Pantone® describes the 2013 colour of the year as a lively, radiant, lush green. Pantone® 17-5641 Emerald has been spotted everywhere from fashion runways to beauty products to interior design elements. We thought it would be a great first assignment for our Red River College student, Kristofer, to create an illustration based on this luscious green hue.

There's a new brand in town. Announced today in the Winnipeg Free Press, So/Po Square is set to change the face of downtown Winnipeg. We had the privilege of working with Artis, Longboat and MPI to create a name and a brand that truly reflects their vision for the project. Here's a little peek at our process for this project.

We started with some keywords: Relaxed yet professional, upscale casual, distinguished, smart and sharp.

Then we chose a character: Sean Connery as James Bond.

The character and keywords helped influence a mood board of inspiration.

From there, logo, colours, imagery, tone of voice and style all followed suit.



 

The sharp and elegant logo leaves room for variations of colour, texture and tone that will reflect all the options that So/Po Square will offer Winnipeg.

A brand that has its own strength of character and can still accommodate partnerships with future brands of a major hotel chain, upscale casual restaurants, a world-class spa and the office tenants. A modern, but timeless brand that will gain texture and patina as it evolves into the physical space through signage, material and colour options that reinforce the experience of the location.

Welcome to So/Po Square.

Jim James, frontman of My Morning Jacket, ventures out on his own with a full length album, Regions of Light and Sound of God. Check out this sweet vid for "A New Life".

Kid President gives a pep talk (just try to be in a bad mood after watching this vid)

We've officially reached Brady Bunch status. Our *Honest family grew by 3 new members over the summer and this week we just added a fourth new friendly face... obviously it's time to introduce the entire clan, right? We'd like to welcome our new designers, Jadyn and Roberta, our new Marketing Assistant, Trisha, and the most recent addition, Lee Thompson, our new Account Manager. All four of them bring creative ideas, valuable experience and fresh new perspectives to the table. (But mostly I think Callum is just excited to have a few more guys around the office).



 

For those of you who are eagerly awaiting season 3 of Game of Thrones, you might fancy The House of Westeros poster created by Nike designer, Darrin Crescenzi. His interpretations of his favourite crests described in the Song of Ice and Fire series is simple and beautiful. Too bad it's sold out :(



 

We're hoping our little rock, paper, scissors event on Saturday, September 29th will raise big dollars for Colon Cancer Canada. And when I say our event, I mean, the event we're sponsoring and helping organize. Our good friend and office roommate, Jeff Wall, has been tirelessly planning, prepping and publicizing this unique fundraiser for many months, and the big day is almost here.

The Winnipeg Free Press was kind enough to give Handemonium full-page coverage in today's Arts & Life section. Get the low-down on the tournament details and all the festivities that will be going on that day.

If you haven't registered yet, visit Handemonium.ca to do so immediately! We hope to see you there.

Joanna Bulowska
2nd year Graphic Design student from Red River College
3-week internship at Honest Agency

It all started on a crisp Monday morning. The elevator opened and I found myself in a beautiful, bright and modern office. And that’s when the fear set in... there I was wondering what the day might bring, and what kind of initiation there might be. But of course my imagination likes to be wild and silly. No cute puppies were slaughtered and no tightropes were walked. In fact, my first day was very pleasant. I got to meet everyone at the office and was excited to sit by the new employee Jadyn, who started that same day. Right off the bat I noticed how much creativity is encouraged and expressed at the office. From cardboard deer-heads to colorful posters to a room divider made of birch trees (which I had the pleasure of sitting by); the space is filled with things to inspire creation. The first thing I created was a logo for Handemonium—an upcoming rock-paper-scissors tournament. I’m super excited that Kerri and Callum had faith in me to work with a real client. My idea was received well and I got to design a brand package around the event. I can’t wait to stumble upon my design in the future. Other great highlights included going to my first press check with Charity, who gave me generous tips about the printing process. Then there was Kings Head Friday—which entails sharing stories over beer and lunch, followed by a slightly tipsy afternoon. And of course we had a pot-luck, which meant that everyone brought delicious snacks to stuff our faces with. (And did we ever!) Just like that my three weeks at Honest flew by, and it was time for me to go home slightly sad. (Partly because I had to hang my head in shame after the “spin 'n slap” parting gift, but mostly because I will sincerely miss the great experience and great people. To everyone at Honest, Thank you dearly for opening your doors to me and letting me sit in on a bit of genius. I miss you guys!

*Joanna forgot to mention that she brought a basket full of delicious strawberry and plum cookies on her last day (see photo below). Bribery will get you everywhere my dear!

Friday morning I woke feeling equal parts nervous and excited, My name is Raelene Dziedzic and I am a 3rd year graphic design student at Red River College. The reason for my excitement Friday morning is because I was about to sit in on my first ever professional photo shoot. I was going to get to see for myself how it all comes together. The morning was so exciting that Roberta (a friend and classmate) and I ended up at the wrong location. After a confused email and some guidance from Charity we soon found ourselves at Honest’s office. The place where all the prep work was about to begin.

Walking into the office excitement was in the air, it seems that I was not the only one who woke up feeling that way Friday morning. Erin was hard at work on her first masterpiece while her first model sat patiently. Kerri was making sure everything was going smoothly while taking cinnamon buns out of the oven, The boardroom was full of snacks and friendly faces. All in all everyone was in a great mood. As the day progressed, Roberta and I took pictures and observed the paint markers being put to use. Nearing the end of the prep morning, Kerri got started on prepping me. I had known the night before that this might happen but was a little nervous all the same, I am not used to being a “model” and having my picture taken.

Not long after, we were on our way to Jerry’s studio, just a short hop skip and a jump away across Main Street. Once we were there the shoot went by fairly quickly. All in all everyone was really friendly and excited about the concepts for this years campaign. My only complaint of the day is that the paint was much harder to get off then I first anticipated. Thanks guys for including me in this day, I had a great time and learned that with the Honest staff, work is not work because you are having fun while doing it.

It has been a whole week since my last day of work placement at Honest. I am so sad for that adventure to be over. Before I go on to gush about my wonderful experience, I will say a quick introduction. My name is Anja and I am a 2nd year Graphic Design student at Red River College. You may also know me from my brief fame from an appearance in the CBC online video about the Assent Works grand opening or the Honest tweets about the apple pie cookies I baked (recipe can be found on smittenkitchen.com).

I had the great privilege of being placed at Honest for my work experience this year. Thanks to their website, I already had a big crush on the agency even before I set foot in the office. I became even more besotted with it after I stepped off the elevator into their beautiful studio space. I was immediately greeted by Dexter, the mannequin and then of course, the rest of the staff. They had cleared a desk for me to work at and even though it was "off in the corner," said corner had 3 windows looking down on Portage and Main from eight stories up. Between the cardboard deer heads, the clean white design of the work place and the incredible talent oozing from everyone within it, I was head over heels... and completely intimidated.

The first day was a blur, and now thinking back, the whole 2 weeks seem like they went by very quickly. I was tremendously excited to work along side them on a couple of projects, mostly attempting to soak up as much of their magic as possible in the short amount of time I had. I was teased about being quiet on many occasions (good-hearted teasing only) but I believe this was due to my acute focus on learning as much as I could from them. And learn I did. I learned that I only want to work at a place that allows pets, making clipping paths on fur hats is annoyingly tedious, field trips are fun, lunchtime is best spent watching Two Broke Girls, Fridays are the best day of the week because you go to King's Head for lunch (and you only order the cajun chicken pasta), you drink beer, and you play 30 second DJ. I also learned never to succumb to peer pressure when everyone wants you to participate in a little game called "Spin and Slap."

In all honesty, I was more than pleased with my time at Honest. Callum, Kerri, Charity, Erin, Andrew and Sherril, thank you so much for taking me under you wing and spoiling me with such an awesome work placement experience. You guys are the bomb diggity. Miss you lots! -Anja Hladky