Since CuteGecko Canada washed up on the shore of the Grand River 3 years ago (in April…), we have fallen in love with the amazing mix of Arts & Culture, Technology & Design, Agriculture & Business, and everything else that makes this region such an amazing place to live. It’s because of that environment and mix, that we have felt that it’s such an amazing place to work and start a business.

During this reasonably short time, we’ve seen many changes – in everything from the city that we work, to the types of clients that have formed relationships with… and we love it all!

CuteGecko has grown up quite a bit, with relationships and strategic partnerships that have been put in place to really solidify the offering that we we have been able to offer our clients. We now cater to companies in our region that are vital in the export of products and services used all around the world, as well as being responsible for the legislations that impact our daily lives. We are very proud to play our role in the shaping of these identities.

Throughout all of this transformation, our core principals haven’t changed. In fact, our successes are due to them. We love our community, and our reputation is built on making others look great, we form ongoing strong relationships with our clients and only ever take on a project where we know we’ll do an awesome job.

Through the development of our business, you may have seen us launch brandtannery earlier this year (Launch Event held at the Miele Gallery at The Tannery). Brandtannery is an initiative that hopes to stir people to re-own and “Take back their Brand”. The team is made of some highly accomplished and talented individuals with a proven track record and lots of recognition brought from their respective areas of speciality: Brand Strategy & Development, Advertising & Marketing as well as Social Media & Design Implementation.

In Waterloo Region, we are very fortunate to punch way above our weight in terms of talent and resources. We still see contracts and projects that would be of benefit to keep here in the region, rather than be worked on and developed elsewhere. With that in mind, we have hopes to unite teams in the same or complementary industries (design, marketing, communications, etc.) to collaborate on contracts and keep them here, in their home.

We are very happy with the continued growth and plan for brandtannery and are extremely busy with our increasing presence in academic, business & technology areas (not to mention Golf, courtesy of Center of Gravity Golf… we will keep you updated of  that company and its success).

Back to CuteGecko Inc.

Just as every plumber has a leaky tap, or mechanic a faulty car, we spend all our time working on client projects and giving them all of the care and attention that each one deserves. As business development, it’s about time that we looked at some of our internal capacity and strategically grew as a reflection of our amazing eco-system here in Waterloo Region.

The Team

You are already well acquainted with  Amy Vandenberg & Myself (As well as Stephen Hardwick (Aussie Office) & Darren Renton (UK Office)), and may have even seen the announcement of great new designer Laura Radulescu a few weeks ago. If you haven’t heard of these skilled & hard-working people, it’s because our social media presence hasn’t lately been what it once was, which is why we’ve now got the very lovely and talented Laura Bacigalupo on board to keep us up to date and consistently hitting our online targets. We decided it’s time to practice what we preach, and now have someone in the role of communications to keep us on top!
Welcome Lauras!

With the CuteGecko team combined with the crazily adept brandtannery team of Beth Cotter, Lori Kalbfleisch & Julia Rosien, it’s about time we put us all in the same room (with some breathing space!)

Time for a new office

As you will have seen from visits to the office, committee meetings, the occasional event or just from reading blogs right here, we spend an incredible amount of time in the office. In this time, we have made our selves quite at home and become emotionally attached to our little space, but the time has come for us to grow. In the very near future, CuteGecko and talent powerhouse tenant Sustainable Waterloo Region (Mike Morrice is a genius) will be moving one level down in the Tannery to the 3rd floor, with some much nicer features, twice the space, more windows, HVAC, a little kitchen and meeting rooms – all very exciting!

Construction of the new space has begun, we’ve signed off on the floorplan, new leases have been signed, and we’re sticking around here for another 5 years at least. Get ready to see lots of new things happening (pics to follow i’m sure).

I just want to sign this one off by saying Thank You to everyone we’ve worked with so far on the ongoing CuteGecko journey! We love this region & plan on adding value where ever possible. We couldn’t have done it without the support and environment that our community provides, so we all thank you very much.

artwork by the talented woody woodfield

If you walk by our door and hear someone say “Laura…” and two voices respond, I promise there’s no echo. The CuteGecko team has added another member to their core group and I am very honoured to introduce myself and, as an added benefit, you won’t have to remember a new name!

Communications specialist and social media expert, I am CuteGecko’s gab guru and will have a very active role in helping facilitate avenues of discussion, inspiration and engagement with our community. In the upcoming months you will see my regular blog posts on our home page, as well as newsletters coming to an inbox near you. I will also be the voice behind our Twitter feed and Facebook page, so I look forward to hearing all of your comments and suggestions for content!

New to the design and advertising industries, I have recently completed an M.A. in Communication and Cultures, a joint venture with Ryerson and York Universities in Toronto. Following my degree completion I worked with a major North American bank, which helped me realize my dream job characteristics: creative, personable, relevant to school and personal passions, and of course an element (or two?) of fun. The luck of the Irish was with me when I met Karl and Amy at the Kitchener Farmer’s Market, and a few months later here I am introducing myself to you!

Time away from work almost always involves my year-old chocolate lab, continued efforts to keep my herbs and veggies alive, discovering delicious new recipes (either baked goodies or veggie mains), travel, and volunteering with Kitchener-Waterloo’s Adult 55+ Computer Mentoring program.

As I get settled into my new role here at the Tannery, I look forward to bringing you the latest and greatest from CuteGecko including our upcoming move (don’t worry, we’re not leaving the Tannery!), fresh events, and exciting projects. Please feel free to leave a comment below, on our Twitter feed, Facebook page or email (info@cutegecko.ca). Our blogs are designed with our readers in mind and strive to cover topics that are engaging, topical and informative. If there is something you would like to see covered I would love to hear from you! Check back often for those new posts and pictures of our new digs and I look forward to hearing your comments as we get to know each other.

My name is Laura Radulescu. I’m a junior designer and I’m fortunate enough to be the newest member of the CuteGecko team. I’m currently new to the industry and freshly graduated from college. My core belief is that one of the most important things a company could ever invest in is a solid, well built brand. I also have a great interest in helping companies present their services and products in the best way possible to their prospective clients through professional design services.

A bit of background about myself from a career standpoint; I attended Conestoga College’s Graphic Design program and graduated in April 2011 with an advanced diploma. The school only accepts about 30 design students every year out of a potential 500 applicants through a portfolio interview process. Conestoga runs their design program differently from other colleges due to the small class sizes.

What do I do best? Although my main focus throughout my educational career has been graphic design, my strength lies in illustration. Although I do excel in realism created in traditional media, my specialty is vector. I’ve included some of my favourite work in this post.

Some of you might ask, what is a vector? A vector is a file format that doesn’t use pixels. It’s composed of a series of mathematical points that create an image. The benefits to using a vector file for print are that no matter how large you resize your file it will never distort of pixelate and will always look crisp on the screen no matter how close you zoom in due to a function called anti-alias which keeps your lines looking smooth.

I’d like to wrap everything up by saying that I really look forward to working with some fantastic people in our community and that my goal here at CuteGecko is to provide the best possible design services for clients. Feel free to stop by the office in the Tannry and introduce yourself! I keep hearing that the CuteGeckos get to talk to lots of amazing people in the community – I’d like to meet you too.

A new visual arts initiative spearheaded by WalterFedy opened this week. The 60-year-old architecture, engineering, and construction fi rm will serve as an exhibition host to present four arts-related shows per year.

This first iteration, running from October 26 to January 18, features works by eleven local artists and stems from the theme of the Breithaupt Block, a former industrial space which is currently being transformed into a 34,000 square foot office space.

If you haven’t seen it yet on TV, the following is our commercial:

You’ll be able to follow the link to our interview by clicking on our photo on Libro.ca…
or you could watch it here:

Hope you enjoy!!

Libro is a people-based credit union. After all, what you choose to do with your money is a very personal decision. It fits together very nicely – real people helping real people make the most of their money.

We became Libro owners shortly after we brought our company to Canada and have found this decision paying off in spades.  Not only is Libro incredibly community conscious (much like ourselves) but we also appreciate a friendly and familiar service unlike any other bank.  We were approached a few months ago with the opportunity to have a commercial made about our lives and company and how libro has impacted both.
We took a few grainy behind-the-scenes photos to share… but you’ll have to wait until early October to see the final version on TV and online!

Later, we took a trip to London to do some voice-overs for the commercial.  When you see the 1 minute masterpiece, this will make more sense!

Doing what we do, we are lucky enough (depending on your interests of course) to work with all manner of technologies, hardware and software. Because of this, we were obviously interested both personally & professionally, in what local company Research in Motion had to offer with their tablet companion device, the Blackberry Playbook.

When it came time for us to make a decision about what hardware to bring with us on a cross country working holiday, we thought a great way to put it to the test would be to get one, take it with us and put it through the motions of working, blogging and social media.  Other important features of device for our trip are the entertainment features such as movies & music. I’ve got to say… I’m impressed! Since getting the PlayBook, I’ve definitely brought the Macbook laptop out of the bag less – mainly because with the PlayBook, I can operate most of my day to day work functions online.

As I’ve mentioned before, because of our industry (and operating system preference) we operate a predominantly apple based operation, including an Apple iPad. The iPad (in my opinion) is a great recreational device, though because of its failings online it is difficult, if not impossible for me to carry out some important online operations. For example, reporting, from Google Analytics can’t render any graphs… which (without a dedicated app) isn’t very useful.

In our month long trip across Canada, with both devices, I can’t say that we’ve pulled the iPad out at all. A lot of the reason for this is my preference for the PlayBook OS. The QNX platform is a true, multitasking experience… and its slick. I was initially intrigued at how pairing with the Blackberry handset would work… would it be clumsy? annoying? Well it isn’t either. It uses something called a bridge, which allows you to see the email, BBM & other functions available on the handset device without duplication (and has actually led me to take my phone out less).

The form factor of the PlayBook has been a big plus. Travelling with all of our hardware has meant that space is a premium… and being able to have a tablet that is so easy to pull out, use, and put away, has meant that its been easier to incorporate basic functions such as note taking and maps… vital for scouting out new cites.

Canada is surprisingly good (considering its size and scale) when it comes to cellular coverage, 3G, (and when it comes to towns & cities) Free Public Wifi. The PlayBook stands up to ad-hoc network use really well, with authentication methods unavailable on our other devices.

The multimedia aspects of the device alone are what makes owning a PlayBook worth while.  The quality is so crisp, images are clear and the recording of such high resolution video is brilliant.

To say I’m happy with the PlayBook over and above the iPad would be an understatement. Knowing that RIM is making plans to open its doors with regards to applications truly does mean that the future of RIMs products and platforms are headed in an exciting direction.

I look forward to seeing whats next.  Support local even if you’re not local!
For more info/pictures from our trip, check out the blog posts (written on the new PlayBook) on Amy’s blog: curlyblue.com