David Berman
David Berman was born in Ottawa, in 1962. He has over 20 years of experience in graphic design and strategic communications. David brings both graphic design and information technology expertise to his information design work. As early as high school, he created and produced a magazine which was distributed in four countries. Beginning in 1982, while training at the University of Waterloo in computer science and at Carleton University in psychology and typography, he became deeply involved with the student press. It was there that David was responsible for the design and production of The Charlatan, Carleton's weekly newsmagazine. He accomplished a redesign of the paper and overhaul of the production and typesetting system, introducing microcomputers for the first time into the production of a Canadian student newspaper. He also completed dozens of assignments for the students' association including student calendars, handbooks, posters, and brochures, and coordinated the activities of the in-house typesetting operation. David worked in the federal government as a computer systems analyst before turning his hobby of graphic design into his career.

In 1984, David created David Berman Typographics Ltd. The graphic design activities of this firm concentrated on publication and exhibit design. Typographic activity included primarily ad and agency work, with an increasing amount of creative work directed by client designers. The firm was generally considered Ottawa's finest type shop. David's responsibilities there included all aspects of senior management, including budgeting, legal and financial liaison, establishing and improving upon quality and control systems, and selecting and purchasing capital equipment.

Many consider David's knowledge of typography and electronic publishing, which he has taught as part of college curricula, to be unmatched in the National Capital Region. He has worked extensively in the adaptation of printed materials for electronic distribution, including Web design and software interface development. As a graphic designer, communications strategist, public speaker and typographer, David is a senior consultant in information architecture and communications strategy. For over 10 years, David was vice-president of Herrera Berman Communications, amongst the most experienced design firms in Canada's national capital.

His design and consulting clients include IBM (Web accessibility) the International Space Station (corporate identity), the World Bank (publication design), Metropolitan Life (annual report), the Sierra Club (identity), Statistics Canada (2006 census online), CCRA (Web strategy), Treasury Board Secretariat (Web development), and the Department of Canadian Heritage (branding consultation), including extensive work involving applying content management principles and common look and feel guidelines to large government Web sites.

Early in David's career he developed a lasting interest in plain language and information design. His work includes award-winning projects in the application of plain design for the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan Workbook. Other notable projects involving plain design and knowledge management principles include work for Justice Canada, HRDC, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, the Region of Ottawa-Carleton, and the Ontario Literacy Coalition.

David has been involved in designing typefaces for the federal government, Nortel, and the world's most highly syndicated comic strip, For Better Or For Worse.

Presently David is the principal in David Berman Communications, a firm specializing in communications strategy, graphic design, Web site information design, process facilitation, and electronic publishing services to government, NGOs, and private firms. The firm's specialties include identity work, non-profit fundraising, publication systems, typography and Web publishing. David's responsibilities include project co-ordination, continuous improvement of quality management systems, IT planning and management, and graphic and typographic design. David acts as a management consultant and trainer for public and private sector clients, offering public professional development seminars as well as custom on-site training, consultation, and one-on-one mentoring. He holds a training certificate for continuing adult education and has taught core curriculum at the college level.

Since 1984, David has worked to establish a code of ethics which embraces social responsibility for graphic designers throughout Canada. The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada ratified his draft nationally in May 2000. He served as president of the first elected board of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, North America's first accredited graphic design organization, from 1997 to 1999. He drafted the association's General Bylaw and Rules of Professional Conduct, with the help of other dedicated individuals, and authored Ontario's accreditation examination section on ethics and professional responsibility. In 1999, the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada named him a Fellow (the second youngest to have achieved the country's highest professional standing in this field) for his work on the Code of Ethics, accreditation and other national issues. In 2000, he was elected Vice President Ethics of the Society, and is currently the national Ethics Chair. David is dedicated to realizing graphic design's potential to help improve the human condition and the global environment. He speaks at national and international conferences about the important role graphic designers can play: rather than applying their skills to help organizations mislead their audiences, they can help enhance social conditions around the world. He has been a keynote speaker at various ICOGRADA, GDC, and other design conferences and events around the world, with his celebrated seminar Social Responsibility and Graphic Design; How Logo Can We Go?

His others passions include: fatherhood and his daughter, information technology, quality systems, priority management, basketball, softball, environmental issues, logic puzzles, philately, folk guitar, and continuous improvement.


Paul-Michael Brunelle
Paul is a man of passion, vision and devotion. An unshakable idealist with strongly held views, he is one of those rare individuals who can marry ideals with actions. Remarkably tenacious, he was instrumental in the consolidation of many of the standards and aspects the Society enjoys and often takes for granted today. As the chapter president in Atlantic Canada in the 1980’s, he developed and instituted model bylaws, painless portfolio review guidelines, job descriptions for all chapter chairs and roles, etc. These formed our basis when we started the Manitoba chapter in 1989, and which we further amended to apply to new chapters in Victoria and Saskatchewan as seeding documents later on.

A favorite dictum of his would read: Create once, use often. He is infamous for the disciplined implementation of standards to which the members of the GDC Atlantic responded years ago by buying him vanity plates reading “Benito.” To this day he is the only person I know that can turn his socks into art.

As National President he was instrumental in the implementation of the Penumbra study, which took an outside look at the GDC and what it’s potentials and recurring challenges were. He drove the O’Conner meeting, which was a four-day windowless meeting in Ottawa, which lead to the Elgin O’Conner Report, the results of which include initiatives such as: annual national planning meetings (we used to only have a meeting every two years, and it was really hard to get anything done); standardised stationery; coordinated terms of office in all Chapters; the exchange of information by the use of an early version of “the web” (he was instrumental in getting many of us modems for the first time, and to start real-time communication across the country). It also led to a national presence via a staffed secretariat in Ottawa (and we have continued to benefit from that today), the coordinated national collection of professional dues, a national Journal on graphic design, and the bulk of standards for the GDC User’s Manual.

Paul excells in several diverse areas as well as design, he is a biologist with a passion for dragonflies. He has a degree and background in fisheries biology, he has done a lot of research in both South and North America, and his extensive research in dragonflies has lead to his discovery of a new genus, which is now named after his son. Paul is also an author and working on (I believe) a comprehensive guide to dragonflies of North America.

Paul is also a very well-regarded designer, with a recent set of Canadian postage stamps to his credit and a long history of design excellence in Atlantic Canada. So, he is certainly a remarkable individual with a legacy of achievements for the GDC within the Atlantic Chapter and on the national level.
— Remarks by Robert L. Peters


Helen Mah
Helen Mah joined the Ontario Chapter of the GDC as a Professional member in 1982. It was only after an invitation in 1992 from then-VP and Accreditation Task Force co-ordinator Albert Ng to attend several board meetings to find out more about his goal to achieve professional accreditation for graphic designers that Mah became aware of this new initiative. She agreed to help out by serving as a board member. She also took on the responsibilities of Treasurer and Membership Chair when those roles went unfilled. In 1994, she became a member of the Professional Accreditation Committee, serving on the Steering Committee and as co-chair of the Fundraising Committee.

During 1995, Mah continued her duties as Treasurer, participated in a subsequent membership drive, organized and promoted a PAGD roundtable discussion at the Design Exchange, and organized a reception to officially thank sponsors of PAGD. She also wrote and designed a series of awareness-building print ads which promoted PAGD in trade magazines such as Applied Arts, Graphic Arts Monthly, Step-by-Step Graphics, and Carrot. Continuing to build awareness for PAGD, Mah put together an article that appeared in the January 1996 issue of Step-by-Step Graphics. Mah declined payment for the article, and instead donated ad space for an ad promoting PAGD. The article elicited strong response from both American and Canadian designers.

Mah applied for two Ontario Arts Council grants on behalf of the Ontario chapter. The PAGD grant application was not successful (not in their mandate to support accreditation) but OAC did support the 40th Anniversary Type Exposition with a $7500 grant.

In March 1996 after first reading of the proposed Act, Mah worked with other board members to organize an exclusive fundraising dinner to build anticipation around the passing of the Act. A videotape recording of the reading in Ontario’s legislature was viewed by all the dinner participants.

After the passing of Bill Pr56 and the creation of the new Association, Mah served as a founding board member and its first Treasurer. Along with the other founding members, she contributed to the drafting of the By-law and the establishment of the tangible symbols of accreditation (certificate of registration and numbered embossing seal for the Registered Graphic Designer and R.G.D. designations).

In April 1997 a Members‚ Reception was held in order to update members on the developments of accreditation. Mah contributed by locating and securing the site, invitation design and donor of the door prize (Umax colour scanner). Mah continues to support professional accreditation for graphic designers.

Born in Ontario, Helen Mah graduated in 1974 with high honours from the graphic design program at Sheridan College, Oakville. In 1979 she completed a post-graduate summer program with Prof Muriel Cooper at the Visible Language Workshop, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.