Emilie-Danni was our very first summer design intern here at Initiate. We asked her to reflect on her journey with us. As I sit down to reflect on the final days of my internship, I feel both nostalgic and exhilarated. It’s incredible how swiftly the past few months have flown by, each day brimming with […]
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One of the few good things to come out of the pandemic was more time at home with my husband and business partner. Specifically, more time to go outside for walks was a daily highlight. More often than not, nothing exciting happened in these times. Sometimes, we’d walk for over an hour without exchanging words; […]
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Disclaimer: I’m not trying to offend anybody’s profession, personal opinion or love of the term graphic designer. A lot of people might aspire to be graphic designers. The whole premise is that over the years I’ve seen a lot of people with a lot of roles that are called a graphic designer—a senior graphic designer […]
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As my father’s daughter, I’m not shy, quiet, or demure but confident, exuberant, and outgoing. Instead of being described as such, like my dad often was, I was mostly labeled “aggressive.” I can’t remember with absolute certainty ever being told by our father that he wanted sons instead of daughters. But I am confident that […]
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Some of us seek out vintage items, and some of us have been drawn to an item only to later learn of its robust history. Either way, here at Initiate we’ve realized that most of us own or collect vintage items, or love a good craft market! We want to share our favourite finds with […]
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Hint: it involves some initiative Having recently reviewed countless résumés with spelling mistakes along with portfolios, the ability to focus or pay attention to detail is becoming one of the most attractive skill sets to me as an employer. I’m sharing from the perspective of what Michael and I are looking for from people joining […]
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Creativity is a circuitous path Like many designers, my path to creating hasn’t been a straight line. I came to Ottawa to study journalism, political science and public administration in 1994, and spent 15 years working for think tanks, associations, and government departments as a policy analyst. It was interesting, but oftentimes dry work. Along […]
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As a 2021 graduate of this program, I have only been in the industry full-time for about 2.5 years. The imposter syndrome came in hot — thoughts like “I don’t have enough experience,” “I’m not going to give good advice,” and “I don’t know what I’m going to say” raced through my mind. Not to […]
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Before Initiate, I had very little real-life experience designing for print from scratch. At a previous print production job, I was using templated sizes for documents, and nothing was larger than 12×18 inches. The company itself was the client since we were designing our own products, and I was sending my files to the senior […]
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Diving straight into the deep end After a trip into Academia to study film in university followed by 15 years in the hospitality industry, it was time for a change. I completed my Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design at Algonquin College this past year. I did my final semester’s work placement with Initiate and was […]
