There’s no way I can sum up how honoured and humbled I am to see our work for the NFB as an honouree in this year’s Webby Awards in 5 words.

First Photo Here,  is a storytelling project our studio collaborated on with the NFB and Joella Cabalu, and it’s been selected as an honouree in the Social Content Series & Campaigns Diversity & Inclusion category. 

First Photo Here, a project exclusively for Instagram, presents a collection of captured moments that link people across time and place. While focusing on new arrivals to Canada and the photos they share with friends and family, the collection represents a wide array of new experiences and first impressions. It’s about turning a personal story into a collective one, and the richness we derive and the connections we forge from these shared moments.

The project kicked off in 2019 and we had no idea what was ahead for any of us. The launch film for #FirstPhotoHere was the first project we shot and produced during lockdown. Our team pivoted our original concepts, came together, and created such a beautiful piece while we were all figuring out how to work together while staying apart.

Our team working away, from home, a few weeks into lockdown. Not pictured: Carson and Annie. Spring 2020

The #WebbyAwards are known as “the internet's highest honor” and it is a tremendous honour to be recognized alongside important work from HBO Max, Facebook, Instagram, Sephora and more, after such a historic year.

Full credits for the project are:

NFB Producer: Nicholas Klassen

NFB Curator: Joella Cabalu

NFB Senior Production Coordinator: Jasmine Pullukatt

Production Company: Kindred & Scout Productions

Creative Director: Leah Gregg

Director: Hubert Kang

Producer: Amy Jones

Illustrators: Chairman Ting, Lemonni & Aiken Lao.

Editor: Mike Southworth

Animator: Eric Wada

Sound Mix & Master: Mike Southworth

Colour: Dave Tomiak

Congrats to us all!

Super stoked to share the launch of a new first-of-its-kind comedy with you, The Slowest Show. The show is like ASMR for your eyes. It's Slow TV that’s as funny as it is relaxing.

The show is a collaboration between the awesome teams at Kelly&Kelly and CBC Gem. To help launch the show, we created the Fasted Trailer Ever:

Filmed during COVID, the series brings back people-watching back by inviting viewers to everyday locations like a skatepark, wave pool, ice rink, art gallery and more.

Each 20 minute episode is beautifully filmed in a single, continuous wide shot. Without any dialogue The Slowest Show removes any language barriers, is appropriate for all ages, making it extremely accessible.

Designed to be actively or passively viewed episodes can be rewatched in the background while doing your taxes or doom-scrolling. But attentive viewers are rewarded the more they pay attention - catching hilarious moments of improv or visual easter eggs. Like this mishap in the Art Gallery episode:

The show features lots of talented collaborators including the hilarious Andrew Phung, star of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience, who directed the Art Gallery episode via Zoom:

It was a dream project and I was so fortunate to collaborate with my awesome studio mates Chairman Ting, Art by Aiken, as well as Rafael Gi on the launch campaign!

Watch The Slowest Show on CBC Gem.
Follow The Slowest Show on Instagram and Twitter.

Full credits for the project are:

Art + Design Studio: Chairman Ting Industries Inc.
Art direction: Aiken Lao
Design by: Aiken Lao
Design intern: Alison Johnstone (IDEA Grad 2021)
Creative direction by: Carson Ting
Impact strategist: Leah Gregg
Motion Design: Eric Wada
Client: Kelly&Kelly Creative
Producer: Michael Grand
Series Writer/Directors: Pat Kelly & Chris Kelly
Series DOP: Joe Schweers
ART GALLERY Director / Exec Producer: Andrew Phung
BOWLING ALLEY, SKATEPARK, MINI PUTT Writer / Director: Maddy Kelly
ICE RINK Writer/Directors: Bita Joudaki & Christine Bortolin
WAVE POOL Writer/Director: Nima Gholamipour
Head of Production: Lauren Bercovitch

T’was the night before Giving Tuesday, November 30th, 2020, and Miso turned to me and said, 

“The Grinch has stolen so much in 2020, we can’t let ‘em steal Christmas!” 

And you know what, that sweet corgi was right!

We reached out to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and they let us know they needed help getting donations for holiday gift bags for families.

We shared it with our pals on social media and things snowballed in the best possible way!

We shared everything they needed on their wishlist and some sweet elves sent some eTransfers so we could go purchase the items they needed:

Hundreds of folks came together and sent in donations and in the end, we were able to fill our whole van, Van Morrison, full of new toys, games, books, self-care products, thousands of gift cards, and more!

Special thanks to our friends at Best Buy, A&W Canada, and London Drugs for all the generous gift cards! To our friends at the Holden Foundation for your generous donation:

And to our pals at the Vancouver Aquarium / Marine Mammal Rescue Centre for donating all these adorable stuffies and filling Van Morrison up:

Big thanks to Miso’s BFF DANTA for spreading cheer and spreading the word, and picking up so many donations!

Incredibly honoured to partner with the National Film Board to launch an innovative social media experience today that shares the first photo taken by people once they relocate to Canada and their stories.

My dad’s family immigrated to Canada in 1950. Every summer our family would come together to celebrate and remember when our parents and grandparents moved to Canada with excitement, gratitude, and appreciation. Appreciation to have come to a new place and start a new life together after the atrocities of WWII while still recovering from the trauma of living through and surviving the Belfast Blitz in 1941.

This is one of our family’s first photos here. At the beach, where we would meet for a family picnic and celebration, annually for the next 50+ years. Only changing locations, further up the beach, to be closer to the facilities in later years.

We also recognize as Irish-settlers on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations we are very grateful to be here and we are committed to work towards dismantling systems of oppression, as we recognize how many people haven’t been as fortunate or afforded the privileges we have been.

Our goal was to approach the project sensitively and thoughtfully while we considered all of these complicated contexts and to treat the subject matter with the utmost respect and appreciation. This project has been an incredible opportunity to explore and share the stories of other folks who have started new lives here. Another goal of the project, was to dispel stereotypes around immigration and show a spectrum of individuals and their stories.

The project is titled First Photo Here and the account shared a trailer today which features 3 different individuals, their stories and the first photo they captured in Canada with the intention of sharing with friends and family to show their experience. 

The project is curated by Joella Cabalu, an award-winning Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker. Cabalu is ethnically Filipino, was born in the US and raised in Brunei, and came to Canada at age six.

“Photographs and first-person narrative are powerful ways to transmit stories. But they also act as a time machine, conveying the immediate feelings of the moment, and reflecting on time passed since then,” Cabalu says.

“I was attracted to the broad appeal and accessibility of First Photo Here—that participants and people viewing the project needn’t be Artists with a capital A to submit a photograph or understand the collection of stories.”

First Photo Here is produced by the National Film Board of Canada with curation by Joella Cabalu and creative direction by myself and my awesome studio mates at Kindred & Scout.

See Narendra and Chandra’s story on Instagram. Illustration by Chairman Ting.

See Clare’s story on Instagram. Illustration by Aiken Lao.

See Tonomi’s story on Instagram.

And here’s video of Carson’s drawing process of the illustrating Tonomi’s story above in the piece titled ‘My Neighbour Snowman Totoro’.

Visit @FirstPhotoHere on Instagram.
Follow the hashtag at #FirstPhotoHereInCanada.

Full credits for the project are:

NFB Producer: Nicholas Klassen

NFB Curator: Joella Cabalu

NFB Senior Production Coordinator: Jasmine Pullukatt

Production Company: Kindred & Scout Productions

Creative Director: Leah Gregg

Director: Hubert Kang

Producer: Amy Jones

Illustrators: Chairman Ting, Lemonni & Aiken Lao.

Editor: Mike Southworth

Animator: Eric Wada

Sound Mix & Master: Mike Southworth

Colour: Dave Tomiak

The project was super close to all our hearts and so proud to see it out in the world!

Our team working away, from home, a few weeks into lockdown. Not pictured: Carson and Annie. Spring 2020

Cool news, pals!

Excited to share that I was very fortunate to host a new content series by Shaw Communications titled Dinner Debates. The series was brilliantly concepted and created by my old pals at Rethink.

Over the course of a tasty dinner, my brand new BFF’s Andrew Phung, Annie Murphy, Manny Arceneaux and Chef Dale Mackay and I chatted about how connectivity, social media and the internet effects our lives. It was a real honour and treat to be at the same table as these super talented folks and to share some laughs.

Everyone was incredibly kind and COMPLETELY HILARIOUS! The hardest part was not doing a spit-take on everyone due to all the IRL LOLz.

Thanks so much to the teams at Shaw and Rethink for having me. It was a total BLAST! See a few of the episodes below and let us know what you think.

Super honoured to be a part of Un/tied Shoes, an awesome storytelling collaboration with the National Film Board (NFB), artist Evie Ruddy, and designer Tracey Lebedovich.

Un/tied Shoes is a genderqueer shopping experience that's just launched to help others rethink the gender binary made in time for Pride Month. While it may look like a new shoe brand, it really is the powerful story of Evie Ruddy.

Here's a video overview of the "brand" on Instagram, see the project featured on the Daily Xtra and a bit more about the project below: 

The goal of Un/tied Shoes is to put potential shoppers in the shoes of someone who is genderqueer by showing the unseen challenges and costs of shopping in the gender-binary world:

The brand’s nine shoes reflect key moments in the life of Evie Ruddy a Regina-based writer, who identifies as genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns:

See the storytelling experience at: https://www.untied.shoes/

View the Un/tied Shoes Instagram profile: https://www.instagram.com/un.tiedshoes/

Un/tied Shoes Brand overview on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/ByOkurWlHvI/

Evie’s Instagram Post sharing the project: https://www.instagram.com/p/ByBvKAilxby/

See full credits for the project at: https://www.nfb.ca/interactive/untied_shoes/

UPDATE! Un/tied Shoes was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award! Congrats to us all!