Recognizing our wins in the everyday hustle can be a bit tricky, but as a team, we recently took a look back at 2023 and spotted some noteworthy themes, highlights and achievements.
Themes
While our focus remains on client work that is aligned with our values (working with change makers, community builders, problem solvers), there were distinctive themes to our eleventh year in business. Notably, a significant portion of our work came from cultural, tourism and community-building clients like Chinook Blast, Beltline Urban Murals Project (BUMP), Calgary Arts Development, and Fort Calgary.
A little surprising was how many of our projects fell under the umbrella of health and wellbeing. This encompassed initiatives related to mental health, a priority we’ve seen on the rise since the pandemic hit. We’ve enjoyed working with Converge (a national mental health collaborative) and were pleased to build a mental health resource website specific to what can be found in Cochrane, Alberta. (Quick fact: this was inspired by our previously created campaign and website, “See the Signs“, for the Bow Valley region in Alberta).
Additionally, through Healthy Aging Alberta, we came to deeply understand and then communicate social prescribing, a referral pathway that helps older adults be connected with services they need to live connected, healthy lives—and stay in their homes longer. Finally, we ventured into creating brands for small businesses like Vitality BioMed Ltd.and Burnaby Chiropractic, the latter of which emphasizes diversity and inclusion and a whole-body neurological approach to chiropractic care.
The last half of the year saw the commencement of long-term projects with two larger companies focused on technology to address social or environmental challenges. One of these, Turing (owned by Gradiant), is putting AI to use as it aims to reduce, reclaim and reuse water.
Highlights
No doubt, the best part of looking back was seeing the awesome range of services we’ve grown into and the tight bonds within our team and extended crew. While this has been building over the years—our capacity to deliver comprehensive services, including brand strategy, content development, copywriting, custom illustration, video, and animation, while upholding the excellence of our core design services—stands out prominently.
Despite the occasional “ugh” moments with completing RFPs, we snagged almost half of the proposals we tossed into the ring. And, we’re taking pride in some significant website projects, such as the new site for Flying Fish, a world-renowned creator of traveling exhibitions. Right now, we’re knee-deep in a massive—let’s be real—website for Calgary Arts Development and collaborating on a fresh brand for Fort Calgary. For the latter, we really delved into insightful conversations about the many histories of a geographically significant site and are excited to launch this new brand in 2024.
Helping the “Little Guys”
Continuing our tradition of offering pro-bono or discounted services, we were pleased to do so for several non-profits this year, including:
Calgary Booster Club
Calgary Vocal Festival
Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Children First Canada
Land’s End Ensemble
Luminous Voices
Yamnuska Wolfdog Society
It seems we’ve developed a keen interest in working with large cultural institutions and aspire to collaborate with more of them this year. And, we find ourselves invigorated by the potential of “good tech” to address global challenges, such as water restoration and food security.
Our mission remains as always—to work exclusively with those supporting goals of innovation, sustainability, and the creation of positive social impact. Being driven by a shared purpose and a commitment to doing great work makes it all so worthwhile!
We can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store.