TAXI - Stephen Coomber

 

ABOUT TAXI
Web site: http://taxi.ca

Contact: 416.342.8294
 

Email: newbusiness@taxi.ca

Address:  495 Wellington Street West Suite 102, Toronto, Ontario  M5V1E9 

ABOUT Stephen Coomber (Designer)

• Contact: 416.342.8294 (424)
• Email: stephen.coomber@taxi.ca
• Started out at organic as flash animator for 2 year
• 2 years at taxi (works 12 hours a day)

KNOW YOUR COMPANIES

• Type of work: some places where you work might just be flash, banners, or boring clients (banks), or super creative stuff - but then you work your butt off
• Clients: be aware of their major clients because you'll probably be doing a lot of work for that client. if you don't like the client, you won't enjoy the work.
• Location: if you hate commuting, then choose where you work carefully

 

BEWARE THE BOSS

• If he/she started out as a writer, guess what?
• You want someone who can mentor you, or you can learn from.
• Research who you'll be reporting to because it will affect your job  

FIND A MENTOR

• They know your new job better than you do
• You'll want to return the favour
• Good to know what they're good at so that they can help or inspire you with that
• Make sure it's a passionate person you can get along with that has a bit of spare time (middle level or senior)

SPEAK UP

• Make your passions known
• If you see an opportunity, jump at it
• If you do, you might get the chance to work on something that you love and that you can use later for your portfolio

NEVER TAKE SHOTGUN

• Always sit in the driver's seat
• You should be in control of your career
• You can control your career right when you graduate. let yourself  be know.
• Express what you want so you can keep trying to get at doing what it is you enjoy doing.
• There are so many positions out there so you should never feel trapped in your job or position. you can get to where you want
• Let people know that you have certain interests

TWEET

• Let them tell you
• @mashable, @jtoeman, @TaxiCanada, @ConanOBrien
• Great way to get a lot of relevant and up to date news and information

IF YOU LEARN, THEY WILL PAY

• There are tons of shows, conferences and festivals
• Google your interests and ask to go
• Your company will pay if you ask them nicely
• Staying current is a huge part to being successful in your career

DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY

• We are not doctors, or scientists - it's not the end of the world if the project is not going quite right, or the client doesn't like your stuff
• The industry will consume you and bring you down if you do
• It's a fun job, so don't let it get you down

BE PASSIONATE AND HAVE FUN

• If you're not passionate about your work, why are you doing this?
• Passion will get you through
• There's so many routes you can go now, its almost impossible to stay up to date with everything, but if you're passionate about your work, you will take pride in your work and take it to the next level
• Pick something that you really like and be passionate about it
• Don't close your eyes to learning other things, but you don't need to know everything
• Pick what you love and be happy with it

NURUN - Hilary, Nadeem & Dondy

 

 

OUR BUSINESS IS DIGITAL UTILITY

We believe that the best way to communucate the 

benefit of your brand is to deliver on it

 

ABOUT NURUN

Web site: http://nurun.com/

Contact: 416.591.6000

 

Email: toronto@nurun.com
 

Address: 96 Spadina Avenue, 9th Floor. Toronto (Ontario) M5V 2J6

Hilary Jackson

• project coordinator
• hilary.jackson@nurun.com

Dondy Razon

• associate creative director
• dondy.razon@nurun.com
• twitter@dondy

Nadeem Visanji

• digital strategist
• nadeem.visanji@nurun.com 

THERE'S VALUE IN THE COMPANY WE KEEP

Nuru has forged alliances around the world with leading technology, media and research

organization. Their tools and solutions enrich our own capabilities, and add value to the 

strategies we develop for our clients.

The future!….. we read minds!

• participate what consumer want!!
• building royalty to specific product!
• business have to focus on consumer

But seriously we start by…. 

Asking the right questions!!

• Design thinking for digital!

Catherine Baird - Dashboard

 

 

WE ARE A DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AGENCY.
At our core, we are strategists, big thinkers, meticulous creators and digital explorers. Together, we dream up experiences that are breakthrough and engaging. Simple yet surprising. Technologically savvy while strategically sound. Yes, we are passionate. Pushing every idea as far as it can go. Helping our clients build their business, connect with their customers and look damn good.

• Redesign of their Dashboard website based on German fonts and wayfinding.
• They help you navigate and find your way through the digital clutter
• Senior art director manages the project from beginning to end 
• We are still digital, but we are about engaging people. so if we need
  to engage people offline to come online, we will. they become brand
  ambassadors and social media strategists as well.

 

ABOUT Dashboard

Web site: http://www.dashboard.ca/

Contact: 416.504.4422
 

Address: 355 Adelaide St. W. Suite 100. Toronto, Ontario M5V 1S2

ABOUT Catherine Baird

• Associate Creative Director

• Sheridan grad, Ecentricarts, Designer
• Hendersan Bas, Senior Designer / ACD
• Hendersan Bas, ACD
• Semegauche, Paris France, Senior AD
• Draft FCB, Senior AD, then as a Freelancer
• Dashboard ACD

BE PREPARED

• Get your best work together in a simple easy to read format. This could be a website or better, a PDF with your resume and samples of work with links to the live sites. Don't make me work too hard. Don't fumble around in an interview. No one will look at your resume if they don't like your work.

DO SOMETHING UNSUAL

• She gets five emails a day from people who want me to look at theirwork. Boring. Do something different. Draw a sketch of the CD,send a hand-written card, brand yourself, make a video.Even doing something unusual in your emails is worth a try.

 

Follow up and don't write long emails

• Creative directors are busier and more stressed out than you could possibly imagine. If it's long, no one is going to have the time to read it. If you stalk someone you're not going to get a job.If you send gentle reminders, you'll better your chances.

Show diversity

• If you paint, show your painting. If you are a musician, add some links to your songs. If you do anything other than design it shows you are well-rounded, interesting, and creative. Show it. It's also a conversation starter in an interview.

 

Network

• The easiest way to get a job is to network and build up a groupof people who respect your work and work ethic. Be nice, workhard and don't burn bridges. It's a SMALL industry. Go to events,take people out for coffee, get out there!

• Some stuff that their agency is "talking or thinking about" or the future..
  Touch screens (i.e. ING direct cafes)  one touch screen in Toronto at the end of March
  Projections shone on old stores
• iphone (they've only done one so far - the santa claus parade one)
• Blackberry (apps)
• iAds (similar to expandable web ads but on the iphone)
• Facebook, youTube (skinning pages), Twitter
• Understanding and checking out other pages and advertising.
• Find some of your favourite brands and see what they are doing online(their campaigns). i.e. Vaseline on Facebook - what brands are doing on Facebook.
• Animation, videos for online
• Augmented reality. ways to surprise people with projections, billboards
• Which is still very gimmicky but this is advertising
• Cloud computing - ((user experience design, information architecture. try to figure out what the user will experience before u open photoshop))
• 3D conference - Unity, a 3D application. It's a plugin - instead of Flash (cinema quality 3D online)
• HTML 5 (the end of Flash??) only supported on some browsers at first, but may be the end of Flash
• Web Fonts (being able to use more interesting fonts online)

Brendan Good - Leo Burnett

 

ABOUT Leo Burnett

Web site: http://www.leoburnett.com/

Contact: 416.925.5997
 

Address: 175 Bloor  Street East Toronto, ON M4W 3R9

Building brands with a clear purpose at their core requires exceptional creativity through a human centered brand gesture, idea or experience that connects in a meaningful way to people. They call this an Act. Seen any great acts lately?

• Film & Television
• Mobile
• Press/Print/Editorial
• Promo
• Digital
• Media
• Radio
• Design
• Ambient/Outdoor
• Integrated
• Direct

Steve Miller - One Method

ABOUT One Method

• Web site: http://onemethod.com/
• Contact: 416.649.0180
• E-mail: ideas@onemethod.com
• Address: 135 Liberty Street, Suite 201Toronto, ON M6K 1A7

 ABOUT OSteve Miller,VP Creative Director

• CONTACT: steve@onemethod.com
                      delicious.com/thatstevemiller

• joined 6 years ago
• now down in Liberty Village
• started out working in Retail as a Sales Guy for years (Gap, door to door sales, etc)
• musician - The Rustic Gomers
• business commerce - Marketing
• a suit person - Grapheme/Koo (branding design firm) - they are now Identica
• copywriter - BBDO (started with song writing and then at BBDO) - works with Proximity. He wrote commercials, print ads, etc.
• best friends with Mike Keller from AmoebaCorp

DIGITAL + DESIGN = ONEMETHOD
 

DIGITAL:
websites
ads (banner ads) - don't do this too much
mobile media - apps, nokia (obi)
social media - hobnob (interactive agency - media strategy) then blogs, backgrounds for twitter etc
digital content - video work, online, online stores
motion design - integrated into sites and videos

DESIGN:
branding
ads
print design
interior design - they designed their office (wow) and http://www.lucienrestaurant.com
strategy
curriculum - training for web apps
 

TIPS AND KNOWLEDGE FROM THE GREATS
Resumes: You're creative. Be creative.

make it look awesome (you have 2 minutes to make a first impression)
 Interviews (dos and don'ts): DOs

make your portfolio website the best website you can make
 

SITE (50%)
- presentation!
- brief / rationale
- talk about the brief you were given, or talk about why you did what you did.
- you need to be able to SELL your work
 

YOU (50%)
- First 5 minutes of an interview is KEY (the handshake, your look, how you present yourself)
- speak intelligently
- no suit / no tshirt
- take comments about your work with a grain of salt
 

YOU ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WEAKEST PIECE
- if it's not fantastic, take it out

WHAT the Creative Director Is
- Creative thinker
- Strategic thinker
- Presenter (must be prepared and informed and be a little bit of a performer)
- Performer
- Great Communicator (written and verbal - between you and vendors, clients, other designers, accounting, coders etc)
- Client Relator
- Marketeer

Keith Durrant & Leslie Horan - Ecentricarts

On Friday, January 21st. Keith Durrant (president, co-founder) and Leslie Horan (art director) from Ecentricarts come in to speak to our class. Keith has been working in the interactive world for over 20 years and Leslie is an alumnus of the Sheridan Web post-grad program.

ABOUT ECENTRICARTS

Web site: http://www.ecentricarts.com/

Contact: 416.644.5000 x.221

              contactus@ecentricarts.com

"WE LOVE ART. AND TECHNOLOGY. AND DESIGN"

Especially online. They have a rich history of creating stellar digital solution for gocernment, cultural organizations, non-profits and progressive businesses-among others.

Their business is helping us be better in our business. Their team is highly skilled and diverse. Their developers are musicians and botanists, their project managers are writers and photographers and their designers are painters and art history lovers.

Toronto Museum Project
- online library of artifacts and stories

Group of Seven
- documenting geo-sites of areas documented in paintings
- community section allowing members to post portfolio of art/photos

Kids Help Phone
- bringing a phone service online, new medium of first contact for users (kids & teens)
- online resource working in conjunction with phone counsellors

Textile Museum of Canada
- digital catalogue of artifacts
- Social Fabric microsite

John Alabazowski - MacLaren McCann

John Alabazowski came in to speak to our class on Friday, January 17th. John is a group creative director in MacLaren MacCann. They all work together to produce really cool stuff. Direct mail, all the interactive stuff, it was all about websites, now they were doing mobile stuff, Ipad aps, were integrating more with the mass agency stuff, internet and radio. 

"Interactive has always kind of been the weird guys. Not so much anymore. Everything is digital now. So it’s less about the device that you’re going to be experiencing it on now, but about the experience itself. It redefines what you’re doing now, because the digital landscape is changing. Ipad changes. Now you have digitally delivered television." 

ABOUT MACLAREN MCCANN

Web site: http://www.maclaren.com/

Contact: 416.594.6000

Address: MacLaren McCann Canada
10 Bay Street, Toronto, ON, M5J 2S3

Our Approach:  For our work to ultimately be deemed successful, it must first be based on a human truth and that truth be well told with an honest and compelling story. It must be able to live beyond a specific channel. It must interrupt. It must create a dialogue direct to the brand and, more importantly, cause talk between consumers. It must drive the desired action. It must be infectious within a company. It must act as both guide and voice for how the brand talks and acts. It must be exceptionally crafted in thought and design. It must be enduring. It must, above all else, live in the hearts & minds of our customers.