Alberta Design Blog

So I have this book… my Dad gave it to me in 1979. It’s a Christmas book about Santa’s workshop. I treasure this book. I keep it in a box and it only comes out once a year for about 2 weeks. Thing is, this is one of those pop-up books with flaps and tabs and things to pull and tug . I remember playing with it, I can almost recite it and it’s a Huge part of my personal heritage. My kids now have that link to my past and we can enjoy it together.

The thing that amazes me about this book – that in the mid 1970′s a book like this would be conceived and designed completely by hand. The intricate die-cutting was all planned with a pencil, exacto knife and many many mock-ups. This is mind boggling. We build die-cuts all the time and it’s pretty normal for us here at Redpoint. But we’re cutting square brochures and pocket folders. The craftsmanship that went into this 30-year-old-Hallmark book is amazing. read more

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We recently completed two tradeshow banners for Pink Suede Imaging. They turned out so wonderful I felt the need to blog. Pink Suede is a service that assists women in the area of personal image. Think of them as the What Not to Wear of Red Deer. If Clint & Stacy came to pay a visit I think they would be rather pleased. An awesome  opportunity for central Alberta women to step-up their confidence.

The flirty design was a nice change of direction here at Redpoint. Especially because we were able to use a colour we don’t often choose out of the swatch-book… PINK, and lots of it. With fashion on the brain we decided to create a look that women would be drawn to. We incorporated some girly illustration to play off the looseness of the logo – so much fun! I am a doodler at heart, so it was a delight to be able to create artwork for these banners.

The text creates a curvy female silhouette, which compliments the Pink Suede motto Inner Confidence, Outward Style quite nicely. The words within the image represent Pink Suede and highlight services. The pink scalloped header gives the illusion of a boutique window which ties in the polka-dot pattern in the background. We really wanted to push the detail by adding in illustrated icons and ribbons. The goal was to project a visually compelling piece that targets women specifically.

Check out the banners, and Pink Suede for yourself at the Bower Place Shopping Center on December 18, 19 & Boxing Day.

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I opened my twitter account on the advice of a client who I respect quite a lot. The advice was “I expect you to know about this , so whether you like it or not,  you need to have a twitter account.”

I reluctantly opened the account and started to tweet. At this point, my general opinion of the twitter service lied somewhere between distain and annoyance.With a dash of “what the heck would I do that for?”

Well, a month on and I think I am twitterpated. I have to say – sadly – that it’s not because the throngs of people in the net-sphere lining up to read about my last experience in the coffee shop line-up. I suppose a few fine folks will follow the redpoint tweets and that is great. No… it’s that I now an connected to a myriad of people, places and things I am interested in.

Highlights:

• The David Suzuki Foundation is following us
• I’m following the lead developers of jquery, php google and some bizarre firefox plugins. I don’t understand half of it.
• At the time of writing a whoping 15 people are following the new Redpoint twitter. {whoo-hoo!}

Well, a month on and I think I am twitterpated. I have to say – sadly – that it’s not because the throngs of people in the net-sphere lining up to read about my last experience in the coffee shop line-up.

So I suppose the next question is: what do I think Twitter is for? Do I recommend it? Hmmm… Well, most larger organizations tweet, so you can always learn about things you are interested in, but it moves very fast so you need to review it a few time a day, and use a reader like tweetdeck to aggregate the feeds (it does facebook too).

But does it make sense for a smaller local focused business to tweet to gain followers? Well, its always good to connect with people, but if you can’t devote enough effort to it to create a following, you may find it useless (kind of like talking into an empty room). I think twiiter is built for speed, so if you don’t like going fast, stay off the autobahn.

In all, I really like my twitter account and try to tweet a couple time a day, depending on how exciting the coffee shop line-ups are.

• Follow us on Twitter

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2009 has been a year of stops and starts, there is no doubt. One thing has really become clear, though. Managing any type of marketing requires a lot of effort. A lot of our clients are small central Alberta companies and associations who don’t have full time marketers on payroll. There is even more pressure when people are just trying to keep the doors open and cash flow up.

I suppose the most notable example is writing copy for a website that may contain 20 to 30 pages and have supporting images, graphics and data to go with it. Creating that is a formidable task – it needs to be done fairly quickly in the project life cycle, takes a long time and usually requires gathering resources a client might not have access to (photoshop files, vector logos and the like).

I’ve gained more and more respect for clients who go through the process to present themselves and their businesses in an effective way. I say this because we’ve recently done significant work on our own website and was reminded of how much work it is to re-write and re-compile a companies data, profile and identity. read more

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Every few months I clean out my wallet. I throw things out, organize, and start fresh. In doing so recently, my eyes were rewarded with some amazing finds. I looked at the mound of gift-cards, bank cards, coupons and the like. A bunch of these items featured hand-drawn typography and illustration – candy for my eyes. I am in love with this. As an avid doodler, I wildly appreciate the originality that illustration brings to a piece of design. This seems to be ‘trendy’ as of late, which is very exciting in my world! I’ve been seeing more design being stretched in a more organic, loose direction. Goodbye stock photo  – hello sketchbook. I applaud the designers  who are making it different, making it original – because nobody’s handwriting is identical. Even a tacky gift certificate can be like a blank canvas – go wild.

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The concept of the creative process is a pretty cloudy one. Shops guard their “process” carefully, larger shops acting aloof and technical, and the smaller shops tend to try and look bouncy and approachable to counteract the larger shops. The client is either being force fed or trapped in endless game of ping-pong. I’m not saying that either approach doesn’t work, on the contrary, both do work. read more

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Working on web based projects is always consuming and requires a lot of commitment. We launched the new web presence for the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery this week, and journey that has taken us down a road that has lasted almost two years. The site is bay far one of the most powerful we’ve created and is loaded with features. Aside from the sortable events calendar, learning programming tools, blog tools, permanent collection index, downloads and other widgets – this site has a few things that really make it special. read more

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Today was a pretty cool day. We visited the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery in their new temporary location at the Parkland Mall in Red Deer.

The Museum staff were very excited to embark on this new adventure. Firstly, they have closed the regular downtown location for a major overhaul and building upgrade. secondly, their temporary location at the mall gives them exposure they’ve not had in a long time.

We played a part in all this – we designed the signage you see depicted here, and we are especially proud of the fish poster on the left. We wanted to bring part of the old building to the new location, and also bridge something at harkened back to the old space, once it is renovated. The Koi pond in the foyer not only will stay, but is getting an enhancement. THe poster looks more like a painting than a photograph. Fitting for an art gallery, and a sneak peek for those waiting to see the new MAG website set to launch in a few weeks.

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After quite a few months, we’ve finally launched the new website for the Career Assistance Network in Red Deer. It has been a fun process and the amazing thing about a site is watching the content come together. I have to admit, I’m a sceptic when talk turns to the active management of content. I like simple web tools that get used. I’m pretty shameless in my promotion of that.

Well, Aaron at the CAN office really impressed me. I have not worked with many people (particularly small business owners) who write as diligently as Aaron. Kudos certainly go to the content here. Not flashiest, but it is accurate. read more

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This year people really expected a drop in quality for the advertising at the Super Bowl. With all the recession talk, advertising we not supposed to be quick to step to the plate.

Well, it was a good game and it was pretty darn good to see the commercials too. It’s neat to see Ford advertising like the dickens these days – they’re the only one of the big three that has any money, and they are doing a good job cementing that position (a lesson we should all learn – when the others are quiet, speak)

There was movie trailers for the Transformers sequel, the “last” Terminator movie and (who knew) a Star Trek prequel, that are going to open up soon. Bud lite and Budweiser were up every 15 minutes or so, and the Conan O’Brien spots are amazing – so odd I can’t believe a celebrity would mock themselves so openly. read more

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