Chronicle - Winter 2009

WINTER 2009

QUEBEC CITY

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MONTREAL

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TORONTO

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WINNIPEG

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KITCHENER

2 Verity’s Queen East spa gets a facelift

10 Montreal Web designers Pixel Circus

20 Winnipeg’s Cake Clothing grows its U.S. reach

PLUS: AutoCAD in Toronto, Indesign Furniture, Kate & Birdie Paper Co., GotStyle fashion tips for men and Kitchener’s Talent Technology

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ASIAN OBSESSION King West’s Spice Route one of Toronto’s hottest dining destinations

TORONTO

A SPA BY ANY OTHER NAME Verity’s spa bears the new name Sweetgrass and adds some unique services

remodeled reception area and expanded change room is QUEEN STREET EAST, TORONTO / - If you’ve all geared to accommodating an increased public clientele. never heard of a Lomi Lomi massage or a BodySong session, you’ve probably not been to Verity’s spa since Verity’s flower shop, sweetgrassflowers, has moved April. Sweetgrass at Verity, as the spa component of the into the front area here where its zinc countertop and Queen Street East women’s club is now called, is one fridge double as a bar when the area hosts receptions and of the only places in Toronto to offer these exotic treatproduct launches. For anyone familiar with the relaxed ments, Lomi Lomi being a stylized Hawaiian massage and stylishly appointed spa environs, however, you’ll using deep, flowing strokes, and BodySong a kind of find the space is much the same. holistic session combining massage The ozonated pool still offers an with other relaxation techniques. oasis of calm from the downtown “Lomi Lomi can’t be found anyhustle and the lounge remains “The spa is still part of where else in the city and we wanted populated with guests in white Verity, but we changed to be able to offer a unique and bathrobes enjoying cocktails, fruit the name to make it clear expanded menu of services to clients,” juices and herbal teas along with to the general public that says Shana Coppen, Verity’s marketlight fare from the kitchen at George. they can come and use ing director, describing Sweetgrass’ The only full-service women-only position in the city’s spa marketplace. our services.” spa in Toronto, Sweetgrass offers Verity rebranded its spa to give it a range of treatments incorporating an identity separate from the club, premium products and innovative, which is a members-only gathering place for women state-of-the-art techniques – all designed to nurture and professionals (while only women can join, the common soothe a tired spirit as well as regenerate both mind areas, meeting rooms and restaurant (George) host men and body. Beyond the Hawaiian, there’s a variety of and women alike). techniques including shiatsu, reflexology, reiki, hot stone and osteo. Body treatments remain a popular mainstay “The spa is still part of Verity, but we changed the name to make it clear to the general public that they can and of course there are those essential services – facials, waxing, threading manicures and pedicures. come and use our services,” says Coppen, adding that a new separate entrance on Queen Street East as well as a sweetgrassspa.ca

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COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 2

NOUVO ST-ROCH, QUEBEC CITY / - There’s a store on Rue St-Joseph in Nouvo St-Roch where you can buy breathable wine glasses and black table salt. “The salt tastes like sea salt,” offers Émilie Gougelet, manager of Baltazar, a five-year-old kitchen and curiosity shop that has been a staple in this neighbourhood since the area began earning a reputation as a burgeoning shopping district.

Gougelet and her staff do their homework, researching online, attending tradeshows and monitoring media to stay on top of culinary trends as well as stock the latest gadgetry. It’s what has earned Baltazar, an 3,500-square-foot store on the ground floor of a renovated 100-year-old building, a reputation as the place to get hard-to-find items on the leading edge in kitchen and hosting.

Wine accessories are a big draw (Eisch’s breathable wineglasses are a popular item) but traditional quality cookware like colourful cast-iron Le Cuistot, and a selection of modern tableware organized by designer, make this an easy place to find a range of functional and fashionable options. There’s also an exotic selection of vinegars, oils (infused with truffles, for example) and salts (black salt from Hawaii and pink salt from Australia).

But not everything here is international. In fact Baltazar works hard to feature as many Quebec-made products as possible: the Ravi instant wine chiller device is one, as are gourmet chocolates from Genevieve Grandbois and Theobromer.

Des objets de cuisine qui sortent de l’ordinaire

Des verres à vin respirants, du sel de table noir... des articles insolites mais que vous trouverez dans un magasin de la rue St-Joseph, au Nouvo St-Roch. « Il a le goût du sel de mer » lance Émilie Gougelet, gérante du Baltazar, magasin d’accessoires culinaires et d’objets de décoration originaux, établi il y a cinq ans et devenu incontournable depuis que le quartier a pris son envol commercial. Émilie Gougelet et son équipe dénichent leurs trouvailles sur Internet, dans les salons professionnels et en épluchant les médias afin d’être au courant des dernières tendances culinaires et des gadgets les plus récents. C’est ainsi que Baltazar, installé dans 3 500 pieds carrés au rez-dechaussé d’un immeuble centenaire mais totalement rénové, a acquis la réputation d’une boutique où l’on trouve toutes sortes d’accessoires difficiles à trouver et à la pointe du progrès culinaire et de l’art de la table.

Les accessoires pour le vin sont très appréciés (notamment les verres respirants de Eisch), mais la variété d’articles de qualité plus traditionnels, comme les casseroles en fonte Le Cuistot, et une sélection d’accessoires de table présentée par designer, font de Baltazar le lieu idéal pour trouver des objets fonctionnels ou dernier cri. La boutique propose également une sélection exotique de vinaigres, d’huiles (aux truffes par exemple) et de sels (sel noir d’Hawai et sel rose d’Australie).

Mais Baltazar ne fait pas que dans l’international. En fait, le magasin est sans cesse à la recherche de produits québécois à proposer à ses clients : le rafraîchisseur à vin instantané Ravi en est un exemple, comme les chocolats fins de Geneviève Grandbois ou de Theobromer.

info@baltazar.ca 3 • WINTER 2009

QUÉBEC

Quebec’s Kitchen & Curiosity Shop

STUDIO TAK : le défi du design industriel Des jouets aux équipements de télécommunication, un designer industriel touche à tout.

AV DU PARC, MONTRÉAL / - Savoir allier marketing, design conceptuel, ergonomie et ingénierie est le type de compétences qui permet au designer industriel de réaliser des prouesses.

Quand ça fonctionne, on ne remarque rien et c’est seulement quand l’alliance de l’esthétique et du fonctionnel produit un résultat exceptionnel qu’on y prête attention (comparez le Mac et le PC).

C’est justement à ce niveau qu’intervient TAK Design, société de design industriel installée au 6300, avenue du Parc. Fondée il y a trois ans par trois designers aux compétences très diverses, elle créée toutes sortes de produits : valise, bouchons pour bouteilles en plastique, équipements médicaux et même serveurs hautes technologies par satellite.

DES SPÉCIALISTES AVEC UNE EXPÉRIENCE DIVERSIFIÉE Contrairement à celui qui travaille à l’interne d’une entreprise manufacturière, un designer indépendant doit avoir des compétences extrêmement diversifiées. Et le champ de ses connaissances s’étend tout au long de sa carrière. En fait, l’éventail de compétences de TAK est tellement vaste qu’il en fait presque une société trop généraliste, déclare Daniel Tassé, son président. « Nous devons ajuster notre portefeuille en fonction de notre interlocuteur. Nous ne voulons pas que nos clients des hautes technologies nous pensent trop spécialisés dans les produits de consommation, et vice versa », explique-t-il.

Mais cette diversité est une qualité essentielle, car un designer industriel indépendant comme Tak est souvent sollicité pour travailler au sein d’une équipe interne dans le but d’apporter un œil extérieur, une perspective non

négligeable qu’il s’agisse de créer des distributrices à eau ou des moniteurs échographiques.

La résolution de problèmes « Les designers industriels sont avant tout des professionnels de l’efficacité », explique Jo-Philippe Laflamme, vice-président de la firme. Bien que très lié au marketing, le design industriel est né de la révolution industrielle et sa fonction première était, et est encore aujourd’hui, de rendre un produit performant et manufacturable.

UN MAÎTRE-MOT : L’EFFICACITÉ… « La fabrication d’un moule peut coûter 80 000 $, donc si l’on veut produire 1 000 unités d’un objet, il faut trouver d’autres manières de les fabriquer », explique Daniel Tassé.

Cela nécessite une excellente compréhension des matériaux et des processus de fabrication et c’est le gros du travail réalisé par son équipe. C’est une activité basée presque uniquement sur la résolution de problèmes comme le montre un de leurs projets les plus récents.

Une société technologique a mis au point un système électronique destiné aux entreprises de transport qui permet de détecter la somnolence au volant. Ce système est basé sur une série de capteurs optiques à infrarouge qui détecte les mouvements oculaires du conducteur, déclenche une alarme et permet d’alerter un répartiteur en temps réel.

Au départ, ce système fonctionnait parfaitement bien mais avait la taille d’un bottin téléphonique et il ne tenait pas compte des contraintes de taille du tableau de bord d’un camion. C’est là qu’a commencé le travail de TAK. L’équipe a pensé à l’ergonomie, à l’esthétique et à la fonctionnalité du système pour en faire une petite composante du tableau de bord, de la taille d’un GPS.

Tak Design works on the ergonomics, aesthetics and functionality of everything from luggage and plastic bottle caps to an electronic device for transportation firms that detects driver sleepiness (pictured top of page).

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 4

takdi.com

MONTRÉAL

STUDIO TAK: Where form meets function Montreal industrial designers work on everything from toys to telecom equipment.

Combining ergonomics, marketing, and engineering, industrial design is the type of profession whose effects are often hidden in plain view. When it works, you don’t tend to notice it, but sometimes, when it works well, you can become acutely aware of the fact that someone sat down to think about what this object will look like and how it will perform its task (think Mac versus PC).

That’s what TAK Design’s team at 6300 Avenue du Parc does.

The independent industrial design firm, started three years ago when three principals decided to combine their expertise, works on everything from luggage and plastic bottle caps to high tech wireless satellite server systems and medical equipment.

SPECIALISTS WITH DIVERSE EXPERIENCE It’s a massive cross-disciplinary role to be an independent industrial designer, as opposed to working in-house for a large manufacturer, and it makes for a career of constant learning. In fact, the Montreal consultancy’s breadth and depth of experience almost makes it seem too generalist, says president Daniel Tassé.

“We have to edit our portfolio a little depending on who we are talking to because we don’t want our high tech clients, for example, to think that we were too consumer product oriented, or vice versa,” he says.

But diversity of experience is essential to a third-party design firm such as TAK, which is often called upon to work with a

company’s in-house designers to bring that important outsider perspective to a range of projects from water coolers to sonar monitors.

A MATTER OF EFFICIENCY Industrial designers are first and foremost efficiency experts, explains the firm’s VP Jo-Phillipe Laflamme. Despite a tight connection to marketing, industrial design was a profession born of the industrial revolution and whose primary function to this day remains being able to sort out a product’s manufacturability.

“Building a mould could cost $80,000 so if you only want to manufacture 1,000 units of something, you have to come up with other ways to build it,” says Tassé. This involves a keen understanding of materials and manufacturing processes, and is the bulk of what TAK’s designers, engineers and technicians work on.

It’s a job that centres almost entirely on problem solving as one recently completed project demonstrates.

A tech company developed an electronic device for transportation firms to detect driver sleepiness. While it worked well, using infra-red tracking of driver eye movements to trigger alarms, the device was the size of a Montreal phonebook and didn’t fit on a truck dashboard. Enter TAK. They looked at the ergonomics, aesthetics and functionality of the device to develop a small dashboard component the size of a GPS unit.

5 • WINTER 2009

TORONTO

Selection& Style With a 14,000-square-foot showroom of bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms and home offices, King Street East browsers can expect to find something contemporary or modern and tasteful to suit their needs at InDesign Furnishings.

KING ST. EAST, TORONTO / Given its address, in the heart of Toronto’s King Street East furniture district at 214 King Street East, InDesign Furnishings has had little need to advertise.

“People come to the area to shop for furniture and our two-storey retail store with 14,000 square feet is hard to miss, so we get a lot of walk-in traffic,” says Gene Pong, who has worked in the area for seven years, the last four of which as owner of InDesign Furnishings.

Offering a mix of modern and contemporary furniture – all available in a massive range of fabrics (depending on the piece, you might have between 300 and 500 different swatches to select from) and most of what you see on the floor is in stock, so buyers out to furnish a new condo over a weekend can get immediate satisfaction from their shopping experience.

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 6

LARGE-SCALE BOUTIQUE “People don’t really come in here with the intention of buying a specific thing. It’s the nature of the area, they’re often coming in for ideas,” says Pong, a University of Waterloo math grad who worked as a controller for a downtown furniture retailer before setting out on his own in late 2004.

Despite the size of the two-storey showroom, he tries to keep a boutique feel by offering a number of pieces you’re not likely to find anywhere else.

The Bradford bedroom suite is made of solid black cherry wood, whose mineral deposits create beautiful swirls in the grain. And the Judd sofa’s clean line, precise tailoring, and condo size dimensions offer buyers quality craftsmanship, using a sinuous spring suspension system and high-density, high resiliency foam core.

What’s more, items like this one are stocked in popular fabrics so buyers can have it delivered in the same week.

Crush Winebar and Metivier Gallery join forces to produce annual poster Hampton bed

Klein home office

Judd sofa

MADE IN NORTH AMERICA Sixty percent of what Pong has on his floor is available immediately. It’s just the special order fabrics that can take longer. And prices remain reasonable as a lot of the pieces are private labeled for InDesign. About seventy-five percent of the furniture is made in North America and twenty percent is of Italian origin.

That means quality control is tight. All sofas have solid wood frames that are kiln dried to reduce warping in the wood, and joints are corner blocked for extra strength and reinforcement, he explains, adding that by using domestic production, buyers have a much greater ability to choose fabrics.

To get a better idea of what’s on offer, it’s worth spending a bit of your lunch hour checking it out.

The two-storey space usually shows anywhere from 12 to 14 bedroom sets, as many as 26 sofa sets, 30 dining rooms and various home office options.

Tastings, Movie Night, $1 corkage fees and set lunch and dinner menus highlight Crush’s 2009 offerings KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - Crush launched its sixth annual poster in November – this time with the help of King Street West neighbour Nicholas Metiver Gallery who connected the restaurant with the talents of Toronto photographer Edward Burtynsky for this year’s image. The limited edition poster, featuring a cork tree in Portugal, sells for $300 with proceeds going to the Hospital for Sick Children.

“We’d talked about doing a poster together some years ago,” says Crush owner Jamieson Kerr of the renowned photographer, “and when he was in Portugal last year he saw this tree and shot it with us in mind.”

Crush, recently voted one of the top 10 restaurants of 2008 by NOW magazine, has a number of tastings, events and promotions scheduled for 2009 continuing to establish the seven-year-old restaurant as an unpretentious go-to wine bar whose front of house features a modern pub-like setting.

The monthly Brown Bag Tastings will start again in late January as well as Movie Night (on the last Tuesday of each month, the front is set up for watching food and wine themed films). Kerr along with sommeliers Eric Gennaro and Marlise Ponzo will continue to fill the wine list with top ten picks, but they’ve added an evening tasting component where you can try these wines and meet the wine agents – and even buy selections not available at the LCBO. For 2009, Crush has also introduced a set $20 lunch and $35 dinner, and on Monday nights only there’s a $1 corkage fee, so you can bring in your best bottle to enjoy with a one of Crush’s reinvented traditional English dishes made with farm fresh local product.

Crushwinebar.com

info@indesignfurnishings.com

7 • WINTER 2009

Boutique stationery firm in Winnipeg a growing international card maker

KATE &BIRD COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 8

DIE

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PAPER CO.

kateandbirdie.com

9 • WINTER 2009

WINNIPEG

EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / - Gloria LEARNING THE BUSINESS A natural entrepreneur, Wall’s daughter was only nine months old when she Wall enjoys the business end of her work almost as knew she wouldn’t go back to working for someone much as illustration. Good thing, because managing else. That’s also about the time she picked up her pencil the firm’s growth has pushed her drawing time into the crayons. Wall had been drawing pretty much since evenings, after a full day of working with her small receiving a Crayola crayon caddy for her fifth Christmas team (three staff, including her younger sister, and with but now began scribbling with renewed purpose occasional help from her older sister) to fill print orders conjuring animals and streetscapes to entertain her and organize shipping. daughter and personalize her own stationery.

Having worked as a budding interior designer at When friends and family began asking for cards and Urban Barn, she knew a lot about retail but discovered boxed notes, she recognized an opportunity and set early on that stationery retailers are a fickle lot. When about learning the stationery business. Seeing her first she started, she had a few local stores stocking her work, cards come off the press in 2003, she decided she’d like but found that she would have to travel to Toronto to to be the next Hallmark. Now, with over 200 different display at a trade show in order to gain more street cred. cards, distribution in six countries, Wall’s Kate & Birdie Her first show in 2006 was a tremendous success. She’d paper company, located at 70 Arthur St., has established invested $4,000 to be there and hoped modestly to a firm foothold in the boutique break even and gain some stationery market. exposure.

“From the beginning I wanted “But that first year, I blew to build something big,” says Wall, it out of the water and came “From the beginning I a slight, 30-year-old brunette with home with orders for 25 wanted to build somea bright disposition and a calm stores across Canada,” she manner. “I didn’t want it to just be says. Now she does three thing big. I didn’t a little hobby. I was starting with tradeshows a year to drum want it to just be a little an end in mind.” up the bulk of her Canadian business, and has added hobby. I was starting INSPIRED BY KIDS’ BOOKS an international show in Described as retro-nostalgic and New York City to build her with an end in mind.” whimsical, Wall’s designs have global exposure. an initial appeal to parents and children – given how she was A GLOBAL REACH “In the initially inspired by all the children’s U.S. the competition is books she was reading to her daughter – but their pretty fierce. There are a thousand companies like me,” elegant style gives them a near universal appeal as says Wall, but her style, often described as ‘very dear’, tasteful and decorative little art pieces. stood out enough to be picked up by distributors in Brussels, Switzerland and Mexico.

Each design starts with a sketch and is then drawn using Illustrator software (even the background patterns Beyond a growing collection of box notes and such as the snowflakes in her holiday collection are greeting cards, Wall is also putting some of her drawings drawn and repeated, rather than using clip art), her on canvases, an idea that came from the requests collections feature a cast of mostly animal characters tradeshow attendees made about buying the large-format and jolly little streetscapes that are in part inspired by cards she’d produced for display purposes. her love of film. In fact, the name Kate & Birdie is a Reading Good to Great and other business books has reference to Meg Ryan’s bookshop owner in 1998’s helped hone her focus and she is laying the groundwork You’ve Got Mail. for further expansion with calendars, more prints and the possibility of working with textile manufacturers to license some designs for fabrics.

“I think moving into décor might be an interesting direction,” muses Wall. But for now, things are busy as the tradeshow season moves into full swing.

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“Our focus is on design because we come from the design side, but our approach is one that includes a rigid adherence to using the latest technology available”

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offer a focus on aesthetics with technical savvy to match RUE ATLANTIC, MONTREAL / - In 1998, when Etienne Bourque-Viens finished his graphic design studies, there was little formal education available on the kind of design that really interested him: Web design.

That’s why, in 1999, he made his own internship, setting about finding work throughout Europe where the use of the Web was somewhat more culturally sophisticated.

“I remember when I started working in Denmark, Web firms were already building advanced multi-platform campaigns including mobiles and it was not rare to find a 100-employee Web agency,” says the 30-year-old president of Pixel Circus, a seven-year-old going concern in Montreal’s Web design world.

With 1,300 square feet at 400 Rue Atlantic, the five-person firm has carved a niche for itself as a responsive and creative Web solution provider for companies with high end consumer goods as well as organizations in the culture industry.

Among satisfied clients it counts upscale restaurants like Toqué! as well as Librairie Monet, an independent bookstore that needed to update its image, connect with its clients and distinguish itself as more local and cooperative than its larger competitors. Pixel Circus brought in illustrator Janice Nadeau to create distinctive

images (silhouettes seemingly cut from the pages of a book) to bring the site’s pages to life while it set to work devising a high-end aesthetic with content the client could manage on its own, like adding weekly events to its calendar and regularly updating its new releases section.

“If you give the client the ability to manage aspects of the site themselves, and it’s easy for them to do, they’ll do it,” says Bourque-Viens.

“Our focus is on design because we come from the design side, but our approach is one that includes a rigid adherence to using the latest technology available,” says Éric Férole, the company’s VP of interactive strategies.

To date all of its marketing has been word-of mouth, but now the team hopes to explore opportunities in the different market segments in which it operates, one of which is library science.

“Yes, it’s a small segment, but we have a lot of clients in it,” says Férole, citing Bibliotèque et Archives nationales du Québec as examples.

Driven by design and eager to grow their offering, Pixel Circus also has clients in business consulting, architecture and interior design, education as well as marketing.

pixelcircus.ca

Pixel Circus : L’alliance du design et de la technologie En 1998, lorsque Étienne Bourque-Viens finissait ses études collégiales en graphisme, il n’y avait que peu de formation dans le type de design qui l’intéressait : le design Web. C’est pourquoi en 1999 il a créé son propre stage en tentant de trouver du travail en Europe, dans les pays où l’utilisation du Web était un peu plus avancée. « Quand j’ai commencé à travailler au Danemark, les spécialistes du Web créaient déjà des campagnes multi-plateformes, y compris avec le téléphone cellulaire, et les agences de 100 employés n’étaient pas rares » affirme le président de Pixel Circus, firme montréalaise de conception et de réalisation de sites Web, créée il y a sept ans.

Installée dans 1 300 pieds carrés au 400, rue Atlantic, cette agence de cinq personnes propose des solutions Web créatives et flexibles notamment aux entreprises vendant des biens de consommation haut de gamme et au secteur culturel.

Parmi ses clients, la Librairie Monet, une librairie indépendante qui souhaitait moderniser son image tout en se positionnant comme une entreprise locale, proche de ses clients et offrant un service plus personnalisé que ses concurrents de plus grande taille. En faisant appel à l’illustratrice Janice Nadeau, Pixel Circus a su trouver des images originales (des silhouettes qui semblent avoir été découpées des pages d’un livre) pour réveiller les pages du site tout en créant à la fois un graphisme esthétique et un contenu que le client peut mettre à jour lui-même.

« Si on donne au client la possibilité de gérer lui-même facilement certaines parties du site, il le fera » affirme Étienne Bourque-Viens en expliquant que tout le monde y gagne : Pixel Circus est déchargée d’une partie du travail et la librairie est plus autonome, elle sait ajouter les événements hebdomadaires au calendrier et mettre à jour la section des nouveautés. « Nous sommes particulièrement sensibles au design parce que nous sommes issus de ce domaine, mais notre approche consiste à toujours veiller à utiliser la technologie la plus récente », explique Éric Férole, vice-président des stratégies interactives. Tandis que certains restaurants de choix comme Toqué! apprécient la créativité et l’interactivité du design de Pixel Circus, d’autres clients recherchent ses compétences techniques pour ajouter à un site déjà existant de nouvelles composantes comme un outil d’infolettres.

Pour l’instant, le marketing de la firme s’est limité au bouche à oreille, mais aujourd’hui l’équipe espère trouver de nouveaux débouchés dans les segments de marché qu’elle connaît déjà, notamment la bibliothéconomie. « C’est effectivement un petit secteur, mais il représente une part importante de notre clientèle », déclare Éric Férole en donnant comme exemple Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Pixel Circus compte également des clients dans les domaines du conseil aux entreprises, de l’architecture, de la décoration d’intérieur, de l’éducation et du marketing.

11 • WINTER 2009

MONTRÉAL

Performance Art Montreal Web designers Pixel Circus

Image courtesy of Paulin

The highlight of Autodesk’s six floors at 210 King Street East is the second floor’s Viz studio (breakout area pictured left) where four projectors can operate simultaneously with screens moving into position to form a circular presentation room.

AutoCAD maker shines beyond design and build From Oscar wins to manufacturing to automobile design, Autodesk’s reach is as broad as its scope.

KING STREET EAST, TORONTO / - The lobby of Autodesk’s Toronto offices on King Street East has the tidy look many technology firms have come to adopt for their space.

The front’s glass curtain wall reveals soaring ceilings, an industrial-style steel staircase rising from slate floors, all set against a background of sandblasted brick walls that hint at the building’s heritage character. Despite these impressive aesthetics, it’s a small glass box in the lobby area which tends to pique most visitors’ attention.

That’s because it contains the recognizable gold figure of an Oscar.

“When you bring clients into this building, you see [the Oscar], you see movie posters and some screens showing special effects, and it really helps break down that barrier that we’re just the ‘AutoCAD company’,” says Kerry Saumur, Manufacturing Sales Development Director.

DIGITAL MODELS TO VISUALIZE IDEAS From buildings and bridges to machines and movies, Autodesk software products, of which there are more than 60, are used mainly to create digital models and workflows so that users can visualize their ideas before they become a reality.

The Oscar in the lobby of 210 King Street East was awarded in 2003 for “Technical Achievement” in the development of Maya® visualization software. Maya was used recently to create 3D effects in features such as Spider-Man 3 and Pan’s Labyrinth.

For those familiar with the space, it was formerly the headquarters of Alias, the Maya developer (among other tools) that was acquired in 2006 by Autodesk. The purchase broadened Autodesk’s reach into the entertainment industry and brought the Canadian team, formerly headquartered in Markham, into the downtown core.

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 12

Founded 25 years ago in California, Autodesk changed the world of design by automating drafting with the introduction of AutoCAD. Today, it estimates more than 9 million designers, architects, engineers and digital artists in 160 countries use its products.

LOOKING ‘HOLISTICALLY’ “Autodesk covers a wide spectrum,” says Saumur who has been with the firm for 14 years. From architecture and construction to automotive, to manufacturing, to multimedia and entertainment, to utilities and telecom, anywhere design and visualization software can be applied is a marketplace for Autodesk.

“It’s not about working on one specific aspect of a company but looking at an organization holistically,” says Saumur, whose area of expertise is in manufacturing.

If a company were starting a manufacturing facility from the ground up, a number of Autodesk solutions could be employed, explains Saumur. Autodesk® Inventor® can create a digital prototype of an assembly line, while Revit® Architecture can create the building model to test for efficiency as well as functionality.

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® can help with the land planning, such as determining how much earth must be removed to build a road or a foundation, and Autodesk MapGuide® can examine data concerning the location of the building.

A VIRTUAL REALITY Visualization software allows users to walk through a virtual building, operate a virtual assembly line and even get behind the wheel of a virtual car.

Building a physical prototype of a car is expensive, says Saumur, so a lot of visualization software is used in automotive development. He adds that images from software like Autodesk® Showcase® often make their way into brochures and even television ads.

autodesk.com

Toronto’s GotStyle menswear offers guys a few easy rules to tune your winter wardrobe “We’re not suggesting guys should dress weird or wear tight clothes, says GotStyle owner and chief fashonista Melissa Austria, “we’re just advocating that you should buy clothes that fit better and that you should keep your style up to date.” GotStyle’s second floor showroom at King and Spadina is organized by grouping coordinating items to make clothes shopping easy for guys daunted by the whole ’matching’ thing. Austria also offers a few tips to get you started when thinking about updating your look.

gsmen.com

1. GET OUT OF THE BOX. A trim, not tight, fit will give you shape so that you don’t look like a box. Even if you have a belly you can still wear a modern cut shirt. Just look for one with ‘darting’ in the back of the shirt (it takes away the fullness when you tuck it in) but still gives you ample room in the front. Since the back is trimmer you end up looking slimmer.

“We have guys with 18-inch necks and 40 waists and they can’t believe how much better they look and feel in a modern cut,” says Austria.

2. NO MORE HANGOUTS. Dress shirts should generally be tucked in. It’s a bad look when it’s striped and boxy and it’s all hanging out. If you really want that look, stick to solids, patterns or checks. But make sure it’s a trim fit and a shorter cut.

3. RECESSIVE JEANS. If you want to wear jeans less often, add some of these to your wardrobe: grey wool pants; dressier black pants with a trim, modern fit; a pair of neutrals like khakis; navy or charcoal pinstriped pants that don’t look like business pants; and something with a subtle check or plaid.

4. SWEAT IT. You don’t need many sweaters, just good ones. Try for one V-neck (black, beige or charcoal), one crew neck (striped or a bold solid), a turtleneck (again black, charcoal or camel) and a cardigan (go for thin and dressy).

5. BLAZING A TRAIL. Blazers come in a range of styles (the modern look is trim and shorter) and materials – cord, wool, and cotton to name some – and are a versatile wardrobe items that can just as easily dress up a T-shirt and jeans, as tone down a collared-shirt and dress pants.

13 • WINTER 2009

TORONTO

5 STEPS TO DRESSING BETTER

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 14

TORONTO

GIVE ME LIBERTY Liberty Group’s Asian obsession makes Spice Route one of T.O.’s busiest dining destinations KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - When the Coen Brothers new film Burn After Reading premiered at the Toronto film festival last fall, nightclub impresarios Nick DiDonato and Charles Khabouth had already lined up their Asian-inspired oasis Spice Route, which opened last Spring at 499 King Street West, to host the party.

“I’ve been doing this for twenty years, and I have to say that was the best celebrity turnout I’ve ever seen,” says Di Donato, president of Liberty Entertainment Group, the firm behind an array of Toronto hot spots, including Rosewater Supper Club, C Lounge and The Liberty Grand.

It’s a relationship thing, says Di Donato about netting what was considered one of the hottest parties of the festival with a guest list that included Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Adrien Brody. “The studios have worked with us before, they know we know how to handle confidentiality and they also knew we had a new venue in play.”

BUILDING NICHE SPOTS In the hosting industry, restaurants and lounges are subject to cycles of popularity.

But as one of the city’s most notable ‘it spot’ developers, Liberty group’s strategy is to build a portfolio of venues that are complementary. Rather than cannibalize patrons from existing hot spots, says Di Donato, it develops niche spots for specific populations.

In the case of Spice Route, the team had a theme and concept in mind; a modern blend of Thai, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Indonesian cuisine and décor that would appeal to the 30-plus crowd in finance and creative industries. They just needed the right space in the right place.

AUTHENTICITY FROM DÉCOR AND MENU When this former Mitsubishi dealership on King Street West became available, Spice Route’s designer, Nadia Di Donato set to work creating an Eastern-inspired urban oasis concept with a 16-foot waterfall, multiple seating levels, and decorated with authentic Asian antiques (including a hand-carved Buddha icon from the 1600s) and large-scale art work by renowned artist and photographer Douglas MacRae (look closely at these – they’re not photos but high-realism, oil-on-silk paintings).

While executive chef Winlai Wong’s hot rock beef presentation (beef cooked at the table on a lava rock heated to 400 degrees F), sumptuous Pad Thai and crispy Tempura calamari and shrimp are solid winners to warm your winter-weary appetite, the locale is at its most festive in the summer when the 3,000-squarefoot patio is in full swing.

SUMMER PATIO ONE TO WATCH Tea light candles run the perimeter of this stylish bamboo and concrete outdoor dining room that extends around the north and east sides of the venue. The comfy divans on concrete benches, a wall of sheltered private booths and outdoor koi pond are tactfully hidden from the street by paparazzi-thwarting shrubbery. Dripping with atmosphere, the patio is integral to what the team wanted to develop, says Nick Di Donato, explaining that it is truly a component of the venue rather than an afterthought.

Hardly surprising then that it should make Toronto Life’s Best Patios for 2008. And given the line ups last summer, it might be advisable to look into reservations shortly. spiceroute.ca 15 • WINTER 2009

IFCS : l’entretien industriel planifié Un logiciel qui rationalise la gestion des biens dans le secteur industriel

CITE MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / - Quand on sait Si l’industrie manufacturière constitue une large part de la que la moitié de la population mondiale est regroupée dans clientèle d’IFCS, le secteur de l’immobilier gagne du terrain. des villes couvrant ensemble moins de trois pour cent de « Il y a cinq ans, explique Xavier Bonifay, rares étaient les la surface terrestre, on peut voir nos problèmes d’environgérants d’immeubles équipés de logiciels de gestion de biens nement comme étant un défi industriel. C’est en tout cas immobiliers. « Par le passé, l’entretien était considéré comme ce qui occupe Veolia Environnement, une multinationale une dépense, mais aujourd’hui les propriétaires d’immeubles française qui oeuvre dans les domaines des transports, par besoin d’optimisation et par respect pour l’environnement de l’énergie, de la gestion des déchets et de l’eau. sont obligés de faire plus en dépensant moins. » Pour une multinationale de cette envergure, ayant investi IFCS s’est développée en Amérique du Nord et compte dans des infrastructures à l’échelle mondimaintenant des clients dans le ale, la gestion des biens représente un réel secteur public, notamment dans « C’est étrange mais nous enjeu. Depuis 16 ans, son incinérateur de les domaines de la santé et de Macao met à profit un logiciel créé au sommes une des rares entreprises l’éducation au Québec.

Québec conçu pour prévoir les activités de logiciels à développer nos « Dans les hôpitaux, explique d’entretien de l’usine, faire l’inventaire des produits au Québec et à les Xavier Bonifay, la gestion des biens pièces de rechange, planifier les coupures s’applique aux bâtiments mais aussi exporter en Asie. » d’activité et anticiper réparations et au matériel et à tout ce qui touche éventuels remplacements. directement aux patients – lits, C’est ce même logiciel qui permet aux tomodensitomètres, défibrillateurs, autant d’instruments à hôpitaux du Québec de planifier l’entretien régulier de leur gérer avec précaution. » matériel et à Hydro Québec de gérer l’entretien préventif de Dans le domaine de l’éducation, les universités ont son réseau sur les Îles de la Madeleine. Bientôt les locataires beaucoup d’infrastructures vétustes dont elles doivent gérer de la Cité Multimédia en profiteront également pour soigneusement les coûts. Certaines d’entre elles permettent à effectuer des demandes de services en ligne sur le site leurs étudiants ingénieurs d’avoir un accès à la version de d’ Allied Properties REIT, propriétaire et gérant de la Cité.

Senergy créée pour leur établissement, même s’il n’est que « C’est en fait un logiciel qui permet d’optimiser le calendrier limité, pour apprendre les rouages de la gestion de biens. d’entretien du matériel pour réduire les coûts », explique Mais le marché québécois ne représente qu’une petite partie Xavier Bonifay, expatrié français qui a fondé IFCS en 1993 des activités d’IFCS, qui œuvre principalement en Asie, en avec l’idée de créer des méthodes et des logiciels d’automatisaEurope et en Amérique du Sud. tion et d’optimisation de l’entretien du matériel technique. « C’est étrange mais nous sommes une des rares entreprises « L’utilisation d’un outil informatique comme celui-ci de logiciels à développer nos produits au Québec et à les force les entreprises, qui opèrent en mode réactif, à planifier exporter en Asie », déclare Xavier Bonifay en ajoutant que davantage », affirme-t-il en ajoutant qu’une fois le système le Québec est une grande source de talent et un excellent mis en place, ses clients utilisent le logiciel Senergy pour laboratoire de développement. calculer les futurs coûts d’entretien ou de remplacement d’un bien – un outil particulièrement intéressant pour l’industrie manufacturière.

“

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 16

IFCS president Xavier Bonifay with a ‘boxed’ Synergy solution.

CITE MULTIMEDIA, MONTREAL / - With half the world’s population living in cities that take up less than three percent of the earth, it’s easy to see the environment as an industrial challenge. That’s the perspective offered by Veolia Environnement, a multinational French company with activities in water and waste management, energy and transport services.

To a multinational like this, with billions invested in infrastructure around the world, a key industrial challenge is asset management. For 16 years now, its Macau incineration facility, part of its international waste management responsibilities, has been using Quebec-made software specially designed to schedule ongoing maintenance activities, inventory spare parts, plan shut downs as well as anticipate repairs and ultimately replacement.

The same software also helps Quebec hospitals monitor regularly scheduled maintenance on patient equipment, helps Hydro Quebec manage preventative maintenance of its network in Iles de la Madeleine, and soon will allow Cite Multimedia tenants to request services online from Allied Properties REIT, the Cite’s owner/manager.

“It basically optimizes maintenance to reduce costs,” says the software firm’s founder Xavier Bonifay, a French expatriate who founded IFCS in 1993 to develop software and methodologies for automation or optimization of corporate maintenance.

“Some industries tend to operate in a reactive mode, but using a tool like this forces companies to plan,” he says explaining that once implemented, clients use Senergy software (now growing its ‘service-as-software’ offering) to calculate future costs of maintaining or replacing an asset - a particularly valuable feature for manufacturing clients. But real estate has also become a growing part of the Cite Multimedia-based firm’s focus.

About five years ago, says Bonifay, there were only a handful of facility managers equipped with software to manage real estate assets. "Because in the past," says Bonifay, "maintenance was considered an expense, but now with the need for optimization and growing environmental concerns, property owners need to spend less and do more.”

IFCS developed its facility management expertise in North America and has since expanded to include public sector clients in health and education facilities in Quebec, but these are just a small part of IFCS’s reach, with most of its activities concentrated in Asia, Europe and South America.

“It’s strange but we are one of the few software companies to create in Quebec and export to Asia,” he says, adding that Quebec is a great laboratory for development and for access to talent.

ifcs-tech.com

17 • WINTER 2009

MONTRÉAL

Montreal’s IFCS software streamlines asset management to meet challenges of industrial maintenance

KITCHENER

Talent Management Email made resumes easy to send out. Now this Kitchener software team makes it easy to manage the tide of electronic CVs every job posting prompts.

VICTORIA STREET, KITCHENER / - When an Australian tourism board launched a search for a caretaker to live in and blog about the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, some 200,000 applicants crashed the web site early in January for a competition that wouldn’t close until late February.

“Emailed resumes and resumes submitted via websites have made the response to any position much higher than it was in the past,” says Rick Barfoot, senior director of services at Talent Technology, a leading provider of recruiting technologies for the recruiting/staffing industry and corporate HR departments, with an office at 72 Victoria in Kitchener.

The days of the paper resume are mostly gone, he says, adding that certainly for white collar positions, email and the web account for 90 percent of the submission methods.

In the late 1990s, managing the onslaught of responses to job postings often fell to a handful of HR staffers in small to medium-sized companies. It was at about this time that Talent Technology began providing its HireDesk and Resume Mirror software solutions. These tools could not only track applicants throughout the hiring process (knowing who has been called and who is scheduled for interviews, for example), but also comb through the mass of information to sort the qualified from the less qualified.

The Resume Mirror software is used by several leading job boards to make it easy for applicants to fill out information in a way that is useful to HR users. For example, Reed in the UK, as well as Workoplis in Canada, provide a resume posting function that is powered by software from Talent Technology.

Founded in 1999, Richmond B.C.-based Talent Technology is the company behind both the HireDesk and Resume Mirror product lines, the latter being the focus of the activity for the team of ten that works in the Kitchener office. In fact, it still says Resume Mirror on the door, remarks Barfoot, adding that it just hasn't been changed because this is mostly where development work goes on for that product.

In 2001, HireDesk Inc. acquired the firm that would later develop Resume Mirror to strengthen its position in resume extraction technology. Both HireDesk and Resume Mirror amalgamated into Talent Technology in 2006 to improve synergy and reduce some of the redundancies (two offices in Richmond, for example).

Talent Technology splits its clients into two groups: the recruiting market, where key recruiting solution providers like Oracle, Taleo, ADP Virtual Edge, and Workopolis partner with the company to offer clients advanced recruiting capabilities; and the corporate market, where hundreds of organizations ranging from Fortune 1000 firms to mid-sized and smaller independents need software to automate, improve and better manage their sourcing, recruiting and hiring processes.

As for the Kitchener arm of this national organization, they have logged seven years at this location and have made an investment to remain in the area.

“We hire locally and as a technical centre, this is a good place to be,” says Barfoot, adding that there's still a lot of competition for talent in the area. But with the right hiring technology, it shouldn’t be too difficult to identify a qualified candidate when the need arises.

Talenttech.com COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 18

TOTUM TIPS Top 10 ways to maintain your new year’s fitness resolution by Tim Irvine In January, it’s easy to get exercising with renewed vigour, but staying motivated is always a challenge. Here are a few tips to help you start, and more importantly, maintain a program.

1. Make a plan. If you don’t have a trainer, set attainable goals for March or April. Break these main goals into smaller weekly goals (like doing some form of exercise five to six days a week). But be realistic. Don’t set yourself up for failure before you start.

2. Change your routine. A professional trainer will tell you that the program you’ve been on for the last year lost its effectiveness after week six. Change it up.

3. Partner up. By working out with a partner, you become responsible to them and increase your chances for success.

Besides, it’s more social and so, more fun.

4. Share your goals. The more people you share them with, the more accountable you become for reaching your goals.

5. Join a league or organized program.

6. Distract yourself. If working out seems too much like torture, try watching a favourite TV show while riding the exercise bike, or listen to a book or music on your iPod. 7. Try something new. Bored with the same old cardio?

Try a fun fitness class, it’ll break the rut and give you a good workout. Your body will thank you, too, as you give it some new challenges!

8. Don’t try to beat the cold. Join it. There are plenty of great winter activities you can enjoy, many of which take you out of the city and into nature, a double win.

9. Schedule it. Set aside a specific block of time that no one can interrupt. Find the time of day that works best for you, and make it a priority for yourself.

10. Have fun. Find an activity you enjoy. It’ll help you stick with it.

Tim Irvine is president, co-founder and a personal trainer at Totum Life Science, and for the last 20 Januaries, he has helped hundreds of clients take that New Year’s resolution and turn it into a long-term healthy lifestyle.

FIGHT HUNGER ON FEBRUARY 26TH

Spend your Lunch Money Day at the Calphalon Culinary Center The Calphalon Culinary Center at 425 King Street West (at Spadina) is fighting hunger in our community by hosting a $5 Pasta and Salad Lunch on Thursday, February 26th from 12-2pm.

The $5 you pay for your gourmet lunch goes directly to Second Harvest.

This marks Second Harvest’s 11th annual Lunch Money Day campaign, and we hope we can count on your support again this year.

www.lunchmoneyday.com

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www.secondharvest.ca

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www.CalphalonCulinaryCenter.com

WINNIPEG

SWEETSUCCESS Winnipeg’s Cake Clothing moves to bigger space with larger collection and growing international recognition EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / Rebecca McCormack worked for several years in advertising and marketing, but luckily for fashion-forward Winnipeggers, it didn’t take.

“I just really had to work for myself,” says McCormack, owner of Cake Clothing, admitting that being let go from her last job also helped kick start her entrepreneurial debut.

But now she appears to have found her calling, collecting the Emerging Entrepreneur for Western Canada award shortly after opening her small boutique in city’s Exchange District (Cake also picked up an “Excellence in the Exchange award six months after opening) in 2003, and this past August upgrading to larger space up the street at 264 McDermot.

The new space features soaring 20-foot ceilings, bright 12-foot windows and a 1,100-square-foot floor plate in which to run both the retail and wholesale sides of her growing business.

The retail will take up the front part of the space while the online and wholesale will fill the back of house. Up front is also a cozy light-filled room where McCormack can continue to design Cake fashions.

Currently, she designs a 30-piece dress collections each season, drawing inspiration from current and trends vintage “It’s a lot of work and a lot of trial and error,” she says explaining that beyond coming up with new designs, she must also refine best sellers and try to figure out why some styles sell over others.

Her fashion sense hasn’t gone unnoticed by big retailers. Cake dresses are sold in 40 Canadian stores and this January the line in moving into the U.S. market.

With a design background, McComack, 36, says her previous work as a graphic designer certainly helped her learn design and color theory, but her fashion sense came from working for Holt Renfrew and other prestigious retailers on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Cake is known primarily for its dresses. Designed by McCormack and Lauren Wiebe, all its offerings are available for individual sale or wholesale. Her attention to detail and knowledge of current trends in reflected in each dress.

The store also features a selection of sophisticated tops and blouses, as well as cashmere sweaters, and some great fitting, versatile denim. Coats are also part of the repertoire. High neck wool numbers and fitted down coats with belted waists are just a few of the fabulous options. Check out Cake’s latest collection online or in person.

cakeclothing.ca

FSC LOGO HERE

www.alliedpropertiesreit.com COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • WINTER 2009

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