TEST ME WITH ANYTHING

The benefits of art school are many, but most importantly art school directs talent into assets of value. We go in with big dreams, we come out into a world of reality, loaded with skills honed to begin a career—and disciplines that let us effectively communicate visually, but most of all, help our clients stand out in the crowd.

My training happened in California in the late Sixties and early Seventies when the state was producing some of the best commercial art in the business. I rode the California wave all the way to Vancouver, where I was proud to be among a handful of well-trained practitioners who were bringing a bold new look to the BC Lower Mainland.

Another example? Impark. Hated by motorists for any number of reasons, but a sign familiar to anyone who has ever driven a car in the Greater Vancouver area. I was able to take a logo that wasn’t working, reshape it and re-color it to bring order to the logo’s message and usage.

Better still, I was able to do it for a cost that made sense. It had been proposed that Impark make expensive wholesale and global changes to hundreds, perhaps thousands of signs in its market area. By retooling their original logo, I was able to affect the changeover with a less daunting transition at a fraction of the cost. Years later the logo still works like a darn.

This is the kind of challenge that I have enjoyed over the years, using my training and talent to make smaller firms look bigger and better, to produce ‘wow’ elements when they are required for businesses to grow.

As a multi-talented person, photography has been part of my creative package. Need a picture? You have it, to be used alone or combined with other graphic elements to tell the story and grow your brand. Refining the picture or the logo? That too, as I work alone or in conjunction with senior client people or teams of writers and graphic artists.

For thirty years, the Salazar name has meant respected
visual communication in the Vancouver area. It has earned
a valued reputation, ready to be tested at any time.

I gravitated to the burgeoning food scene. Keg Restaurants was shaking things up, and I was proud to be able to nurture the firm’s emerging ‘look’ as it went national with a steakhouse that kept on growing and in need of graphic support for its in-house and external look.

Keg was typical of the business we sought. Emerging companies that wanted to look better, that needed typography and color to help them position their brand.