Recently a prospective new client asked us some rather pointed questions about the nature of what we provided as brand designers, the difference between branding and marketing, as well as some other rather insightful queries. This client wa [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 30th, 2012
Categories: Articles, Branding, Design, Tips | No Comments »
An article titled Substance over Style by our Design Director Mark Busse was recently featured in the latest issue of Business In Vancouver’s Adpages Magazine about how businesses can more effectively attract, evaluate and select a de [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Categories: Articles, Reading, Tips, Vancouver | No Comments »
Move beyond the RFP to evaluate and hire the best design firm I have responded to numerous Requests For Proposals (RFPs) in the two decades I have been managing a design studio, and we have developed a point of view that makes some business [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, April 8th, 2011
Categories: Articles, Industrial Brand, Learning, Tips | 1 Comment »
Article in BIV's How-To 2011 publication argues that businesses who invest in hiring experienced designers have advantage and reap rewards.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, February 13th, 2011
Categories: Articles, Industrial Brand, Reading, Tips, Vancouver | 1 Comment »
An open letter to our future clients on why we charge more.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, January 29th, 2011
Categories: Articles, Industrial Brand, Tips, We love | 2 Comments »
Over the years as a design director, design association executive, and design instructor, I’ve been asked by innumerable potential students about the merits or shortcomings of the various local design schools. It seemed time to put these [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, October 15th, 2010
Categories: Articles, Design, Education, Learning, Tips | No Comments »
Last year our brand identity project for Yaaway was featured in BIV’s special AdPages issue in an article called Logos Stick written by Jill Lambert. This year we are proud to have some of our work and opinions featured by BIV again, [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Categories: Articles, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Reading, Tips | No Comments »
“We need a Facebook page and a Twitter account, right?” ask many of our clients these days. Much like clients who want news sections or blogs as part of their websites, our answer is always “It really depends.” If so [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Categories: Articles, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Tips | 2 Comments »
Our very own Matt SamyciaWood was featured in a recent issue of Business in Vancouver with his article A Home Business is Still a Business. Addressing some of the more common mistakes with branding a business, Matt shares insights into how [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Categories: Articles, Branding, Learning, Tips | No Comments »
We’re often asked about how Industrial Brand does business development and find our clients. Good question, but not one that can be easily answered in a short explanation or blog post. One issue that always gets met with raised eyebro [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, September 25th, 2009
Categories: Articles, Branding, Tips | 1 Comment »
If you didn’t catch the grammatical error in the title of this post (or the many in the photo for that matter), read on… Unlock the latch and propping open the lid of my secret chest of pet peeves and you’ll see that nothi [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, July 27th, 2009
Categories: Design, Education, Marketing, Tips | 1 Comment »
I sense a long article coming on. This happens with me sometimes as things rattle around in my brain, and if I don’t write something—often something snarky—it haunts me to the point of distraction. As someone who has always been r [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Categories: Industrial Brand, Tips | 5 Comments »
Backing up information seems like such a simple thing to do, but stop and consider if your information is actually safely backed up? With the demise of Ma.gnolia last week many are left wondering about the state of their backups particularl [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, February 16th, 2009
Categories: Technology, Tips | No Comments »
If you’ve been to any conference you’ve seen the good and the bad of speakers. Some of the best known designers have left me cold and uninspired due in part to poor presentation skills. Veteran speaker speaker, Cameron Moll, off [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, February 16th, 2009
Categories: Education, Tips | No Comments »
Here’s a little treat for users who spend hours finding just the right typeface. Flipping Typical is magical. An online tool that give you the ability to enter a word or phrase and view the different variations using fonts in your com [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Categories: Tips, We love | 1 Comment »
Readers who watch Friends, you might know what my title means. For the past few weeks Todd and I have been working on furnishing his new place. Not only has this move given me an opportunity to fuel my interest in interior design, but also [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Tips | No Comments »
For those who want an iphone but can’t bring themselves to pay those ridiculous fees. Check out this new Canadian cell company (launching next year) asking for your opinion on ways to make your cellular experience better. I’m ro [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Categories: News, Tips | No Comments »
We’ve been inundated with messages about how we suck at Photoshop so I was glad to finally find some nice Photoshop Tutorials. But with so many tutorials and so little time in the day, one tip in a 10 minute video simply doesn’t [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, July 7th, 2008
Categories: Learning, Tips | No Comments »
First off, congrats to Firefox for a smashingly successful launch of Firefox 3. Almost 30 million downloads worldwide (as displayed on the cool map on SpreadFirefox.com which itself is good overview of a savy web audience worldwide). Apart [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
Categories: Interactive, Tips | No Comments »
Young designers often ask us what the most important skills or things to know are. And they are invariably surprised when we say the ability to write proficiently in English (with correct grammar and spelling) is critical in the communicati [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, June 20th, 2008
Categories: Tips, Websites | No Comments »
PicLens have just notified us of the recent additions to their free software. You can now browse, watch videos, and shop online in 3D. Well… sort of. For those who aren’t aware of PicLens we blogged about it here.
Posted by: Steph Co on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Categories: News, Tips | 1 Comment »
Steve did a good job summing up our experiences with his review of the 2008 HOW Design Conference, which I enjoyed, so I won’t double our efforts describing the event here. But as I hear myself responding to so many questions about ho [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, May 26th, 2008
Categories: Design, Events, Tips | 2 Comments »
We’ve used FunctionFox‘s TimeFox web-based time and project management tools for years and love it. Their new TimeFox Premier release has added handy functionality such as task management, to-do lists, calendar and scheduling to [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, March 21st, 2008
Categories: Design, Learning, Reading, Tips, We love | No Comments »
Maybe it’s all the issues of design mags in there, or maybe it’s a new twist on the creative process but early this morning Mark took his laptop and locked himself in our one and only washroom and he’s STILL there! I wonde [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Categories: Fun, News, Tips | 1 Comment »
Our clients at Nokia have outfitted our team with some fancy new phones recently and each day I discover some new feature that I love. Today I discovered the power of Google Mobile. Not only is the entire suite of Google services such as Se [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, February 1st, 2008
Categories: Technology, Tips | No Comments »
Long gone are the days of guilt-free ridonculously extravagant gift-giving. Not that I’d like a return to over spending and under thinking gift giving, but it seems that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. We’ve become [...]
Posted by: Claire Alexander on Friday, December 14th, 2007
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning, Sustainability, Tips | No Comments »
Championed by Toronto designer Bernard Hellen from Traffic Marketing + Design, the Forestry Stewardship Council of Canada has recently released the FSCXpert™ program. An educational program and designation for individuals that are committ [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Categories: News, Sustainability, Tips | No Comments »
For you interweb amateurs out there, here’s a handy system to determine if a web page sucks.
Posted by: Leigh Peterson on Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Categories: Tips, Websites | No Comments »
I don’t want to harp on my pathetic luck, but last week I rebroke my foot doing too much too soon. It’s highly disappointing discovering that you are not, in fact, invincible, and that stubbornness is your own worst enemy. IR [...]
Posted by: Leigh Peterson on Friday, September 14th, 2007
Categories: Fun, Industrial Brand, Tips | No Comments »
In the event you need/wish to eat human flesh you may want to consult the handy guide Thirty Illnesses Sorted According to Whether or Not You Can Eat the Victims kindly provided courtesy of McSweeney’s. Of course, it’s not all t [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
Categories: Food, Tips | No Comments »
I’m generally disgusted by the way people conduct themselves in cars, so this concept seems right up my alley: “Sick of a car taking up two spaces on the street? How about a car too close to yours? What about the car at the mall [...]
Posted by: Leigh Peterson on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
Categories: Fun, Tips | No Comments »
I’ve always appreciated defined methodologies and well documented processes with steps, procedures and documentation. It’s long been an accepted approach to developing design or technology solutions. And nowhere has this been mo [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, July 19th, 2007
Categories: Learning, Reading, Technology, Tips | 1 Comment »
I’ll gladly admit that I’m no coder, but Coda is a cool application. Text editor + Transmit + CSS editor + Terminal + Books + More all in one window.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
Categories: Design, Technology, Tips, We love, Websites | 1 Comment »
We often implement content management systems (CMS) for our web clients and the topic of Drupal versus WordPress is commonly debated. Linux.com’s Bruce Byfield recently compared the two open source platforms, comparing their interface [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
Categories: Learning, Technology, Tips, Websites | 1 Comment »
Here’s an interesting site called Design Directory with the claim it was “made by designers for designers” which looks interesting as a resource centre. It’s primarily a link farm, but it’s got all the expected [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Categories: Design, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
In the spririt of clearing our minds and bodies daily in anticipation of creative greatness, we at Industrial Brand follow a strict morning exercise regime. Now you can follow along too.
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, February 9th, 2007
Categories: Fun, Industrial Brand, Tips | 1 Comment »
It’s time to weigh in on the subject of Digital Democracy and Net Neutrality. No, we’re not just talking about clever alliteration, there’s a lot at stake here. At issue here, as in the United States, is whether telecom co [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Thursday, February 1st, 2007
Categories: Learning, Technology, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
Trends in graphic design can really suck, but they exist. Nothing seems new anymore and there’s no way to predict what will become popular. As brand identity designers, it is best to be as aware of them as possible so you don’t [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, January 19th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
The struggle to find a balance between work and life is hard for anyone in creative industry, but even more so for creatives who freelance; for these unlucky individuals, work life and home life often fall into a single space. I’ve st [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
Categories: Learning, Tips, Vancouver | 2 Comments »
A short while ago I was invited by New Media BC to sit on a panel discussion with some industry colleagues called Work-Life Balance: Empty Promise or Key to Happiness?. If you were, I dunno – say, too busy to attend the event at Vanco [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
Categories: Tips | No Comments »
We didn’t make the list, but Communication Arts’ 2006 50 Essential Bookmarks is a great resource for design and advertising fodder.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, December 31st, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Learning, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
For those of you that buy print and spec paper on a regular basis, it can be a daunting tasks to determine what grades are available for your project. And waiting for the paper spec rep to show up or return your call isn’t much help. [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
Categories: Design, Printing, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
Adobe has released a new website dedicated to exploring colour called Kuler. (get it…. colour…. kuler… colour…. kuler…) You can use it to explore colour combinations online and of course download an app to use [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Learning, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
NEW MEDIA BC EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Work/Life Balance: Empty Promise or Key to Happiness? Join New Media BC for a round-table discussion with top-notch service professionals from Vancouver as we dive into what “balance” means, shar [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Categories: Associations, Events, Learning, Tips, Vancouver | No Comments »
Now I’m not one for burning incense, feng shui or other slightly wacky ideas, but this one I can’t say no to. Global Orgasm Day….. how can this be a bad thing? Well, if you ignore STD’s, unwanted pregnancies, awkward [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, November 16th, 2006
Categories: Events, Inspiration, Pop Culture, Tips | 1 Comment »
If you are planning to take over the world one meeeeleeeon dollars at a time, then you’re going to need this evil chair. Only $4500.00 CDN. Thanks to our good, yet diabolical, friend John M for this one!
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, November 9th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips | 1 Comment »
All I can say is wow, check out what Jacob and Manto have to say.
Posted by: todd smith on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Learning, Tips | No Comments »
A lack of.. uh, hmm… courage, has for many years been keeping men from showcasing their toolbags, it is no secret. Now, the pros at AussieBum have begun using “Wondercup” technology to create “appearance flattering u [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Monday, November 6th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Fun, Learning, Pop Culture, Tips | No Comments »
I just stumbled onto this great reference page put together by a “webmaster and web developer”. On it are links to all the resources he (or she) uses in the course of their work. It’s stuffed full of handy dandy links, too [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, October 27th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips, Websites | 1 Comment »
With a long history of innovation and leadership in the commercial printing industry, Hemlock Printers has just launched an online version of their popular newsletter, Inklings. With news and updates from their plant floor, e-Inklings newsl [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, October 26th, 2006
Categories: Learning, News, Printing, Reading, Technology, Tips | No Comments »
Every once in a while I visit my bookmarks and look at random things that at some point in the past I must have felt would come in handy one day or that I didn’t want to loose. Looking through these I see that indeed, I’ve becom [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, September 22nd, 2006
Categories: Tips | No Comments »
Ever felt the need to take self help classes from Mr. T? Well, wait no longer, because apparently he’s using tough love as he “Teaches fools some basic rules,” since “there’s no shortage of fools that needs his [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Friday, September 22nd, 2006
Categories: Fun, Pop Culture, Tips | 1 Comment »
“Recognizing the importance of design is a corporation’s first step to creating great design. The second step is talking to good designers immediately.”
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips | No Comments »
Our buddy Eric over at IdeasOnIdeas.com has put into words what I’ve been trying to communicate to students for years. Effective design of any sort is borne of “messing about”, sketching and thoughtful writing. Being able [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Reading, Tips | No Comments »
This would have come in handy a while ago when we had our cute rodent visitor … and the exterminator thought I was crazy for wanting him to come to my place and catch the little critter without killing it, he obviously doesnt read Mak [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
Categories: Learning, Tips | No Comments »
This just in: less is more.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Thursday, March 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Learning, Marketing, Tips | 2 Comments »
DesignEducation.ca is a compendium of the best design resources available on the Web based on founder Gustavo Machado’s teaching philosophy: to share everything that he knows with the community. The site contains more resources than I [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
The highlight of day two at Flashforward for me was a presentation by well known speaker Larry Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, entitled Building the Read/W [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, March 1st, 2006
Categories: Events, Learning, Tips | 1 Comment »
While planning my upcoming trip to FlashForward in Seattle, I noticed their sponsor Lynda.com and was impressed by what they offer. Often confronted with the challenge of learning new technologies or new staff hires that aren’t famili [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
Categories: Learning, Technology, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
IBC are proud members and supporters of the BC Chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) and are thrilled to announce the launch of the BC Chapter’s Blog. The blog, developed by IBC, was designed to open a more tangi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Industrial Brand, Inspiration, News, Tips, We love, Websites | No Comments »
The Prepared Mind is one of the best (and only) podcasts dedicated to issues affecting the graphic design industry. Check out the latest podcast as host Chris Gee speaks candidly with Jason Fried of 37signals, the company behind the wildly [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
Categories: Learning, Tips, Websites | 1 Comment »
Marketers, strategists and gurus often preach about the importance of messaging, but often overlook simple and effective opportunities to reinforce focused messaging to an audience. Here's an example of a company with a powerful message usi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, August 20th, 2005
Categories: Tips | No Comments »
All you need is $30 dollars, high-design PVC tubing, and a caulk gun. via Engadget
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005
Categories: Tips | No Comments »
The problem with many do-it-yourself craft projects is that they don’t look cool. ReadyMade solves this. For example, not sure what to do with those empty 50-100 CD spindles? Rather than throw them out, make a cool lamp!
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, January 6th, 2005
Categories: Tips | No Comments »
