"Togethering" Campaign / Design Professionals of Canada

The Story behind TOGETHERING

In 2022, the Design Professionals of Canada unveiled a new name and visual identity, becoming DesCan. Marga Lopez contacted me and asked if I'd volunteer my help in creating an engagement campaign, with the objectives of moving members over the new DesCan website, and inviting lapsed members back. I was thrilled to accept as I've always loved collaborating with designers. I put together a few questions for the Board to answer, and one reply really resonated with me: "Through the creation of a community we can achieve together what we cannot do alone. We can create a sense of belonging among like-minded people, we can elevate our profession, and we can create unique and meaningful connections. This is the philosophical benefit that remains consistently appealing throughout the decades."

Marga also brought in former BC Chapter Communications Chair Stu Ross for the design work. I chatted with Stu and gave him long list of possible themes, words that resonated with me, that kind of thing. I always give collaborators and clients access to my long list, which usually includes some duds, but sometime the duds spark a conversation. One of the words I included was TOGETHERING. Stu started to play around along the idea of elements and objects and typography coming together, as a metaphor for collaboration.

We all decided that the one hero word we had that did so much heavy lifting, was TOGETHERING. As Stu says, "that's the beauty of collaboration! That's the best. Where you're just enjoying each other's company, riffing and just goofing around and, and then some oddball comment will lead to something else and then some interesting insight. Some truth about whatever you're talking about emerges. It's always the best stuff."

The TOGETHERING campaign was unveiled today and includes a landing page, email blasts, social media posts, a poster and postcard, and an e-commerce site for TOGETHERING swag.

Client: DesCan
Concept & Writing: Pete Pallett
Concept & Design: Stu Ross
Paper Stock: Elizabeth Blomkamp, Spicers Canada
Printing: Doug Climie, Hemlock Printers