Paul Jen Communications is a Toronto practice focused on one problem: what to do when a strong company’s brand starts to feel dated.
They help established organizations update their brand and identity to reflect how far the business has come, without losing the trust and recognition they’ve built.
We asked managing partner and DesignThinkers speaker Paul Jen a few questions about what makes PJC different, their recent work and why they find value in attending DesignThinkers.
What makes your agency different from other design firms?
We focus on a problem many studios avoid: how to modernize a trusted brand without losing what makes it trusted. It’s more about restraint than reinvention. Before we change anything, we work out what shouldn’t change, then design from there. It’s careful, deliberate work, and it’s what we do best.
Tell us about a recent project you’re really proud of.
We’re proud of our work with Birch Mountain Enterprises, an Indigenous-owned company whose brand had fallen behind the business. The challenge was a common one: how to make a legacy brand feel current and credible without losing its character. We treated it as an evolution, not a rebuild, updating how the company presents itself while protecting what already worked. The company went on to earn Gold Standard in Canada’s Best Managed Companies. What we value most is simpler: helping a good, community-rooted business be seen for how good it is.
What are you and your team most looking forward to at this year’s DesignThinkers conference?
Being in a room full of people who care about the craft. DesignThinkers brings designers and studios together from across the country and beyond, and it’s a great place to be challenged and come back sharper. We’re looking forward to the talks, the roundtables, and the conversations in between. It’s also a chance for our team to step away from daily work, learn together, and reconnect with the wider design community.
Why is it important to your agency to send your team to DesignThinkers?
Because our work stays strong only when we stay close to the craft and the people driving it. DesignThinkers is the largest gathering of designers in the country, and taking part is how we support a community we belong to. For our team, it’s a chance to learn from people we admire, hear new ideas, and grow together. Supporting the conference is our way of giving back to a profession we care about.
Hear more from Paul Jen, Managing Partner at Paul Jen Communications, during his talk, Elevation, Not Reinvention: Making a respected brand contemporary without losing trust, at DesignThinkers in Toronto this October 20–21.
