WAX

Our weekly feature of innovative work by people, firms and agencies working professionally for approximately five years, including those who have recently changed careers and/or styles. Submit Work.

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An annual report for a natural gas company. Fascinating? Not really, but we found a way to make it interesting. Justen Lacoursiere, photographer; Jonathan Herman, art director/designer; Anderson Energy/Nick Asik, writers; Monique Gamache, creative director; Anderson Energy, client.

Part of a campaign for a men's luxury clothing retailer. This image is just one of several that we shot in New York. Rodney Smith, photographer; Trent Burton, writer; Monique Gamache, creative director/designer; Henry Singer, client.

Poster promoting the 2009 Honens International Piano Competition. (Honens is Canada's leading presenter of music for piano.) Tara Hardy, illustrator; Trent Burton, writer; Monique Gamache, creative director/designer; Honens International Piano Competition, client.

An identity created for a stylist, inspired by patterns and textures found in fashion. Jonathan Herman, art director/designer; Monique Gamache/Joe Hospodarec, creative directors; Gorgeous, client.

This custom-made hangover cure was used as an invitation to an annual Stampede party, one of Calgary's biggest events of the year. Jonathan Herman, art director/designer; Nick Asik, writer; Monique Gamache/Joe Hospodarec, creative directors; Canaccord Adams, client.

This POS poster informed shoppers that they could take some pre-made, farm-fresh meals, home for dinner. Ken Woo, photographer; Scott Shymko, art director; Nick Asik, writer; Joe Hospodarec, creative director.

When you rent a Harley, you're renting more than a motorcycle— you're renting a lifestyle. Philip Rostron, photographer; Joel Arbez, art director; Sebastien Wilcox, writer; Joe Hospodarec, creative director; Harley-Davidson, client.

A promo piece for a photographer that doesn't contain any of his work. Jonathan Herman, art director/designer; Nick Asik, writer; Monique Gamache, creative director; Colin Way, client.

04.21.08

Ad agency

www.waxpartnership.com

Duration: Sometimes it feels like we’ve been doing this for a long time, but we only started three short years ago. Or is that three long years ago?

Staff: Twenty-seven full-time employees and one bitter intern who’s proofread this article one too many times.

Education: Yes.

Cultural Influences: We look at the best (and sometimes the worst) of design and advertising worldwide. We’re also avid readers of US Weekly.

Environment: We have a modern agency with lots of original art, vintage Knoll furniture and rows of floor to ceiling windows that offer views of the Rocky Mountains to the west and downtown Calgary to the north. We encourage the staff not to look east or south.

Philosophy: Our company is new and our people are from everywhere, so we don’t have a rigid philosophy that we ask individuals to adhere to. We adapt to opportunity and ideas. The only overriding principle is that our work must be relevant, fresh and some other fancy marketing word. It’s helped us win awards, clients and talented people in a very short time.

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Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising. — David Ogilvy

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Introduced just about one year ago, PANTONE's Goe System is the first new color system introduced in the last 45 years. Not quite clear on the concept? Might be worth checking out next week's PaperSpecs PANTONE Goe Webinar.

Old Spice. It's Two Things. At least according to this site by Struck Creative and Wieden+Kennedy.

The goal of the Million Faces Project is to create the largest-ever image of Internet users. Um, as of yesterday, the project has quite a ways to go.

For its first annual Aspen Design Challenge, the AIGA has an intriguing task for the next generation of creative thinkers: Dubbed "Designing Water’s Future," it asks students to create a solution to the global water crisis.

Hey, look what Matt wrote for us: a Song for Designers. OK, OK, so he also wrote songs for the iPhone and Flashforward... we still feel special.

Power To The Poster. A site full of topical, well-designed, black-and-white posters in a very-printable, 11" x 17", PDF format. Download. Print. Post. (What a great idea. Thanks Justin.)

Although, we couldn't find a list of stations anywhere, supposedly debuting this weekend on a radio station near you: The iTunes Download, a weekly syndicated program—hosted by director of music programming for iTunes Alex Luke—based on the 30 most downloaded songs from the iTunes Store.

We can't think of anyone better than Rob Ford (founder of FWA) to author this title: Guidelines for Online Success. Well, OK, maybe his co-author Julius Wiedemann.

TechCrunch50. A three-day conference with the express purpose of presenting 50 start-ups. September 8 - 10. San Francisco.

Open Salon, Salon.com's blog/social network of member-generated content is now in full public beta (uh, we didn't know it was in private beta). There's some pretty darn good writing on it too.