Shannon Ronalds with his new business card.

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new identity recently done for The School of Fish Foundation.

This Vancouver-based non-profit organization was co-founded by Shannon Ronalds and celebrity Chef Robert Clark of C Restaurant, who is also a founding member of Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise™ program.

The mission of the Foundation resonated with our desire to give back in a way that’s relevant to our own brand and is focused on bringing attention to a globally-relevant environmental issue – the depletion of the world’s ocean resources.

The School of Fish Foundation has been created to not only bring attention to this issue, but also to persuade culinary schools throughout the world to include a comprehensive sustainable seafood course as requirement for students prior to graduation. This will empower and inspire future chefs from the ground-up to make positive changes in the restaurant industry world-wide.

To learn more, visit their website www.SchoolofFishFoundation.org or become a fan on facebook.

Comparing the details between digital and offset

Lately we’ve felt at the mercy of technology when it comes to short-run digital printing. If a client doesn’t need a large quantity of pieces, digital printing is certainly the way to go. However, from a designer’s perspective, printing digital doesn’t always meet our expectations.

In efforts to manage this expectation. I recently quoted a project for a client offering 3 print method options:
1) Standard Digital (Igen)
2) High Quality Digital (HP Indigo)
3) Offset Printing (Stochastic)

Involve the client in the print quality choices available to them
The reason for presenting these 3 options was to relate the quality of the final printed piece to the differences in cost. Also I wanted the client to be involved in the choice (and I didn’t want assume the client wanted the cheapest option).

Below is the overview I gave my client. Plus, I included costs for printing 250 and 500 quantities.

Standard Digital Printing
The most economical choice. The final result looks like laser printing. The quality of the image is very good, but not great. The ink ‘sits’ on top of the page and will look shiny, whereas with the other two options below, the ink absorbs into the paper so the overall finish looks higher end and will handle better.

If your biggest objective is to meet a budget, Standard Digital is the way to go.

High Quality Digital Printing
This is one of the best digital quality prints available. The results are very similar to offset printing. If you want great quality and a reasonable cost, this option would makes the most sense for the quantities you’ve requested.

The costs quoted were approximately double of standard digital.

Offset Printing
Offers the best quality image and resolution and is therefore the highest price. If for some reason you wanted to print more than 500, this would be the way to go as the price per piece goes dramatically down.

The costs quoted were approximately triple of standard digital printing.

The result?
Having recently been impressed with a printed sample from the HP Indigo we were hopeful the client would choose this option. And they did. But the funny part is our print representative (who had quoted for both offset and high quality) offered to print the project Offset.

This was obviously to the client’s benefit (great value!) but also to our benefit as this gave us the opportunity to also do some test prints of the same artwork on the HP Indigo for comparison. We were very pleased with the quality of the HP Indigo and realized that most clients would not be able to tell the difference from traditional offset printing.

A designer’s recommendation
Now there are some limitations to digital printing, like sheet size (12 x 18 approx), and not being able to print special inks, but for most full colour print projects, I will be recommending the HP Indigo when the quality difference warrants the additional costs.

Turns out it is possible to digitally satisfy both the client’s needs for great value and a designer’s vision for great quality. Bring on the short-run digital printing – we have a great perspective!

Building a brand on a modest budget 

Marketing efforts and budgets are often focused on the production of collateral, as opposed to really understanding how to reach the audience and engage them. When sales targets aren’t met, quick-fix promotions are then used to make up shortfalls. The typical end-of-quarter panic is focused on the cheapest way to promote and achieve sales targets – “Let’s produce a cheap brochure!” – again, focused on collateral, not the audience.

Quite often responses to the ‘eleventh hour panic’ promotion achieve short-term objectives. But it’s just that – short term. The problem has merely been put on hold until next quarter. Unmemorable and unfocused efforts inhibit business momentum.

Of course, there is a better way…

Long term vision with a short term budget

Every interaction holds an opportunity far beyond the sale itself. It’s a chance to build a true connection with your audience, build awareness, increase word-of-mouth, and pave the way for future sales. Brand development seeks to create this business momentum.

The process of first defining your brand and then ensuring that it’s woven into every facet of customer experience can be a complex and costly exercise – but it doesn’t need to be. A modular brand framework can package your offering but be flexible enough to evolve with the business. And when additions are required, new brand modules will click into the existing framework.

Over the past 18 months, we've developed a simple framework for Byres Security’s new brand Tofino – an innovative security product for industrial IT installations.

Most businesses don’t require every element in the branding arsenal immediately. Armed with a vision of where an organization is headed, and prioritizing the most important tools, an effective brand can be started with a modest budget and built up over time based on long-term vision.

A custom photoshoot starts with hours of planning and preparation before the day of the photoshoot…

Pre-photoshoot planning and preparation

• Art direction and shot list
• Meeting with photographer to discuss lighting and set-up requirements.
• Meetings with food stylist (or in this case, chef Spooner from the award-winning Dundarave Fish Market and Restaurant in West Vancouver)
• Food and prop list, including sourcing
• Photography schedule and shot order

Our day started at 8:30am (not as early as it should have). Chef Spooner didn’t have as restful of a night prior to the shoot as Kathryn and myself, as he had the task of packing all the fresh seafood, garnishes and cooking tools. He was amazing and made our job easy.

The photos were to be featured on shelf-talkers and ‘fish-talkers’ for display at gourmet food stores and fish markets, as well as on the Simply West Coast website.

As an art director, it’s my role to ensure the end-result not only matches our vision and the intent of the brand, but also works for a variety of marketing pieces and formats. But there are also really minute details – like the art direction of garnishes. Yes, I’m talking about selecting the perfect garnish to complement the seafood and send the right brand message. For Simply West Coast, it’s “simple gourmet”. Decisions need to be made on how the garnish is presented – is a lemon curl or lemon zest more appropriate? It sounds so silly, but when you have a great understanding of what a brand stands for, this becomes a fun part of the job.

Taking the photo isn’t as simply as it looks

Finally all the ingredients and the team come together to perform on set with the guidance of our fantastic photographer (Jenn Walton of Digiwerx).

• Setting up the seafood and prop(s)
• Composing the shot with stand-in food
• Lighting it and test shots

Once all thumbs are ‘up’, fresh seafood is swapped on set, garnished… and voila, we’ve got our audience drooling.

For more information http://www.fsccanada.org/default.htm