Ultimately not accepted by the client, this design shows off what I can do with an annual report concept.
HMIRC Annual Review – CONCEPT
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Category Archives: Ryan/Smith Creative
Reflections of my time at Ryan/Smith Creative
The interview
The interview was a little more intimidating than most. Two professionals greeted me dressed in suits. The office was big, well designed, clean, had multiple offices and workstations and a huge board room. I also knew that they had large government clients and specialized in document production; an area I had little to no experience with. I immediately felt out of my league. But as usual I was willing to bend the truth to get the job. I had had document experience but it was more than 5 years old doing the Full Bore Catalogue with Blackbird PCD. I also had Quark Xpress experience but, again, it was 5 years old as well and on a PC. But I knew I could relearn quickly so i said I knew it. PLUS I brought InDesign experience that, over the next four years, would pull the company away from Quark; so, added bonus.
The company
This is where I learned how to manage a publication. Charlie Smith, the owner and creative director was a fantastic mentor for any designer to have. He is from the old school of design but had modernized like any who wished to remain successful. His attention to detail is the highest I have ever encountered. It was frustrating at first but it forced all of his employees to operate at a higher tempo which produced better work. I owe all of my typographic skill to Mr. Smith. Charlie called me on my stick-handling about Quark and document production early on. It was obvious the wheels had fallen off my go-kart. But he didn’t fire me so he must have seen that I was willing to learn and work hard. Who knows. Owning a business and having employees is a tough road.
Ryan/Smith was (and still is) filled with hard working, creative individuals who know how to work when there’s work and play when there’s not. I don’t think any other company treated it’s employees so well. Lunches, christmas parties, the annual cottage party. My job before didn’t have those perks and my job after certainly doesn’t.
The people
I took from Ryan/Smith some life-long friends. What a wonderful bunch I worked with.
The work.
I like to think I did some of my best work under Charlie’s direction and with Manny, John, or Jennifer’s input.
Here are some of my favourites.
Public Safety Posters
Event Poster and Wall Calendar
Awards Gala logo
Stationery Concept
Brochure
Newsletter Logo
Ethiopian Restaurant Website
Air Quality Control Index Logo – Concept
Flight Comment
Annual Report Concept
Annual Review – Concept
Listeriosis Investigation Report Concept
Annual Report Concept
Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation Brochure
This is an old Ryan/Smith job that went through a lot of rounds of edits. The inside was actually black (the background of the photo) and it, surprisingly, survived the injection of colour. This one was actually approved and printed. Yay for me. 🙂
Concepts on your marks!
Another concept! This one is mostly about small business loans. Not money, although they’re a bank, and not people, although they deal specifically with people year round. They wanted this concept to be about business growth.
Flight Comment Samples
More to follow.
Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation Brochure
This is an old Ryan/Smith job that went through a lot of rounds of edits. The inside was actually black (the background of the photo) and it, surprisingly, survived the injection of colour. This one was actually approved and printed. Yay for me. 🙂
For the sake of a second post in March…
Here is a concept done for Environment Canada. It was not selected. None were selected in fact. This is an example of wasteful government spending. I got to create a nice logo out of it anyway.
Another amazing (in my opinion) reject
Engineers Canada is a client of Ryan/Smith. This is a concept I did for their stationery after R/S redesigned the Engineers Canada brand. The one they selected was good. However, in my opinion, this one was great! 🙂
PIPSC Gala Logo – Ryan/Smith Creative
This is a good example of why I love Bickham Script. Look at the alternate character that was used for the l. Bickham is my favorite script font.
Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant – Ryan/Smith Creative
This project defines a truth in our industry.
If you go to the website and read the copy it will take you about three seconds to find 5 typos. There are hundreds. Of course R/S offered to check for spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors but the client refused to pay extra for our keen eyes. So, as it stands, one of my only designs for web is riddled with misspellings, poor grammar and punctuation.
Andrew Sutton, R.G.D. 