SELECTED PROJECTS
The projects shown here showcase a range of roles and skills. Each undertaking requires extensive research and preparation, genuine respect for the subject matter, unique processes and technical expertise, providing each of our clients with the most appropriate solution. Read on for the highlights of each one.
EMERGENCE Mentorship Program
Client: Red Chamber Cultural Society
Role: Communication Designer
The Red Chamber Cultural Society is a not-for-profit organization devoted to the preservation, development and promotion of traditional music and instruments from around the world. It also promotes music by women, minority cultures and emerging artists. The organization was founded by the wife-husband duo, Mei Han — an ethnomusic scholar, zheng virtuoso, and the Director of the Center for Chinese Music and Culture at Middle Tennessee State University — and Randy Raine-Reusch — a world musician, festival founder and Juno Award nominee.
EMERGENCE is a pilot project bringing together emerging women and female-identified singers and musicians with established women artists in a weekend of one-to-one intensive mentorship along with public Q&As and discussions by the senior artists. The design project was undertaken as a budget-conscious, long-distance project, with the organization director and main decision-maker at times in Beijing, Dunhuang, Murfreesboro, San Francisco and Vancouver.
Katherine's deliverables included the communication design concept, the creation of a one-page scrolling website with registration form, initial flyer mockup and social media promo design.
Client: Red Chamber Cultural Society
Role: Communication Designer
The Red Chamber Cultural Society is a not-for-profit organization devoted to the preservation, development and promotion of traditional music and instruments from around the world. It also promotes music by women, minority cultures and emerging artists. The organization was founded by the wife-husband duo, Mei Han — an ethnomusic scholar, zheng virtuoso, and the Director of the Center for Chinese Music and Culture at Middle Tennessee State University — and Randy Raine-Reusch — a world musician, festival founder and Juno Award nominee.
EMERGENCE is a pilot project bringing together emerging women and female-identified singers and musicians with established women artists in a weekend of one-to-one intensive mentorship along with public Q&As and discussions by the senior artists. The design project was undertaken as a budget-conscious, long-distance project, with the organization director and main decision-maker at times in Beijing, Dunhuang, Murfreesboro, San Francisco and Vancouver.
Katherine's deliverables included the communication design concept, the creation of a one-page scrolling website with registration form, initial flyer mockup and social media promo design.
everyday angels and other near-death experiences
Client: Danika Dinsmore, Author
Role: Book Cover Designer
Danika Dinsmore is a writer, teacher, and literary activist. In preparation for the second printing of her book, everyday angels and other near-death experiences, first published in 2002, Danika asked Katherine Lee to redesign the cover. The poet described her first book cover as "just really dated and dark." Her initial concepts for the new cover redesign included photographs captured from her early home in Hawaii, from travels, and found, abstracted photo-realistic images that evoked spirituality, near and distant possibilities, the sky, the landscape.
Reading these inspiring poems, Katherine sensed both the darkness along with hope and renewal, and imagined various images of sea creatures emerging from the depths, with metaphorical and real bodies ascending through water toward the light of the surface. Katherine's final collage created an impression of an underwater swimmer emerging from what could either be a turbulent sea bottom, or phosphorescent clouds. The tiny bubbles surrounding the swimmer could also be interpreted as stars, thereby introducing multiple meanings for viewers and readers—of whether the figure is ascending through orbit, or surfacing from beneath the water. The title treatment creates a negative space against the vivid clouds, with the sense that the letters are carved out of—and somewhat obscured by—the mist. Overall, the client was thrilled with the new book cover, and delivery for mid-October enables Danika to bring her newly-printed book of poetry to readings and events.
This is the second book cover Katherine has designed for Danika.
Client: Danika Dinsmore, Author
Role: Book Cover Designer
Danika Dinsmore is a writer, teacher, and literary activist. In preparation for the second printing of her book, everyday angels and other near-death experiences, first published in 2002, Danika asked Katherine Lee to redesign the cover. The poet described her first book cover as "just really dated and dark." Her initial concepts for the new cover redesign included photographs captured from her early home in Hawaii, from travels, and found, abstracted photo-realistic images that evoked spirituality, near and distant possibilities, the sky, the landscape.
Reading these inspiring poems, Katherine sensed both the darkness along with hope and renewal, and imagined various images of sea creatures emerging from the depths, with metaphorical and real bodies ascending through water toward the light of the surface. Katherine's final collage created an impression of an underwater swimmer emerging from what could either be a turbulent sea bottom, or phosphorescent clouds. The tiny bubbles surrounding the swimmer could also be interpreted as stars, thereby introducing multiple meanings for viewers and readers—of whether the figure is ascending through orbit, or surfacing from beneath the water. The title treatment creates a negative space against the vivid clouds, with the sense that the letters are carved out of—and somewhat obscured by—the mist. Overall, the client was thrilled with the new book cover, and delivery for mid-October enables Danika to bring her newly-printed book of poetry to readings and events.
This is the second book cover Katherine has designed for Danika.
Mini Business Package
Client: Duncan Bees Consulting
Role: Photographer, Communication Designer
Duncan Bees is a consultant with expertise in broadband and home networks, the smart home, and the Internet of Things, who has held executive positions for international technology consortiums. To coincide with the launch of his new business, he came to Katherine Lee Studio for a design solution that could be turned around quickly for an upcoming conference. Katherine created a fresh, simple business card along with a series of professional photographs optimized for Duncan's online networks.
Client: Duncan Bees Consulting
Role: Photographer, Communication Designer
Duncan Bees is a consultant with expertise in broadband and home networks, the smart home, and the Internet of Things, who has held executive positions for international technology consortiums. To coincide with the launch of his new business, he came to Katherine Lee Studio for a design solution that could be turned around quickly for an upcoming conference. Katherine created a fresh, simple business card along with a series of professional photographs optimized for Duncan's online networks.
Granville Island Buskers
Client: Agentic Communications
Role: Digital Project Manager
Busking (Street performance) is the act of performing voluntarily in public places for gratuities from members of the public. Granville Island has a strong history of busking with local and international buskers participating in the licensed program. From musicians and magicians to circle acts (juggling, etc.) entertaining year round, buskers contribute significantly to the culture, character and ambience of the Island.
With the information design set up by the client, our role as Project Manager and Web Developer included Wordpress development: usability design, layout, themes, and testing. Regular on-site meetings with the staff helped us shape a comprehensive user manual for ease of reference and ongoing client updates.
Client: Agentic Communications
Role: Digital Project Manager
Busking (Street performance) is the act of performing voluntarily in public places for gratuities from members of the public. Granville Island has a strong history of busking with local and international buskers participating in the licensed program. From musicians and magicians to circle acts (juggling, etc.) entertaining year round, buskers contribute significantly to the culture, character and ambience of the Island.
With the information design set up by the client, our role as Project Manager and Web Developer included Wordpress development: usability design, layout, themes, and testing. Regular on-site meetings with the staff helped us shape a comprehensive user manual for ease of reference and ongoing client updates.
Granville Island Website Redesign
Client: Agentic Communications
Role: Digital Project Manager
Granville Island has been a Vancouver tourist destination for more than 25 years. The main attraction features a large Public Market housing farm produce, fish and seafood sellers, locally-raised meats, as well as chocolatiers, bakers, delis, soup makers, and specialty food sellers. In addition, the site is home to artists, artisans, fine dining establishments, performance groups, a boutique hotel and the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. With more than 30% of website visitors on mobile, the client was ready for a fully-responsive, image-driven website redesign. The first version of the project was designed and built in Drupal, and the second release of the site was migrated to the WordPress platform.
While the information architecture and theming was set into place before Katherine was invited onto the project, her role as Project Manager included overseeing the work of contractors in remote locations; creation of new content and migration of existing content to the newly redesigned site for both English and French language versions; performing quality assurance, including testing, ticket tracking and sign-off; monitoring the launch procedure to tidy up any leftover links and redirects; and post-launch consultation with the web services strategist and provider to review and provide continual recommendations on usability.
Client: Agentic Communications
Role: Digital Project Manager
Granville Island has been a Vancouver tourist destination for more than 25 years. The main attraction features a large Public Market housing farm produce, fish and seafood sellers, locally-raised meats, as well as chocolatiers, bakers, delis, soup makers, and specialty food sellers. In addition, the site is home to artists, artisans, fine dining establishments, performance groups, a boutique hotel and the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. With more than 30% of website visitors on mobile, the client was ready for a fully-responsive, image-driven website redesign. The first version of the project was designed and built in Drupal, and the second release of the site was migrated to the WordPress platform.
While the information architecture and theming was set into place before Katherine was invited onto the project, her role as Project Manager included overseeing the work of contractors in remote locations; creation of new content and migration of existing content to the newly redesigned site for both English and French language versions; performing quality assurance, including testing, ticket tracking and sign-off; monitoring the launch procedure to tidy up any leftover links and redirects; and post-launch consultation with the web services strategist and provider to review and provide continual recommendations on usability.
Dane-Wajich — Dane-zaa Stories & Songs: Dreamers and the Land
Exhibition: Virtual Museum of Canada
Role: Interactive Producer
There are fewer than 100 people in the world that can speak or understand the Beaver language; and only 2 who are able to transcribe it. Dane-Wajich — Dane-zaa Stories & Songs: Dreamers and the Land documented and preserved the songs and stories of the Dane-zaa for generations to come.
As Interactive Producer, Katherine Lee oversaw the functional, creative and technical design for this online exhibition hosted by the Virtual Museum of Canada. This project benefitted from a collaborative effort requiring strong relationships with community participants—in this case, the Dane-zaa of the Doig River First Nation, BC and cultural anthropologists from the University of British Columbia. This site structure was built to house a large amount of text content, Flash and QT video and audio content, and Beaver Language learning resources. Deliverables were a fully bilingual Web site, including all video and audio treatments, as QuickTime and Flash, and modular interface solution with a downloadable PDF library.
Exhibition: Virtual Museum of Canada
Role: Interactive Producer
There are fewer than 100 people in the world that can speak or understand the Beaver language; and only 2 who are able to transcribe it. Dane-Wajich — Dane-zaa Stories & Songs: Dreamers and the Land documented and preserved the songs and stories of the Dane-zaa for generations to come.
As Interactive Producer, Katherine Lee oversaw the functional, creative and technical design for this online exhibition hosted by the Virtual Museum of Canada. This project benefitted from a collaborative effort requiring strong relationships with community participants—in this case, the Dane-zaa of the Doig River First Nation, BC and cultural anthropologists from the University of British Columbia. This site structure was built to house a large amount of text content, Flash and QT video and audio content, and Beaver Language learning resources. Deliverables were a fully bilingual Web site, including all video and audio treatments, as QuickTime and Flash, and modular interface solution with a downloadable PDF library.
Aboriginal Parenting After Separation
Client: Justice Education Society
Role: Operations Manager, Digital Project Manager
The Aboriginal Parenting After Separation online project includes a Guide and a Toolkit, and was developed by the Justice Education Society of BC. The Guide assists parents and anyone else who has a relationship with the family’s children, and the Toolkit was created for Aboriginal Community Workers.
As Operations Manager with Agentic Communications, Katherine's role was multifaceted. She worked directly with the content providers of the Guide, and managed the design and technical team at Agentic, to create an easy-to-use, online tool for parents: on reserve and off reserve; and others who may have a close relationship with the children of the parents going through separation. This role involved reviewing the client's written material to plan the navigation for a Drupal build; making small collaborative edits to the client’s written material—to ensure that the site would be easy to read and digest for screen users; creative direction of the look and feel of the site—to make the serious subject matter friendly and accessible; engaging and directing voice talent to read all parts of the written material—providing an audio guide for users with low literacy; and quality assurance before delivering a live site to the client. The Guide and Toolkit are still used to this day.
Client: Justice Education Society
Role: Operations Manager, Digital Project Manager
The Aboriginal Parenting After Separation online project includes a Guide and a Toolkit, and was developed by the Justice Education Society of BC. The Guide assists parents and anyone else who has a relationship with the family’s children, and the Toolkit was created for Aboriginal Community Workers.
As Operations Manager with Agentic Communications, Katherine's role was multifaceted. She worked directly with the content providers of the Guide, and managed the design and technical team at Agentic, to create an easy-to-use, online tool for parents: on reserve and off reserve; and others who may have a close relationship with the children of the parents going through separation. This role involved reviewing the client's written material to plan the navigation for a Drupal build; making small collaborative edits to the client’s written material—to ensure that the site would be easy to read and digest for screen users; creative direction of the look and feel of the site—to make the serious subject matter friendly and accessible; engaging and directing voice talent to read all parts of the written material—providing an audio guide for users with low literacy; and quality assurance before delivering a live site to the client. The Guide and Toolkit are still used to this day.
Glenn Gould: The New Listener
CD-ROM: DNA Media Inc.
Role: Producer
Glenn Gould was one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. A colourful and prolific figure, Gould was also a writer, composer, conductor, and broadcaster. His work demonstrated distinctive views on music theory, performance, and recording. Although he was known and respected as an extremely private person, his life's legacy and its influence on his music was a story waiting to be told. Kevin Bazzana, a musicologist and renowned biographer of Glenn Gould, worked closely with the production, and provided detailed subject matter expertise and written content throughout. Research and modern-day interactive technology enabled the production team to apply Gould's musical philosophies to reinterpret some of the most well-known, and profound musical offerings of his time. Gould's own views on performance were translated to the new media, to allow users to hear and create their own musical interpretations using his outtakes. His fascination with the Canadian North—and his relationship with telephones—led to The Idea of North module—in which people walked through a metaphorical landscape with Gould, and dynamically controlled which voices were woven in and out of the range of hearing. Audiences could recreate his original experiments with concert hall microphone placement, and hear their own acoustic mixes, using Gould's original master recordings.
Katherine's role as Producer included years of discussions with the estate of Glenn Gould, Sony Music, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to secure the tightly-held rights to Gould’s original studio recordings and outtakes, close work with content experts, concept development, and managing the project from start to completion. The project was built in Macromedia Director, and included a searchable database housing all the written content. Glenn Gould: The New Listener was critically recognized, awarded with a NEMN Silver Apple, and an EMMA for Arts and Culture. It was rumoured that Peter Gabriel also gave it the thumbs-up. Just as importantly, the project allowed audiences to experience a different side of this Canadian cultural treasure, and gain a deeper appreciation of the very real person behind his musical genius.
CD-ROM: DNA Media Inc.
Role: Producer
Glenn Gould was one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. A colourful and prolific figure, Gould was also a writer, composer, conductor, and broadcaster. His work demonstrated distinctive views on music theory, performance, and recording. Although he was known and respected as an extremely private person, his life's legacy and its influence on his music was a story waiting to be told. Kevin Bazzana, a musicologist and renowned biographer of Glenn Gould, worked closely with the production, and provided detailed subject matter expertise and written content throughout. Research and modern-day interactive technology enabled the production team to apply Gould's musical philosophies to reinterpret some of the most well-known, and profound musical offerings of his time. Gould's own views on performance were translated to the new media, to allow users to hear and create their own musical interpretations using his outtakes. His fascination with the Canadian North—and his relationship with telephones—led to The Idea of North module—in which people walked through a metaphorical landscape with Gould, and dynamically controlled which voices were woven in and out of the range of hearing. Audiences could recreate his original experiments with concert hall microphone placement, and hear their own acoustic mixes, using Gould's original master recordings.
Katherine's role as Producer included years of discussions with the estate of Glenn Gould, Sony Music, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to secure the tightly-held rights to Gould’s original studio recordings and outtakes, close work with content experts, concept development, and managing the project from start to completion. The project was built in Macromedia Director, and included a searchable database housing all the written content. Glenn Gould: The New Listener was critically recognized, awarded with a NEMN Silver Apple, and an EMMA for Arts and Culture. It was rumoured that Peter Gabriel also gave it the thumbs-up. Just as importantly, the project allowed audiences to experience a different side of this Canadian cultural treasure, and gain a deeper appreciation of the very real person behind his musical genius.
Artwork for Glenn Gould: The New Listener courtesy of Hanif Janmohamed
CLIENTS
Katherine Lee has managed projects, as well as financing and operations, for small to medium-sized companies, non-profit organizations, and some of the world's best-known brands, including:
- Kraft Dinner (kraftdinner.com)
- Coca-cola Canada (Sprite Ride365)
- Orca Bay (canucks.com)
- TELUS (Telus ComSys)
- Glaxo-Wellcome
- Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (digital drum.ca)
- Producers on Davie (Gift of the Americas Digital)
- SynapTuit Group (Servantage Rebranding)
- Hothead Games (Corporate Identity)
- Agentic Communications Inc. (Operations)
- New Forms Media Society (New Forms Festival)
- Satellite Video Exchange Society (VIVO)