WHERE

Sometimes our food world and our design world cross paths serendipitously.

After a few early iterations of a logo, and with an upcoming launch of their new iPhone app and City of Vancouver collaboration, Foodtree asked us to help rebrand.

IDEAS

Foodtree helps people to understand where their food comes from, who produces it, and who handles it as it travels from its source to their plate. Using an open, accessible platform via iPhone app, the intention is to empower people to make informed choices about the food they purchase and ultimately eat.

Although manifest as a website and mobile app to share fresh, mouth-watering photos of food in your community in a fun and simple way, Foodtree is a philosophical and fundamental shift in our approach to understanding the where, why and how of the food we consume. If information is power, then this is one of the key ways we as consumers can control our food supply future. Until we empower ourselves in this way, organic and healthy food will remain a novelty and just slightly out of reach of the mainstream.

Yet, mainstreaming this concern about where our food comes from and what’s in it, is precisely what’s required.

WORK

Rolled out simultaneously for launches in Vancouver and Colorado, we crafted a new logo, complete icon system for the app, signage and materials for on-site promotions.

Inspired by the symbols, styles and ideology of the Homesteading movement, the new identity hearkens to a simpler time of getting back to the land and a self-sufficient lifestyle. The hand-crafting and do-it-yourself ethic also produced a unique aesthetic evocative of an era past, but also in resurgence.

Our future may very well lie in the successful merger of a new integration of technology with the sustainable methods from our past. This is what Foodtree represents and the logo and its application is meant to evoke.

Launch website: www.foodtree.com

As passionate food freaks, it’s all too common to get caught up in the tastes and exoticism of what we are experiencing, rather than in what makes the most sense and is good. In fact, if you look at what makes something ‘gourmet’ these days, more often than not it’s the item that has taken great effort and care to produce and spent the least amount of time traveling from the farm to your table.

A good example of this in Vancouver is asparagus. Ask around and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who can tell you specifically that they’ve even tasted fresh, local asparagus. Seriously. Most of what people buy comes from Mexico or California with little thought to the seasonality, or what was done to it to get it to grow, or survive the long trip here. In contrast, the local season for asparagus is very short—a few weeks at best. If you’re not quick, and early, at the farmer’s market, you might not even realize we have an asparagus supply here!

Enter Foodtree.

Although manifest as a website and mobile app to share fresh, mouth-watering photos of food in your community in a fun and simple way, Foodtree is a philosophical and fundamental shift in our approach to understanding the where, why and how of the food we consume. If information is power, then this is one of the key ways we as consumers can control our food supply future. Until we empower ourselves in this way, organic and healthy food will remain a novelty and just slightly out of reach of the mainstream.

Yet, mainstreaming this concern about where our food comes from and what’s in it, is precisely what’s required.

Inspired by the symbols, styles and ideology of the Homesteading movement, the new identity hearkens to a simpler time of getting back to the land and a self-sufficient lifestyle. The hand-crafting and do-it-yourself ethic also produced a unique aesthetic evocative of an era past, but also in resurgence.

Our future may very well lie in the successful merger of a new integration of technology with the sustainable methods from our past. This is what Foodtree represents and the logo and its application is meant to evoke.

WHERE

GEC Architecture decided the time was right to address two important pieces of their firm: their logo, and how they talk about themselves. To us, these things go hand-in-hand. Without due consideration to the underlying strategies and business objectives, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to evolve or create a new identity that is effective and has any real meaning. Without strategy, any chance that the new brand will last is also just left to chance.

In digging deeply with our process, and involving the partners and key staff at GEC from the start, we were able to bring order and consensus to the project. In our experience, this is often what firms with multiple partners find the most frustrating part of creating new outward expressions of themselves—agreement.

IDEAS

GEC Architecture is an established, Calgary-based firm with a rich history. The work they do represents a depth of knowledge and inherent philosophy that has tangible implications for their studio and their clients. The problem was, oftentimes even those that knew them well would have trouble expressing what it is that makes GEC unique, and the right choice for a given project.

Also on the table was the possibility of a name change. Professional service firms have much to consider here as the trend has been moving away from a collection of partner names to acronyms and more abstract / corporate names. There’s always the equity and familiarity issues to consider, especially the more closely involved still those partners with their names on the door are. However, unless the firm is committed to a name change every five to ten years as partners change, succession planning is an important consideration, and having a name that can transcend individuals is a very viable option.

In this case, we established that the name would remain as is. Following this, our first task was to help GEC find a way to deliver their message clearly, concisely and compellingly. We did this with words, not design, finding the stories within their verbal and written expressions of the company. From this, we had the basis for an internal-facing way to communicate their uniqueness and brand attributes, and a solid platform for the visual design.

WORK

The new GEC logo is based on what we call, The GEC Way: context, leadership and innovation. Together these guiding principles of the practice give them a unique perspective and drive them to advance (the firm, their people, the work and architecture as a whole). This is symbolized using overlapping letterforms in the wordmark. The rounded shapes are meant to lend a familiar and approachable quality alongside the playfulness of the colours. Offsetting the colour is the word “architecture” in grey, a more traditional colour that conjures solidity and professionalism.

Online, this playfulness and the overlapping colour elements come together with large, full-screen images of the firm’s work. In the footer, the blue, orange and green elements serve as content areas for expressing the GEC Way on the homepage, and particularly in the Porfolio section where they are used to discretely showcase project descriptions, lists and gallery pagination. Thus, the rationale for the logo and the intersecting components have been given a dynamic treatment as part of the user interface.

Built on a Drupal platform, the site now gives the firm complete control of their own content for the first time, empowering them to keep things fresh. A blog will also help with internal culture and communications about what’s going on in the studio, and give potential and current clients and employees a deep look into the firm.

We’ve said it before, we love working with architects. Turns out, the reason we do is the same reason so many others do not: they speak our language, they have opinions and often solid rationale to back them up. This project was no different, and it’s supremely satisfying to navigate a group of architect partners through a process such as this to a place where not only are they all extremely happy with the result, but also have successfully launched the new brand into their culture, with full staff buy-in. And, if the staff embrace the work, it’s a very good sign that clients and prospects will too. In fact, they have.

Launch website: gecarchitecture.com

WHERE

Start over. That’s the mantra of this fitness and nutrition company, and what we did for KINETIX Living (click here to view old website). Starting with their ubiquitous old brand based on “living”, something long ago usurped by the likes of Martha Stewart, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and others, we needed to create considerable distance from them.

The new brand needed to bury the old, soft, lighthearted and inauthentic and rise up with a bold, gritty and genuine voice that implies sports and athletics, and better represent the idea that this is a credible program for people who are serious about making real physical and life changes.

Speaking of people making real physical changes, for those of you who know us, you also know we are really into our food (foodists.ca). Over the years, our bodies haven’t exactly been exempt from the effects of our epicurean passions, so we found ourselves smack in the middle of the target audience and prime candidates for a complete immersion into the brand. Fortuitous really, since immersion into the brand is a key part of our process.

With a complete revamp of the business model coming in a short six months, the brand was just the beginning. We were also needed to translate the company’s new vision to an enterprise class web application and iPhone app.

IDEAS

Our goals were lofty, but not unobtainable:

1. Position KINETIX as the most cutting edge / current health & fitness company out there
2. Tighten the brand and related elements and create a great platform
3. Develop and convey our story in an emotionally connecting way, driving love and inspiration of the brand
4. Connect with our current and future community
5. Be ahead of the ‘wellness’ industry to enable us to grow into THE health & fitness brand

How’d we do it? Well, we started with research, then more research. In fact, the entire studio enrolled in the KINETIX program to get first hand insights into the company and the program. We literally lived, ate and breathed KINETIX. The other key was assembling a team for the software and mobile application development with Thirdi Software and Atimi Software. A finely developed process and tools for source control, issue tracking software, and project management were critical.

A new brand essence emerged from our Discovery process: Rebel. Ignite. Commit. The idea behind this was simply that this company was going to rise up from their status quo, burn down any paradigms in their way, and commit to a new way of doing things—this is exactly what they wanted of their clients. This gave way to the development of the new logo and brand filter, through which we would weigh all new work to ensure it was on brand. Additionally the Kx icon served as the inspiration for a new system of symbols used throughout the KINETIX program.

In tandem with the brand development, work was well underway on content and information strategy for the website and iPhone app. Working with this was no ordinary website either: Once a user was signed in, data was seamlessly synced to their iPhone or other device (and back), allowing them to track their fitness and nutrition, communicate with a coach and reference handy meal and restaurant information. The iPhone app is essentially a ‘coach in your pocket’, taking you through each day’s exercise routine step-by-step.

WORK

When the client applauded after we revealed the brand work, we knew we were on the right path. If success of the project was measured by Starbucks and YUM! Brands joining the program rollout, or when the iPhone app was approved and posted to Apple’s App Store in days instead of the weeks that is the norm, then we achieved our goals. However, nothing is quite as salient as when we hear things like:

“Industrial Brand and their partners are a tsunami of talent, passion and creativity. Beauty is skin deep however and IB goes beyond just the look of a brand to unearth the core values and key strategic positioning that will help a company differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace. IB is flexible and creative in their problem solving and didn’t flinch at helping us launch a new brand, new website and new digital app in a crushingly brief time line. Speaking from both the strategic goals and visual brand consistency that we required, IB delivered on all fronts.”—Lou Maxon, VP Brand Experience and Design, KINETIX

Launch website: kxme.com

WHERE

With a coveted location atop Burnaby Mountain in the heart of UniverCity, a progressive community modelled on sustainability, Porte Development had a unique story to tell prospective buyers.

IDEAS

We were part of an integrated team comprised of the developer, the architects, interior designers and the sales/marketing team. Following envisioning sessions and a research and discovery phase to compile information and insights about Burnaby Mountain and the project, our first task was naming. “Origin” speaks to the natural setting as much as it does the genesis of new approach to living that is embedded in the planning of this sustainable community.

Original photography was given a collage-like effect to evoke the idea of unique and varied perspectives. This was brought to life using the tagline “View Different”, as much about taking a second and third look at where you want to live as to how. The spectacular view from atop the mountain, fresh air, forested trails and proximity to town are just a few of the reasons to believe!

The new identity was applied to the interior and exterior of the sales presentation centre, signage, website, brochures, advertising and other collateral to create a consistent and seamless brand experience.

WORK

With a look that retains eye-catching prominence, yet respects the natural setting, by all accounts feedback has been extremely positive. Considering the project has sold 40 percent of available units within three weeks of the sales centre opening, it’s evident of a successful marketing launch.

Launch website: liveorigin.com

In November 2009 I wrote an article featured in Blitz Magazine about the award-winning brand identity and web project we created for Yaaway.com:

Separating Church and State (of Mind)
At some point in our lives, each of us learns the lesson that discussing religion or politics in mixed company can backfire. You can really set some people off and ruin a nice dinner party by sharing some personal convictions. This issue was a concern when we were first approached by the semi-religious organization, Yaaway Media, to design a brand identity for a community media website aimed at inspiring a more caring and wise world by sharing the messages and lessons of the man called Jesus—not so much the central figure in the Christian religion, but the historical figure whose sage wisdom is as relevant today as it has been for centuries. ‘Sound like an interesting challenge? We thought so too.

Keenly aware that our company is largely defined by its clients and projects, we always evaluate opportunities against a set of criteria that include profit, portfolio, ethics, and fit—but what about optics? At first, this situation felt a little like that which arose when gambling or pornography companies had approached us in the past, leading us to politely decline the work. No matter how you slice it, religion is a touchy topic. Our association with the project could have an impact our own brand, so we had to tread carefully.

Once the project was finished, and though proud of the results, members of the Industrial Brand team would hesitate before discussing the Yaaway project, making sure to explain the situation clearly to avoid it being summarily categorized as bible-thumper fodder. Our team members’ histories run the gamut of those raised in religious homes of various faiths, to those who are completely secular. We didn’t all share our client’s beliefs, but didn’t oppose them either, and following the completion of our initial assessment process, we were surprised at how quickly we became comfortable with the subject matter. The message was positive, and nobody was being duped.

Starting Out: Sunday School
To set the stage, the Yaaway team—a group of experienced media professionals—had already spent over a year (and considerable funds) building the framework and technology platform for a large online community, based on media sharing and social networking. The site was much like a mash-up between Facebook and YouTube, but with a difference: each video and post would ideally be centred on personal stories about Jesus. Not necessarily about Christianity, but Jesus himself. The site would be free to join and use, there were no plans for any advertising or revenue streams, and any user would be welcome to participate, regardless of perspective or religious affiliation.

You’re thinking: “So what’s the catch?” Well, we wondered the same thing, and were suspicious about a business model that didn’t include any plans for revenue. We did our homework and discovered that there really wasn’t a catch. Yaaway was a group that had the foresight to say, “Okay, there are a lot of issues and stereotypes surrounding religion these days. So how do we still get out the message of ‘doing good for your fellow man’, while side-stepping the existing public perception of Christianity?” The answer they came up with was to distill the core messages from the historical teachings of Jesus and avoid getting bogged down by the dogma of organized Christianity.

As the project got under way, we realized how unique the creative brief really was. How would we be able to create an identity suitable for a web-savvy community centreed on Jesus’ story and wisdom, while avoiding traditional religious icons? As a group of brand designers with varying perspectives on faith and religion, we were rather intimidated by this unusual situation. At the same time, we were excited by the design challenge to create an identity that expressed Jesus-centric sharing without looking ‘churchy’. Like many previous challenging projects, sticking to our proven design methodology lit the way.

Meet Jesus: Just a Guy With a Beard
As we began digging into the project, we learned that the core of this online community was a unique world view. They called it a ‘Spiritual Point of View’, focused on the “non-religious life of Jesus, the humble person who transforms people of every social class and culture with a spirit of truth and love.” We weren’t convinced that you could really separate Jesus from religion.

As designers in the branding business, we often toot our horns about building on the existing equity of a brand. This client had the exact opposite problem. It needed to distance itself from the existing brand perception of the Jesus camp—often viewed as right-wing fundamentalists. Beyond the unique portfolio addition this project represented, it was a rare opportunity and challenge.

What the Heck is a Yaaway?
The name Yaaway is a playful re-interpretation of Yahweh, originally an ancient Hebrew word for God, or “the one”. By misspelling the word, our client sought to not only distance itself from a traditional religious word, but create a fun, youthful-sounding, nonsense word like Google or Yahoo. The word also wouldn’t have obvious religious connotations. Another benefit was that the word Yaaway could be purchased as a domain name, which was critical.

Early on we uncovered the fact that our client had already invested significantly in the development of the technology behind the online platform, which was being beta-tested online. Yet after more than a year of work on the project, the company had not engaged in any brand strategy or identity design, and had been using a placeholder logomark which was essentially a knock-off of the YouTube logo—a thoughtless contribution by one of its technology developers. This approach was clearly unsuitable as its identity needed to stand apart not only from other religious-based sites, but from the social media/video sharing world. Said the company’s owner, “I feel like we’ve built a world-class race car without considering the body style or paint job.”

The original Yaaway logo.

Seek and Ye Shall Find
The goal for the Yaaway website was to create a safe, friendly and welcoming experience about the real Jesus, and not about Christianity. The brand and user experience would have to appeal to a global community of spiritually-motivated and non-denominational visitors pursuing truth and knowledge, and all faiths would be welcome. The core of the site content would be stories and video and, although debate would be encouraged, any antagonistic, irrelevant or inappropriate content—such as the promotion of exclusive religious doctrine—would not be welcome.

That said, unlike so many religious websites (and there are many), this site would have virtually no editorial control. The content would be self-organized by the community itself in the spirit of a Wiki, with the founders ‘letting it go’, for the most part. Content that members enjoyed and valued would be promoted by users through a voting system, while content not viewed as harmonious with the spirit of the site would settle to the bottom, down-voted and nixed by the user community.

What Would Jesus Design?
An early research step in our process was what we refer to as a Brand Discovery session, essentially a workshop including a series of exercises and games designed to challenge key stakeholders’ preconceived notions and assumptions. As with many clients over the years, our Yaaway clients arrived in our studio with ideas of what they wanted to accomplish, who their audience was, and what was needed to achieve their goals. Our first job was to challenge that paradigm, and dig deeper into the situation to reveal more than could be expressed in an initial creative briefing. The workshop culminated in identifying Yaaway’s brand essence and aspirations, and the creation of a visioning statement to provide the core direction for the brand design project.

Due to our client’s own moderate views on Jesus, we explored the extreme right-wing, church-driven fundamentalist websites, and determined how Yaaway was not that. In fact, one of the more interesting things that emerged during this research phase was that it was far easier to determine what Yaaway was not, which was one of the best ways of determining what it was. This was especially relevant to the project as the identity of the Yaaway community would be largely determined by the users themselves. Plus, this process of discovery made a huge difference to our own acceptance of the client and the project.

Personal biases began creeping into our team’s psyche, and as communication designers, it’s critical that we’re able to set aside our own preconceived notions and focus on the goals, needs and audience at the core of the problem before us. However, the topic of Jesus Christ was a difficult one to remain unbiased about, regardless of faith or perspective. The tactic we settled upon was relative to a round-table discussion; one where any issue or query could be aired without judgment, and then settled before approaching the next. After confronting and discussing our biases, we let our process reveal what our assumptions clouded and the identity began to take shape.

What Does Your Soul Look Like?
As far as branding and identity challenges go, this project had many. In creating the identity, we had to dive deep down into what the site could become well into the future. This invariably led to some interesting and important developments when designing the website itself.

Beside the fact that the intended audience was a vast multicultural group made up of various ages, educations and faiths, the client insisted that we avoid direct references to the image of Christ, as well as classic icons of Christianity such as a crucifix, lamb, fish, crown of thorns, etc. The logo and website interface had to look ‘Web 2.0′ while standing out against sites like YouTube, Facebook, DailyMotion, etc., and it most certainly had to up-stage related competitors such as GodTube, JesusClips, and GospelTube. Further, the site had already gone live as a beta with placeholder graphics and an interface that hadn’t fully considered the user experience. We had our work cut out for us.

We began by highlighting key words, targeting various graphic elements and iconography, in order to grasp particular themes and ideas. We then cross-referenced the visual language of spirituality (both subtle and blatant), with the vast online social networking meme, seeking inspiration for ways to communicate the concept of non-denominational spiritual dialogue, while avoiding cliché graphics.

A sample of some of our concept sketches during the design process.

As community, sharing, connections, and exchange of ideas became central themes, we sketched and explored visual language that included speech balloons and quotation marks as connectors, links, overlapping elements, clusters and video screens. An epiphany came when the speech balloons were arranged to reveal a cross in the negative space—a fortunate point of view as the client didn’t want Yaaway to have any obvious religious or denominational overtones.

Another moment of insight came upon reviewing many different styles of quote marks. Arranged in an organic cluster at varied sizes, they suggest abstracted talking heads coming together in their shared dialogue. With some adjustments, that central point of focus became the ‘invisible’ cross discovered earlier.

Custom typography to complement the rounded forms of icon was developed along with a colour system flexible for both print and web environments. This vibrant palette suggests a journey from cold to hot, as from discovery to acceptance, as the ascending quotes reach upwards to a more spiritual focus. Four graphic elements not only provided the minimum for a sense of community, but four elements also serve to represent the four books of the New Testament and the four disciples who wrote their chronicles of Jesus’ life.

The final logomark, fully realized and addressing the brief, client requirements and target audience.

As wtih all identity design projects, we ran the final top three logos through a theoretical strainer. Is it readable? Is it relevant? Does the typography resonate with the brand? Elements right down to subtle moods changes affected by colour were scrutinized. The editing process is always one of love and hate; but it’s what takes a logo from good to outstanding.

Of couse, final delivery of the brand design included many elements beyond the logo. These included a comprehensive online brand usage guide, complete stationery package, collateral and promotional materials, signage, and the critical interface design for the website.

Some of the applications of the new Yaaway identity and web interface:

On the 70th day, We Rested
Yaaway was a challenging project; one that our team will not soon forget. We are proud that our belief in creative strategy helped us overcome what at first seemed a worrisome project with a challenging brief. This case study will serve as a litmus test and benchmark for future brand identity projects, proving that even when faced with extreme difficulty, our individual talents, combined with our collective faith in the design process, will guide us to effective solutions. We no longer pause before showing off the project, often catching new clients off guard by saying “Can we tell you about Jesus?”

But Was the Project a Success?
The client was ecstatic with the brand platform and, after several months, re-launched its website, promoting it publicly. The site began to expand daily, with a growing collective of spiritually curious users signing up, engaging in dialogue and up-loading videos. The identity even won industry recognition such as a prestigious Communication Arts Award in the 2009 Design Annual.

Then, trouble. It was found that the primary users on the site were Christian—no surprise for us, but a disappointment for the client. Although we were told the site was making good progress, the client suddenly announced that further development of the project was being halted and the core team disbanded. The owner felt compelled to change direction and discontinued his funding. With his original unusual business model lacking a revenue stream, it was no surprise that he ultimately decided to commercially market the technology platform to groups and associations looking to build their own media-based online social networks.

Recently the Yaaway.com website itself went offline, surely a disappointment for those who worked so hard on it for two years. But, maybe one day, it will rise from the dead.

Click here to view a brief case study in our portfolio or click here to download the longer case study overview as a PDF.

WHERE

When Amacon, a prominent Canadian real estate developer, wanted to really differentiate their latest condo project at East 7th and Main Street in Vancouver they also wanted to stray away from the same-same, me too approach that this city has been overrun with. They asked Industrial Brand to help them break free and capture the essence of the neighbourhood.

IDEAS

Before we started with the naming portion of the project we established that to stand out we needed to link to the history of the site and culture of the area, a Collective created by the souls and actions of its residents: shops, food, art, architecture, and events made by the aggregate of their ideas and values. And most importantly, we had to be genuine. This meant tossing out overused words, phrases and adjectives such as urban, spacious, luxury, incredible, spectacular and legendary!

We created the name District for the project to bring to mind the name of a favourite bar, restaurant or shop as much as to define the area within the neighbourhood. In fact, even elements for the logo were found on the street, including on tree grates.

WORK

Since we work and live in the area already, we geared up with our cameras and set out to capture the people, places and things that make Main Street, well, Main Street. We did this several times throughout the project and many of these images have been used throughout the materials.

Speaking of which, these included: stationery, teaser and launch websites, email template, twitter site branding, promotional brochure and advertising. In addition, we developed all the site singage including giant 40’ x 2-’ billboards, the presentation centre exterior signage and interior branding and messaging.

In a market still recovering from the recent economic downturn, the project was 94% sold on the opening day. The balance sold within a week, leading the way for the developer to expand the project to the planned second building much earlier than expected. A success by all measures, and sure to be a great place to live shortly.

Launch website: southmaindistrict.com

“We at Amacon have had the pleasure of working with Ben, Mark and the IB team since the spring of 2009. We began our relationship with IB on a project called District in South Main. This was a different project than most as it was in a somewhat undeveloped neighborhood and we knew we needed to go “outside of the box” to appeal to our target market. IB provided creative and insightful ideas and presentation thus leading to great success. We since continued our relationship on completely different projects but without disappointment IB has continued to deliver. They pride themselves on creativity and hard work which has paved they way for their great success!” – Nic Jensen, Sales and Marketing Manager.

WHERE

Maybe it’s no surprise we enjoy working with architects. Our work with Henriquez Partners, Marceau Evans Johnson and UBC School of Architecture (SALA) is evidence of that. So it was with great enthusiasm that we commenced working with Hughes Condon Marler Architects (HCMA) recently.

Their need for a better online presence brought with it enough questions for them about their identity, and admission of a general dissatisfaction with it, that we started the process by working with the partners of the firm in a workshop setting. In our Brand Discovery session we set out to dig deeper into the firm’s core and direction. An important consideration was whether a firm name based on the names of the partners is sustainable, especially if one should leave, in the end settling on the shorter name HCMA, an acronym already used by many clients and people in their industry.

Our goal was to address this in support of future growth, the changing landscape of firm culture and as a means of effectively differentiating them from the many other firms out there.

IDEAS

In our past and current research of architecture firms in North America and elsewhere in the world we found that in general firms seek to differentiate themselves by portraying their work in photography–clean, sculptural, dramatic images on sunny days or dusk settings, and devoid of evidence that they are intended for human use. Many of the logos are simple, font-based wordmarks and play only a supporting role to the oeuvre.

HCMA wanted to show that at their core, the projects they undertake are for, about and because of the communities they serve. The result is “Considered Environments”, and photography that speaks to their depth of understanding and the not always apparent details that go into making a given building a success after the grand opening ribbon is cut.

WORK

The underlying concept of the new HCMA logo is about the small and large details inherent in creating successful architecture, and the revelation of the spaces they reside in. In much the same way that Michaelangelo suggested he merely revealed a sculpture already existing within the stone, HCMA brings life to spaces, be they within a structure; to the site a building is to be situated on; and eventually to the places that become a part of a vibrant and successful contribution to a community.

HCMA’s role is to discover, uncover, enhance and create these spaces, revealing their potential. With their insights, passion, and consideration, HCMA feeds the eventual delight and enjoyment of its clients and those who use the buildings they design.

The angled slice off the bottom of the logomark partially obscures the typography to create open spaces within which details may exist or be built. It also brings a new and unexpected meaning and form to the letters, a portion of which are hidden, or depending on your viewpoint, yet to emerge. Ultimately, this represents the details and thinking behind HCMA’s work. It is in these details that HCMA sets itself apart, and what the the identity conveys.

We applied this thinking to a completely new stationery package featuring a registered blind emboss with clear foil stamp for the logo to create an elegant and tactile quality. Business cards and letterhead also feature full colour photography on the backs to complete the “Considered environments” message. Internal and external documents such as report and proposal design, title blocks, templates, forms and even notepads were also created alongside a new CMS-driven website that is the centerpiece for the formal launch of the new identity. Feedback has been extremely positive, and the partners are unanimously thrilled as they now have a strong brand to confidently build the future of the firm.

“I just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with our printed materials. I think that it all turned out extremely well. I am particularly pleased with the cards, the gridded paper and the compliments card, the envelopes….actually with everything. I am very confident that this material will serve us well. We are anxiously awaiting the rest of the materials so that we can launch in the near future. Thanks again to everyone at IB for your exceptional work.” – Darryl Condon, Principal, MAIBC, AAA, OAA, FRAIC, LEED® AP

Launch website: hcma.ca

Leo Obstbaum, Design Director for VANOC 2010 Olympics

My friend and colleague Leo Obstbaum, the creative mastermind behind the designs of the Vancouver Olympic Games, died suddenly in his home of natural causes in the early hours of Friday, August 21st. He left behind his beautiful wife Monice and young daughter Dakota. He was just 40 years old—the same age as I am.

Leo and I spoken numerous times that week and even had plans to meet that day after work to catch up over drinks and discuss a presentation he’d been preparing about his work on the Olympics. It was a talk he hoped to refine and present during Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 next spring. I’ll never forget hearing the tragic news and trying to come to terms with the fact that my friend was suddenly gone. It really shook me up. As devastated as I felt, I couldn’t imagine the feeling of loss his family was enduring.

Click here to read the entire article on GDC/BC’s blog.