Business & Arts NL business member Perfect Day Canada has long been a dedicated supporter of local arts. When the creative communications agency (which also has offices in London, England and Hamburg, Germany) arrived on the scene in St. John’s six years ago, the majority of their work was done within the creative community, including posters for local bands and theatre productions and in-kind work for various arts organizations.
Although Perfect Day has grown over the years, they’ve stayed close to their roots and their support remains as strong as ever.
“I moved back to St. John’s seven years ago from London, England…and one of the first groups that we did work for was the arts community because they were up for someone doing something different and people were looking for unique work, and their budgets were small and our costs were lower. And so the arts community was always very receptive to the work that Perfect Day did,” says John Devereaux, Creative Director of Perfect Day Canada.
“We try and stay in the arts as much as we can. We pick two or three projects a year to sponsor or to do in-kind work for. We also try and promote artists if we can, using their work in some of our work.”
Several years ago, when Visual Artists Newfoundland & Labrador (VANL-CARFAC) were seeking a new look for their Excellence in Visual Arts (EVA) Awards, Perfect Day jumped on board, offering to do the work in-kind. When the opportunity arose to sponsor one of the awards, it seemed a perfect fit. For the past three years now, Perfect Day has been a proud supporter of the “Kippy Goins Award,” which recognizes those who have helped to build and sustain the visual arts sector in the province. (This year’s Kippy Goins Award, which was presented last month during the EVA Awards ceremony at The Rooms, went to the Art Association of Newfoundland and Labrador.)
“The Kippy Goins recognizes someone who’s basically been dedicated to the arts for a number of years. Being dedicated to the arts is a difficult thing and it’s something to be commended, because year after year you see arts grants get cut and budgets get made smaller,” Devereaux says.
“The arts you see around town and on walls, it’s important to keep that going. People don’t realize how integral the arts are to the community. But I think they would definitely notice if it wasn’t around.”
In addition to helping increase brand recognition, Devereaux says supporting the arts and sponsoring awards such as the EVAs also helps to inspire Perfect Day in their own work.
“You meet lots of interesting people, you get new ideas, you get to meet some pretty incredible artists. Perfect Day is a design agency…when people think of marketing, they often think of kind of the seedy side of marketing, or they think, ‘You’re just trying to sell me something,’” he says.
“But in reality, we are creating a visual message. And so meeting these artists helps with that.”
Whether it be photos on a wall or local pottery on a table, Devereaux says bringing art into a business helps it to come alive.
“It doesn’t make sense to not support the arts as a business,” he says.
“When you get involved or help to grow the arts community, it’s helping everything grow. If you look at Memorial University, they have hundreds of paintings on the wall. That helps make it a real place, instead of just a grey room…And those kind of things, and it’s not just buying art, makes it real, it makes it tangible, it makes your space more livable. It just makes everything better.”
