A BRAND & DESIGN STUDIO IN PURSUIT OF BOLDER IDEAS
Driven by research and strategy, we craft impactful, unique designs for brands to make them stand out and connect with their audience.
Our co-founders, Andrea Van Der Ree and Will Ko, are a Latin and Chinese Canadian duo who bring new passions and perspectives to the market. We’re versatile, we’re multi-disciplinary, and we want to partner with people who are passionate about what they do. Let’s team up to elevate your brand and really connect with your audience.
Focus
Portfolio
EA, Vancouver Coastal Health, Innisfree, Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, One Girl Can, Minimalism Wines, Virtuous Pie, ATCO, Iron Lion Training
Vancouver Chamber Choir
Vancouver Chamber Choir, one of Canada’s premier professional choral ensembles, asked OK DAVE to create a modern brand identity that better reflected their new brand strategy—one that encapsulates the spirit of inclusion and artistic innovation.
We completed a full rebrand for the choir—an expression of the way the singers amplify their voices as an ensemble and the power of the choral performance through energetic patterns that build and expand. This motif connects the logo with the overall art direction—which would evolve from season to season with fresh colour palettes and patterns.
Minimalism Wines
Minimalism Wines is a boutique distributor of delicious craft wines. They focus on wines that are undressed, made with integrity, and reflective of their growers and makers.
Minimalism Wines asked us to design their brand identity and print collateral. Their brand values simplicity, so we created a clean & elevated visual identity with a green colour palette to represent their delicious selection of organic & natural wines.
Let's Make Lemonade
During the COVID-19 pandemic, brands and businesses needed to adapt to new customer behaviours and attitudes. With this in mind, Annabelle King from “I Like Storytelling” approached us to lead the design of her new online campaign. Our mission was to promote new marketing services for Annabelle’s clients that tackled their business problems in a time of uncertainty.
Our design for the campaign drew inspiration from the tagline “Let’s make lemonade!” This message is complemented by a vibrant colour palette and lemonade-themed illustrations to deliver an optimistic outlook with a healthy splash of positivity.
Praxis Spinal Cord Institute
Praxis Spinal Cord Institute is a not-for-profit organization that leads global collaboration in spinal cord injury research, innovation, and care. Building on their new visual identity, we designed a set of bold posters for their office that show off their new branding.
Vancouver Coastal Health
We partnered with a regional health authority, Vancouver Coastal Health, to design educational documents about COVID-19. These documents were instrumental in delivering crucial information on the virus, including how to deal with patients and how to stay safe. Our simple, custom illustrations helped to visualize life-saving concepts and step-by-step instructions.
Virtuous Pie
Virtuous Pie is an elevated fast-casual restaurant that focuses on handcrafted pizza and ice cream, and is 100% made from plants. We designed new menus for their Toronto and Victoria locations, and gave them a unique look based on their venue and store interiors.
Reviews
the project
Rebranding, Design & Marketing for Choral Organization
“They were excellent all across the board.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the executive director of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, which is a professional choral organization celebrating its fiftieth season this year.
We’re fully professional, and our singers are paid for every minute that they work for us, whether it's a rehearsal for our performance, a tour, or an educational program. That sets us apart from the average choir.
What challenge were you trying to address with OK DAVE?
It's been a tumultuous couple of years for us for a number of reasons. We had a devastating flood a year and a half ago that destroyed most of the organization’s archives and history. At the same time, we were going through a major leadership transition, since our founding artistic director was stepping down. It was the first time we were changing the major artistic head of the organization.
At the board level, we’d been talking about rebranding for quite some time, and we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, the flood happened. We were preoccupied with that for the better part of a year, so we pushed the rebranding off into the following year. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened.
However, we thought we could go ahead with it since we could do things remotely, so we hired OK DAVE.
What was the scope of their involvement?
OK DAVE’s involvement started with the need for a new logo and grew to a full-blown rebranding project. When we were all on the same page and we had the new artistic leader, we discussed whether we needed to update our logo and how much we wanted to expand that into the overall brand of the organization.
Part of the strategic planning was rethinking our entire marketing process and publicity materials, which OK DAVE was able to help with. One of our board members interviewed a variety of stakeholders, audience members, artists, and others to get their impressions of the organization.
We realized that the information we gathered would also be beneficial for our rebranding efforts, so OK DAVE also used that information in the project.
They’re currently providing graphic design services for us. After the rebranding project, I approached them wondering if they’d consider being our new graphic designers as well as work on marketing and advertising. We’ve since been working with them in that capacity.
What is the team composition?
For the rebranding project, I worked with Will (Co-Founder & Design Director) and Andrea (Co-Founder & Design Director).
How did you come to work with OK DAVE?
We have a board member who works in the marketing field, and she recommended OK Dave to us for our rebranding efforts. That was their first contract with us.
For the other projects, we chose them for convenience. We’d experienced working with them through the rebranding project, and we were confident that what they presented us in that project could translate well for our marketing and advertising needs.
Rather than going through a whole RFP process and finding someone else, we thought we’d give them a shot. I asked them to provide me a quote and we just went from there. I didn't tender bids from the entire creative advertising community in Vancouver, but it saved us a lot of time.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in June 2020, and the partnership is ongoing. We finished the rebranding project in August 2020, but they’re currently providing other services for us.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The feedback from the public and the people involved in the rebranding project — basically all the staff and board members — has been overwhelmingly positive. I didn’t hear any single negative comment. It was all positive across the board. We were so intrigued and in love with what they proposed and did for the rebranding.
How did OK DAVE perform from a project management standpoint?
They were excellent all across the board. Our previous graphic designers were on retainer, so we could come to them every time we had any design needs or emergency. I knew that wouldn’t be the case with OK DAVE, but they delivered items in a very timely fashion and were extremely open to suggestions and criticism, which was great.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their enthusiasm was their most impressive trait. It was nice to work with a team that was passionate about what they did. That was inspiring for us. It also gave me confidence that they’d come up with ideas we’d find exciting because they were so excited about the project.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there are none. I really can't think of anything they could improve.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
It will save everyone's time if the potential customer comes in with clear goals and expectations, rather than letting the team’s artistic liberty fly and see what they can come up with. OK DAVE needs a few more guidelines than that.
In our continuing work with them, I can tell them we need something, but I also tell them the actual specifications, the target market, and the whole purpose of the task. Make sure to have a clear plan in mind. That helps them a lot to frame their thinking.
the project
Branding Services for Import Wine Agency
"It felt like a mutually beneficial partnership."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the founder and director of a wine import agency.
What challenge were you trying to address with OK DAVE?
I started my business last year, and I was seeking graphic and brand design services to help establish my company.
What was the scope of their involvement?
When I approached them, I didn’t have a logo or any brand materials. They helped me build my brand from the ground up and gave my business a voice. Their team built out the logo, color scheme, fonts, and design. Much of the work was original, including the logo and font.
They started by creating three brand identity options. After I chose my favorite identity option, they refined it and came out with a four-page brand guide. They also designed a promotional flyer for me to use to publicize a portfolio tasting I was doing.
What is the team composition?
I worked with Will (Co-Founder & Design Director) and Andrea (Co-Founder & Design Director).
How did you come to work with OK DAVE?
I came across their business via social media, and I reached out to them. Their pricing was competitive, and they were accommodating to working with my financial limitations as a new company.
How much have you invested with them?
I invested about $1,800.
What is the status of this engagement?
I first contacted them in December 2019, and by the end of January 2020, we had finalized my brand.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
It’s hard to put their impact into numbers. However, a lot of people have complimented my logo and brand. The designs they provided were original and helped me stand out.
How did OK DAVE perform from a project management standpoint?
They were great. They provided various deadlines to me at the beginning of the project. They were great at communication and always kept in touch.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their willingness to work with my budget was impressive. I also appreciated the support they provided to me as a small business, since they’re also a relatively new small business. It felt like a mutually beneficial partnership.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, they did a great job. They did everything I asked and even went above and beyond the original scope.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Just communicate what you need and don’t be afraid to ask for something. They’re approachable and understanding, so they’ll always try to work with what you’ve got.
the project
Campaign Design & Execution for Marketing Consultant
“They delivered a level of personal touch that made it clear they cared about what I was doing and about helping me.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the founder of a marketing consultancy specializing in brand and digital storytelling. I do a lot of work with clients to figure out what their company story, vision, and mission is and then how to communicate that to the world.
What challenge were you trying to address with OK Dave?
A lot of my clients had to close their doors due to the pandemic because they are traditional retail and restaurant operations. Because of that, they were obviously not interested in longer-term strategic investments, and I needed to shift my offerings to more emergency marketing services that companies would find valuable in the midst of the current crisis.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We started with an initial idea brainstorming session to figure out how we could drive the project in a few different directions. They returned some initial concepts to me over the weekend, and once I decided on a particular one, they handled all of the creative development for the shift.
The assets they delivered included a web landing page with an email directing clients my way, as well as a number of posts on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. They handled all of the designs for those and incorporated different design themes based on the different messages being presented in the post. I’ve since then been able to use their bespoke illustrations of lemons and lemonade for all kinds of webinars and presentations throughout my campaigns.
What was the team composition?
I worked directly with Andrea and Dave, who switched back and forth in terms of primary involvement depending on what piece of the project we were working on.
How did you come to work with OK Dave?
Originally, we met at a creative networking event and got to know each other pretty well because we were both relatively early on in our entrepreneurship journeys. We kept in touch with them about various things, and when I realized the need for this project I didn’t hesitate to turn to them.
How much have you invested with them?
The total cost of the project was around $5,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
They turned around all of the deliverables in three weeks, starting and finishing the project in April 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Everything that they delivered was organic as opposed to paid, so I don’t have some of the metrics that I might otherwise, but I do know that I got an 11% click-through rate on my emails, which was unbelievably high. I was very impressed with the results we got from that.
All of the engagement we got on social media was incredibly supportive as well, with a lot of people getting excited about what I was trying to do. I’ve gained 11 new business leads that were qualified and turned into initial consultations, at least three of which are now clients. And since then, I’ve been asked to speak at a conference because somebody had seen the campaign and was so impressed with the work.
How did OK Dave perform from a project management standpoint?
Everything happened incredibly quickly. They were able to turn around both new ideas and designs as well as the final products in incredibly short periods of time, which helped a huge amount in addressing the immediate needs of my clients because of the crisis. Being able to completely shift my company’s image and focus in three weeks was a better result than I could have hoped for.
Every time they set my expectations — which they laid out very clearly in terms of the delivery date and specific deliverables — they ended up giving me more and sooner. I was never worried or even wondered about what they were working on at any given time because they were so proactive about all of the project cost and time management.
What did you find most impressive about them?
One thing I really liked about OK Dave was that they were honest and optimistic and excited from the start. They jumped fully into the challenge with ideas that were vibrant and creative, but on top of that, they understood the reason and the strategy behind what I was trying to do.
Because of that understanding, they were able to take my idea and add to it and bring it to life in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to on my own. They delivered a level of personal touch that made it clear they cared about what I was doing and about helping me.
Are there any areas they could improve?
From this campaign in particular, I really don’t have anything I wish they had done differently.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be willing and open to share all of the information about what you are working on. Given the full picture, they will be far more able to look after and serve your interest than if you are not entirely forthcoming with their team. The why is a big part of the work for them.
The rebranding project was highly successful that the organization decided to retain OK DAVE for graphic design and marketing projects. End users and internal stakeholders have given largely positive feedback to the team’s output. The team’s enthusiasm has also been highlighted by the client.