Antwerp, Belgium

Here’s a big shout of “Congrats!” to our co-design worldwide
partner Frank Andries Design. Keep up the great work!

Winnipeg, Canada

One of this summer’s largest team projects for us at Circle has been the installation of extensive museum-quality historic interpretive exhibits for The North West Company’s newly-renovated reception and lobby areas—the culmination of nearly a year’s effort. We began by thoroughly researching and then mapping out the (342-year!) history of this remarkable Canadian company, followed by conceptual display design, acquisition of historic imagery and artifacts (from the Company’s extensive collections and third-party sources), creation of comprehensive production artwork and fabrication specifications, extensive supplier liaison and supervision, and finally… the just-completed installation coordination.

Display and installation components include large-screen plasma screens (for dynamic video), digital picture frames (in coordinated mill-work), plasma-cut stainless steel signage, tempered glass on s/s offsets (to protect delicate and valuable artifacts), archival-quality float-mounted display panels, and imaged wall surfaces (hand-rendered pattern as well as die-cut vinyl applications). Artifacts included a full-size birch-bark canoe, a vintage Elan snowmobile, a 9-foot narwhal tusk, historic tools, and a selection of Inuit carvings (among other objects of note).

A big thanks goes out for Client-side support from NWC’s Marketing Director, David Lui, and his in-house team; the project architects and interior design collaborators from ft3; the helpful historians in Ottawa and Winnipeg who vetted and contributed to the comprehensive narrative; and to the top-drawer local suppliers of the fabrication, display, and exhibit installation elements.

Shown above are detail views of a portion of the “timeline wall,” one of three distinct elements of the interpretive exhibits we designed.

Montreal, Canada

INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network, is proud to announce that Robert L. Peters has been appointed as an INDIGO ambassador. Rob will bring invaluable design and consulting expertise to INDIGO as well as an extensive international network.

Robert L. Peters, Icograda President 2001-2003, is a designer and principal of Circle, a design consultancy he co-founded in 1976. In addition to practice, he has been actively involved in design education, writing, speaking, advocacy, and professional development for most of his career, including leadership roles within the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), and the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda).

As Koopman Chair at the School of Art, University of Hartford, Rob worked with Russell Kennedy in 2006 on INDIGO’s inaugural project, MIX06 (Migrant Indigenous Exchange 2006), developed as a collaboration between Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and the University of Hartford in Connecticut, United States.

Rob is active internationally as a consultant and design strategist, policy advisor, writer, juror, and guest lecturer and is based in Winnipeg, Canada.

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INDIGO Ambassadors are individuals committed to creating an awareness of the network, its projects and promoting engagement with designers, stakeholders and the public at large within their communities. INDIGO Ambassadors support the Secretariat in creating a collaborative environment for the exchange of knowledge and ideas. They offer the network local access and insights, help shape projects and initiatives and serve as resources to the network at large.

(reposted from INDIGO news, here) Photo thanks to Ian McCausland.

Winnipeg, Canada

Our longtime client, The North West Company Fund (NWC), held its Annual and Special Meeting of Unitholders today in the Muriel Richardson Auditorium of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Circle designed NWC’s annual report for the 17th consecutive year—the theme this time around was “More growth in store…” with illustrated stories revolving around that narrative. View the 2009 NWC Annual Report online, here.

Images: Front cover and several interior spreads from the printed report; principal photography (Canada and the Caribbean) by Ian McCausland; Alaska photography by Chris Arend; editorial/writing services by Blunn & Company Inc. of Toronto.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Yesterday evening, Adrian J.K. Shum, a graphic designer here at Circle, was honoured to receive his Kuro Obi Shodan (1st degree black belt) in Kyokushin Karate.

Kyokushin is a style of stand-up, full contact karate, founded in 1964 by Masutatsu Oyama (大山倍達). A very practical method of self defense, Kyokushin emphasizes realistic combat and physical toughness, and it is deeply rooted in the philosophy of self-improvement, discipline, and hard training. Adrian started his Kyokushin training not long after joining the creative team at Circle (some five years ago), and continues to train three to four times a week out of the Guardian Dojo. A milestone achievement, Adrian notes that this is only the beginning… quoting Mas Oyama, “One becomes a beginner after one thousand days of training and an expert after ten thousand days of practice.”

Osu no Seishin—the Spirit of Perseverance!

Lisbon, Portugal

The May/June 2010 (#374 Illustration Annual 51) issue of Communication Arts magazine contains a feature article entitled “Visual Communication Design in Portugal: Land of Discovery” written by Circle’s principal, Robert L. Peters. The piece investigates Portugal’s unique attributes, history, culture, and current realities in relation to visual communication—the article is accompanied by a selection of design and illustration by Portuguese designers.

Peters visited Lisbon in 2009 as a speaker at OFFF 2009 Oeiras (International Festival For The Post-Digital Creation Culture), an event attended by nearly 4000 enthusiastic participants. He then drew from dozens of attendees who contacted him following his talk to crowd-source opinions on Portuguese design and related issues, as well as suggestions for representative works.

Peters has been contributing in-depth foreign feature articles to Communication Arts magazine since 1994, including pieces on design and design events in Russia, Portugal (the XVI Icograda General Assembly in 1995), Uruguay, Australia, Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Denmark, Cuba, and New Zealand. Copies of CA issue #374 are available at book stores and major news outlets around the world and may be purchased online from the Communication Arts website.

Read the full feature article (with full creative credits for works shown) or download the entire CA Portugal design feature here (1.1 MB). Note: this feature article from Communication Arts magazine appears with permission by Communication Arts ©2010 Coyne & Blanchard, Inc. All rights reserved.

A special thanks to the numerous Portuguese designers and design educators who enthusiastically contributed their insights, viewpoints, and suggestions regarding works that appear in the article, in particular; Sarah Chaves Brasseur, Carla Carrão, Aurelindo Ceia, António (Tózé) Coelho, António Costa, Ana Farinha, João Cardoso Fernandes, Antero Ferreira, Afonso Figueiredo, Margarida Fonseca, Bruno Franco, António Silveira Gomes, Carla Ponte Júlio, Ana Lopes, Miguel Macedo, Mário Moura, Fernando Oliveira, João Maio Pinto, Rosa Quitério, Luísa Ribas, Catarina da Silva, Paulo Silva, and Patrícia Sobral.

Toronto, Canada

Sorting through some old files at the office this week we chanced across a one-page response Rob had submitted to Applied Arts back in 2001—in answer to the question by Sara Curtis, the magazine’s editor at the time: “What do you keep in your work space to inspire you?” The resulting piece was featured as the last page of the May/June (Vol. 16, No. 3) issue…

“What inspires me most are encounters, experiences, and exchanges with other creative people I meet around the world. When I travel, I collect meaningful mementos, visual artifacts, and small mnemonic objects—steeped in memories, rich in semiotics and ready to trigger recall in an instant. Back in the studio, these tactile little collectibles act as icons for experiences and invite the Muse. Here are some items from my bulletin board and the corners of my office…”

(see the full page as a PDF  [204 K] and read the image captions here).

Winnipeg, Canada

A handsome presentation box from Nova Scotia Crystal has arrived at the office… containing the sand-blasted crystal trophy for the Icograda President’s Award presented to Robert L. Peters on 26 October 2009 at the opening ceremonies of the Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Beijing. The 35-cm-high piece is now on display in Circle’s forum area—due to logistics complexities (involving the “import of creative works” to China) Peters had been presented only the framed diploma portion of the award at the ceremony in Beijing.

Winnipeg, Canada

Digging through some old files in the office recently, we came across this 17-year-old clipping from the Winnipeg Free Press, which ran just before we moved from our original studio on Albert Street to the space we’ve occupied here at the corner of Princess Street and McDermot Avenue since 1993. Our saying “No” to a cattle-call RFP by a prospective client caught the attention of journalist Martin Cash, who penned a mostly complimentary story about our design practice and ethos (read the whole piece in a 252 KB PDF here, if you like)…

Mr. Cash described Circle as “having become known for a certain thoroughness and a high level of quality”—traits we would like to think have remained with us to this day.

Winnipeg, Canada

We wish you and yours the very best!

Taipei, Taiwan

Circle’s founder, Robert L. Peters, is in Taiwan for a week as part of the three-city 2009 Conference of International Design Competitions lecture tour; Taipei, Taiching, and Tainan. The two other international presenters are Nakanishi Motoo (one of the great corporate identity masters, responsible for creating and/or managing the image of over one hundred top-500 companies worldwide, among them Bridgestone, Kenwood, Mazda, Asics, Kirin beer, etc., etc.), and Hiroshi Tsunoda, a talented young Tokyo-born product designer with a burgeoning practice in Barcelona, Spain. Peters reports that audience response in the packed-out venues has been enthusiastic and warm (and Taiwan temperatures in the high 20s have been a full 50 degrees warmer than back in the ‘Peg).

Images above: Taipei 101 (the world’s tallest skyscraper when it was completed five years ago); delegates with Rodin’s Thinker at Asia University in Taiching; Peters in Tainan.

Winnipeg, Canada

Amdocs Inc. provides primary physician services in remote and Northern Canadian communities. Its community-based approach fulfills the vision of Dr. Anthon Meyer to develop mutually rewarding relationships with First Nations communities by delivering high quality family physician services, chronic disease management, practice consultant support for nurse clinician services, and related continuous medical education services in full compliance with both College of Physicians and Surgeons and Governmental standards.

Over the past month we’ve been delighted to work with Dr. Anthon Meyer and his team at Amdocs (now located in Gibraltar House alongside long-time client The North West Company) on the design of a corporate identity, recruitment ads, print materials, and a website. Learn more about Amdocs and the good work the organization is doing here.

Beijing, China

Circle’s founder, Robert L. Peters, was honoured today to receive the Icograda President’s Award from outgoing Icograda President Don Ryun Chang of Korea. The presentation took place at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (the ultra-modern opera house also known as “The Egg”) in Beijing, with an audience of several thousand present for the opening day of the Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009.

Beginning in 1970, the Icograda President’s Award has been presented on a biennial basis by the Icograda President. The award honors an outstanding contribution to the work of Icograda. A listing of previous recipients is available here.

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The presentation transcript follows:

“Before we start the Adobe Design Achievement Awards, I have the pleasure of announcing the second 2009 Icograda President’s Award and it gives me great pleasure to introduce Rob Peters and to recognize his many contributions—from his distinguished stewardship of our council during his term as President and board member, to his numerous published articles featured in important design publications, but today especially his significant role in nurturing and promoting design in China and Asia.

Raised and schooled in Europe, Robert was educated in Switzerland, Germany, and England. He is a graphic designer, communications strategist, and principal of CIRCLE, an award-winning design consultancy he co-founded in 1976. Robert is active internationally as a design practitioner, advisor, juror and lecturer.

Following the 1991 Icograda World Design Congress in Montreal, Rob was designated as the GDC’s official delegate and liaison, representing Canada to Icograda General Assemblies in Glasgow in 1993, Porto (Portugal) in 1995, Punta del Este (Uruguay) in 1997 (where I first met him), and Sydney in 1999 where he was elected to the Icograda board for a six-year term from 1999 to 2005, serving as President from 2001 to 2003. Significant achievements during Peters’ six years on the Icograda board include: development of our first content-rich portal, rejuvenation of the network ‘Friends of Icograda,’ launch of both the Icograda Design Education Network and the Icograda Design Media Network, co-organization of Icograda congresses in Seoul (‘Oullim’ 2000), Johannesburg, South Africa (‘Continental Shift’ 2001), and as President of our Council in Nagoya, Japan (‘VISUALOGUE’ 2003—with some 3700 delegates from 49 countries in attendance, the world’s largest ever congress of graphic designers). Rob also served as official liaison between Icograda and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 2001 to 2005.

Peters joined the board of the international humanitarian organization Design for the World (DW) in 2000 and was appointed as a Vice President in 2002; in 2004 he was named an Honorary Member of the Brno Biennale Association; he was also a member of the founding executive of the International Design Alliance (IDA) from 2003 to 2005.

For nearly 30 years, Robert has lived in a low-energy, passive-solar house he designed and built in the woods east of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is an avid climber (rocks, ice, mountains) and he enjoys nature and human-powered outdoor pursuits. His interests include art, architecture, photography, visual language, and travel, and he has written many important articles for prominent design publications such as Communication Arts (like the memorable article that introduced Chinese design to many readers all over the world).

Rob has been a great role model, a friend to me over the years, and he has given me great advice—it is a special honor for me to recognize his achievements here in China today.

It gives me sincere pleasure to present the 2009 Icograda President’s Award to Robert L. Peters.”

Winnipeg, Canada

We’re excited about a significant product launch happening next week here in Winnipeg. For nearly two years we’ve been working intensely with a visionary client team from Conquest Manufacturing Ltd. and a number of leading architects on the conceptual development, ideation, planning, and design of an exciting new product offer—eco-smart, sensibly-sized, precision-built homes reflecting best practices in sustainable design and offering future-proof comfort and convenience.

We’re currently launching the brand (an initial website went live this week here) and the new line of Challenger homes will kick off in dramatic fashion next Friday at the Autumn Home Show in Winnipeg. The Cube, an innovative, modern, two-story home designed by architect Ed Calnitsky, is being assembled right on the Convention Centre floor (from four precision-built modules delivered to the venue). This leading-edge demo home will act as the event’s feature attraction, and will show off innovative products from many of the show’s other exhibitors.

Find details about show hours, etc. here. If you’re in or near Manitoba, we’d encourage you to drop by Booth #217 (right across from The Cube) and see what the future of smart living will be like.

For more information about this launch, contact Robert L. Peters, FGDC
(Tel. +1 204 943 3693).

Winnipeg, Canada

Our latest Canadian Recording Artists stamps (that launched a week ago) have garnered a fair bit of early attention, and there’s been a steady stream of feedback from both near and far. Locally, Robert L. Peters was interviewed on 3 July by Margaux Watt on the CBC radio afternoon show, and on 4 July the Winnipeg Free Press ran an article about the stamps’ design in the Business section (view a larger JPG of the article here or read the piece online here).

The Globe And Mail ran an in-depth story (online here), CTV gave the issue quite a bit of coverage as did Radio-Canada (highlighting that this is the first time that Canadians who perform in French are being lauded by Canada Post), and the stamps and related stories have appeared on numerous websites and blogs (including Bryan Adams’ website here) and philatelic collectors’ sites such as Stamp News International.

Canada Post (our client) and the featured artists all appear to be pleased. Stompin’ Tom says he’s “delighted, humbled and overwhelmed by the ‘stamp of approval;’” Édith Butler (whose great grandfather was a postmaster and who sent us photos of the stamp launch in Paquetville, NB—where her 92-year-old cousin was the first in line at the post office to buy a souvenir sheet) called the stamps “the greatest thing that ever happened to me;” a chuffed Bryan Adams responded “It is a wonderful honour to be amongst the great men and women who have graced our Canadian stamps… I am humbled by the recognition;” and Robert Charlebois stated: “I wish my parents would be alive to see this, because when I started 40 years ago, I never thought I would land on a stamp… I probably will send all my friends postcards with my own face on it, especially to my friends in Belgium and Switzerland—they’re going to faint, they won’t believe their eyes.”

Paquetville, NB / Timmins, ON

On 2 July 2009 the latest set of commemorative stamps we’ve designed for Canada Post will launch concurrently—in the small Acadian village of Paquetville, New Brunswick, where chanteuse Édith Butler was born and raised—and in Timmins, Ontario, where renowned folklorist Stompin’ Tom (Connors) was first granted a 14-month contract to play at the city’s Maple Leaf Hotel. The set of four stamps also includes international rock superstar Bryan Adams and Robert Charlebois, a pioneer of French-Canadian rock.

Building on the market success of the Canadian Recording Artists series we designed two years ago (featuring Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, and Paul Anka) this set of stamps adopts the round CD-shape precedent for booklets (each artist is featured on a separate booklet cover) and the gummed souvenir sheet (popular with collectors and philatelists)—the latter also appears with dual cancellations with date of issue on the Official First Day Cover (OFDC). Booklets of pressure-sensitive stamps include envelope seals and information about the individual artists.

We also designed a set of postcards—each of these includes an additional performance image of the featured artist. We initially decided to create monochrome portraits for the artists (using a vector-conversion process based on sourced photography of dramatically varying quality levels) and then brought them all into the same dynamic visual “performance space,” a spotlit simulation of how they might appear live and on stage. As we did in the 2007 series, we incorporated a distinctive MetalFX® process of under-printed metallic inks into backgrounds and selvedge areas, adding a lustrous sheen that helps convey the feeling of shiny vinyl and “gold album” prestige.

These limited edition stamps will be available through post offices across the country as of 2 July 2009, can be ordered online by following the links at Canada Post’s website www.canadapost.ca, or by calling toll-free: 1-800-565-4362 (Canada and the United States), or 902-863-6550 (from other countries). Read the feature article published in Canada’s Stamp Details (Vol. XVIII No. 3; July to September 2009) here.

For more information about the stamps’ design, please contact Robert L. Peters, FGDC at Circle: +1 204 943 3693.

Images: the round souvenir sheet; the four postcards, each featuring an enlarged stamp/portrait; the OFDC with dual cancellations.

Winnipeg, Canada

Yes, today marks 33 years since the birth of Circle Design Incorporated (we actually started as Circle Graphics back then, and share our illustrious April Fools’ birthdate back in 1976 with this little company called Apple Computer :-). We also continue with gusto…

1976 was an interesting and memorable year in many ways, locally and around the world—in South Africa, anti-apartheid riots began in Soweto; Israeli commandos pulled off the Entebbe Raid in Uganda; in China the Tangshan earthquake killed 242,769 people; in the UK punk enters the mainstream; in the U.S. Jimmy Carter was elected as president; and out in space, the Viking 1 orbiter lands on Mars. 1976 also saw the introduction of the first laser printer by IBM (the Model 3800); The Band’s farewell concert The Last Waltz; the deaths of blues-singer Howlin’ Wolf, artist Alexander Calder, and revolutionary Chairman Mao; and the births of chanteuse Martha Wainright and Brazilian footballer Ronaldo. Here in Canada, the Eaton’s catalogue and Time magazine’s Canadian edition were discontinued; the Summer Olympics were held in Montreal (highlighted by 14-year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci’s perfect scores and five gold medals); René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois wins a majority in the Quebec elections; and the CN tower went up in Toronto.

Winnipeg, Canada

Heartfelt wishes from all of us at Circle…

Wanganui, New Zealand

Circle’s Robert L. Peters has just returned from Wanganui, New Zealand, where he has been acting as an external moderator at the Wanganui School of Design. As was the case last year, he was impressed with the outstanding quality of student work (both graduating Bachelors and Masters students)—see a posting on Rob’s personal blog here. In addition, Rob had the opportunity of spending several days in Wellington and Auckland (also meeting several of the designers featured in the Communication Arts feature on New Zealand graphic design that he wrote earlier this year).

Photos: the Sarjeant Gallery in Wanganui; the 328 m high Auckland Sky Tower (tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere); Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum in Wellington.

the Internet

Robert L. Peters was a presenter on Saturday at <head>, billed as “the world’s first virtual conference—interactive, green, and affordable.” While <head> did have ‘meatspace’ hubs where participants could meet in person (Brighton, London and Manchester in the U.K., Fribourg in Switzerland, and San Francisco in the U.S.), the majority of participants from around the world took part from wherever they happened to be (or in the Second Life hub). Peters’ talk on best practices in working and living as a designer was entitled ‘Do the right thing. Do the thing right,’ using Circle’s Maxim/Dictum as a framework.

Feedback by participants on blogs, Twitter, etc. has been fast and effusive, e.g. “Dude, this is the way conference presentations should be. Hella fun. No messy travel plans, No standing in lines at airports, No rental car misadventures with wrong MapQuest printouts. No need to dress up. No consuming bad closest-restaurant-to-hotel food+coffee. No worrying about hooking up the projectors, no worrying about having enough battery power, or being close to an outlet, or being able to read the slides clearly behind the head of the person in front of you, all the while juggling the cup of coffee and danish and laptop in the lap. No trying to rush to get to the session conveniently located the opposite end of the convention center, only to find the room already at capacity. No staying up late nights adding last minute details to presentations… well okay that’s tradition.” (from TroyWorks).

Interactive, real-time, and global, this web-development and design conference saved tons of emissions by attendees not having to fly anywhere. Learn more about <head> here, and about its founder—the impresario/developer/consultant Aral Balkan here.