Joel Harding is a person that designs things

The only thing better than working is not working

Joel — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:20:31 +0000

Vacations are nice. I just got back from a few days with the fam in B.C. and figured I’d memorialize my short summer break with a bit of unnecessary design.

From Copenhagen, with Love

Joel — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:07:27 +0000

I’ve been living in Copenhagen for the last 4 months, working at a studio called Designbolaget. It is a charming and beguiling city, full of design treasures. I only have two weeks left here before I return to our home and native land; it will be sad to go. Will any place ever be as beautiful? Here are a couple photos I shot on my sojourn here:

Laura, boat, wind turbines

Amelienborg Palace

My Best Idea Ever

Joel — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:31:09 +0000

Still working on the courage to try this. If you’re willing to let me try it on you, let me know.

The Design Exchange likes me

Joel — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:19:49 +0000

I was in Toronto this week for the 2009 DX Awards, where I won Gold in the Visual Communications – Content Development & Editorial category for Agora Borealis: Engaging in Sustainable Architecture. I was tickled pink. Pinkish gold maybe.

This was my second trip to the DX Awards—in 2007 I won an honourable mention for the White Moose Catalogue.

The Design Exchange says: The Design Exchange Awards promote Canadian design excellence and recognize the critical role of design in all types of organizations including commercial entities (large and small businesses), not-for-profit organizations, and the public sector. The Awards celebrate the success stories achieved through close partnerships between clients and designers. The DXAs are Canada’s only award program to judge design by results, balancing function, aesthetics, and economic success.

Banff Session

Joel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:14:54 +0000

This is a project Tyler Vreeling from Fat Crow Design, Laura Harding and I are currently collaborating on for the Alberta Association of Architects. The Banff Session is a biannual architectural conference held in Banff, Alberta, Canada. This year’s theme, chosen by the association, is “Scale”. Our interpretation of the theme is based on the shifts in scale possible within the isometric grid. Each piece in the package will represent a shift in scale by zooming in or out on the elements that we’ve created within this isometric world. The poster is below. A website, postcards, banners, programs and signage are in the works.

Couture for Cambodia

Joel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:12:10 +0000

This was a bro bono project my wife Laura and I worked on for a non-profit called Same Same But Different. The event was a fashion show featuring some of Canada’s hottest designers and models. All the proceeds went towards an orphanage building project in Cambodia benefiting victims of child trafficking, extreme poverty, abandonment, and decades of warfare.

I art directed the project and Laura Harding did all the illustration. We chose a really bright, warm and energetic colour scheme that made reference to the traditional colours of Cambodia and served to generate the excitement we were hoping to create for the event through posters, invites, tickets, banners and programs. It seems to have worked—the house was packed and the event raised $17,000.

First Nations Brochure/Poster

Joel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:10:13 +0000

I was asked to write and design a brochure to promote Manasc Isaac’s work for First Nations communities across Canada and attract new building projects. The brochure was intended to reconnect the firm with past clients and generate business. The concept uses the traditional First Nations medicine wheel and four elements as a way to explain Manasc Isaac’s sustainable building practices and show the harmony between the two philosophies.

Using a format that could be economically printed offset or inhouse without bleeds, I designed the brochure as a fold-out broadsheet that doubles as a poster to lengthen its shelf life and increase exposure.

I used the four colours and quarter-circles of the medicine wheel as a starting point that carry the Manasc Isaac story, frame images of the firm’s past First Nations projects, and morph into illustrations. On the poster, these elements combine to form the educational panels of the medicine wheel, and also to portray the First Nations legend of the earth being the shell on the back of a giant turtle.

Agora Borealis

Joel — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:57:44 +0000

One of the major projects I’ve worked on at Manasc Isaac is the redesign of Vivian Manasc’s book Agora Borealis: Engaging in Sustainable Architecture. The concept behind the book’s design comes from the idea of conversation and dialogue as a means to achieve more sustainable buildings. The book itself is a type of conversation; multiple authors tell the story and quotes from writers, architects and project stakeholders are smattered throughout the text. A simple speech bubble, repeated and varied endlessly throughout the book communicates this concept and serves as the building block for illustrations, the root of patterns, the carrier of pull-quotes and the structure for layouts. I did all the design and illustration for the book, and also contributed some of the photography.

The author wanted the book to read more like a magazine—which is generally scanned quickly and non-linearly—than a book, which is read cover to cover. She suggested ‘multiple points of entry’ that would catch the reader’s eye as they flipped through the book, and make them stop and read a section or quote. Colour is used to delineate chapters, and to carry the aurora theme through the book. A two column grid helps the book read like a magazine, as do the energetic pull-quotes and bold spot illustrations.

By carefully researching local printers and press sizes, and having the book printed on a larger press, I was able to save the company over 20% in printing costs. Not only did the 218 page book cost 4/5 the price of the first edition, it’s also in full colour—with 17 times more colour pages than the previous edition in 2002.

I’m also proud to say that book is about as sustainable as it gets; there wasn’t a single tree used in its production. After hours of research into the credibility/effectiveness of the various forest certification programs, examining the sustainability differences in coated vs. uncoated paper stocks, tracing and factoring in distances travelled from forest to pulp mill to paper mill to printer, and researching local printers and the impact of their operations, I specified an uncoated, 100% post-consumer content, FSC certified stock, manufactured in Canada using biogas energy. The book was printed using vegetable based inks, at a local FSC certified printer.

Buy a copy here.

Manasc Isaac Signage

Joel — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:50:10 +0000

I developed an internal signage package for Manasc Isaac to help visitors navigate the building and to incorporate a new branding strategy into the space. The package included custom room signs, several wayfinding directories, custom symbols and large-format posters.

The meeting rooms are all named after Manasc Isaac projects. I used images of each building to create an icon which I had mounted under a transparent layer of acrylic, with raised laser-cut letters mounted on the surface. The wayfinding signage was produced internally using digital prints on an acrylic backing. Wilson Loh designed an ingenious magnet system for attaching the signs to the walls that allows them to be taken down quickly and painlessly.

Logos!

Joel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:20:39 +0000

I’ve worked on some pretty satisfying identity projects over the years. Here’s a few of my favourites:

The West Xprssd

Joel — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:52:39 +0000

In the fall of 2008, Fat Crow Design curated a design feature booth at the Calgary and Vancouver Home Shows. The booth exhibited the work of ten Western Canadian designers working in various areas of design such as furniture, fashion and architecture. I was asked to create an identity and environmental graphics for the booth, print material and a webpage.

The concept for the booth centered around the idea of design as an expression of place. The name The West Xprssd refers to the way design allows for the expression of ideas, and connects people and ideas—like a train weaving through the sparse and sprawling Western Canadian landscape. The name also speaks to the speed and abbreviated language (visual and verbal) of the young designers driving Western Canada’s design locomotive.

Every designer’s work is in part an expression of where they come from, and we wanted the booth to reflect this. Embeded in the booth, the print collateral and the website are dozens of little references to place—the animals common to Western Canada, the landmarks of the built and natural landscape, the icons of each sub-region and the personal interests of the individual designers. The booth itself becomes a physical map of Western Canada, with each panel of the booth standing in for a province or territory.

The webpage I designed for the events is found here: www.fatcrowdesign.com/the-west-xprssd

White Moose Catalogue

Joel — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:51:41 +0000

36 page product catalogue produced for Fat Crow Design’s inaugural furniture line, White Moose. Using the identity I had developed previously, I did all of the photography, design and much of the copy writing. All in less than two weeks (two blurry, sleepless, zombie-eyed weeks). Tyler Vreeling and I collaborated on the creative direction and copy writing.

This project won a DX Award in 2007

I was involved in the design of several of the pieces in the line including a set of magnetic coasters and a water-jet cut room divider.

I also designed the online catalogue at www.whitemoosebrand.ca
Programming by Dave Olsen.