Investors Group

On February 25th, 2011, Rachelle Allen, Financial Consultant, and Adam Plaxton, Consultant, of the Investors Group.

Contact Info.:

Adam Plaxton
416-695-8600
295 The West Mall Suite 700, Etobicoke, ON M9C 4Z4
adam.plaxton@investorsgroup.com

Rachelle Allen
416-860-1668 ext. 227
145 King Street West, Suite 2800, Toronto, ON M5H 1J8
rachelle.allen@investorsgroup.com

What was interesting was hearing that because we are living longer, we need to save money for retirement or we will out-live our money.

Usually, peoples retirement money interest lacks due to lack of plan, taxes, procrastination and investor behavior.

It was interesting to learn about a investing on a regular basis. This will really help you in the long run.

When speaking of education,  RSP loans is a good option. If you earn 50,000 and contribute 10,000 then you only claim 40,000 on your tax refund.

We touched base on three types of Insurance:
1. Life Altering Illness:
-Covers 22 illness
-One time tax free lump sum of $50, 000
-Premiums are paid back to you if you don't get sick ($40-$50 a month)
-Highest claims are from 20-30 year old women with breast cancer

2. Mortgage Insurance:
-Protection

3. Term Life Insurance:
-Protection
-Cheaper, same premium, coverage stays the same
-Will receive money

Dashboard

On February 18th, 2011, dashboard came to present.

Our guest speaker this week was Catherine Baird, Associate Creative Director from Dashboard. She is a Sheridan Web Design graduate and has currently worked with a graduate from the program every year since graduating here from 2001.

About Catherin Baird:
-Ecentricarts,  Senior Designer
-Henderson Bas, Senior Designer
-Henderson Bas, Associate Creative Director
-5emegauche, Paris France, Senior Art Director
-Draft FCB, Senior Art Director

 









Address:
355 Adelaide St. W. Suite 100
Toronto, ON M5V 1S2
P. 416.504.4422
F. 416.504.6644
TF. 1.866.503.6354

About Dashboard:
-They are a Digital, Engagement Agency. They are about engaging people online.
-Creative team is 6 to 8 people, and there are around 30 employees in the shop.

Some Clients include:
-Santa Claus parade (whole brand)
-Joe
-Kraft peanut butter
-Capital One
-Wagner
-Hellmann’s
-Ing Direct

5 Steps to getting a Job:
1. Gather your best work only with a pdf and links, linking your portfolio website.
2. Do something unusual: brand yourself not only through emailing the agency but perhaps sending a business card,  video of you etc.
3. Follow up with not long emails.
4. Show diversity: if your a painter, musician etc, show it, not only design.
5. Network: Build communication with people who respect your work.

Hint: If you are not asked for an interview, then ask for a portfolio interview. This will higher your chances in getting in due to your personality instead.

Leo Burnett

On February 11th, 2011, Leo Burnett came for a visit; guest speaker was Brendan Good, Associate Creative Director from Leo Burnett.

Address:

175 Bloor Street East
North Tower
Toronto, Ontario M

4W 3R9
http://www.leoburnett.ca
p.416. 925. 5997
f. 416. 926. 3343

Brendan Good Contact Info.:

LinkedIn

 About Leo Burnett:
    •    Leo Burnett is the 4th most awarded design agency - the only Canadian Company
    •    Creatives run the shop
    •    Clients include: Kellogg's, Healthy Choice, Bell, TVO, P&G, Blackberry, and more

About Brendan Good:

- Worked at D3, Organic and at  Jam3Media.

Brendan not only came with a presentation, but he also came with interesting books, "The Internet Case Study" and "Guidelines for Online Success." These books are both by Rob Ford and Julius Wiedemann.

He gave very interesting resource links for guidance in the design world:

Typodermic: Free online fonts by designer Tobias Frere Jones.
Salary Guide: Keeps you up-to-date with the current design salaries depending on occupation.
Creative Group is also a great resource as well.
FITC is worth the investment.

He emphasized on:

-Having passion for design to succeed
-You have to be a fit for their environment

Good Places to work at:

-Red Interactive Agency
-Camp Organic at Organic: Learn how to get out of your comfort zone by dealing with people within the public in crazy ways.

Type of Shops:

    •    Futurists
    •    Brand Leads (ideas & clients)
    •    Independent (mom and pop or BFF shop)
    •    Vendor / Specialists (a skill: research, Papervision 3D, Wordpress)
    •    Social Crews (digital guerrilla)
    •    Freelance (join Behance - can work from anywhere)
    •    Co-operatives (get freelancers together with different skill sets)

One Method: Steve Miller

In January 28h, Steve Miller, from OneMethod came to our class.

About Steve Miller:

Position: Creative Director
Contact: steve@onemethod.com
              delicious.com/thatstevemiller
              416 649 0191(tel.) 416 816 7077(cell)

His Creative Director Role:

-Creative thinker.
-Strategic thinker.
-Presenter.
-Communicator.
-Client relater.
-Marketeer.

Worked in:

1. Retail for 10 years as a sales guy:
This experience taught him a lot about the advertising industry, especially in performance and sales.
2. SUIT in Vancouver
3. BBDO: Copywriter

About OneMethod:

Their Do's:

-Websites                 -Branding

-Advertising            -Print Design

-Mobile Media        -Interior Design

-Social Media          -Strategy

-Digital Content      -Curriculum

-Motion Design

-There biggest client is Nokia, majority is outside Canada. 

-They look for employees who have skills in everything. Knowledge in everything is an asset and bonus in order to get a position. Because this is a small studio, roughly of about 25, they need employees who know everything.

-They like to create majority of work in house.

-They do motion graphics and after effects allot.

Successful Interviews:

-Brief/Rationale.

-Mobile.

-Social.

-Ideas.

-Work 50%.

-You 50%.

-First 5 minutes is important.

-Speak Intelligently.

-Take comments.

How to be Successful?

-Take a marketing course.

-Practice presenting.

-Read allot.

-Experience.

-Practice allot.

 

Ecentric Arts

Ecentric Arts

contactus@ecentricarts.com

http://www.ecentricarts.com/

416.644.5000 x.221

317 Adelaide St. West., Suite 300

Toronto ON M5V 1P9

About the Guest Speakers:

Keith Durrant and Leslie Horan came in on January 21st/2011.

Keith: Has over 2 years of interactive experience. He graduated from York University,

receiving a BA degree. He is in charge of the business side of things at Ecentric Arts

Leslie: Studied Fine  Art at Queens University, receiving a BA degree as well. She now

is the Creative Director at Ecentric Arts. 

What is Ecentric Arts

There are 3 main owners of the company, one being Keith, who is in charge of Business.

The other two owners are in charge of Technology and Creativity. 

The company began in 2000 and now carries 25 employees.

List of their Previous Clients

 *Majority of their projects are built in a particular way so that clients can update content by themselves. They also provide training before hand. 

1: http://www.kidshelpphone.ca/teens/home/splash.aspx

This project took over a year to create. It is for kids and teens to find out important

information they do not like asking individuals in person. Games are also included in this

website, where the user reaches various obstacles to learns new intriguing information

about particular topics.

2: http://www.osler.com/

3: http://www.nbs-enb.ca/

I was really intrigued in looking at their flash video on the home page. This is because the

animation slowly spreads to cover the whole page. It was also nice to hear that a previous

student taking Web Design created their new logo.  

4: http://www.textilemuseum.ca/

They created the gallery using zoomify. The zoomify tool in their gallery is very effective 

in revealing texture details. 

5: http://www.munkdebates.com/home.aspx

The whole purpose of this website is a debate, a blog. The feel of a blog is very present in the

whole design due to scattered text and images. The scribbles on the far right remind me of

Nuite Blanche branding. 

6. http://www.toronto.ca/tmp/

I really enjoyed looking at the colour scheme for the Toronto Museum Project website. What

I found really interesting was people profiles at the bottom, which you are able to access. 

7. http://groupofseven.ca/

I enjoyed viewing the gallery because it shows the painting and the photograph 

of the actual landscape side by side with interactivity for the user to move the painting and

photograph around at the same time. 

8.http://bbnc.cciorg.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=276

I enjoyed looking at the graphics created for images, plus, the colours are gorgeous.

*Note, these were just a few companies they showed and spoke about for a period

of time. 

Future Web Design Issue:

We always have to be up-to-date with all legislation's/rules and so on. This is because it can

affect our website of being accessible to the wide public due to the accessibility Ontario act

that is being taken place. All websites will need to be updated for all individuals to have the 

ability to hear and see clearly online.

In Conlusion:

All in all said, they both are very nice people to talk to and appreciate art very much. They hire many individuals who have a Fine Art background, which shows their appreciation and value for art. I later approached Leslie; she is a very nice and approachable lady to speak to.

John Alabazowski of Maclaren McCann

Maclaren McCann is known to still be one of the best and longest 

striving agencies in Canada to this day. They work with many 
other agencies in orderto create great ads (ads are their focus). 

They are located in three Canadiancities; Toronto, Calgary and 

Vancouver - Toronto being the largest.

http://www.maclaren.com/

John spoke very highly of his company, which showed his strong 

commitment at Maclaren McCann. He stressed that we have to be 

creativewhen speaking of our portfolios. This means, that we 

should not be shy showing our independent (non-school work) to 

them as portfolio pieces because they usually are the most effective 

and interesting pieces they enjoy looking at.

He also stressed on collaboration is everything and anything. 

Without collaboration,you are no successful, by not accomplishing 

deadlines.

What I found very risky was when he spoke of Apple not accepting 

their Chevy Application for its iPhone at first. What I think is 

wrong, is that iPhone has to see the final finished product before 

its final approval for their iPhone application.Thankfully, Maclaren

McCann did not give up and convinced Apple that it should be an

iPhone application. I enjoyed listening to their non-charity work 

they do, free of charge. Maclaren McCann takes great pride in charity

work. Charity organizations are their top favourite people they like 

working with since it is for a good cause.Out of all the pieces he has 

shown in class, I really enjoyed listening and seeing ads done for Buick, 

Chevy Cruze and the charity organization camp up north in Canada. 

Pamela Divinsky and Alden Hadwen

The Divinsky Group

Contact: 

416.562.6414
pamela@divinskygroup.com
 

About Pamela Divinsky:

Founder of The Divinsky Group. Has over 20 years of experience 

in corporate strategy, social change research, management consulting 

and corporate responsibility strategy development and implementation.

About Alden Hadwen:

Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Aeroplan Canada, 

and at Groupe Aeroplan, a global leader in loyalty management. She has 

overall responsibility for the development and management of all 

aspects of Aeroplan’s CSR program including Community Investment, 

Environmental Stewardship, Employee Engagement and Art Partnerships. 

I unfortunately did not attend this particular day. I did however 

visit their website. I enjoyed reading,"The objective is to manage 

the full impact your business has on the world and do this in ways 

that improve the world, and your business. The outcome is sustainable 

social change and enduring business success. I personally believe, 

that when companies stand up for what they believe in are more 

successful than anything else. Yes, it indeed does take a lot of work 

for particular acts to be affective, but that is the whole excitement 

behind it, in expressing your beliefs. This company is definitely 

strong and powerful in its development of clear Social Missions and 

Social Capital Strategies that earn the pride of employees, the trust

of consumers, respect of investors and watchers, and ensures 

that the result is true impact. Key to this is measurement.