With the impending legalization of cannabis in Canada, companies and brands are working hard to get ready for this big opportunity. Some will be successful and some won't. But we think that Shore Healing will be one of the successful ones. Dan and Jin An Hirst of Shore Healing came to Straydog this past summer with big ambitions to open up a new and unique dispensary. They had a great story, but now they needed help in bringing it to life, to build a brand presence that would effectively represent their passion to help people overcome many ailings and conditions that cannabis has proven to be successful with. With a warm yet modern, urban feel, the Shore healing brand evokes feelings of confidence, hope and trust. Bespoke in nature, and backed by academic expertise and real-world experience, it’s a safe space (online and in a physical location) to explore the journey to wellness through unparalleled customer service. With an attention to detail that is unmatched within the industry today, Shore Healing is paving the way forward by setting a new standard for professionalism, personalized care, advice and advocacy. Inspiration taken from: fashion, textile, packaging, interior design, print finishing, lifestyle & demographic photography and nature. This body of images and corresponding colour palette (on the right) sets the tone for the Shore Healing brand. With a nod to the history of Cannabis’ healing power, and the academic origins of it’s founders, the brand has an Olde World character that holds weight and integrity. This, juxtaposed with an easy, urban chic, upbeat side, will allow the brand the freedom to breathe and grow. The new logo is a bold, playful script font hand-customized for a unique look, coupled with a classic serif font to anchor it. The uplifting shape is easily contained without being boxy and it feels relaxed and easy but has presence and strength of a professional brand ready for the competitive and legalized world of cannabis in Canada. If you're looking for award winning brand strategy and design work, give us a call at 604-913-7936 or drop us an email, we'd be happy to help you bring to life your passion for making a difference. Article by Rob Barnett President & Brand Strategist at Straydog Tweet  

The power of a brand plays a critical role in auto-buying decisions. A brand represents an idea and a set of values that are widely recognizable in the marketplace. The same branding principles that dealerships follow are inherent in popular retail establishments, such as Starbucks, Apple, Best Buy and Shoppers Drug Mart. In the past two decades, hundreds of new car dealerships have been built or renovated in accordance to the manufacturer’s branding requirements. In each case, every element of architectural design, colour scheme, signage, furniture and building materials has been carefully mandated by the manufacturer. Today, dealerships representing the same nameplate look similar in appearance and design, in order to distinguish its products and services from the competition and to maintain a consistent brand image and customer experience. While automakers work hard to distinguish their brands, individual dealers will create distinctive brands of their own, separate from the corporate identity but often tied closely to it. Branding at the dealership level also involves phone etiquette, relationships with suppliers, e-commerce experience, website design and presence on social media. From the back end to the front end of a dealership’s operations, a chain reaction of experiences establishes the brand. And this is where a local branding & design agency can work with local car dealerships to help them create their own unique brand image. Straydog is now working with North Vancouver Mitsubishi which owns the North Vancouver Mitsubishi, Fraser Valley Mitsubishi and now Kamloops Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram. Recently, we have worked on updating the North Vancouver Mitsubishi dealership logo, designed in-store signage, marketing and collateral material, created some digital ads for web, newspapers ads, worked on a number of video's for online and on-presence promotional purposes, including at BC Lions games and UBC Thunderbird games. We also worked closely with them on their marketing strategy for their sponsorship of Primal Quest 2018 in Squamish, BC. For this event, we provided the following services:

• Graphic design for outdoor signage,
• Graphic design for vehicle wraps for their Mitsubishi sponsor vehicles,
• Strategy and design for online ads,
• Graphic design for print ads
• Video editing services

If you're looking for award winning brand strategy and design work for your dealership, give us a call at 604-913-7936 or drop us an email, we'd be happy to help you drive your dealership's brand forward.   Article by Rob Barnett President & Brand Strategist at Straydog Tweet

Straydog is excited to be working with the Layfield Group for the re-branding of their BioFlex™ brand and product. Layfield is a Vancouver company with over 35 years of manufacturing experience in the polymer and flexible packaging industry. They are at the forefront of flexible packaging industry and are the only company offering product with scalable "hybrid" production solutions for North American food, industrial and medical companies. The BioFlex™ product is an innovative plastic that breaks down in landfills. As it breakdowns, it creates energy that is harnessed by landfills, creating clean, renewable, sustainable energy in the process! Even though flexible packaging offers the lowest environmental footprint relative to other packaging material, it can't be recycled economically and it inevitable ends up in landfills where it could take hundreds or thousands of years to biodegrade completely. The BioFlex™ innovation allows the product to biodegrade much quicker, creating landfill gas that is harnessed as energy, therefore turning your trash to energy!

Our Design work:

So...what makes a modern brand memorable? With so much competition for attention, the most well-known brands are also the simplest. Those at the apex of recognition - Nike, McDonald’s, Apple - are so iconic they no longer need their names. This is the state of branding in the modern age: be simple enough to make your impression in the few seconds a consumer affords you. With that in mind you’ll find no fussiness in our branding for BioFlex™. With this direction, typography is key: We chose a typeface with straight lines and tight curves – organic yet technical, a calculated balance between nature and science – then customized it. The key to its uniqueness is a clever “twist” in the X, a reference to the flexibility and sustainability, in every sense, of Bioflex packaging solutions. The gradient colouration is interchangeable, offering unlimited possibilities for reinvention over time. If you're looking for award winning brand strategy and design work, give us a call at 604-913-7936 or drop us an email, we'd be happy to help you up-recycle your brand's presence. Article by Rob Barnett President & Brand Strategist at Straydog Tweet