What a year it’s been! Let’s take a quick look back, before we say hello to a new year.

In 2012, we worked on many exciting and challenging projects.

One ambitious project we checked off in 2012 was the web refresh of Vancouver Coastal Health Research. We designed a more user-friendly digital experience to showcase the value of their research and also crafted a professional online home for researchers and staff.

For Providence Health Care, we built a digital communication tool, a one-stop shop to house their substantial amounts of news and information. With a few clicks of the mouse, knowledge can now be broadcasted and migrated across site-specific platforms.

Clearly, organizing big data has been…well, big this year.

Another interesting project of 2012 was rebranding one of the oldest and most respected law firms in BC, Bull Housser. We bridged the gap between their prestigious 120-year history and their new, modern character.

In 2012, we had our hand in a couple of big firsts.

We had the honour of creating a brand identity for the very first provincial First Nations Health Authority. Collaborating with talented First Nations artists, we created a brand that is both beautiful and representative of First Nations culture.

We also worked on Pearson-Dogwood, the first land development venture led by a health authority, Vancouver Coastal Health. We loved the challenge of conceiving an identity that reflects the values of this future community: health, wellness, and integrity.

In 2012, we hit a few milestones.

Namely, we marked the 30 year anniversary working with Canada Post and designing special edition and collectors’ stamps.

Last, but certainly not least, in 2012, we beefed up our digital and interactive department. We will always stay true to our design roots, but we love our digital folks, too! Meet our newest members in the team section.

It’s been a tremendous and productive year, and at the tail end, we are delighted to say that we are a happy community of designers, communicators, strategists and developers!

We wish you all a very beautiful holiday. See you in 2013!

Please feel free to download and share the PNG or PDF file with your colleagues.

We’re proud to feature a few photos of the Signals-designed London 2012 Olympic stamps, released today by Canada Post. See more on our blog post here.

Take a look at the incredible ‘Burger Cake’ that James, our Lead Interactive Developer, made today.

The occasion? One of our web developers, Simon, is leaving us this Friday and moving back to New Zealand. We’ll miss you Simon, but what a sweet way to say good-bye!

Who wants a (shortbread) fry?

(Photo credit: Mike Savage)

Robyn and I are both really looking forward to being a part of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council’s Social Media Camp and Health Talks! events on March 7!

The all-day Social Media Camp features Keynotes, Panel Discussions and Social Media 101 Workshops from across Canada. The sessions will target specific components in social media to address questions and challenges and review the purpose and functions. Some of the topics covered include social media strategy, measurement, blogging, video production, Twitter 101 and social media for health promotion. Robyn will be joining Paul Gallant (@healthworksbc) in a session on Social Media Strategy.

For more information on the workshops and the speakers visit:
http://qualityforum.ca/social-media-camp/
Follow the hashtag: #SocialMediaCamp

The Health Talks event later that night is a short Pecha Kucha-style speaker series comprising of a blend of health care providers and the public. Pecha Kucha-style means that each speaker will tell his or her story using 20 slides, each of which will be displayed for exactly 20 seconds. The hope for this event is that Health Talks will leave you feeling inspired about what a patient-centered, quality health care system could look like in the future. I’ll be giving a short 6:40 minute look at some cool stuff happening in the healthcare + social media world.

For more info and to and register (for only $15!) visit:

http://qualityforum.ca/quality-forum-health-talks/

Follow the hashtag: #HealthTalks

Signals wishes you and your loved ones a holiday season full of peace, love and understanding. Cheers!

A huge thank you to everyone who came out on Nov 29^th to Vancouver’s third Health Care + Social Media (or #hcsmca) Tweetup at the W2 Media Café! We had a great turnout as over 60 people came out to eat, drink and connect with others engaged in the healthcare + social media world in BC.

In case you didn’t know: a tweetup is an offline meetup of people that know each online through Twitter. Our tweetup was a group of people who work in healthcare and social media in BC. After polling the audience I was surprised to learn that this was almost everyone’s FIRST tweetup, that about 10 people didn’t even have a twitter account, and that one person even traveled from Victoria to join us for the evening (thanks Fiona!)

I played MC for the structured part of the evening, which featured Dr. Mark Gilbert, from the Online Sexual Health Services Team at the BC Centre for Disease Control as our invited speaker. He gave a presentation on some of the work he’s doing building BC’s Online Sexual Health Services. Some of these initiatives include: inSPOT, Smart Sex BC, and Get Checked BC. You can learn more about all three of these on the BCCDC’s blog: bclovebytes.wordpress.com. You should also read this blog post where he reflects on attending his first tweetup.

After Mark’s talk we opened up the floor for attendees to pitch campaigns or projects they’re working on. Some of these projects included:

• @IDN_YVR | itsdifferentnow.org
• @StVBC | stoptheviolencebc.org
• @aidanbox | aidanbox.com
• #pesticidefreebc | cancergameplan.ca
• @healthworksbc | gallanthealthworks.com
• @CIHR_CTN | hivnet.ubc.ca
• @datingconf | datingconfidential.ca
• @bcpsqc | bcpsqc.ca
• @powertopush | powertopush.ca
• startwithhi.ca

I highly recommend you check them out!

We spent the rest of the evening chatting about success stories, challenges and case studies around the implementation of social media in health care.

It’s been really inspiring for me to watch and help the health care and social media community in Vancouver thrive this past year (both online and offline). I really look forward to continuing this growth and supporting this community in the New Year! Stay tuned for updates on how we’re going to take things to the next level.

This tweetup was part of a series of meetups organized across Canada during the month of November. Tweetups from Halifax to Calgary happened earlier in the month month, but I think we can say Vancouver’s was the best attended! A big shoutout to Colleen for suggesting this November meetup. She’s really done an incredible job of building and connecting a pan-Canadian #hcsmca community. If you’re interested in getting involved, please join us on Twitter every Wednesday at 10AM PST for the weekly #hcsmca tweetchat. Here are some of the things we talk about.

One last thing: please join me in high-fiving the rest of Vancouver’s healthcare + social media tweetup planning committee: a volunteer group of tweeps who live, breathe social media + health care in B.C. The committee included Daniel Hooker, Sean Cranbury, Janet Madsen, Ajay Masala Puri, Amy Tran and myself. And a big thank you to the Canadian Inter-professional Health Collaborative and Signals Design Group for sponsoring the the evening.

Some photos tweeted during the night:

Recognized globally, World AIDS Day is an opportunity for people and organizations around the world to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. It’s an important day for Signals because for more than 20 years we’ve worked hand-in-hand with a number of incredible organizations and initiatives that are deeply involved in Canada’s response to HIV and AIDS. Today we reflect on some of that work…

In the early 90’s, near the beginning of the Canadian response to HIV, we branded the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS  and the Canadian HIV Trials Network. In 1996, we did the conference branding and were the Agency of Record at the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver. This conference brand featured the work of local artist, advocate, and Signals’ friend, Joe Average.

We branded the Canadian Association for HIV Research 2000 and in 2009 we helped them roll into the digital age with a website and new look and feel. We continue to work with them every year in a support capacity to help display the work and presentations coming out of annual CAHR Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS.

In 2006, we developed conference branding, a communications and marketing strategy, website and all conference publications at the 17th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm held that year in Vancouver.

And in 2007, we branded the Canada-Africa Prevention Trials (CAPT) Network, a network formed in partnership with HIV researchers and governments in Uganda and South Africa to expand life-saving HIV clinical trial activities beyond Canada.

Today as we reflect on the work we’ve done in this field, we also take a moment to remember our close friends who we’ve lost to this disease, and continue to honour our friends, clients and colleagues working collectively towards an HIV and AIDS free world.

During Movember (the month formally known as November) three bro’s from Signals decided to put their dignity at risk by growing moustaches.

Why? We wanted to be part of the global Movember movement which, each year, aims to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for prostate cancer.

Our team of talented mo-growing MoBro’s started with four eager members. Sadly one of us couldn’t grow more than baby fluff and shamefully resigned from the team. The successful members (left to right) are Keith Martin, Mike Savage and David Bélanger.

We started the month clean shaven and dedicated ourselves to growing the best 4-week Mo possible. We tried several tricks to encourage the growth of our Mo’s, including but not limited to: prayer, herbal hair growth lotion, heat lamps and electric shocks. These all proved to be amateur techniques once we discovered that the most effective hair-growing aid was attaching a vacuum cleaner to our upper lips.

At the 18-day mark we felt our Mo’s were thick enough to show the world. We snapped a couple of images and promoted our team, “Grow A Legacy”, to friends, family, coworkers, clients and twitter followers.

We received a great response. Thanks to many generous donors, team “Grow A Legacy” has raised just under $900. If you’re bummed out that you missed the opportunity to contribute to this great cause, don’t fret! Because even though Movember has technically ended, donations are still being accepted.

Long live the Mo.

_____________

Links

About Movember

Global donation summary

Mo-Lab

Grow A Legacy is named after Signals innovative cancer fundraising website www.leafalegacy.ca

Leaf A Legacy was awarded Honourable Mention at the 2009 Design Exchange Awards on November 24th.

For  the Signals team, it’s especially gratifying to win recognition in this tough, national competition for the site we designed to help raise funds for our BC Cancer  Foundation client.

The Design Exchange Awards are Canada’s only award program to judge design by results, balancing function, aesthetics, and economic success. The Awards promote Canadian design excellence and recognize the critical role of design in all types of organizations including large and small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and the public sector.

Inspired by our desire to support cancer research and to mark our  25th year in business, the Leaf A Legacy site is built around a magical illustration, created by Associate Creative Director, John Belisle. John and David Bélanger, Signals Head of Interactive, attended the awards ceremony in Toronto.

A special exhibit showcasing all the award winners will be on display at The Design Exchange until February 21, 2010. The Design Exchange is located in the former Toronto Stock Exchange, a designated heritage building, at 234 Bay Street.

For more on this year’s winners click here.