As Co-founder and Global Creative Director, I named the company, created the brand as well as recruited and led a world-class creative team. Veer became the first “lovemark” in the stock image industry. To millions of creatives, Veer was synonymous with inspiration (delivered in catalogs, on the web, at conferences, and in social media).
Veer pieces have been acclaimed by Communication Arts, the Type Directors Club, the Webby Awards, SXSW Web Awards, HOW Magazine (including a “Perfect 10” award), and the Direct Marketing Association (including a prestigious ECHO award).
Veer co-produced the feature film “Helvetica” by Gary Hustwit, and we designed the launch materials for the film. The mug was featured at the opening of the film at the Colette Paris gallery and won a Print Magazine award. The notebook was featured in the HOW Design Annual and won an award from Applied Arts.
When your trade show booth doesn’t show up to one of the biggest design conferences all year, you improvise!
A simple solution to celebrate Veer turning 5. I saw the number 5 in the “er” of the Veer logo when it was turned it on it’s side. Brilliant? Too easy? All employees got a belt buckle.
For an ad in a Canadian design magazine, the Veer logo was recreated using maple syrup, obviously!
What started out as one of the worst marketing briefs our team was ever given (ask me about it someday), turned into a Veer cult classic which ended up selling in our merch store.
We gave customers a break from their normal routine over the summer, with a designer-focused summer activity book (printed on the same paper and with the same soy inks as the Archie comic books – they even smell the way you remember as a kid). We also asked customers to show us where they took their summer activity book, and gave Veer merchandise to the best entries.
Tony Hawk and Shaun White love them!
Brand and Identity Guidelines: Done in partnership with Jon Parker, the brand guidelines informed every aspect of the company from marketing to product development to customer service and contributed to the valuation that led to the company’s purchase by Corbis.
Visual Identity: I chose the name “Veer” because that was inherently how our customers (creative professionals) approached every project (“to veer from the norm”). The custom script was used to reflect a personal and human feel, rather than the cold, “techy” approach our competitors embraced.
