As a design director, mentor, and advocate for creativity at the local, national, and international level, Johnathon provides environments where innovative thinking is encouraged. Johnathon has directly influenced designers and organizations navigating the unique challenges of today’s design environment by developing, implementing and sharing his experience within curriculum design, advisory committees, consulting and programming for design agencies and educational institutions.
As President of the International Council of Design (ICoD), Johnathon brings decades of experience and involvement in the applied arts, encouraging growth and change in creative industries, challenging and contributing to the contemporary fabric of design today, and tomorrow.
He founded the brand strategy and communications agency The Notice Group in 2000, is the former Director of Creative Services for HCMA Architecture +Design, past president of the Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), and previous GDC National Ethics Chair. He is also a founding committee member, organizer, and co-host of CreativeMornings Vancouver, and a founding board member of the Canadian Typography Archive.
Design has a critical role “to create a world that is environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially equitable, and culturally diverse”. Each and every design decision, no matter how seemingly mundane, must be considered in terms of these four pillars. Clearly that requires an evolution in design practice and a public recognition of what designers do. Current approaches to design practice have remained anchored in outmoded Victorian economic and cultural concepts. Designers are complicit in the negative impacts of consumption and urbanization. Designers certainly have the capacity, and therefore the obligation, to ensure a better future. But to be part of the solution, designers must recognize that they are part of the problem.
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