About Kent Howard Design

the stART

It all began in my early twenties, I was experimenting with art, mainly drawing and painting. I realized, a natural talent was within me.

During my years at high school, I enrolled into a Co-Op program with a company called Voodoo Airbrushing, learning how to airbrush custom artwork on motorcycle tanks, trucks, cars, and anything else I could airbrush on. After two Co-Op terms with Voodoo, I ventured out and continued doing custom airbrushing jobs out of my parents garage. I also landed a part time job at a large retail mall in Toronto airbrushing artwork on t-shirts, jackets, hoodies, and hats.

After a few years of honing my airbrushing skills, I then decided to start painting with paintbrushes, doing acrylic paintings on canvases focusing on landscapes, wildlife, and portraits. I started painting commissions for friends and clients. Staying in touch with my natural gift of Art. My career path seemed to be pushing me towards something to do with ‘Creation’.

Learn, practice, first Job.

Computers and design software was intriguing to me. I started teaching myself programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and Quark Express. Spending a lot of my days practicing and designing anything I could, building myself a beginner’s portfolio. During this period of my life, I also enrolled into the Graphic Design program at George Brown College in downtown Toronto.

Curiously thinking, maybe designing graphics for companies is something I would be good at. My first graphic designer job was with the Yellow Pages, designing full colour advertisements in the local directories. After a year with the company, I was promoted to a lead designer position within the Yellow Pages marketing department in which I worked in this position for a couple years.

Creative adventure, second job.

Creatively, I was craving more. Adventure and challenge is what I was looking for. So, I packed up my computer and decided to move to Australia. I travelled throughout Aussie exploring some of this beautiful country and then started to run out of money. I needed to find a job. Searching through the local newspaper classifieds, I responded to an advert and ended up meeting an older man who was a seasoned salesman and was armed with many years of marketing experience. At that time, he was looking for a graphic designer to partner up with, it was a perfect match for both of us. Learning more about each other, we decided to set up a company, calling it ‘Kreationsonline’ and for the next four years we designed marketing solutions for many different types of companies throughout Australia.

Our clientele ranged from investment firms, real estate developers, local restaurants, wineries, the national soccer league, the Australian tennis association, and DVD production companies. We also designed tour programs and DVD covers for music bands like Deep Purple and Jimmy Barns.

I was learning so much, so fast!

The website industry was just starting to take off, so we really focused on developing the website design and development part of the business. It was a perfect mix, he would create and sell the marketing strategies and I would design them. So, we settled in, became good friends and ran this business successfully for the next four years.

Life, growth, third job.

Unfortunately, my experience in Australia had to come to an end. An unforeseen circumstance within my family required for me to move back to Toronto. With all this gained design and marketing experience and a much stronger portfolio, I was able to land my next design gig with a company called Zebra Studios.

Zebra Studios was a mid-sized design agency that had some big-name clients. This gave me the opportunity to zone in on my design skills and really gain some hands-on experience dealing with clientele on a professional business level. My daily interaction within the advertising industry was on a much larger scale.

Collaborating with the head Creative Director, together we worked on many different types of design projects. Designing successful visual campaigns for companies such as: Nike, Wilson, Toronto Blue Jays, NHL Alumni, Canadian Cancer Society, Honda, Hudson Bay Company, Hobo International and many other large and mid sized businesses that wanted a strong branding presence.

The design team consisted of 10 to 12 individuals ranging from production artists, graphic designers, and a small web development team. Within 2 years at Zebra, I was promoted to Art Director within the company and was also in charge of all website development projects. I held this position for 7 years, totaling 9 years gained experience with this company.

Take Chances!

At this time in my life, I remember asking a highly successful influential individual to me, “what would be your advice to a creative, business minded, young man at this point in your life?” and without hesitation his response was “Take Chances!”. These words really stuck with me, and this is when I decided to lean on my previous years of experience, take a leap of faith, and create my own consulting company calling it ‘Kent Howard Design”.

Over the previous years, I was able to maintain some business relationships with communication directors, marketing managers, creative directors, and local business owners. This enabled me to build some strong clientele to stay afloat. My business model was to help businesses with smaller marketing budgets get the same quality of design as if they had hired a larger boutique design firm.

My services include designing logos, packaging, brochures, catalogues, corporate identities, marketing materials, retail displays, signage and website development. Photography and content writing services are also available. I also provide local SEO solutions to my clients that are looking to land high on local Google searches.

From large to mid-sized businesses and start up ventures. My clientele is vast, I have been designing marketing solutions for private label, pharmaceutical, insurance, investment, real estate, construction, sporting and entertainment, music, wineries, schools, health care, human resource, utility and non-for-profit companies.

12 years later, Kent Howard Design continues. Focusing on helping businesses with the development and management of their brand identity and marketing objectives. I encourage you to review my previous design projects portfolio to get a better scope of my design and marketing expertise.