Client

da Costa Talent Management

Period

04.2009 – 08.2009

Client Bio

The leading Canadian talent management agency for ‘triple-threat’ talent.

Objective

To further brand themselves via a successful launch online as the premiere triple threat talent agency in Toronto. To make it easier for industry clients to quickly peruse their many talented performers, to help save time and money with their representations and to better serve their agency client’s interests.

Noteworthy

Several years earlier Thirst had rebranded da Costa Talent and because of this we had a solid starting point for the web site. This talent agency has evolved into a mature agency and it needed to have a strong forum for its industry clients to peruse its agency clients (talent). When completed, notices of the launch were sent to every casting director in Canada, LA and NYC, every theatre and commercial production house in Canada and every industry contact that da Costa Talent had made in the past 10 years.

Feedback

I’ve received overwhelming praise on the website from both my clients and the industry just one day after launching. There is a clear consensus that the sites’ layout is simple to navigate and at the same time interesting and unique in comparison to other competing agencies. This is going to be a great tool to both showcase my clients and elevate our status in the industry. I could not of achieved this important milestone without your guidance and expertise.

Vendor

Thirst

Client

New York Daily News

Period

07.2000 – 03.2001

Client Bio

Largest-selling New York metropolitan daily, covering stories that affect New Yorkers.

Personal History

To become properly acquainted with the newspaper I lived with it for approximately two weeks. I noticed that it was portable and easily readable on the subway but then when I did get to work I had to wash my hands of the black ink. It was fairly right-wing, had a huge library of photos at it’s disposal (larger than that of the New York Times) and if you were a sports fanatic this was the newspaper you read. My conclusion after those two weeks was that its brand was already a definite force, stable and well respected. I went into the pitch concentrating on the fact it was an everyman’s newspaper, familiar to every New Yorker and part of their daily routine for that subway ride into work and therefore its online extension should be just that. What followed was a bold, assertive design reminiscent of its rational brother.

It is interesting to note that newly redesigned online version has completely lost its faithfulness to the traditional newspaper and is now unfortunately nondescript.

Objective

To extend the print brand online.

Noteworthy

It was decided that the online brand should be more faithful to the newspaper. The previous attempt to port the brand online was too “tricky” and nondescript so much of the NYDN style became lost on the low resolution of a monitor. As a result, the logo was redesigned so that the online identity and section identities would be harmonious with the newspaper’s, the editorial voice and image content was augmented and the advertising placement was substantially improved. In behind the scenes, the client-side interface for the delivery and deployment of content was vastly improved a complete restructuring of the content production process to ease workflow concerns was implemented.

Vendor

Hired by Circle.com, a division of Havas.

Client

Univision

Period

05.1999 – 07.2000

Client Bio

The largest and most influential Hispanic television media company in the United States.

Personal History

This was a biggie. Univision was a very important client and spent a lot of money to put itself online. Univision hired IBM for its back end, teamed with IAB for its front end design and editorial leadership and the Gryphon Group for acting as the interim CTO and as an ambassador for technology decisions. Univision also partnered with a major hispanic sales organization to power its store front for their shopping channel. There were many players all trying to work together to deliver a great experience for Univision’s dedicated viewers. Although I can remember this being a struggle at times, the final product was very good and really delivered a distinctive, very hispanic brand online. I also formed a great friendship from this venture with my future business partner Michael Nicklas.It is unfortunate that Univision did not keep this design. Their present design is nondescript and lacks a visual identity that resonates with their brand.

Objective

An online venture to extend the Univision brand to the web and initiate the convergence of television and the Internet.

Noteworthy

A branding umbrella approach was taken for Univision. The original television logo was extended to include the “.com” and the channels within were represented as sub-brands. To extend their content online, the Univision stars were leveraged to create a unique and targeted online family, an integrated e-commerce experience was created, a scaleable template framework was developed to facilitate realistic site growth and easy manageability and lastly a comprehensive staffing and workflow plan was provided. Univision rose to #1 within six months after this launch.

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

Newsweek

Period

02.1999 – 06.1999

Client Bio

Weekly American news magazine.

Personal History

I always enjoy redesigning newspapers or magazines, on or offline. Newsweek was no different. Walking into their offices felt familiar and I understood the staff well. This bunch were more like newspaper people than magazine people and very intent on making sure that their content was king. They wanted boldness and readability, they wanted the print brand recognizable in their online brand and they wanted their magazine to take another step forward online.

Objective

To redesign the logo and website for Newsweek online but maintain the instantly recognizable style of the print magazine’s visual identity.

Noteworthy

Extended the print brand online. Hired the original typographer, Jim Parkinson, to graft ‘.com’ onto the logo. The website gained a new navigational structure, flexible templates, and more content (copy and images) on the home page.

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

Rogers

Period

02.1998 – 07.1998

Client Bio

Canada’s largest media company; provides cable television, wireless communications, print, and radio to over 50 million customers.

Personal History

Coming home was fun, asking me to do this project was rhetorical. At this time Rogers had not made a concerted effort to go online as a singular brand. Efforts before this relied on the their various departments wants and expertise. IAB took it all online. And I mean we really took it online – the whole site (thousands of pages) was hand coded by myself and Jonathan Corum. A collective applause for CMS software please.
I have two favourite stories for this project. One: I met and made a very good (and highly talented) friend of mine, Jonathan Corum, and two: while on one of the top floors of the Scotia Bank tower one of my American co-workers peered outside the window and while looking at the CN Tower asked me if it was Toronto’s version of the ‘Space Needle’.

Objective

To re-brand, integrate and redefine Rogers’ future.

Noteworthy

Designed a coherent online graphic identity. Enhanced sales and customer service online, thus saving millions of dollars. Unified and strengthened Rogers’ online presence to solidify its position as Canada’s digital leader. Coordinated cross-pision and multiple-vendor efforts to keep original goals on target.

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

The Guardian

Period

04.1998 – 08.1998

Client Bio

One of the most successful and most read newspapers in the world.

Personal History

I was ever so lucky to get an opportunity to work with Neville Brody on this project so early in my new career at IAB. I can remember when this project came into the office, John Schmitz thought that I may enjoy working on it because of my editorial background and I jumped at the opportunity. Still today I think that this modular design approach is one of the best examples of great content design. The Guardian was kept clean of superfluous design additions and clearly focused on an exciting and varied layout.

Objective

Fully explore the relationship of a traditional and online medium; to make sure that the final result was both easy to work within and exciting.

Noteworthy

Worked in partnership with Neville Brody’s London studio to push newspaper design to the edge. Completely modern and modular, easy to update and typographically rich. This traditional newspaper’s brand was pushed to its online limits.

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

Discover Card

Period

10.2009

Client Bio

Discover Financial Services is a Direct Banking and Payment Services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Started un 1986 it has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company operates the Discover card and offers personal and student loans, online savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts through its Discover Bank subsidiary.

Objective

To design a microsite template and administration portal for a Discover Card contest aimed at College students. The purpose of this site was to engage students to create personal images which would be used for ‘Student Discover Cards’. The contest was held to create a viral conversation about the brand and to ultimately drive student card registrations.

Noteworthy

Although this project was designed as a standalone site, it integrated with a Facebook application named ‘Graffiti’ that enabled students without a drawing or painting tool on their computer to use a simplified online version. A subdued design version and the finished competition can be found here Discover Card Contest.

Vendor

Thirst

Client

IBM Intranet

Period

06.1998 – 10.1998

Client Bio

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, as well as the world’s largest business and technology services provider and the world’s largest IT financier.

Personal History

I had a wonderful time working on this project with Maria Arbusto (who is now Director, Brand Experience at IBM). It is rare that the client with whom you work is of the exact same understanding, but when this happens it makes the project extremely enjoyable. I wish I would have worked on more projects with Maria.

Objective

To redesign areas of IBM’s w3 Corporate Intranet, transforming it into a tool that IBM employees would use on a daily basis.

Noteworthy

Extended the reach of the mobile employees at IBM. Encouraged a sense of community and strengthened the employees’ loyalty and commitment. Empowered IBM’s mobile professionals with an easily navigable tool that retrieves information in a timely manner from the Americas Sales and Distribution Site.

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

Gateway

Period

05.1998 – 02.1999

Client Bio

Fortune 500 company; one of the top tier computer manufacturers founded in 1985. Gateway is a technology and direct-marketing company that uses its call centers, Web site and sales force to build direct customer relationships. It has been transformed from a leading PC company into a full-service technology provider, that now includes a line of Gateway-branded products such as thin TVs, digital cameras, camcorders and systems and networking products.

Personal History

Gateway was another very large client for IAB and as the Creative Director I would spend a great deal of time with them, whether in New York or San Diego. I can remember many sleepless nights at their headquarters in San Diego working with their Creative Director until three or four in the morning brainstorming about new projects and technologies to help improve Gateway’s position amongst the top computer brands. (I remember this well because late at night the coyotes would howl for hours at a time.) For many of these projects I would take a team of five or so people with me from New York to help with the workload, sometimes working side-by-side with a massive team from Accenture.

It is because of this I learned to deal with third parties (Accenture in this case) that were not as nimble as I needed them to be. This was good practise because as it turned out there were plenty of other big consulting firms to manage in my future.

Objective

Development of back end infrastructure and consumer communication efforts to reach more people efficiently. The largest project, ‘One and Done’ was created to provide an efficient and cost-effective method for handling both their consumer and business sales.

Noteworthy

Online promotions; client-side business portals; kiosks; branded mini-sites for various product lines; technical support mini-site; presentation demo to showcase Gateway’s position as a direct marketing company; 1999’s ‘Who Are You’ online campaign; telesales internal site; computer configurator database and interface; and several ‘Jump Pages’.

The ‘One and Done’ project allowed Gateway to take orders via Gateway telesales, Gateway Country employees or directly by the customer via the web. One and Done also provided telesales and web ordering experiences that enhanced Gateway’s relationship with the customer. The order process included the following: personalized site experience, managed customer information, product marketing, a product shop, placement of orders, review of orders, order management (telesales only) and reporting (internal only).

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

Cluster Call Planning (CCP)

Period

2002 – 2005

Client Bio

In 2002 Pfizer merged with Pharmacia to become the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.

Personal History

This story reads like a tale of David and Goliath. Thirst was asked to quote on this project but we were up against several large well-known companies but we knew why were asked to bid and we were glad we did. Because of internal restructuring, Pfizer needed help building this sales application from the ground up, they did not want to use any of their previous tools and thought that the right approach would be a fresh one. Thirst worked with various third-parties, large and small, to create this application that was basically a moving target because of the need for new functionality that crept into the scope on a weekly basis. This was an open source project based on the LAMP standard applications that worked within the confines of proprietary software. As a special point of interest the sales tool was an ‘AJAX’ application before AJAX was even defined or coined.

Objective

In response to the merger, Pfizer developed the CCP methodology to bring together its sales analytics and valuable first hand sales force knowledge. Pfizer turned to Thirst to transform this abstract methodology into a powerful sales targeting application for use by its 45,000 strong US sales force.

Noteworthy

An over 11% upsurge in sales directly resulted from this new application. CCP evolved from a rapid prototyping development process conducted over a 9 month period with four representative sales force teams. CCP was built using an open source toolset including Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, PHP, AJAX and DHTML. CCP included a local data store that was automatically synchronized with targeting data from fellow teammates and Pfizer analytics. In 2005, Thirst’s CCP application was merged into Pfizer’s S3 flagship sales platform.

Vendor

Thirst