Exhibitors

AFIX

For all your indoor poster display needs, AFIX promises to deliver light, green and elegant displays to enrich your image. Using a consistent set of patented polycarbonate components, specific tension springs and aluminum profiles, the AFIX Display System allows you display posters of all sizes, in unlimited shapes or configurations. Floor stands; wall, window mounted or suspended frames; image walls; towers or exhibit booths! AFIX lightweight and affordable displays assemble in minutes, with no tools required. They employ the least possible raw material while providing maximum efficiency and minimum environmental impact. Visit the online store at www.afixamerica.com. Drop by their booth to enter a draw to win an AFIX creative display structure, including poster printing - a value of almost $300!

Anstey Book Binding

Anstey Book Binding is Canada’s oldest and most award-winning fine finishing bindery. They are proud to use traditional printing and binding techniques to produce a wide range of custom products from letterhead to luxury packaging. The Anstey team will ensure your project is unique and flawlessly finished. They will be showcasing some of their best, most beautiful pieces at DesignThinkers, so stop by their booth to find inspiration for your designs and to request a customized sample kit.

Applied Arts

Applied Arts is Canada’s premier magazine of visual communications. Since 1986, they have delivered timely information and essential industry insight to their readership of creative and marketing professionals. Five annual issues celebrate the communication arts community, and feature the winners of their many annual awards. The Applied Art's website offers a wide range of tools, information and inspiration. The site aims to keep you up to date with the finest work as it is released, news as it breaks, timely features and sharp commentaries by leading professionals. It also offers advertisers another avenue of promotion. Join them at their booth to find out more and to pick up your free copy of Applied Arts!

Blurb

Blurb's creative platform helps you design, publish, share and sell your own bookstore-quality books. You can create your books with photographs or with your artwork. All Blurb’s tools are free to use, including the plug-ins for Adobe®, Photoshop®, Lightroom® and Adobe InDesign®. Blurb also offers the most comprehensive and flexible array of creative options available. Share your book online with Blurb BookShow™, or sell your book on the web in the Blurb Bookstore, and keep 100% of the mark-up. Visit the Blurb booth at DesignThinkers to see beautiful examples of Blurb books, and for the chance to win a gift card to create your own book!

Creative Niche

Creative Niche is a recruitment and contract workforce management agency with offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Amsterdam. They represent the world’s best advertising, design, digital and marketing communications talent. Creative Niche supports creative companies and organizations of all sizes with staffing, payroll and workforce management services to help them focus on being creative. They also play an active role advancing the advertising, creative and marketing communities. Visit their booth and guess the name of the creative genius behind some of the world’s most recognizable designs for a chance to win a $250 gift card.

Design Edge Canada

Design Edge Canada is Canada’s largest-circulation print magazine for graphic and digital designers. This award-winning bimonthly publication is also published as an iPad edition with exclusive rich-media extras not available in the print edition. DesignEdgeCanada.com, voted Website of the Year 2010 by Canadian Business Press, provides up-to-the-minute industry news, a national job board, event calendar, Fontest, links and resources. Visit the Design Edge booth at DesignThinkers and enter a draw to win an admission ticket (worth $40) to the Design City Show to be held in Toronto from November 10-12.

Design Hope Toronto
Now in its 7th year, Design Hope Toronto is a volunteer initiative that raises funds and awareness for local organizations dedicated to helping the homeless. Design Hope invites artists to create one-of-a-kind artworks inspired by the idea of ‘shelter.’ These pieces are then auctioned and raffled off at an annual event with proceeds going to a homeless program in Toronto. Design Hope welcomes corporate sponsors, cash donations and volunteers in the quest to help the homeless. Visit their booth at DesignThinkers to enter a draw to win a Gary Taxali print or one of his new books - I Love You, OK? and Mono Taxali.

Domtar

Domtar Corporation is the largest integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity. Domtar also manufactures papergrade, fluff and specialty pulp. The Company designs, manufactures, markets and distributes a wide range of business, commercial printing and publishing as well as converting and specialty papers including recognized brands such as Cougar®, Lynx® Opaque Ultra, Husky® Opaque Offset, First Choice® and Domtar EarthChoice® Office Paper, part of a family of environmentally and socially responsible papers. Visit the Domtar booth for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the Sunglass Hut!

Eliquo
Eliquo is an authorized Adobe and Apple software training company specializing in graphic design, publishing, web design, e-learning, video and PDF forms courses. Eliquo has locations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. Eliquo will be making its DesignThinkers debut this year, so stop by the booth to explore their design training programs and for a chance to win one of two HD pocket video cameras. They will also be raffling off a copy of Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium and two free classes of your choice (a total of five days of training valued at $1,445!) You can’t pass that up!

Investors Group

Like all major decisions in life, developing your future resources according to a personalized financial plan requires careful consideration. The team at Investors Group believe you deserve a long-lasting relationship built on understanding, trust, and expertise. Investors Group Inc. is a Canadian leader in providing personal financial planning services, and is dedicated to building lasting client relationships. Drop by the booth and visit Francesca Rea and Marla Rosen to assess your “Life Planning” goals and transitions. You will receive a personalized life planning report, created just for you. Each person who completes the questionnaire has a chance to win a $150 gift certificate to Future Shop!
 

Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers
Mitchell Sandham is an independent insurance broker specializing in commercial insurance for graphic designers. The company's insurance solutions reflect the unique requirements that designers face in daily business operation. Professional Liability/Errors & Omissions Liability, Commercial General Liability, Studio Insurance and Directors & Officers Liability are just some of the insurance solutions they offer. Mitchell Sandham is committed to providing innovative, quality products and services through a team of experienced professionals. Visit their booth at DesignThinkers for more detailed information about the services and products they provide to the graphic design industry.

Rockport Publishers

From graphic art to fashion design, architecture, and beyond, Rockport Publishers provides designers with the resources they need to create and thrive in a competitive market. Serving as essential components of any design curriculum, their beautifully illustrated books contain the best work from around the globe, providing visits to the most talented studios worldwide with the turn of a page. Students and professionals alike will find necessary guidance on layout design, color, typography, and more. Visit their newly-launched design community, RockPaperInk. Stop by the Rockport booth and enter a draw to win some of their new books.

Somerset Graphics

The team at Somerset Graphics happily goes to extremes to ensure that all their work is printed to perfection. They listen closely to their customers and guide the process with a personal flair to create superlative graphic results. They are all about getting it right - calling upon insight, expertise and technical mastery to produce an uncommon brand of annual reports, catalogues, magazines, brochures, sales promotions, stationery and packaging. Whatever you imagine made possible - on virtually any medium you can think to print. Check out some print piece samples here.

Vitamin T

The team at Vitamin T has a simple philosophy: to personally place the best creative talent in the best jobs for the best companies. Since they’re massively nerdy fans of creative, this sort of thing comes naturally to them, which means as a client, you get hand-picked talent perfectly suited to your job, and as talent, you get freelance work that doesn’t make you want to wash your eyes out with hand sanitizer. Win-win! Come by the Vitamin T booth at DesignThinkers to get some cool swag and insight on the job market.