Design Pilot

Quotes, Feeds, Tweets, Stats and Facts from the Employees at Design Pilot.

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DP Identity Reel

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Getting  Students Attention with Good Design

We all know how daunting selecting a career path can be while nearing the end of  high school. As a student, new possibilities are constantly being thrown at you, many of which end up just being white noise.  When The Peel District School board of Ontario approached us to re-design their existing Specialist High Skills Major Program banners,our goal was to ensure the new direction was clear and attention grabbing enough, to get the students aware of the program at a single glance. Check out the case study for the full results of the project. 

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Customized Jewelry needs a Custom eCommerce Solution

Sorry moms, but we all know they grow up too fast, so why not make the memories last with a piece of personalized custom jewelry from Suetables. Suetables designs and creates distinctive, one-of-a-kind jewelry that can be customized to include lettering, birthstones, charms, and pendants so you can proudly display your affection for your family and loved ones. With such customization, Suetables requires an eCommerce website that can make the custom personalization of individual products easy to use for the customer.  Along with this, we are developing an intuitive back-end sales system for the client, and and establishing a strong new brand. That's where Design Pilot comes in.

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Trade Secrets & Glamour Secrets, Our On Board Beauty Experts

Too much frizz? Not enough curls? Want a different look altogether, but not sure where to start? DP and Trade Secrets/ Glamour Secrets have you covered (Check them out on Twitter: @TradeSecretsCA) . Trade Secrets /Glamour Secrets are a leading salon, hair, nail, skin and body product retailer in Canada and the US, and we are excited to help them improve and modernize their existing website with a fresh look and new and helpful features such as a store & service finder, featured product reviews, and a revamped beauty blog. The new Trade Secrets/Glamour Secrets website is sure to be THE online resource for all your beauty conundrums.

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DP Simplifies VHA's Resource Systems 

VHA Home Healthcare  provides the public with caregiving resources for family members with dementia and other medical illnesses. When developing a resource centre of archived healthcare resources,  it's easy to see how the proper organization of such a vast library of information is key in making the site useful to the public. We were excited to get the opportunity to help the 85 year old company simplify this web system in making it re-accessible to it's users, who had virtually stopped using it .  The final outcome re-attracted users to the site and VHA was so pleased with the outcome, that we were brought on to re-design and simplify  their internal Microsoft Sharepoint system as well.  Get all the details in the case study here. 

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Design Pilot Teams Up With Olympian, Jessica Zelinka

We're honoured to be working  with Canada's hottest up and coming Olympian. Jessica Zelinka is not only a world renown heptathlete, but also a new mom. You can see Jessica on the cover of this months Running Magazine, and this weekend at the 2011 Nationals in Calgary. Keep an eye on Jessica as she works her way to qualifying for the 2012 Olympics in London.

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DP Art Director directs Music Video for Toronto Musician

Joel MacLeod, Art Director at DP, directed this music video for Toronto based musician, Doctor Ew, who manages to keep calm as a fight ensues between, thugs, gangsters and grandmas over a seemingly valuable briefcase.

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DP Hits the slopes with the You Look Good Rider's Cup 2011 

We're all big snowboarders at DP, and we feel honoured to have gotten the opportunity to design the full branding for the You Look Good Rider's Cup over the past several years. The event is put on by Eventsing, with major sponsorship from Coor's Light. It is a cross Canada snowboarding competition that makes its stops at 4 major hills over the winter. 2011 marked a big year for You Look Good, with more  print and promotional material needed then ever, we really took the event and brand in a new direction. We developed all the print and promotional material for the event and we're quite proud of how successful the event has become, and how consistent and great the material looks. Check out our portfolio to have a look for yourself.

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DP Rocks Out with Hedley at LG Rock's Your City

This winter LG hosted an event where Canadian fans were able to vote online to have Hedley, and the Plain White T's play at a snowboarding event held in their city. Manitoba got the most votes, and our friends at Eventsing had us design all of the events promotional material, from the 70ft staging, to the very posters Hedley themselves autographed for fans. The event material turned out looking phenomenal and the event itself was a really fun time. Keep an eye out for LG Rock's Your City next year, you'll definitely want to vote to have it held in your city.  Be sure to check out the work we did in Our Portfolio.

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DP & Charity Diamonds Help You Sparkle For Life

Charity Diamonds sell jewelry while donating 50% of their profits to charity. They are one of our larger full accounts. We developed their full brand and direction, as well as their e-Commerce website.  Since it’s inception, we have helped established brand recognition through several media outlets including the Toronto International Film Festival, the 2010 Santa Speedo Run, CTV News, Perez Hilton, and throughout Twitter and Facebook with social driven promotional contents and give-aways.  With the positive outcome of these initiatives, we plan to continue to work with Charity Diamonds to run engaging campaigns and drive brand awareness.

View Our Case Study

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True Black

When setting up your colours in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator you will find some printing issues with your monitor's black.  Here is how you should set up your CMYK to print in real True Black.

Design Pilot

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Looking for a website quote.

This article states what should be included in your baseline quotes and helpful tips when looking for the right web developer or team. - Ben Leoni Owner of Design Pilot

Before you go searching:

Determine your budget, determine your goals with the site, mark out what is essential now and what can come down the road. Designers/Devs will build the best solution for your website based off ALL the variables.  (budget included)

Do your research.  Have examples for your web developer to quote.

Make sure they have a strong eye for design.  This doesn't just get you a prettier site.  Designers create more intuitive sites and define better ways of delivering your content. Making it more efficient and pleasant to be on.

ASAP is poison.  They say it in REWORK (a best seller) - It doesn't matter about the size of the team.  It is a process and the right team should present you with a estimated time line and work plan.

What to look for:

A properly developed website , great design and the attention it deserves starts around the $2500 - $4500 mark. This is for a standard website including a CMS - Extra features could change this - get a quote on your project

See their previous work.  Physically pick up the phone and call their references.

Validated Coding: Ask them if this is something they practice (They should) - Learn more about W3C Standards here

Meet with them.  If they are excited about your project. They'll have some great ideas and not only develop your site BUT direct your entire online presence.

This is what I practice - A List of what should come with your website

This is a good starting point for anyone looking for a website or web team.  If you want more help or knowledge on the topic.  Feel free to give me a ring or e-mail me [email protected]. 

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If you are in the market for a website you have probably found yourself overwhelmed with web information and different quotes. 

For more info: What your site should include

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The Superman of Landscaping Teams Up with DP

Jeff Sarty's the man for the job, ready to assist with your every landscaping need.  When he first started Sarty Landscape designs, Jeff knew he needed that extra edge to make him stand out above his competition. Since the company's inception, Jeff has gained mass exposure by working hard to establish credibility through attaining a degree in Landscape Design & Landscape Architecture, becoming a gold medalist in the Canadian Skills Competition (which he has judged consecutively ever since winning), and through appearing on the television show Decked Out, which focuses on decks and outdoor living. We designed Jeff's original website when the company was young.  Because of the accumulation of these achievements we  are currently re-designing the Sarty Landscape Designs website to highlight Jeff's accomplishments which make him and his team a major driving force in landscaping business. With hundreds of projects now under his belt, we wanted to modernize the website, and allow for it function as portfolio displaying his favourite pieces.  The work Jeff and his team create is unique and beautiful, and now these yards can be highlighted in an online portfolio that has been modernized to be as unique and beautiful as the pieces it showcases.

Check out Sarty Landscape Designs in our portfolio. 

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benleoni:

Design Frenzy

 I have been re-designing the DP site as well as coming up with the branding for the 2011 Coorslight YOULOOKGOOD Snowboard Series. I am having a problem with filtering what graphics will make the cut.

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benleoni:

Icon Design

 I have been touching up and designing the graphics for Design Pilot and came up with a few Social icons that represent me and my style a bit more.

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There are Leaders and there are those who lead!

If you want to get inspired - Check this TED Video out.

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Times are Changing

Here is a really cool creative piece I found that showcases the spirit of the hands on worker. Though much of the young generation will find their creative outlets online or on a digital screen, there will always be those who prefer to use their hands.

-Blair (Media Dept.)