Wild Heart Collective

124 Grand Market | Brunch Club | Eats on 118 | Beverly Dining Week

As Creative Director for Wild Heart Collective, a place-making and community/business development company, I oversaw all creative outputs including branding strategies, marketing campaigns, large scale event production, business development, and the weekly execution of the seasonal farmers market for which the company is best known. The projects below are all food focused but are at their core in pursuit of community vibrancy and revitalization.

124 Grand Market

The 124 Grand Market is a seasonal weekly market in the heart of Edmonton that brings together people and community with quality, locally farmed and focused products, and support growth of burgeoning businesses and entrepreneurs in Edmonton, AB.

The Grand Taste Tour is an interactive tour through the “story of food”. Patrons get to hop on a bus for a guided tour of different farms across Alberta to meet Producers and experience first-hand what it takes to feed our province. The day ends with a beautiful farm-to-fork dinner prepared by a special guest chef, using ingredients from the farms we toured that day.

For the 2018 season of the 124 Grand Market we discussed a more photographic approach as many the existing assets were already in heavy rotation. The market’s Instagram has a large following and content creation is essential for building the brand. The assets were bright, fresh, and aspirational while also being very suggestive of what people can actually buy at the market each week. Over 80 products from over 50 vendors were stylized and shot in an organized and deliberate way. Market day graphics are a mixture of multiple vendor products while vendor profiles highlight one vendor in particular. Over 200 assets were shot within 2 days.

Working within the constraints of a limited budget and little time the whole seasons marketing campaign was shot in 2 days, art directed and photographed by myself, and followed by 3 days of edits and layouts.

Over 80 products from over 50 vendors were stylized and shot in an organized and deliberate way. Market day graphics are a mixture of multiple vendor products while vendor profiles highlight one vendor in particular. Over 200 assets were shot within

Brunch Club

Brunch Club is a special pop-up event hosted by Wild Heart Collective that incorporates a partner chef serving brunch with live music and a mini 124 Grand Market. In Edmonton winter dominates most months of our year and market seasons are generally only 4 months long. Brunch Club is a way of bringing people together for a market event in the colder months when we all anticipate the coming spring. Brunch Club began as a means to engage with vendor partners and patrons in the off months so each event enlists the help of a partner chef, using local ingredients in a different and unique space in Edmonton.

Brunch Club began as a means to engage with vendor partners and patrons in the off months so each event enlists the help of a partner chef, using local ingredients in a different and unique space in Edmonton.

2018 February Brunch Club was a vegan and jazz brunch served by Sailin’ On with performances by Mallory Chipman and Kiki Quinn Burlesque. The event is ticketed and 18+. We worked with existing images as well as our own illustrations to capture patro

For Mother’s Day a special High Tea Brunch was planned and was held in conjunction with the launch of the 2017 market season. The flowers are not only appropriate for the Mother’s Day theme but also a nod to the budding Spring upon us. The flower il

The visuals were formatted for various forms of digital marketing.

Eats on 118

Eats on 118 was an initiative developed by Alberta Avenue Business Association in collaboration with Wild Heart Collective in 2016. The event series was conceived to highlight the multi-cultural hospitality businesses of Alberta Avenue and ultimately increase patronage. It was paramount that the branding show the vibrant nature of Alberta Avenue community. The area is full of colour and flavour as it is inhabited by many immigrant families that bring their cultural uniqueness to Edmonton. The visual identity in itself is indicative of a plate that holds the flavour within, alluding to the flavours to be found on the Eats on 118 food tours. The whole branding system is an invitation to be playful with ones food and explore new flavours and cultures on the avenue. The campaign was not only about highlighting the food of Alberta Avenue but the faces also; the people who make the avenue so vibrant. We went to each business and captured the owner in their business for the marketing campaign. This is Frank or Francisco or Chico to his friends, the owner of Handy Bakery a long standing Portuguese cafe and bakery. We helped established the business associations social media presence with a full marketing campaign. The assets created for the event helped build content and viewership for the avenue that have remained. It was important that people could connect on an emotional level with the businesses for a more long term commitment to patronage on Alberta Avenue.

It was paramount that the branding show the vibrant nature of Alberta Avenue community. The area is full of colour and flavour as it is inhabited by many immigrant families that bring their cultural uniqueness to Edmonton. The visual identity in its

The whole branding system is an invitation to be playful with ones food and explore new flavours and cultures on the avenue.

The campaign was not only about highlighting the food of Alberta Avenue but the faces also; the people who make the avenue so vibrant. We went to each business and captured the owner in their business for the marketing campaign. This is Frank or Fra

We helped established the business associations social media presence with a full marketing campaign. The assets created for the event helped build content and viewership for the avenue that have remained. It was important that people could connect

The Eats on 118 food tours will be going into it’s 4th year. Every tour to date has sold out and tour capacity has doubled due to demand. The feedback was been incredible and will be the most successful initiative in ABBA history. Other business ass

Beverly Dining Week

Brand creation and a full marketing campaign for Beverly Business Association to launch their new initiative “Beverly Dining Week”. The event is to increase patronage and awareness of what Beverly has to offer and remove the stigma that Beverly is a sleepy and forgotten neighbourhood of Edmonton.

It was important to preserve the quaint small town feel of Beverly but in a way that makes it an enticing destination within Edmonton rather than a forgotten memory. The moodboard shows the theme of nostalgia while embracing a modern photographic approach to food and a rustic charm and approachability with the portraiture.

The campaign strategy was developed with our summer communications intern. Through research it was devised that the event would launch in four stages. Stage 1: History of Beverly from settlement to amalgamation to Edmonton. Stage 2: was the iconic places of beverly that have stuck around all these years and give Beverly it’s charm such as the old Drake Hotel. Stage 3: was introducing the event itself as well as the people who now run the businesses and make the community what it is, welcoming. Stage 4: was finally divulging the menus and spectacular food that would be available during dining week.

Art Direction: Lydia Stewart
Photography: Sushami Pomerleau-Piquette