Over the past two years, I’ve been contracted by Playwrights Canada Press to design three book covers for some of their plays. The three pictured above are by some of the most prolific writers and performers Canada has to offer; Sky Gilbert, Maja Ardal and Anusree Roy. After reading the scripts for each play(s) and consulting with Playwrights Canada Press, a few sample covers were designed and passed on to the artists. I think the resulting designs are striking and communicate visually the content of the plays quite well.

I’ve quite enjoyed designing book covers. The cover for You Fancy Yourself by Maja Ardal is actually from a poster I designed for the show a few years ago. The show has toured extensively across the country and internationally as well.

I am always delighted with the work BFdesign does on our book covers. We are given several options to choose from, all of which are superb, and the final product goes a long way in creating the right image for our books.

I strongly recommend BFdesign, for both the design expertise that is brought to the work and the high level of professionalism.

- Annie Gibson, Publisher

The Regional Geriatric Program of Toronto is located in Sunnybrook Hospital. The RGP is part of a province-wide network providing services to those in need of geriatric programs and services working in collaboration with primary care physicians and community health professionals.

The RGP of Toronto contacted me in 2007 to work on a redesign of their Annual Report which they felt needed an update. The resulting report gave a fresh new look to their reports and since then I have been working with them every year to produce the report along with an accompanying PowerPoint template.

BFdesign’s aesthetic talent results in a professional and creative product which caters to its clients’ needs.

Marlene Award, Director, Administration & Information Management, RGP Toronto

This past November, on a sunny Saturday, was the unveiling of the Off Bathurst Theatre District in Toronto, a project of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). The project includes the installation of banners all the way up Bathurst Street from King Street West to St. Clair Avenue West. BFdesign was contracted to design the banners to help promote the three theatres involved in the project, the Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille. The banners alternate as they progress up the street with every other banner reversing to the back so as you progress up Bathurst, you see both the front and the back.

Pictured above is the Executive Director of TAPA, Jacoba Knaapen along with myself at the unveiling of the banners infront of the Tarragon Theatre.

The Chang School is the continuing education department of Ryerson University. I’ve been working with them since 2008 on a variety of projects such as the Silver Screen Arts Festival, their Leaders in Learning award ceremony, as well as various marketing pieces for newspapers and internally. I was able to work with the team a the Chang School in creating the 2010/2011 course book. The layout of the 464 page book was one of the biggest undertakings in layout design that I’ve ever worked on, but the outcome was incredibly positive for all parties involved.

Since 2008, The Chang School’s Marketing and Communications unit has had the pleasure of working with BFdesign on a variety of projects – from small ads and postcards to large-scale publications. Blair has consistently provided creative, professional solutions that align with our brand and meet our design needs. We are also very happy with the high level of service BFdesign provides – no job is too big or too small, and we can always expect a friendly and efficient response.

Marketing and Communications Team, The Chang School, Ryerson University

This is one of my favourite pieces I’ve created. Cahoots Theatre Projects was presenting a piece called Bombay Black and approached BFdesign to create the marketing material for the show. Thanks to the brilliant photography of Paula Wilson, I was able to art direct a striking poster evoking the sensual, evocative, and mysterious feel that the play created.According to the company, people were lining up to see the show based purely on the marketing material they had seen around town! It was very exciting to hear about that. It also made me start thinking about how theatre companies in Toronto market themselves. There is a tendency to be very artsy in their delivery of marketing material – which is great, but I feel getting more and more difficult to compete with all the advertising a person sees while walking, driving, riding through the city. The approach taken with this poster was more Hollywood in style with one large striking image.

What are your thoughts on how the theatre community markets itself? Do you like the artsy look and feel or do you think the more Hollywood-style feel is more appropriate these days?

Cahoots has always found Blair to be quick, responsive and easy to work with. Plus, he creates gorgeous designs!

Kendra Fry, Former General Manager

The Centre for Social Innovation is where I spent the first 3 years working from with BFdesign. It’s an amazing place for people to gather and share ideas, best practices, network, socialize and work together to make the world a better place overall.

In my 3 years there, I had the opportunity to work on a few marketing pieces for them. The booklet in the photo above was designed as an introduction to the philosophy and idea behind the development of the Centre and its incubating projects. Along with the booklet, I created buttons, an ad for a magazine and a series of postcards for their “Agents of Change” marketing campaign.

In 2009 I had the pleasure of working with Artistic Producer Mitchell Marcus and Acting Up Stage company to design the marketing material for their upcoming production of The Light in the Piazza. Mitchell and I have worked together before on the Dora Awards and I’ve seen some of the past productions from Acting Up Stage and have always enjoyed the choices the company makes about which musicals they will bring to the stage here in Toronto. The show takes place in Florence and we wanted to create an image that evoked the sensual side of Italy, the old-world, the artistic and breathtaking beauty of the country. The texture for the background was our starting point. Once we had found that, the rest fell into place. I did a quick photo shoot one day to capture Jacquelyn in character to use as part of the imagery (unfortunately there was no budget to fly us all out for a photo shoot on location in Florence). The resulting marketing material turned out to be huge success.

Since then, Mitchell and I have collaborated on a variety of projects for Acting Up Stage including creating a company profile video, various fundraiser material and a company profile package for sponsors. It’s always a pleasure working with Acting Up Stage.

BFDesign is one of the best things that could have happened to our business. We used to take care of all of our own graphic design in house but it was very time consuming and we weren’t getting the results that we wanted. BFDesign creates eye-catching designs for us each and every time and understands our business and how to help us capture the imagination of our audiences. Blair’s efficiency and attention to his clients is stellar; working with him is like having a full time design person in-house!

Mitchell Marcus, Artistic Producer

In 2007, Theatre Passe Muraille approached me to design their marketing material for the 07/08 Season. Along with creating a marketing campaign based around the productions being presented, I helped to brand the company as it entered a new era with an entirely new artistic staff.

Theatre Passe Muraille translated into English means “theatre beyond walls”, an appropriate title for the type of productions produced by one of the founding theatres of the Toronto theatre scene. I wanted to reflect the movement of the theatre company as it moves forward in the branding.

For the 09/10 season, BFdesign was approached to redesign their website and move it onto a CMS system. I created the site using WordPress and styled it according to the look of their season brochure. The site now gives the staff the ability to update the content without relying on an outside party allowing them to save money and time.

The Ontario Nonprofit Network is one of the projects which was developed at the Centre for Social Innovation. ONN is described as:

The Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) is a network of networks that helps to build communication and coordination amongst nonprofit organizations working for the public benefit in Ontario. We support nonprofits to have the information that they need to make their voices heard and their issues addressed.

I was asked to create a brand image for the ONN. I wanted to show the interconnectedness of the nonprofit sector in Ontario. The trillium is a well-known symbol within Ontario. As the ONN does a lot of work in regards to government policy, I felt the connection between the trillium in the Government of Ontario logo and the ONN logo was appropriate.

The annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards celebrate the enormous talent on Toronto stages each year. Produced by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), the awards recognize outstanding achievements in theatre, dance and opera in a variety of categories. It’s similar to the Tony Awards in New York, but on a smaller scale.

I’ve been working with the Dora’s since 2000 (this year is my 10 year anniversary with them!). Since my time with them, I have been responsible for producing the multimedia portion of the show – a visual presentation of all the nominees during the award ceremony. Since 2005, I have had the privilege of working with the production team as the Art Director, responsible for creating the printed material and overall look of the branding each year.

In 2009, the Dora Awards celebrated their 30th Anniversary. In celebration, TAPA created a limited edition 30th Anniversary poster highlighting some of the most memorable Dora-winning shows from the past 30 years.

Blair Francey is a brilliant designer. He is an absolute pleasure to work with and understands client requirements. His original designs for TAPA and the Dora Mavor Moore Awards have always been delivered on time and on budget, an important factor for many not-for-profit companies. In a highly competitive marketplace Blair’s work is exemplary.

Jacoba Knaapen , Executive Director, 
Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts