Steinbach, Manitoba

Over the past few years we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Hermann & Sheryl Grauer of Nature’s Farm™. Our work entailed an update to the firm’s corporate identity (including a cohesive visual vocabulary including icon sets), as well as development of brand assets, innovative packaging, and collateral marketing tools for both ‘classic’ and new organic pasta offerings. An exciting aspect of our relationship has been a shared commitment to ecological sustainability and stewardship—this set the stage for the development of innovative new packaging that minimizes environmental impact. (For example: the minimalist paper neck-tag style of labeling eliminates all glues and lends itself to recycling; use of informative icons reduced the need for long explanatory texts on multi-lingual packaging; the 100% corn-based film pasta-bag is compostable and environmentally benign).

For the Grauers, Nature’s Pasta™ continues a long tradition—based on an old family recipe and using world-famous Canadian durum wheat and farm-fresh free run eggs (from hens fed an all-natural vegetarian diet), the pasta has outstanding flavour. Strict adherence to old-world, small-batch production methods results in gourmet pasta that is setting new standards in taste, texture, and quality. Favoured by chefs and discerning restaurateurs, Nature’s Pasta™ now appears on the menus of some of North America’s best eating establishments. Hermann has also worked with award-winning chefs in producing custom pastas, using specialty grains such as spelt and various natural flavourings. Discriminating pasta connoisseurs can find Nature’s Pasta™ at specialty food wholesalers in the U.S. and select retail food outlets in both Canada and the U.S.—locally, look for Nature’s Pasta™ at Organza, Vic’s (on Pembina), select Sobeys and Safeway locations, and various other fine food stores.

See some of our work here. Visit the Nature’s Farm™ website here.

Winnipeg, Canada

Amidst the doom and gloom of the past week’s international financial and market reports, today’s Winnipeg Free Press features an article entitled ‘Conference board bullish on Winnipeg in 2008,’ which if true, we are happy to hear (though an increasing amount of our work at Circle is for non-local clients, the majority are still here in situ).

According to the Conference Board of Canada’s census for metropolitan areas, Winnipeg will post the third highest growth in gross domestic product (GDP) among Canadian cities this year at 3.4% (trailing only Calgary and Edmonton, and compared with Canada’s 2.6% growth in 2007), the city’s manufacturing output is predicted to expand by 4% (the same as in 2007), the economy will grow 3.4%, and the unemployment rate will drop to 4.3% (from an average of 4.6% in each of the past two years). Not exactly dynamic—but more of the robust stability we have experienced in this fine city for over three decades.

Photo: Winnipeg’s new Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge (Red River) from the dynamic new website we’ve designed for photographer Mike Grandmaison.

Ottawa, Canada

One of the highlight projects we worked on this past year was a set of four stamps featuring Canadian singer-songwriter greats (Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, and Paul Anka). The stamps received much attention and were bestsellers in the market as well: read more about them here.

These “living legend” artists and our stamps are also the central feature (20 pages!) of the recently-released compendium Collection Canada 2007: A Yearbook of Canadian Stamps, a book that’s “sure to strike a chord with philatelic enthusiasts, Canadiana lovers—anyone who appreciates strikingly beautiful books.” The handsome 100-page slip-cased book features exquisite writing, illustration, photography, design (by Canada Post’s internal design group), and printing, all of 2007’s 52 original stamps, as well as protective mounts to keep the collection in mint condition. Collection Canada 2007 (ISBN 978-0-660-63405-2) is available from post offices across the country, or from the National Philatelic Centre in Antigonish, Nova Scotia: Toll free in Canada: 800-565-4362; International: +1-902-863-6550.

Winnipeg, Canada

We’ve recently designed a series of highly targeted marketing pieces for SMARTBOX Solutions that demonstrate the specialty finishing and old-school craftsmanship of this specialty printer. SMARTBOX (for whom we earlier provided naming and brand services—see here) provides high-end packaging solutions to manufacturers of specialty foods and confections. These initial postcards (which demonstrate tactile finishing techniques such as high-quality embossing, foil stamping, and die-cutting) are phase one of a sequenced direct-marketing campaign.