMER — When I mean headphones I don’t mean earbuds from your ipod.  You might as well shove a carrot in your ear.

DISCLAIMER — Most of these movies are available in Blu-ray.  If you’re still watching in DVD make sure you listen in DTS or Dolby Digital if you can.

DISCLAIMER — This is not a surround sound audio list!  Most of these movies sound amazing in 5.1 or 6.1, but since you have headphones on, it’ll only be in stereo.  So this list is to showcase film making excellence in 2.0 sound.   (Sorry, I’ll stop with the disclaimers now)

THE SOLOIST

The clarity of the cello solos are riveting.  This scene below, starts with a cello solo, adds in birds and the city, then focus back to Jamie Foxx on the cello.  It’s just a gorgeous scene.  Clearly, the director Joe Wright spent a lot of time in the sound room recording and mixing this film.

GLADIATOR

I believe this movie is one of the best sounding DTS films ever made.  Right from beginning sequence of the battle with the barbarians, right to the end, this film embodies great sound.

PAN’S LABYRINTH

ONCE

I admit I almost shed a tear watching this film…. almost.  You know the scene.  You know the song.  This movie does an amazing job of connecting the characters and their emotions using music.

BAND OF BROTHERS

Ok, ok, this is not a movie, it’s a T.V. series (go ahead, call the blogging police).  I originally going to add Saving Private Ryan because of the first 20 minutes, but Band of Brother is just the same, but 20 times longer, and a better watch.  Make sure you watch Episode 7 “The Breaking Point” as Easy Company storms Bastogne.

THE INCREDIBLES

This Pixar gem has the right mixture of music, sound effects and voice acting.  The movie style moves from comic book hero, to family comedy, to retro 70’s, to explosive action film, to James Bond adventure – and all along the sound mix helps carry the film through each transitions.  A little aside, I believe this one of the first Pixar movies that casts the actors to fit the characters, not the other way around.  The end result is one of the best voice acting in animation to date.

LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY

The closest to perfection in movie making as it get, at least in modern movies.  It’s hard to single out the sound because the entire package is so good.  But I guess that’s what I’ve been trying to say all this time!

MOULIN ROUGE

Generally musicals require great sound, and there’s a lot of great musicals.  Sound of Music comes to mind but at the time of writing, I don’t think a remastered version is available that deserves recognition.  Moulin Rouge has a good generational appeal, and well, it the best film choice to help with my Google ranking   All seriousness aside, Baz Luhrmann created a film that gives the viewer sensory overload and he achieves this through color, motion, and sound.

MASTER AND COMMANDER

For a scruffy mumbler, it looks like Russell Crowe seems to have made my list twice!  Now that I think about it, so does the cello.  Aside from the classical music, and the explosive sound effects (of cannon fire), the sound designer discreetly layered in some great background sound  like bird chirps, boat creaks, and ropes pulling.

THE MISSION

I leave this one last because it’s not mainstream, it’s not recent and you most likely never heard of this movie.  Also, since this movie isn’t in wide release, it’s not in Blu-ray or DTS for that matter.  But I’ve included The Mission because the movie made such a great impression on me in the theaters when I saw it in 1986.  I’ve seen it a bunch of times on VHS and DVD since then and still love it to this day (Robert De Niro like you’ve never seen him).  If it ever comes out in Blu-ray, I guarantee, this film will sound flipping amazing!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Thanks for those that have helped me wit this list.  Some other honorable mentions that didn’t make this list is: Top Gun, Amadeus, Rent, Spiderman 3, Jurassic Park, Blade 2, Chicago, Braveheart, Desperado.