Here at St. Bernadine we encounter branding projects of all shapes and sizes. Over the years we have branded everything from packaged goods, beverages, and services, to restaurants, retail spaces and, most recently, a public space. A public space is hard to define, and it certainly does not fit into a box the way a pizza does. But branding can be used to help give a place a sense of space and make it feel special. Giving a place an identity can make an undefined or disparate place feel like more of a destination, heighten the experience, and ultimately bring more traffic to the area.
Continue reading →
It’s about that time when us 2.0 types take it to the blogosphere and reflect on the past year’s successes. So with a belly full of chocolate (thanks for the gift baskets, everyone) we’ll sum up just some of the many highlights of 2011.
Continue reading →
How a signature branded event builds awareness and loyalty in a tough market.
Wave Sound Productions is Western Canada’s preeminent commercial audio house, having contributed voice, sfx, and music to countless award-winning campaigns over their over 25 year existence. For the last eight years, their main promotional vehicle has been to host an invitation-only party for their clients and voice talent, featuring standup comedy, food, and drinks. Wave produces great spots, whether they are comedically, dramatically, or musically driven – and this event vehicle allows them to own the comedy category.
For the last five years, the team at St. Bernadine have had the pleasure of helping with invitations, signage, and decor for the event. This year’s promotional theme was based on the insight that laughter produces a physical sense of well-being, a physiological truth that inspired the homily “laughter is the best medicine”. As our industry is known for high levels of stress and deadlines at the best of times, let alone during economically challenged ones, having a night that temporarily alleviates these symptoms is always welcome.
Continue reading →
Here at Saint Bernadine, we like snacks. Like… a lot. We’ve been known to have a healthy (or not so healthy) supply of chips in the office at all times.
Since moving to Chinatown, we’ve had to broaden our horizons in the snack department. No longer do we have a convenient grocery store nearby with an abundance of chip flavours. It was intimidating at first, but we quickly converted from our staple of Lime & Black Pepper Miss Vickie’s to warm and delicious coconut buns. A safe transition, sure. However, one apostle here at the Mission is braver than most. She’s consistently bringing back odd-looking munchies for trial. So we thought it would be fun to send her out in the streets of Chinatown to bring us back an assortment of treats for a good ol’ taste testing. Here’s what happened.
Receiving a brief to create a direct mail piece directed at sawmills in regards to their underperforming compressed air systems could sound less than inspiring at first glance. But that’s often the perfect challenge for a creative firm. Not only do we have to understand the problem and strategically solve it, but we also want to create something that’s visually engaging and demands the audience to take a look and consider it. And as any creative team will tell you – it can be a difficult challenge to hit all those targets. One way to tackle these problems is to look to new technology and techniques to give us a fresh perspective on the problem at hand.
BC Hydro’s Power Smart program features a Compressed Air Optimization initiative that has them helping sawmills in British Columbia identify and solve system inefficiencies. Air leaks – which alone account for up to 30% of yearly energy costs – offer the biggest missed opportunity to optimize performance and save the facility energy and money. Along with Hemlock Printers and Arkwell Industries, we decided to utilize a laser cut technique to spell out the headline of the direct mail with small holes as a metaphor for the leaks in their systems. The technique makes the recipient look twice – encouraging the sawmills to do the same with their compressed air system.
The laser cut machine takes roughly 60 seconds to drill the 6,000 holes that make up the headline (watch the video). Technology like this wouldn’t have been so accessible just a few years ago. Looking for new techniques can offer unexpected solutions and exciting results during the creative process. We highly recommend using lasers to solve all your (creative) problems.
Check out more photos of the BC Hydro Sawmill direct mail piece in our work samples.
One of our disciples recently founded a non-profit organization called AdGirls- a mentorship network for women and girls in advertising. See, disciples really are good people.
Read on:
AdGirls: Ad Who?
“Recently I founded an organization called AdGirls. (Don’t google it. Only bad things come up.) We don’t have a website yet and even our Facebook page has less than 100 likes. But don’t count us out- there’s something happening here. Less than a month ago, I watched a documentary called “Miss Representation” which explores the media’s portrayal of women and the lack of women in positions of power. In between the bites of butter-soaked popcorn, I found myself relating. Before I knew it, I was clicking this little button that said, “Take the pledge to use your voice to spread the message of “Miss Representation” and challenge the media’s limiting portrayal of women and girls”. This lengthy little button carried a simple message: Do something. We all know this occurs, we all complain in the confines of our nearest Starbucks, and groan at the magazine stands but what are we really doing to help? As a woman in advertising, I think the solution starts with women. There ought to be more female mentors available to young girls and more networking among women within our industry. Who else is going to deliver the messages we want to be heard?
In February 2011, Strategy released its list of Top CDs in Canada. Of the 210, only 26 were women. Of those 26, only 2 worked in Vancouver. I don’t believe there aren’t talented women out there. I also don’t believe girls have enough motivation to be talented women. And so birthed the idea for AdGirls. It will be the city’s first mentorship network for young girls and women in advertising, run by some of the city’s most successful women in the business. If you like the sounds of that, get in touch at jmori [at] stbernadine.com and find us on Facebook. This isn’t about a glass ceiling, it’s about building a foundation for the next generation.”
We took some photos of Robert Kenney’s Collodion Photography process. Check them out on the Kee’s Laundry Gallery Site.
Visual communications is a highly competitive business and the printing sector in particular has increasingly become treated as a commodity. That’s why we were excited to work with Total Graphics – a premedia, print and marketing solutions provider (whom I’m sure many of your are familiar with) with a lengthy history, depth of knowledge and passion for the industry. And nothing about that sounds like a commodity.
Although they are amongst the first to adopt new technologies (think digital printing, printing white ink, printing on glass, the list goes on and on…), premedia had been at the heart of Total Graphics business since the beginning and in this budget-conscious era, a lot of agencies and clients are looking for ways to save money – starting with bringing some of these services in-house. We knew, however, that their experience and history was an asset, as it gave them a depth of knowledge that most printers today simply don’t have.
We needed to articulate their brand promise to better reflect their relevancy and modern capabilities.
Continue reading →
I was asked to write a post about why I am fixing up an old letterpress in the basement of St. Bernadine.
The truth is, I’m not 100% sure why. I’ve always held a fascination with forgotten technology and had taken the letterpress workshop at W2 about a year before, but in truth, it was a bit of an impulse buy. I was forwarded the link to a Craigslist ad for a letterpress for sale by a friend, Yvon, of Fox and Found press. (Yvon is somewhat of a letterpress Guru, owning 4 presses himself and has been teaching a few of us disciples here at St. B about his presses as well.) Before I knew it, money was sent via PayPal and I was left trying to figure out how to get to Salt Spring Island to pick up my new toy.
My boyfriend and I made the trek to Salt Spring and camped overnight before heading to the house of photographer Mike Gluss to pick up the press. Gluss welcomed us with open arms and 11 am offers of whiskey and beer (in vintage Great Western Beer glasses no less!). We hung out for about an hour and a half listening to travel stories, gawking at his collection of over 500 vintage cameras, and trying to feed his pet deer “Luke”. After that, we took the press back to Vancouver and it’s been in the St. Bernadine basement ever since.
It’s a Excelsior Kelsey tabletop press that will print 5×8 (with a chase) or 6×9 (with a chase base). I’ve been polishing it up, ordering parts, and trying to pretend I know a thing or two about basic machinery. Now the press is nearly ready to run. I only need a chase base, ink, brayers, paper, cleaning solvent, and a sturdy desk to mount it on. I clearly did not know what I was getting into when I made that Craigslist purchase (thank god I never go on ebay). It’s been a lot of elbow grease, money, and time to get this thing going and still not a clear idea of why except simple curiosity. Maybe that’s enough of a reason. Regardless, buying a letterpress has definitely satisfied that. It definitely has been a learning experience every step of the way.
Now the more important question. What to print?
- Helen
Hello! My name is Stephanie. A few months ago I was fortunate enough to become the first ever Saint Bernadine intern. For the last two years, I’ve been studying in the Marketing Management – Communications program at BCIT. One of the requirements of the program was that each student at the end of their second year completes an internship in which we were each given a listing of internships we could apply.
Before I started sending out my resume, I made a checklist of everything that I would want from an internship. I wanted to work in a small but growing agency so there would be more chances for me to learn and experience a variety of different things from a variety of different industries. I wanted to work in a creative, design-based agency in an account services position since the opportunity to be creative but still strategic was the reason I decided to go into marketing in the first place. I had also wanted to intern in a place that was fun and had some personality. Luckily for me, I found all three things at Saint Bernadine.
Continue reading →
One of the fantastic things about St. Bernadine is that we have a very diverse client base and every day we get to help many different partners that are in a variety of industries. And, every once in a while, an opportunity comes along that allows us to moonlight as matchmakers and bring two of our clients together. Which is exactly what happened recently with the UBC Grand Prix.
A few months ago our client/favourite local watering hole and home of the best fish tacos in town, Mahony & Sons Public House, contacted us about getting involved in the branding of a great new bike race happening at UBC. Mahony & Sons had become involved in the race as the presenting sponsor and wanted us to tackle the branding. Always eager to help out a client and take on interesting branding challenges we jumped on board. Things were starting to come together for the race, but one thing was still missing – a title sponsor. And that is when clients started to collide (in a good way).
Continue reading →
