Our 20 Year History
Time truly does fly when you’re having fun and we wouldn’t be enjoying 20 years of memories if it wasn’t for our fantastic clients, dedicated suppliers, wonderful families and great friendships!
Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to the 20 year mark. We wouldn’t be here with out yah!
Here are a few of the highlights from our first twenty years…
2002
The magic all started in my parents basement in Charleswood. A classic startup from Winnipeg! The focus was design and print but we knew online services would be big, even back then!
2002
Our very first website – MASBO. Ede Fast was the executive director and a long time client prior to VSM. Looking back, it was perfect for our first website project! Cheers to you Ede!
2003
St. Matthews Avenue – our first office. Free rent in exchange for creative design and a bit of printing.
2004
A client that supported us well for several years was AgLand / ProFab Industries. We took care of printing their brochures and manuals.
2004
Also in 2004, we started long-term relationships with Skills Manitoba, and Mortgage Intelligence, which is now the Castle Group. Both are clients to this day!
2005
One of our biggest clients in 2005 was Ricki’s Clothing. We designed and developed their website and managed their regular email marketing campaigns. They were great to work with, but for some reason they referred to us as “The Band”. Maybe the hair back then?
2005
We finally pulled the pin and started paying rent as we needed a bit more space. Bye bye St. Matthews - hello Academy Road. This was the start of our long relationship with Academy Road and we’ve grown quite comfortable here!
2006
A highlight in 2006 was creating an interesting project for CanWest Media – an interactive Speller’s Lounge for students. The good old days of Adobe Flash! It included several different online games and quizzes with a scoring system for the kids to track their progress.
2007
ViewSource was the first company in Winnipeg to have a taxi wrapped with graphics. It was a major hit and created incredible brand awareness.
Jeff noticed it one day in front of the old Blue Bomber stadium before a game with literally thousands of people walking by. He chatted with the driver for a bit then slipped him a few extra bucks. The driver stayed there most of the afternoon so we also got the crowd on the way out.
2007
ViewSource managed and supported a very large, event registration system for Great West Life. This was one of our first experiences with custom built software that we hadn’t developed - can you say learning curve?!
2007
We started our long term relationship with Vita Health in 2007. We developed their new logo and worked with them on various projects like interior and exterior signage, their website, brochures and office decor.
2007
Petroflow Energy, an oil and gas company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma with offices in Calgary needed some assistance with the production of their Annual Report. We used files from a Chicago design firm and made necessary adjustments to ensure that a very tricky print project got out properly and on time. Over the course of the next few years we were their design firm of choice and worked on several successful projects.
2008
In July of 2008 we moved into an office connected to Academy Lanes bowling alley - to enhance our skill on the lanes of course! Academy Lanes (now Uptown Alley) were amazing neighbours. We spent more than a few Friday afternoons practicing while enjoying the tasty beverages! They were – and are – a great crew and have become great clients. Thanks Uptown!
2008
We won an RFP (request for proposal) to develop the new Bridgwater community branding. This included marketing materials and a website. We were extremely proud that we were the team that designed the identity for such a large expansion of our city.
2010
We designed, organized and installed a massive outdoor sign for the folks at St. Emile School.
2011
We were shortlisted for the Pedorthic Association of Canada marketing strategy request for proposal (RFP). Jeff flew down to Toronto to do a final presentation and won! We developed their new logo identity, website and provided marketing strategy services.
2012
We continued assisting the Aura Hair Group on their various marketing needs. One of their needs was to design and develop a new logo identity for Modern Man Barbershop. They now have several locations across the city.
2013
We moved into our third and present Academy Road digs at 586 - near Kenaston. All told we’ve spent more than 15 years on Academy Road! We love the vibe and it’s great to be close to the centre of town.
2013
We designed and developed a custom online administration system for the Canadian Association of Paediatric Surgeons (CAPS). This system included a front end website and full management capabilities for their organization and members.
2013
We won another RFP process for the Grant Memorial Church re-designing their logo identity and website.
2014
One of our clients from the oil patch in Alberta, Tribal North, wanted to get some graphics for a piece of service equipment. We said “Great” and boy were we in for a surprise when we got the specs. 58 feet long! It was a very interesting project though and we were really happy with how it turned out.
2015
We designed and developed the branding, logo identity, website and online learning centre for The Manitoba Aboriginal Health and Safety Initiative (MAHSI). MAHSI was a 2-year project committed to developing culturally-appropriate workplace health and safety training for Aboriginal workers, employers, and other stakeholders.
2015
Inferno’s Bistro wanted to spice up their delivery vehicle! We designed, produced and installed a full graphic wrap for them. It definitely caught a few eyes while it motored around the city!
2015
The Mood Disorders folks got Nikolaj Ehlers to come out and do photos and autographs for fans as part of a sponsored event at the Tuxedo Shoppers Drug Mart. We did a lot of work for Mood Disorders - most of which was donated to the cause. This was fun mostly because Nikolaj was a really nice, casual guy and the fans that lined up for the event - and there were a lot of them - were really pumped up to go in, meet him and get various things signed.
2015
The Manitoba College of Social Workers started working with us and continues to support ViewSource. We designed and developed their logo identity, produced various marketing materials including folders, stationery and booklets plus created their interior and exterior signage. We also developed their website and ethics e-learning platform for members.
2016
We had the opportunity to design and develop a custom patented Sharing Economy Software for the folks at Moweco. GPS focused, this application can automatically generate lawn care estimates based on the size of your property. This means that their team members can start their days from home, eliminating the need to drive their personal vehicles to an office and then drive company trucks back into their neighbourhood to complete jobs. It was a really neat project and we were happy to be apart of it!
2016
We worked with the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba on a new website. We have since launched a brand new website for them. Check it out!
2017
We were awarded the opportunity to design, produce and install the signage for the Skills Canada Competition Awards. All we can say is WOW! These awards were HUGE and such an amazing event for our young population looking to expand into skills trades and technologies. We produced exterior signs at RBC Convention Centre, interior directional signage and multiple banner stands. Side story… as we were mad rushing through the setup for this event a golf cart randomly crashed into a bunch of our signs. Ummmm, what are we going to do about this? Luckily our supplier came through big time and we were able to re-print what we needed. Tough to predict that one happening!
2017
We were involved in a really neat workflow automation project with the Practice Enhancement Program (PEP). We transformed their offline workflow into an online automated admin system. PEP offers the physicians of Saskatchewan a positive means of assessing their medical practice.
2018
Our longtime clients and friends at Academy Lanes made a big move and expanded tenfold becoming Uptown Alley. We were fortunate enough to work with them on their logo identity, website, exterior signage and various marketing materials including their menus.
2019
We worked with the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) to update their archaic website and back end system. We developed a brand new look and built out a custom content management system which is also bilingual.
2019
We won a request for proposal (RFP) to re-design and develop the Manitoba Physiotherapy Association (MPA) website. This project required a robust smart search to help website users find physiotherapy services. MPA can also manage their membership in the administration system. We also connected it to the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.
2020
We worked closely with the Sexton Group to design and develop their recruitment website. They now have a custom content management system to maintain day-to-day content.
2021
We are working on a project that supports the health and safety of our aging workforce in Manitoba. AMW’s primary goal is to develop an older worker e-learning resource centre to address the gap in educational resources. It is to help older workers, their employers, human resource professionals, safety and health practitioners and stakeholders maintain a safe and healthy aging Manitoba workforce. We have created the logo identity and initial website so far. We are knee deep in the e-learning centre and resources areas. We can’t wait to show you the full project once it is completed!
2022
And… our newest endeavour, which is having great impact with several of our private school clients, is our custom automated registration system. St. Emile School, among others, can now manage all of their family applications and registrations online complete with secure payment processing and integrated online report cards. Parents can login to their own dashboard to view their children’s report card history which makes everyone happy - except maybe a few students! Learn more about our system here!