Don’t get me wrong, I love to create beautiful visuals, develop new colour palettes and of course, typography! But when it comes to design, every decision is a careful orchestration of elements to communicate a message. To compel an action. To change a perception. Good design is based on understanding the problem and working towards a business objective—communication balanced with aesthetic.

With over 20 years of experience in design, I have worked closely with public and private companies, professional services and non-profits to develop strategic, award-winning creative communications. With a focus on business objectives, I lead design teams with the vision to execute on plan and deliver results. I have experience leading teams in both agency and in-house corporate environments.

In my current role as Design Director at Canadian Tire, I am responsible for the team leading the development and maintenance of our various brand design systems, from foundational visual identity expression through to detailed omni-channel guides and templates, to advance the corporation’s retail strategy. This involves working closely with teams across print, flyer, digital, email, ecomm, store design, promo, digital display, social media and marketing to ensure alignment among stakeholders.

As Director, Design Strategy and Creative Direction at Ove, I lead the creative team to create complete brand identity systems that express the core heart and personality of the brand. To achieve this I developed and led workshops and visual audits, analyzed research and strategic insights, developed creative territories and directions, nurtured creative approaches and performed client presentations to sell through concepts. Following client approval, I oversaw full-scale development of visual toolkits and brand guidelines, including rigorous testing for digital, print, signage and more, to evolve the creative ideas from theory into real, working toolkits. Brand transformations I’ve worked on include Canada Life, the Government of Ontario, Avison Young, First Capital and Duo Bank.

I led a 20+ design team located in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and India as Creative Director at Deloitte. Collaborating with our marketing, public relations, digital and editorial teams, I helped to define project objectives and briefs and provide innovative solutions to align business strategy with creative output. I love to work with our designers to spur their creativity to new heights and help them through roadblocks. Being able to offer advice and lead my team members to build confidence in their decisions and watching them grow into high-performing leaders themselves has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career.

As Creative Director at TMX Equicom, I gained an understanding of capital markets and how to lead the creative team to design engaging investor communications. I used strong information design skills to translate complex concepts into clear, compelling narratives to highlight business strengths across presentations, annual reports, websites and brand identities.

A certified RGD and multiple award-winning designer, I have been recognized by the International ARC awards, Canadian Regional Design Awards, Unisource Canada Design and Print Excellence Awards, International iNOVA awards, RGD’s Design at Work and RGD’s In-house Design Awards. In 2016 RGD selected my team to serve as the design partner to develop the creative and overall theme for their annual DesignThinkers conference, the largest event of its kind for graphic designers in Canada.

I’m always up for a healthy debate on the merits of design, business strategies and white space. Let’s connect: info@carolinebruckner.ca