Alison Garnett - Critical Mass

Name: Alison Garnett
Company: Critical Mass

Alison Garnett describes herself as a "Creative Director / Jack-of-all-Trades" at Critical Mass in Toronto. She is a alumnus of our program (graduated in 1994) and before that she attended OCAD for drawing and painting. She stressed that even though she has passion for her work, she absolutely puts her family and personal life first.

She's been working at Critical Mass for 2 years, and before that she worked at a handful of other agencies:

ICE
She worked there before the web; and started teaching herself coding and html.

Freelance
Web Designer

Henderson Bas
Art Director
Had a great client list which included Molson Canadian, Levi's and Nike. She made websites for these clients and got some awards for her work. She said the most important thing in your first job is to try and get work in your book.

SuperCapacity
Owned her own business
The name of the business came from the idea of a large format washing machine that can handle large loads at once. She worked on a lot of identity designs, personal projects, pro bono work and entered a lot of design competitions. She also had some amazing business cards made out of plastic (therefore could be washed!)

Alison is also a prodigious writer and has many blogs, which include:

• Land of Sparkalot
• Vali girls
• Hello
• My Lalaland
  

Taxi
She worked there for 6 years, and only left because it got too easy and comfortable for her. During her time there, she got to with some great clients such as Mini Cooper, Town Shoes, LCBO, Cadillac Fairview, West Jet and Telus.

Critical Mass
Creative Director
When she started at Critical Mass, she wanted to work on a big website (not a microsite) and also wanted the opportunity to work with mobile / iPad development. The first big project she had was for Theodore Alexander, a luxury furniture company. She worked with them to get all 4000 of their pieces re-photographed for the new website. She has also worked on campaigns for Brita USA, Nestle and Sears.

Lastly, Alison spoke to us about how to stand out. She said it's always great to have business cards or some kind of "leave-behind" (e.g. stickers or magnets). She also advised to ask for business cards from other people, and send an email follow-up.