The Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery is well known in creative circles across Canada.
But closer to home, that just hasn’t been the case said Executive Director Shirley Madill.
“They know us out there in Canada but what is it in our community that makes us different?” she said.
In effort to change that, the art gallery turned to Capacity Canada’s recent Creative Day for Social Good (CD4SG) for answers.
They were among 21 non-profit organizations selected from 102 nationwide to participate in this year’s event which saw more than 80 Conestoga College graphic design students and public relations students create marketing materials in a 24-hour creative ‘blitz’.
Teams of students led by volunteer art directors, writers, account managers and other creative professionals worked late into the night Oct. 18 at Alchemy Systems in Guelph and the Kitchener design studio Him & Her to help these organizations make a bigger impact in communities from British Columbia to Newfoundland.
The event, which saw approximately 150 creative professionals participate, was done in partnership between Capacity Canada, Conestoga College, Alchemy Systems, Him & Her and Manulife. Organizers estimate CD4SG resulted in approximately $120,000 or more worth of pro bono design work being completed for these worthy organizations.
“I think they (students) have a really good edge. They’re so talented and they see things we don’t see,” said Madill, after the teams of students presented their work to their clients Oct. 19 at Alchemy Systems.
In the weeks leading up to the event, the teams had already consulted with their clients to work out a creative brief outlining their needs. These ranged from new brochures and logos, new websites, to even a total rebranding.
In the case of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Madill said a new logo was one of the big changes sought by the gallery.
“We have a logo that’s really old,” she said, adding the gallery doesn’t have the financial means to create new marketing materials.
That’s where Tanner Garniss-Marsh, a third-year graphic design student, and his team stepped in.
He and the group came up with three distinct and versatile logos as well as new taglines and hashtags to raise the gallery’s profile.
“I think we all created something that we can be proud of,” he said, noting all three logos are very contemporary and can serve the gallery well for years to come.
“Overall, our team really came together and came up with three unique concepts that kind of pushed them (gallery) more into art direction rather than just script typography of which they have now.”
Madill said she was very impressed by what the team unveiled and will present them to the gallery’s board of directors for further discussion.
“The students really caught what we’re all about,” she said. “They really did run with it and I’m very happy about that.”
Debora Ritchie, office manager at Leadership Waterloo Region, said she was also impressed by the work the students did for her organization. The team had been tasked to provide rebranding materials, including possible radio spots.
“I love working with students and have done this before in other organizations,” she said, explaining her group recently underwent changes in leadership and was looking for a fresher outlook.
“We felt what we have is not a reflection of who we are now,” Ritchie said.
She liked the contemporary concepts the team presented and said its members were the right demographic that Leadership Waterloo is trying to attract. Ritchie hopes to continue to work with the students to bring some of their ideas to fruition.
“The whole idea is that it’s a collaboration and I don’t want it stop just because the presentation is over,” she said.
For Mercedes Battler, a third-year public relations student who worked on the Leadership Waterloo team, her experience at CD4SG proved to be invaluable.
“It’s been really cool because we’re taking the skills we’ve learned in class and applied them in a real-life setting,” she said. “We’re not just doing an assignment.”
Garniss-Marsh agreed.
“Seeing something that you’ve produced and spent time on out in the real world is really satisfying,” he said.
