Renowned designer Astrid Stavro hits Toronto next Thursday for a speaking engagement at Swipe Design bookstore.

The event is presented by the ADCC (Advertising & Design Club of Canada) and is free for the club's professional members. Tickets are discounted for ADCC student members at $5, and tickets for non-members are $10.

One of this year's judges for the ADCC's Directions awards show, Stavro launched her design consultancy, Astrid Stavro Studio, after graduating from The Royal College of Art in 2005. The studio was established in Barcelona and is currently based in Majorca.

Dare Vancouver named Addie Gillespie and Mia Thomsett as creative directors. The award-winning duo joined Dare two years ago and have since produced work for clients such as BC Children's Hospital Foundation, McDonald's USA and Vancouver Art Gallery.

TORONTO—Plan Canada has followed its award-winning Because I am a Girl campaign with a second wave across television, out-of-home and transit ads, magazine and digital. The new campaign was produced by Toronto-based One Advertising.

According to creative director Karen Howe, while the original 2009 campaign developed by Wunderkind was aimed at teenage girls with the goal of raising awareness, the new version targets professional women and aims to boost fundraising.

OAKVILLE, ON—Sheridan College's new four-year bachelor's degree program in Game Design will welcome its first class of possible future Shigeru Miyamotos in September. Seventy-five students have been accepted out of over 600 applicants.

"Gaming is a rapidly growing cultural industry in Canada and one that's maturing in complexity and sophistication," said Ronni Rosenberg, dean of the school's Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design. A release from the college cites a 2012 report by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada that pegs the economic impact of the country's video game industry at $1.7 billion.

"We are focused on the Ontario beer drinker…and we are aware that customers want to explore and get information about beer," Andrea Randolph, vice-president of Retail said. "It's about improving customer experience and enhancing customer loyalty."

MONTREAL—

Montreal Meets 3 is bringing in more than a few renowned designers for its 2013 design and creativity conference May 27-28. According to founder Francois Hoang, this year's Montreal Meets will be "bigger and better."

According to Hoang, a graphic designer himself, the conference provides an opportunity for the creative community to connect each with other and exchange ideas.

VANCOUVER—Former mayor of West Vancouver Pamela Goldsmith-Jones came to speak at Friday's CreativeMornings about the environment, women in power, and the mistake of making assumptions.

We all know the phrase "fear of the unknown." Instead, Goldsmith-Jones told the audience, "we should have fear of the known." She explained that we know global warming is happening, we know that women's equality is still an issue, we know that health in Aboriginal communities is poor. We should be afraid of these known things, she said.

TORONTO—Jacknife Branding & Design is promising to break new ground in the Canadian design industry with its integrated multidisciplinary approach. Three creative agencies – AmoebaCorp, Apparatus Inc. and Oxygen Design Agency – have joined forces to create Jacknife Inc, a branding and design agency specializing in: branding and identity, industrial design and marketing communication.

"Jacknife focuses on powerful design that offers the unique opportunity to integrate all of our design services - from branding, product design, environments, digital, and beyond," said Mikey Richardson, creative partner at Jacknife and former principal at AmoebaCorp, in a released statement. "Our customers can receive the benefit of truly holistic thinking regardless of project scope."

TORONTO—It wasn't easy for creative director Caroline Bishop to walk away from The Kit—she's been with the digital beauty and fashion mag since its start in 2010. She created the look and feel of the digital version and helmed a recent redesign of the weekly print edition, which launched in 2011.

"It is definitely difficult to pass the baton to someone else," Bishop said. "But now that the whole brand is in a good place, I feel it's an appropriate time for me to step away."

Bishop started at The Kit as a freelancer, and that's how she's leaving. She looks forward to a work/life flexibility that benefits her as a mother of two young children. "I just felt I wasn't as much a part of their lives as I needed to be," she said. "The full-time, 9-to-5 corporate world wasn't quite for me."  

TORONTO—Near endless testing across a multitude of platforms, researching design standards, and documenting every user feature are a handful of daunting tasks, but that's the reality of good app development.

All of the above will help move your app through the testing phase, ensure a better user experience, and make life easier for any team members or outside parties who have to re-visit or build upon the work you've done, said Boston-based designers Patrick Haney and Jenna Marino. The Hanerino studio partners spoke at FITC Toronto last Tuesday, April 22, on designing apps for up-close and afar.