About | The Long and Short | Creative talk to benefit your business
Shedding light on what makes effective graphic design, that benefits your organization, getting the best value for your creative investment.
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Creative Talk to Benefit Your Business

As an entrepreneur, YOU love creative kewl, but are not sure how to get it for YOUR business.

The Long and Short will show you how to get the best value and performance for your creative investment.

As an entrepreneur and business person, you notice creative ideas that speak to you. Whether it be product design, packaging, logo identity, or a website, in a crowded world of visual bombardment, diverse audiences, and technology options, they seem to effortlessly reach out and grab your attention. You feel a draw, an affiliation, and you want your audience to feel that seamless connection with your own enterprise, your product, your service, your identity, too.

But you’re not sure how, or even where to start. The options are overwhelming. You want the best for your organization, but you’re hesitant to make the jump. All that creative talk of strategy, logo design, brand/product positioning, web development and social engagement seem like a distraction from getting on with your business. And you’ve seen the unconvincing attempts that some organizations have made.

Maybe you have pushed your organization into the fray, but aren’t happy with the way things are going. You feel like your logo or brand doesn’t inspire a connection, talk to who you are or capture your brand promise. And you are not sure why.

The Long and Short is here to shed light on how to get the best value and performance for your creative investment. We’ll discuss what makes effective graphic design, covering technology, creative trends and fundamentals, talking about some do’s and don’ts along the way. So join us on this crazy creative journey and gain insight into the design world and workings, in a way that will benefit both you and your organization.

Take the time to take a look through the articles here and be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter and sign up for our newsletter. The Long and Short Newsletter will be emailed out just once a month with our latest articles.

Our Approach

We set up The Long And Short as a no nonsense resource for your business. The design industry, in general, has been very good at muddying the waters about how and what services are provided, including variations in performance, which has often been detrimental to the industry and ultimately leads to frustration for some clients. We have set out to distil issues around what can sometimes be complex and intellectual processes, into simplified direct presentations. We will never be accused of sitting on the fence or mincing our words, perhaps of over simplification. But we make no apologies, as this is all part of getting to The Long And Short of the matter and providing you with an uncompromisingly uncomplicated and definitive perspective.

Our Background

Design both exists within the culture and defines it, and drawing from our very different and varied cultural experiences we hope our fresh lens brings an open and considered perspective to this blog. We both made our way to Toronto under our own steam, with a drive to embrace new things and new ideas. And along the way, between us, we have lived in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australasia, and of course now North America. While Canada is our home, and we both have a direct style of communication, our diverse experiences, mean we often bring different things to the topic at hand. Regardless of whether we start on the same page or not, the one thing that we have in common is our love and respect for authentic design, an enthusiasm for creative that is both thought provoking and expertly performs its duty, and a passion for making great design accessible to those that appreciate it.

Damian Salter

Brand Identity and Graphic Designer

Purpose based creative expression feels like it has been a big driving force for as long as I can remember, In the beginning, automotive design held an allure for me, drooling over high-end collateral of the luxury marks. At a certain point, the brand presentations themselves became almost as important. The look and feel of the printed piece, the consistency of the concept. I came to start to appreciate and understand how a successful brand can embody the authenticity of the product, and I realized graphic and identity design was for me.

Growing up as a ‘Commonwealth brat’, living around the world, the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand, I quickly had to notice, learn and adapt to cultural norms and practices. And this encouraged me to be open to looking at creative challenges from different perspectives and broadened my understanding of how and why different types of audiences identify with and get drawn towards certain visual communication.

My enthusiasm for design is about helping organizations reach out to their audiences to embody that authenticity, that inspired me in the very beginning.

Siying Wei

Media and Interactive Designer

As a kid growing up in China, practicing Chinese calligraphy was the opportunity that introduced me how to communicate aesthetically. I have always been fascinated about how a single character can be meaningful to so many, yet elegant in so many forms. It embodies the power of visual communication.

At age 17, I decided to come to Canada. The cultural differences had a huge impact that changed my perspective on life. To learn and understand a new language was a big challenge. But the barriers made me realize how important graphics are in helping people understand without even knowing the language. When in grocery stores, I could still recognize what was inside the packaging without reading anything. I was awakened to the influence of effective intuitive design. Creating something people from different places, with different experiences can all understand is such an exciting prospect and one that a graphic designer can really own.