Judges Choice | Graphex 2008 Winners List

Compass360 Website

Compass360 Design & Advertising, client
Compass360 Design & Advertising, design firm
Karl Thomson, John Cook, Mark Buchner, Scott Wise, designers
Launch Website

Design Requirements

The goal of the redesigned Compass360 site was to not only highlight our portfolio, but also communicate the feel of our office environment, which is very much a part of the Compass360 experience; important as we expand our client base into the U.S., since many new clients are not able to visit us in person.

Design Solution

Succinct, playful statements and warm photography give the site an inviting feel. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the relaunched site has resulted in a handful of new clients.

Sam Carter

Judge's Rational

Such a vast amount of fine work in one package and with such ease of access! A museum of design excellence including Branding+Identity, Broadcast, Print Advertising, Interactive, Communication and Packaging, this site is a great example of web architecture. The typography, grids, colour, poetic and communicative copy writing and a vast diversity of illustrations, photos, animation and other media …all good! And the delightfully funny Compass360 holiday e-card is spirited and provocative. In addition, any design and advertising studio that creates such fine links to the 'Wal-Mart Nation' documentary film certainly gets my vote!

Sensations Urbaines – Sense of the city

Centre canadien d'architecture – Canadian Centre for Architecture, client
orangetango, design firm
orangetango, designer

Design Requirements

The requirement concerned the installation and design of the exhibition Sensations Urbaines, directed by the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The challenge was to use all the disciplines of the design to convey the sensory experience of the exhibition.

Design Solution

A graphic concept was the solution that impacted the other design applications. The identity of the exhibition, both in the design and the placement of the pieces, became clear by playing around with the data content and graphically re-engineering the data. Contrasts of scale, a break in aerial sensations, absence of light, etc. –all these approaches were brought into play, reflecting the theme of the exhibition.

Jamie Koval

Judge's Rational

The installation for the Centre of Canadian Architecture, I felt, warrants special consideration for the following reasons: the scale of this assignment; its 2D and 3D qualities; that it feels experimental and playful and that there is a sense of discovery.  The designers came up with seemingly contradictory approaches, working in black and white yet it was colourful. The simultaneous elements of predictability and surprise, refinement and its absence, demonstrated that it is possible for the problem to be part of the solution.

I wish I could have walked through the installation to experience it for all it was worth - beautiful!

Green Baronet Showroom

Baronet, client
Paprika, design firm
Louis Gagnon, David Guarnieri, designers

Design Requirements

For furniture maker Baronet's Fall 2007 showroom in High Point, we were working on a tight budget. The idea was to create a big impact, without producing many pieces, as we usually do.

Design Solution

We decided to create what we called a "Green Showroom". Where a single piece (a green poster) would have many usages and maximum impact. We used the poster to decorate the entire showroom, and also as an invitation, wrapping paper, etc. The repeated pattern of the poster and the fluorescent green created a huge impression.

Peter Steiner

Judge's Rational

This little "green piece" of design, is simple, hard-edged and yet very intricate. Printed in green on white, the design element is used in an array of permutations that are in stark contrast to the cool furniture display. They even dared using the design element as wrapping paper! They are clearly one of today's top graphic designers. They explore the idea and work on the design until it fits, and is uniquely theirs. Their love for design is omnipresent in whatever they do and that, to me, speaks a thousand words.

Paprika Wrapping Paper

Paprika, client
Paprika, design firm
Louis Gagnon, Rene Clement, Richard Belanger, David Guarnieri, designers
Transcontinental Litho Acme, printer

Design Requirements

Every year, we team up with printer Transcontinental Litho Acme for the creation of our annual Christmas gift. For last year's Holiday season, we wanted to create a piece that showed and promoted the skills of both companies, as graphic designers and printers. We wanted to create a piece that would be graphically interesting and useful. We also wanted to create an "eco-friendly" project.

Design Solution

We used remaindered paper and ink, that otherwise would’ve been thrown away, to print the wrapping papers. Our artistic directors ended up interfering directly in the printing process, by changing colors and superposing patterns on the press. The result is a series of unique double-sided sheets. We then placed a roll of about 10 sheets in a random order, in a custom, specially designed box. Each box has a different selection of wrapping papers with different designs, making each box unique also.

Stanley Hainsworth

Judge's Rational

When I first looked upon Paprika’s Christmas wrapping paper I let out a whoop and a smile. The work felt like "home." Using remaindered paper and ink that otherwise would have been sent to the landfill, they created random, beautiful designs through the design and printing process - a series of double-sided sheets, all different. They are fun, colourful, have great impact and re-use paper and ink in a brilliant way. Although designed as holiday wrapping paper, I would put them in a frame on my wall. In fact, I think I will.

Dubuc Business Cards

Dubuc, client
Paprika, design firm
Louis Gagnon, Rene Clement, designers

Design Requirements

Well-Known Quebec fashion designer Philippe Dubuc contacted us to create his new business card. His store has recently been redesigned, and the card had to be in harmony with the whole boutique. Also, it had to be placed on the counter and we had to find a solution to keep the cards grouped together, to keep a crisp, clean and organized look, just like the boutique.

Design Solution

Ronald Kapaz

Judge's Rational

The Dubuc shop card is beautiful and efficient. The elegance of the typeface and its lay-out certainly speaks for the style of the clothes by Philippe Dubuc. Fastening together the cards in the form of a notepad so that it would always be perfectly displayed in the shop also beautifully transformed a two dimensional project into a well proportioned small “white-striped black sculpture”. The white sheets that give the striped look are a masterwork of design: a reference to the classical elegance of the pin-striped fabric pattern of men’s clothing. “God lives in the detail”. Beauty, art and high quality design solutions too...

Les Allusifs Books

Les Allusifs, client
Paprika, design firm
Louis Gagnon, Francois Leclenc, designers
Alain Pilon, illustrator

Design Requirements

For their second generation of novels, Les Allusifs asked us to come with a totally new and original concept. The challenge was to create a strong feeling of interrelation between the different titles. The readers of these series of books are usually people with eclectic tastes, so the covers had to be intriguing and attractive to them and to other potential readers.

Design Solution

We decided to use a strong colour on the background and to change it for every novel. Also we worked in tight relation with the illustrator Alain Pilon, and used strong images that instantly captured the attention of the readers.

Michael Jager

Judge's Rational

The power to create memories is one of this design's greatest strengths. Design that impacts us emotionally, rationally, and culturally becomes a part of the fabric of who we are as individuals and citizens of the world. As simple and lovingly restrained as they are, this series of novels called The Paperback published by Les Allusifs took my breath away. The sophisticated color, masterful use of type and the grid, and the depth of field expressed through the subtle layering of elements create an elegant gestalt, and finally the provocative image delivers a doorway for the imagination.

The Big Book of Placemats

Paprika, client
Paprika, design firm
Louis Gagnon, Rene Clement, designers
Transcontinental Litho Acme, printer

Design Requirements

Each year we team up with printer Transcontinental Litho Acme to create a gift for the holidays. For the 2005 gift, we wanted to give something original and useful.

Design Solution

We came up with the idea of creating paper placemats that could be used for the holidays. The mats were compiled into a book, with detachable pages. Each mat was printed on both sides and represented a different plate design; some from are from an earlier age and some contemporary.

Marian Bantjes

Judge's Rational

It is the type of thing you wish you had thought of first—always the sign of a great concept. An eclectic array of plates, objects of surprising beauty, were chosen and lovingly photographed both front and back for a series of placemats. No text beyond the title, no intrusion of unnecessary message—a gift without a tagline. I imagine a dinner table set in preparation for a meal with guests admiring, trading and even fighting over the mats, and a story unfolds. The design serves as a springboard to the imagination, leads to conversation and its lasting effect is memory. You cannot ask for more.