Critical Mass - Alison Garnett

Alison Garnett
Creative Director
Critical Mass


Website: http://www.criticalmass.com/
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/alisongarnett
Blog: http://www.mylalaland.com/
Blog: http://www.alisongarnett.com/

Alison does not take herself seriously
Her name is SUPERCAPACITY.


Her idea came from washing machines and the super capacity setting. This term is reflectiive of her ability to load super capacity into her life.


She is a creative director, blogs, on flikr, wife & mother of 2 and 3 dogs. She manages to do most of her checklist by midnight.


What I appreciate is that her family is more important than work
no matter what her family comes first

She never has taken a design class in her life - but her bakground is painting and drawing from OCAD. She then decided to take this multimedia course at Sheridan


Alison is a creative director - she says she is more of a jack of all trades:
designer art director, project manager, account manager, new business, stylist, photographer , blogger writer, illustrator, Bad cop, Good Cop


First job

• ICE – live events – but then discovered the web
• Freelance – Henderson Bas (Sean hired her)
• Supercapacity – her own business after adopting her first child,
• Taxi 6 years – had another baby,  then moved to Critical Mass

About Taxi

• amazing creative directors
• Jason McCann
• working on cool projects as MINI - great client
• Her advice was try and work on clients that are amazing brands

Town Shoes – I loved this as I love shoes!

• great posters - gold fish and gold sandals
• crystal boots and constellation stars
• think on your feet literally

LCBO

• microsites
• improvise on small budgets
• mediterrean wine

Cadillac Fairview

• Brand the building
• design collateral
• and website
• sustainable building
• each colour reprsented something - legend on a graph

Alison managed digital team for Telus
telusmobility.com

• landed a huge account with no translation
• microsite to compare phones - online quiz
• banners, and microsites
• the most fun was shooting the pygmy goats

After 6 years moved from Taxi, Alison moved to Critical Mass
Alison wanted to work on a large site and collaborate with an IT team
Taxi did not have the resources for this.


Theodore Alexander
http://theodorealexander.com/
luxury furniture - largest site - e-commerce tool,
flew out to NC to convince them to let them take photos - treating the furniture like a rolex or expensive car. Created a style guide on how to shoot, with a horizon and reflection to keep everything consistent and high-end

Some other brands Alison has worked on 
Brita – scroll deeper into the water
Nestle - are you roloworthy? – baby food to ice cream and chocolate, facebook apps
Sears – Sears.ca


Pitching LIVE

• At Critical Mass every pitch  includes a quick video and how the brand comes to life
• by Aftereffects designer
• pitch how it shows on mobile, or ipad
• ie childrens world - modern day on christmas catalogue for Sears

SUPERCAPACITY

• little book of ideas
• designs logos
• pro bono work - the redwood
• supercapacity - waterproof printed cards - on plastic, very tactile

Alison likes blogging - tumbler, wordpress

• valigirls - blog - friend in amsterdam - they love the same things and can stay in touch - reskinned a wordpress
• Hello - started a blog 9 years ago — about her travel to china to adopt her daughter
• my lalaland – one portal that links to everything she is working on

Alison does not waste a moment and makes the most of her time


It's just advertising, we dont save lives, so have fun and make cool sh**t!