Graphex 2006 Awards

Last night the graphic design industry of Canada came of age, a whopping fifty to be precise as the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada launched its 50th anniversary celebrations. For over half a century Canadian businesses, and indeed clients around the globe have been looking to graphic designers in this country to create their “signature identity”. This seminal event was celebrated with the Graphex’06 National Design Awards gala suitably staged amidst the oak paneling and marble of the prestigious Vancouver Club.

Emdoubleyu Design was honoured to win no less than four Graphex Awards of Merit. The first award was for the University of British Columbia 2005 Viewbook, You Should Be Here, the main device used to recruit students. The theme of the book is to get potential students to visualize themselves on campus. UBC Director of Enrolment Services, Deborah Robinson said “Congratulations on this award!…I am very proud of this publication. It has [done an important] job…in terms of helping to recruit students and it’s very reassuring to know that the high quality of this publication is recognized.” Emdoubleyu is currently working on next year’s books for both the Vancovuer campus and UBC Okanogan. To see the viewbook, click here.

The second award was a self-promotion Christmas Card, entitled “HO HO HO,” with an emoticon Santa Clause, It’s a playful nod to the amazing amount of spam that crosses our computers but also the importance of strong design in delivering a message effectively and uniquely.

The third award was for a catalogue for an exhibition of photographers organized by Narrative 360 entitled Kites, Guns & Dreams. It is a moving portrayal of life in pre- and post-Taliban Afghanistan. The “The images were so moving that the main challenge was to create a flow and synergy between images that would not presume to preclude any sort of hierarchy or import to the images,” says Matt. He chose strong, clean design to showcase the complexities of the images, relying heavily on lean, consistent and understated typography. To see the catalogue, click here.

The final award was perhaps the icing on the cake for Warburton, it was for the GDC@50 identity which Emdoubleyu designed in collaboration with well-respected designers Rod Roodenburg and Dave Coates of Ion Design. The zero in fifty made out of a stylized maple leaf dingbat from a font created by one of the founding fathers of Canadian design seemed appropriate to commemorate five decades of creating the look of Canada. “It’s always an honour to have your work recognized but an award from your peers for such a significant event is just so gratifying,” says Warburton. “Pooling our talents to come up with this was a labour of love,” says Coates. “The professional association is a key factor in keeping Canadian design progressive and on the cutting edge,” says Roodenburg.

The team of international judges concluded Canadian design could easily stand competitively in any international arena. Emdoubleyu is proud to be included in such an esteemed collection of award-winning design firms.

For more information contact:

Lynn Warburton at
Emdoubleyu Design
lynn@emdoubleyu.com
604.224.3124

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