Ashe Green Design

This morning I took a moment to reflect after reading Lacey Koughan’s post and it became abundantly clear to me just how impactful the Startup Zone has been in the formation of my career. From Coffee chats and conferences to community panels and simple shout outs, the Startup Zone has supported me since its inception.

After taking the time to reflect, I find myself questioning whether I would even be where I am today without the Startup Zone. This all feels very superficial since I didn’t fight for SUZ’s existence when I found out it was shutting down, but I think it’s important to highlight how these programs have an impact on the Island and the lasting impression a place/program/community like the Startup Zone has.

All of this to say thank you to the many people who have worked at Startup Zone over the years and have made an impact larger than they will ever truly understand. Your work is important and I hope it has led you to even more fulfilling work.

Big love! 💖

I am SO thrilled to be judging Student Awards for a second year! The Student Awards recognize design excellence from students across Canada in all areas of communication design. I’ll be judging the Packaging Design category. Learn more about this program at rgd.ca/studentawards.

We can not wait to chat about all the aspects of design in your branding 💖 Hijinks Branding + Design Agency!

Meet Ashe and Lewis from Hijinks Branding + Design Agency in this week’s Speaker Spotlight for our Marketing Strategies Summit, happening on May 23rd!👋

Hijinks is a group of happy, creative people using hearts and smarts to create brands worth cheering for. They are driven by the sheer joy that comes with collaborating on stand-out designs that connect their clients with their community.😁

From that initial spark of creativity that lights them up during brand strategy through to the excitement of asset production, they think BIG on your behalf.

Hijinks creates visually stunning and emotionally charged designs that align with your goals and resonate far beyond our shores.

In their Designing your Reputation presentation, the pair will cover how you can design every touchpoint to shape your clients experience and the way they feel when they think about you and your business, which is the essence of branding!🙌

Make sure you catch the Hijinks crew in action by grabbing your tickets today for our Marketing Strategies Summit: Impactful Promotion For Your Business in the City by the Sea: https://app.glueup.com/event/marketing-strategies-summit-101520/

Downtown Summerside Credit Union Place

I actually grew up in the Kensington Area, so it brings me a boatload of joy to be a small part of bringing to life such a vibrant, fun business in the community! Congratulations Coreen and crew on a successful opening week and the installation of your new signage this week! I can’t not wait to see what comes next 💖

It has been a fun day at Ruby's Counter! Our signage has been installed and we couldn't be happier!

Special thank you goes out to Ashe Green and her team at Hijinks Branding + Design Agency for the fabulous work in creating our logo and brand! Always a pleasure working with them.

Another thank you too the crew at Sign Craft and Dalmac for finished product and installation.

Bye for now

It's me!

Meet Ashe! Our joyous leader and the heart and soul of Hijinks Design Agency. Ashe started her design journey over 13 years ago and has never regretted it for a second. She unlocked an important career goal last spring when she obtained her Registered Graphic Designer certification from RGD. Ashe’s strengths lie in her being the ultra all rounder. She has a knack for understanding a client’s needs and matching their energy to the right logo designs, colour palettes, and typefaces.

Ashe uses her toddler mom skills and quick wit to wrangle her team of creatives as the Founder and Creative Director of Hijinks. She approaches each day with a smile on her face even though she’s not actually a morning person!

💖 What do you love most about your role at Hijinks?

I love getting to know our clients and learning all about their business, why they started, where they plan to take it. Owners pour their heart and soul into their work and I always walk away feeling a renewed sense of excitement for my work after an exploration call.

💖 Can you share a unique skill or expertise you bring to the team?

We’re all creative people, but I think my love for business and being with people makes my role a great fit for me. I love looking at the big picture and how all the elements are going to come together to work for the client and help them connect with their community for years to come.

💖 What's a hobby or interest you're passionate about outside of work?

I love interior design and decor. I think I’d pursue a career in interior design if I wasn’t a graphic designer. I love creating a space that brings you the peace/calm/energy/rest that you need.

💖 Do you have a favorite book, movie, or artist that inspires you?

I grew up watching CBC and then took 10 years away from television, so for the longest time I didn’t get any pop culture references and really struggled to find content that interested me. Now I’m a bit of a self-improvement book ju**ie and I love binging a good series. Usually something like Seggs Education or Ted Lasso. I did watch Dawson’s Creek in its entirety a couple years back… that was not inspiring.

💖 What's a fun or surprising fact about you that most people don’t know?

I love visiting aquariums when I travel and my knowledge of fish constantly surprises my partner 🤣

💖 If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

I’d get rested without actually sleeping! Wouldn’t that be superb??

💖 How do you approach creative challenges?

With a lot of patience. I try to let creativity come and leave enough room in the timeline for waves of inspiration to hit. It’s not unusual for me to have an "ah-ha!" moment in the shower mere hours before a deadline 😅

💖 What's your mantra or philosophy when it comes to design?

Trends come and go and rules are meant to be broken. And in the words of the great Canadian rock band, Sloan, “If it feels good do it, even if you shouldn’t. Don’t let people mess you around.”!

💖 Is there a topic related to your work or interests you'd like our followers to ask you about?

Always up for talking about how terrible hustle culture is or my love for Hawksley Workman… don’t get me started.

There he is!! Meet Tim! 💥

Meet Tim! Tim wholeheartedly leapt into action when he joined the team just over a year ago! Tim is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator and his deep knowledge of form and function are evident in his work.

He’s the team member most likely to be working remotely from somewhere that makes us jealous (like he’s probably in the mountains of British Columbia right now), but he’s actually from Newfoundland and lives in New Brunswick!

💥 What do you love most about your role at Hijinks?

I love the creative freedom that we all have to explore different ideas for any project that we work on (based around a brief of course!)

💥 Can you share a unique skill or expertise you bring to the team?

My skills are illustration and making fun and unique visual identities. I also have a particular skill of laying on the ground for a long period of time.

💥 What’s a hobby or interest you’re passionate about outside of work?

My main hobbies are my art and drawing, though I’m a big movie buff and my fave film is The Godfather.

💥 What’s a fun or surprising fact about you that most people don’t know?

People may not know this, but I can wiggle my ears! If I had super powers, I would like to be able to teleport into places I want to visit, meetings on time, anything last minute. I don’t want a car lol.

💥 What’s your mantra or philosophy when it comes to design?

My approach to design is to explore all the possibilities of how it can look and build a feeling around one that best fits the bill. My mantra is K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Silly).

💥 Is there a topic related to your work or interests you’d like our followers to ask you about?

I love talking about projects that I get to work on with Hijinks, and I also love talking about the process.

There’s my Fruzzin! 🤩💗

Introducing Lyndsey! You may know her as an artist, but did you know she’s also the Creative Coordinator at Hijinks?

What does a Creative Coordinator do you may ask? Lyns has a knack for communications, project management, creative writing, illustration, googling, and administering tough love. Her superpower in this role is that she is also a creative, making her a designer’s dream to work with 💞

When she isn’t busy being an incredible artist at , she’s either working with us, getting a full body workout on the pole at Arial Warehouse, or swooning over Kpop.

🩶 What do you love most about your role at Hijinks?

I wake up excited to go to work.

🩶 Can you share a unique skill or expertise you bring to the team?

Assertive email writing, Googling Guru, and illustrator.

🩶 What’s a hobby or interest you’re passionate about outside of work?

Reading & Kpop.

🩶 Do you have a favorite book, movie, or artist that inspires you?

My favorite books are The House on the Cerulean Sea, Project Hail Mary, and Legends & Lattes.

🩶 What’s a fun or surprising fact about you that most people don’t know?

I have two science degrees and I was a full time personal trainer/fitness instructor for 8 years. 🤯

🩶 If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Teleportation. It would allow me to see ALL the kpop concerts. Hehehehe

🩶 How do you approach creative challenges?

By researching and gathering information.

🩶 What’s your mantra or philosophy when it comes to design?

Trust the graphic designers, they know best.

🩶 Is there a topic related to your work or interests you’d like our followers to ask you about?

If you know the name Jeong Yunho, let’s be friends.

This was one of Tim’s first projects with me when he joined the team last year 😍

I have known Richard since we were kids, so it was wonderful to be a part of a project he’s poured his heart into for so many years!

If you’re not familiar with Built-Rite, you should follow along on their brand new page, Built-Rite Construction Ltd.

An EPIC lineup! 😍

When we were creating Hijinks Branding + Design Agency I consulted with a lot of people. Friends, colleagues, branding/marketing strategists, business strategists, photographers, accountants, copywriters, family, and so many more. I probably could have kept talking about it for months, maybe longer.

I told my business coach I was “hoping to launch in the new year”. My daughter was waiting for heart surgery, the holidays were creeping closer, I had just hired my first full-time employee, I was building the website myself on evenings and weekends between client work, so launching in the new year even felt ambitious 😂

To that she said “Why? Why not now? Why not be all the things you aspire to be right now?” I know she meant with or without the agency, but we launched. We didn’t wait for everything to be perfect. Heck, we launched without a services page or any of our case studies 🤣.

Beautiful things are happening and wonderful people are connecting with us.

So if you’ve been waiting to invest in yourself, your future, your business; why not now?

Let’s be all the things we aspire to be right frigging now.

💚

A fun little festive freebie is going out in our newsletter this morning 💝

We’re also working on a fun and educational series of posts and guest articles about branding, strategy, and marketing if that’s the type of thing you’re into.

Fancy being in the know? You can sign up at the link in our bio! www.hijinksagency.ca/linky-loos

So, I launched a Design Agency today!
Over the last 3+ years, AGD has evolved into more than I’d ever thought possible. With 6 teammates, 40+ engaged clients this year, and no slowing down in sight - I decided it was time to do things differently. I’m not the one-person-show I used to be!

I aspire to help as many people as possible, create an inspiring company culture, and be an equal earner in my home, and literally change lives in the process.

So if you want to support a woman-led company, work directly with the “creative department” for your project, and make your dreams come true along with me, you want to work with.. Hijinks.

www.hijinksagency.ca

A mockup from Soleil Studio’s brand guidelines 💚💛. We love showing you ways your brand identity can be present at every touchpoint. A simple set of uncoated business cards has so much potential. Don’t hesitate to ask me how!

Been doing some seriously fun reading lately!

A couple of these are awesome recommendations from speakers at DesignThinkers and other creative pals.

I borrowed Allan Peters new book from Palace first. Read it in two sittings, and knew I just had to own it for the full experience!

I kickstarted Ian Paget’s new book, How to Make a Living Designing Logos! So satisfying to have it in my hands, and loving it so far.

Never stop learning! 💞 (and never stop writing great books!)

What have you been reading?

Part of our logo and guidelines design process is creating mockups of your new visual identity on business cards, apparel, signage and more! (Like you can see here for Green Eye Designs 🦚) This helps you to put the new identity into context and gives you the confidence to run with it!

Green Eye designs is locally owned and features many local Island makers! Put them on your list when you’re Christmas shopping in the coming weeks! 🛍️

Vanessa is a wealth of knowledge! Don’t pass up the opportunity to learn from her 🙌

I'm back from my honeymoon and have lots of exciting projects on the go for November including a social media workshop with the Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island.

If you are looking to elevate your online presence, join me on one of the following dates:

Charlottetown - Friday, November 17 - 9am
*NEW DATE* - Monday, November 20 - 9am
Summerside - Friday, November 24 - 9am
Montague - Wednesday, November 29 - 9am

Topics covered will include:

✨Determine your Content Pillars – Create content pillars to guide your content creation process

✨SEO your Instagram – Discover techniques to improve the discoverability of your profiles and posts

✨Getting help through AI – Explore the power of artificial intelligence tools for social media

✨Tips for Captions – Craft compelling captions and understand the psychology behind effective storytelling

✨Up your Aesthetic – Elevate the overall look and feel of your content

✨Reels & Stories Production – Discover content ideas and trends for short-form formats

Spots are limited. Register here: https://www.tiapei.pe.ca/tiapei-tourism-training-series/

In absolute LOVE with this bulkhead signage and window treatments for Soleil Studio in Summerside. Dalmac did a beautiful job of bringing our collective vision to life!

Thank you for being an absolute dream client, Beckie! We love watching this wonderful downtown gem shine!

Print and installation:
Brand and marketing strategy: .smith05 with
Visual brand identity and graphic design: and

I’ve been doing a poor job of sharing current work, so I’m sharing some designs of days gone by while we work on some new content and a big announcement 👀.

This logo for still brings me joy with its little avocado detail 🥑

The logomark ideation part of the brand identity process is arguably my favorite step. I say arguably, because sometimes it’s hard. Real hard. Inspiration strikes in spurts and sometimes it takes a few of these brain dumps to work through ideas. On other occasions ideas flow effortlessly! Regardless, behind every logo there’s a messy page (or 10) of half-baked ideas that never see the light of day! 🫣

The 2023 Pride Festival guide is officially live at pridepei.ca 😍

We may have designed the most colourful event program on the Island!

Yesterday was launch day for Lobster Barn Pub & Eatery’s brand spankin' new website!

It’s so satisfying seeing their new brand identity in action, almost as satisfying as their Lobster Roll. Almost.

Visual Brand Identity + Website: Ashe Green Design
Photography: Via Reyes

What a lovely surprise to walk by Garnish and see this new sign beaming at me from across the street. It looks so great, Stacey! 😍

Big website launch day for Fresh Face Skincare! And she’s running a 20% off sale. Check her out

Amber was looking for an e-commerce site that she could manage herself. So Lyndsey and I worked together to bring her vision to life over the last few months!

Design + Setup: Ashe Green RGD
Tinkering + Testing: Lyndsey Paynter
Product photography: Story Thorburn

LOVE working with the team at Decker’s Dairy Bar & Grill! 😍🍦They’re creative and perceptive and the outcome is delicious!

They came to us with a common issue. Their buildings are bright yellow and red, but they needed a brand refresh and weren’t sure how to marry the past with the present. So we expanded their colour scheme to include pink and blue, so there’s no rush to replace the existing roof or siding and it all works together!

Check out their new menu signs and uniforms while you’re grabbing a cone next time you’re in Cornwall or Brackley! 💙❤️💛🩷

Art Direction + Graphic Design: Ashe Green RGD
Graphic Design: Tim Rees
Very valuable input: Lyndsey Paynter

Have you heard the buzz? Lobster Barn is open for the season and they have a brand new look! We loved being a part of this transformation. The whole Lobster Barn marketing team are top-notch, and we’re all pretty proud of the outcome. 🤗

Design + Art Direction: Ashe Green
Design + Illustration: Tim Rees

I am jazzed to have been selected to be a Judge for this year’s Rgd Canada Student Awards! The Student Awards recognize design excellence from students across Canada in all areas of communication design. I’ll be judging the Packaging Design category this year!

Side note: This photo from Mirror Form Photography is practically MADE FOR this announcement!

Learn more about this program at rgd.ca/studentawards.

Three Hippies is a software company aiming to create software that addresses social and ethical issues, such as ticket fraud. You may have heard of them after they received Innovation PEI’s Ignition funding last year! 🥳 Their software, Locarius.io is a digital platform in BETA for ticketed events that guarantees the authenticity of every ticket. Maybe someone should get on the horn to Taylor Swift?

We created this logo for them last year and have been thrilled to see their work pop up in local event ads since! 🎟️

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Project management and art direction: Ashe Green
Project management and graphic design: Lewis Read