Week 6- Gillian Alexander and Dylan Bobier
Gillian Alexander and Dylan Bobier
Designers at Critical Mass
gilliana@criticalmass.com & dbobier@criticalmass.com
Critical Mass
Both Gillian and Dylan work as designers at Critical Mass. Critical Mass is one of the oldest Canadian started agencies that was established in Calgary in 1996. With a focus on their customer experiences, they were able to design meaningful works for their clients for more than 20 years. They have offices spanning from Calgary, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, Cupertino, London, Hong Kong, Brazil and Costa Rica.
Working collaboratively is their main focus to find ways to enhance the projects, careers and perspectives of their peers, the agency itself and the designers. They value teamwork and to never stop ideating. Designers constantly think of new ideas to intrigue and surprise the clients and gaining the user's attentions in meaningful ways.
Working collaboratively is their main focus to find ways to enhance the projects, careers and perspectives of their peers, the agency itself and the designers. They value teamwork and to never stop ideating. Designers constantly think of new ideas to intrigue and surprise the clients and gaining the user's attentions in meaningful ways.
Ideas are Everything
Before designing, one must go through the process of ideating. Dylan and Gillian stress that, "ideas are everything." There are many ways to capture the attention of audiences with design, however through that process, we are making distinct design choices. We design with the user in mind and think about the client's needs. Choosing what element to group with and what colours will satisfy with the work. One must keep in mind the insightful design choices and explain why. Without giving a reasonable reason for that design choice, the confidence of that work depletes. Its not as intriguing and loses its value if the designer themselves doesn't know why they chose that font, colour, or decided to group those elements together.
One must consider, what is the problem we are solving. Who is the specific target we are marketing towards? The design all comes down to pleasing the user's experience and being able to speak to them. Going back to the values of Critical Mass, they ideate in order to improve the lives of their users in a meaningful way.
One must consider, what is the problem we are solving. Who is the specific target we are marketing towards? The design all comes down to pleasing the user's experience and being able to speak to them. Going back to the values of Critical Mass, they ideate in order to improve the lives of their users in a meaningful way.
Design Works at Critical Mass
Since Gillian has just started working at Critical Mass with reference from Dylan, Dylan has decided to show his works in the presentation they have prepared. Dylan who has worked at Critical Mass for a year now, has an amazing portfolio that spans from designing for the web, mobile, marketing, prototyping and illustrations. Going through his works, he again, stresses that we need to develop talking about our work, as to create a connection with the design choices and having thought about different outcomes to fulfill that specific design. It also helps for the peers listening to the designer to be invested on the work, thus creating interest and garnering their attention and surprising them.
His first work that he showed is the recreation of the Infiniti homepage design. The design of the homepage was to help elevate the luxury feeling of the website in accordance to who the client is as a company. Developing responsive designs, the overall feeling was definitely luxurious and every design was keeping in theme of that specific feeling. Dylan has also mentioned when working with a client, there is always a system that one needs to design for. There are specific rules placed to accommodate the design principles to the brand. Looking through his design's he has definitely stuck within the system and all the design elements felt united by one brand.
Another work that he has shown is the Facebook AR experience. He has briefly shown images of a brand experience to eco boost to power through a simple gesture shown on a phone. This was interesting to see as he has mentioned it was his first time working on animating a design and the final product looked fantastic. Gillian and Dylan has mentioned to always say, "yes" and figure out the program later. However, in my opinion, I would be to stressed to work on something new and learning a new program. It would definitely take time to learn the ropes, however it was an interesting advice to give. I can see where they are coming from as, how will one learn if one doesn't give it a try. It will also expand the knowledge of the programs you currently know and opens to more options of different kinds of works instead of designing for similar things again and again. Its good to always keep learning and developing your skills.
Near the end of their presentation, he has shown Canada 150. This was in celebration to the 150 anniversary of the Confederation. Canadians coming together and celebrating who they are. Critical Mass designed an amazing logo of the maple leaf and created a depository of illustrations with captions stating, "you're welcome." Since Canadians are known for being nice, and it is the time to celebrate who we are as Canadians, Critical Mass decided to design different images, logos and illustrations showing all the Canadians who have made an impact in the world and saying, "you're welcome." I thought this was a great idea to celebrate being Canadian. I also find the redesign of the maple leaf to be very intriguing and an amazing design. It shows the interaction and connectivity of the logo and its meaningful to show how connected we are as a society and connected we are as Canadians during the celebration of Canada.
His first work that he showed is the recreation of the Infiniti homepage design. The design of the homepage was to help elevate the luxury feeling of the website in accordance to who the client is as a company. Developing responsive designs, the overall feeling was definitely luxurious and every design was keeping in theme of that specific feeling. Dylan has also mentioned when working with a client, there is always a system that one needs to design for. There are specific rules placed to accommodate the design principles to the brand. Looking through his design's he has definitely stuck within the system and all the design elements felt united by one brand.
Another work that he has shown is the Facebook AR experience. He has briefly shown images of a brand experience to eco boost to power through a simple gesture shown on a phone. This was interesting to see as he has mentioned it was his first time working on animating a design and the final product looked fantastic. Gillian and Dylan has mentioned to always say, "yes" and figure out the program later. However, in my opinion, I would be to stressed to work on something new and learning a new program. It would definitely take time to learn the ropes, however it was an interesting advice to give. I can see where they are coming from as, how will one learn if one doesn't give it a try. It will also expand the knowledge of the programs you currently know and opens to more options of different kinds of works instead of designing for similar things again and again. Its good to always keep learning and developing your skills.
Near the end of their presentation, he has shown Canada 150. This was in celebration to the 150 anniversary of the Confederation. Canadians coming together and celebrating who they are. Critical Mass designed an amazing logo of the maple leaf and created a depository of illustrations with captions stating, "you're welcome." Since Canadians are known for being nice, and it is the time to celebrate who we are as Canadians, Critical Mass decided to design different images, logos and illustrations showing all the Canadians who have made an impact in the world and saying, "you're welcome." I thought this was a great idea to celebrate being Canadian. I also find the redesign of the maple leaf to be very intriguing and an amazing design. It shows the interaction and connectivity of the logo and its meaningful to show how connected we are as a society and connected we are as Canadians during the celebration of Canada.
Finishing Thoughts
This week's presentation was very informative and gave insightful ideas for what life is like once we graduate. Both of them have different experiences with their work, but ultimately came to work at the same place. Dylan has previously worked as a costume designer and focused on theatre. Gillian has previous graphic design experience, but didn't really have much confidence in coding. But, they both grew from their differences and became the designers they are today. They are both incredible people who are kind enough to answer our questions(even if not all of us asked questions). They also gave very informative information on their company, including letting us know about the summer internship. Since Dylan has mentioned he got interned to Critical Mass during his graduation show in web design intrigued me as I was thinking of interning at a company once I graduate from school. So, it was interesting to hear that Dylan got an internship during the grad show. Further informing me to develop talking about my work and the design choices to keep peers engaged with the work.
Along with insightful advice: it is always good to ideate, ask questions and keep the creative thinking flowing. Its good to have multiple designs for one aspect as there is more options for a client to choose from, as well as possibly combining designs to make an even greater design. Ideating is important to know the different choices one has made to the work and always asking, is this solving a problem? Does it relate to the brand and the target market?
Finally, we have the comparison of being an in-house designer vs a designer for a big company. Now that I have more information on each side and seeing different perspectives of people working at that workplace, it is interesting to see the differences in each culture. As Dylan and Gillian has mentioned, it all depends on the person. One can be used to working alone, or others might need that leadership guidance in order to go forward with a design. It is definite to see that there is a clear difference between the two. Now being more informed about each culture, I'd say I would start off working at a big company, then finally working at a smaller company. But then again, plans can change, but I would definitely start off working in a big company. I am not much of a leader, if not I am still working towards becoming more confident as a person. So, it was reassuring to hear that Gillian is still working towards becoming more confident and not as shy. As I am a very shy person, it is reassuring to hear that I am not the only one feeling that way. Overall, the presentation was very fun and I felt I was able to relate to them in a way, which made me more engaged and allowed me to become a bit less stressed about the future.
Useful Links:
https://www.criticalmass.com - Critical Mass Website
An insight about the company and their values.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-alexander/ - Gillian Alexander's LinkedIn profile.
http://gillianalexander.ca- Gillian Alexander's Portfolio Website
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbobier/ - Dylan Bobier's LinkedIn profile.
https://dylanbobier.ca- Dylan Bobier's Portfolio Website
Along with insightful advice: it is always good to ideate, ask questions and keep the creative thinking flowing. Its good to have multiple designs for one aspect as there is more options for a client to choose from, as well as possibly combining designs to make an even greater design. Ideating is important to know the different choices one has made to the work and always asking, is this solving a problem? Does it relate to the brand and the target market?
Finally, we have the comparison of being an in-house designer vs a designer for a big company. Now that I have more information on each side and seeing different perspectives of people working at that workplace, it is interesting to see the differences in each culture. As Dylan and Gillian has mentioned, it all depends on the person. One can be used to working alone, or others might need that leadership guidance in order to go forward with a design. It is definite to see that there is a clear difference between the two. Now being more informed about each culture, I'd say I would start off working at a big company, then finally working at a smaller company. But then again, plans can change, but I would definitely start off working in a big company. I am not much of a leader, if not I am still working towards becoming more confident as a person. So, it was reassuring to hear that Gillian is still working towards becoming more confident and not as shy. As I am a very shy person, it is reassuring to hear that I am not the only one feeling that way. Overall, the presentation was very fun and I felt I was able to relate to them in a way, which made me more engaged and allowed me to become a bit less stressed about the future.
Useful Links:
https://www.criticalmass.com - Critical Mass Website
An insight about the company and their values.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-alexander/ - Gillian Alexander's LinkedIn profile.
http://gillianalexander.ca- Gillian Alexander's Portfolio Website
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbobier/ - Dylan Bobier's LinkedIn profile.
https://dylanbobier.ca- Dylan Bobier's Portfolio Website
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