Design and Filmmaking Teams

Starting out in early December with two teams underway working toward client design objectives. 

Two gordongroup teams have been underway all weekend carefully managing and navigating through critical paths for the days ahead.




Residential Design & Brand

One team includes our Creative Director and Senior Design lead. We’re engaged on real estate condominium brand and marketing. The second team with Senior Producer / Project Management support is embarking on a documentary filmmaking tour, celebrating the leadership among the James Bay Northern Quebec Crees.

Branding property development has been a tradition among our team for a number of years. We love having conversations with the Architect, Marketing Executives, Asset Managers, Owners of developments as well as other stakeholders who give us their perspective in order to define the essence of what makes properties outstanding within their unique community. Conversations about how the envisioned development can utilize design and timeless brand to create aspirational response from future residents who will call the location home. 

Clients who understand the value of design and how world-class design leverages their investments partner with our team. The collaborative effort is actually momentous to witness as conceptual notions and design thinking transforms into market outreach toward stabilizing the property. We witness the property come out of the ground as the team effort drives a surge in sales or eventual leaseholds ensuring the covenant is met. The result is a change in the city scape with new dwellings adding to the community.


We're currently engaged with a visionary developer here in Ottawa and the leading Real Estate marketing enterprise nation wide. The launch takes place later in the week, at what promises to be the first of many great Q West events to come.

Check into Facebook 

Our proprietary approach to developing identities by extension crafting stories and delivering marketing tools is sharpened from experience naming and branding real estate nationally. Another partner Bentall Investment Management of Vancouver engaged gordongroup during 2005/07. We developed identities and online brand solutions that contribute toward making their portfolio of homes in Canada unique.

"The denser we make our cities the more we can sustain ecosystems", 

Bruce Mau, Phaidon 2004

Preservation and Filmmaking History

Our second team comprised of Film Director and Crew depart this week to record stories and personalities on locations in James Bay Northern Quebec. We're filming individual’s who were trailblazers and exerted great influence during the 1970 and 80s. period. The Crees at that time built a foundation for growth for future generations. We’re preserving their memories for the future and for people interested in Canadian Northern Culture. The intent is to deliver empowering, educational and leading perspectives from interviews from people who witnessed  the transformation and impact of development in their lands. Unlike anything experienced in Canada’s north, perhaps unlike anything internationally the Crees asserted their Rights four decades ago and ensured governments upheld commitments. As a result today the Crees have extraordinary rein and leadership. They have protected their traditional way of life which is  largely unknown to most Canadians. The James Bay Crees are using innovation and digital recording to ensure their history is preserved and depicted authentically.

Doc. trailer on youtube

"Each of the four wind persons resides at one of the four points of the compass, and each has specific personal characteristics related to particular seasons, weather and animal patterns, hunting conditions, and success".

Harvey Feit, McCelland & Stewart 1995

Design thinking and Storytelling

A year in the making of a documentary film certainly has been an experience that I’m unable to sum up here in a short blog post. The culmination of many people giving of there time and support to bring the story to life.

The documentary chronicles an extraordinary profile of leaders who share their perspectives through rich storytelling. They share their memories and legends set against the remarkable backdrop of James Bay Northern Quebec.

An account of "David and Goliath" proportions the James Bay Northern Quebec Cree in the early 1970’s have been inhabitants from time immemorial with a growing population of roughly 5000. They were established over a region the size comparable to England in remote communities.  The communities they lived in had no connecting roads. Intercommunity communications was limited. There territories include a magnificent watershed of lakes, tributaries and rivers streaming through dense boreal forest, wetlands and bogs. In fact the Cree to this day trap beaver using techniques that decades earlier were effective when they played a central role alongside the Europeans in the fur trade boom. The first Hudson Bay Post was established at Rupert House today known as Waskaganish.

The Cree used the Rupert River as an inland thruway for traversing their Canoe caravans west toward the Bay to bring their cache of pelts to the Europeans who in turn loaded the fur onto ships. Ships once loaded crossed the Atlantic Ocean back to Europe. The fur was crafted into hats and other fashion. At the time the Cree were part of a multi-national enterprise long before the notion of globalization was in vogue.

Robert Bourassa was the premier at the time in the 1970’s his administration began a massive hydro electric project in the far north squat in the centre of the James Bay Cree territories. These two forces the James Bay Northern Quebec Cree and Quebec Hydro Electric Utilities set the stage for what is one of the most legendary dynamics in Aboriginal history. The story treatment has profiled the central players sharing their perspective whom at that time asserted their rights, protected their traditional activities including hunting, fishing and trapping and preserved their territories against unbridled land development.

Storytelling is a persuasive technique that is central to understanding. We have a rich and diverse Northern Region in Canada that includes deep cultural heritage. The stories from the north unfortunately are being lost. Lack of investment by stakeholders combined with an aging population of Elders within northern Communities puts the concept of “preservation” on a narrow pending timeframe. 
I was in conversation with a leading expert in pedagogy from Canada’s west coast who has worked extensively with the Haida. She shared with me that just three First Nations languages remain vital and in use here in Canada many First Nations languages are now lost as generations pass away.

Of course the stories and knowledge disappear along with the languages this is a tragedy for generations of future Canadians specifically Aboriginal youth.

Design thinking applied to ethnology sustaining oral history and education is now at the forefront for me having gained an understanding of the James Bay Cree's leadership and innovation. 

In Canada we must act together to preserve our countries Aboriginal Elder’s original and authentic stories, that for centuries have been foundational to their peoples survival, education, values, conservation and beliefs.

A good strategy for remaining vital and building relations in the design and brand business.

Multi disciplinary = competitive advantage

Over the last twelve months we’ve seen many breakthroughs and met some interesting challenges. When I look back I take some comfort knowing this year personally has been one of the best on record from the point of view of client relations, nature of assignments and opportunities.

None of this would be possible of course without the people who are on my team and arrive at work on a day to day basis contributing to the growth and vitality of gordongroup. We also benefit from the contingent support of many talented professionals who play an integral role on unique assignments that are underway on behalf of our clients.

I will make reference to a few exceptional developments worth shedding some light on here that have been defining changes in the companies evolution over the last year.

My background and training was in design back in the eighties. The organization started as a design boutique in the central business district of Ottawa. At that time we attracted many clients in that era who required print products. Today we’re a multidisciplinary organization with different units working collaboratively on our clients mandates. 



Our units today include Design which I believe is an overarching function of all our areas of activity Writing, Project Management, Engineering / Digital media, Stakeholder engagement and Sales. These six units are positioned with strategic planning at the forefront of execution and as market driven entities responding to ongoing and new projects weekly.

We’ve grown into a multi disciplinary organization because we recognize that our market is constantly changing and that clients aspire to have new and different forms of tools for their conversations with their target audience’s or for their brand building.

One area that we’re excited about is our Direct Marketing Unit. This operation is headed by a leader who is a professional managing large scale outbound call campaigns. 


Thomas Krayer is behind this discipline contributing as part of our team, building new client relations and managing his team of committed communications professionals. We built the unit under sponsorship agreements with clients delivering publications and subscriptions campaigns. This area of service has become integral to our clients bringing them value through stakeholder engagement. 


We recently aquired a 2000 sq.ft office condo in the recently completed Westboro Station complex here in Ottawa Canada. We bought this state of the art facility to support the ongoing growth of this enterprise. We watched our esteemed associates depart from our headquarters to their new office space. The transition took some adjustment since the energy and buzz that these committed and dedicated individuals brought every day to gordongroup suddenly felt like it had been vacuumed out and left the premises.

That energy of course is being channeled at the team's new space. Their witnessing exponential growth and great new partnerships and client relations.

Documentary Film Producing and Directing is a discipline that requires very unique and different skill sets from Direct Marketing activities. The essence of what our business is about today is providing meaningful outreach solutions and brand building tools to our clients. We’re recognized for being able to identify the best talent from within our staff or networks to effectively meet the high standards our clients have come to appreciate and expect from gordongroup.

Documentary Filmmaking today is now integrated as a core function of our multi-disciplinary offering.

We’re sponsored to do a four episode historical feature series on the James Bay Northern Quebec Cree. This project has been described as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Our team both internally and externally is now on the home stretch bringing one of the four episodes to completion. Its been a remarkable example of trust extended to us from our clients. Gordongroup is recording history for the Cree for their future generations.

Design Boutique to Multi-Disciplinary Agency. Adding talented people and offering core services that clients want. A good strategy for remaining vital and building relations in the design and brand leadership business.

Happy Valentines day!