Form & Effect

Earn your bricks of success and build your life!

Brent Porter

Partner & Creative Director at Form & Affect

http://formandaffect.com/

Form & Affect

We use design & technology to develop meaningful brand experiences.

Works with a lot of local companies in the Niagara region. Doing e-commerce sites for wine companies all the way up to clients like CBC, Samsung and Visa. Brent still does 80% of all the design work.

Located in St Catherines on St Paul Street. Born and raised in Hamilton. He set up shop in St Catherines because he had a lot of pride in where he was from and for small towns.

His partner is Paul Vance. Operations Director. Worked at the CBC.

Hired people based on cultural fit first – are these the type of people we would invite to house for a BBQ? Second do they have the skills? Can they do what we need them to do?

Kistina was their first hire. She just walked into their office on day. They had to intention of hiring her but were so impressed by her that they did not want to let her go and created a position for her.

  

The team is small consisting of Tamara Jenson, Brad Moore, Kistina Gotti, Josh Hanson and Patricia Savoie.

The office is small with a friendly environment. Dogs are allowed. No ping pong tables but they go go-carting, paintball and to hockey games.

Try and keep things light and lively but are super strict with deliverables. Try to balance it with their culture.

5 Values

Ask Why – what we don’t do is every bit every bit important as what we do.

Honesty – isn’t always easy but it’s a must have ingredient.

Have Empathy – maybe the client doesn’t know what he needs. Be understanding.

Share Knowledge – be involved in your community, meet-ups, pass your knowledge.

Think Big – get the client to think bigger and long term. Start off big and then scale back to what the client can afford.

 

Brent’s Story

Parents were divorce. He was a small child and was picked on. In high school he got into a lot of fights.

  

He loved art. In grade 11 he dropped out of school. Home life wasn’t great, so he hanged out downtown with a rough group. At times he was homeless. No diploma no direction.

Being In Your Element

He was introduced to Raves by a friend. His first rave in Toronto left him broke. But he had a good time. He decided that he and his friend was going to throw heir own raves. Make money instead of spenting money. Their first rave was in an abandoned warehouse. It was a success. They made a lot of money. He did all promotion for it. The flyers, posters and by word of mouth. This went on for a few years and he end up owning 2 nightclubs. His friend Johnny was the DJ at the clubs. He was bi-polar and one night committed suicide. This turned Brent’s world upside down. Months later he talked to his father about mental illness. His father was a psychiatrist. He discovered he was really interest in how the mind works. It got him thinking about how people react with things. An early version of user experience.

   

He calls being in your element when you can discover a passion, use a god given talent and you use them together. That is when you’re the happiest. He discovered that design psychology was his passion. He was good at it and he liked it.

In grade 9 he realized he had a talent for art and design. When his paper mache bird was stumped on by a bully he was crushed and didn’t know what to do. He then got the idea to paint tire tracks on it. He handed it in and the teacher seeing what had happen the day earlier gave him an A.

  

Make sure that you are passionate about what you do and you will be the happiest and successful.

Failing = Learning

A few years after quitting the nightclub scene he enrolled as a mature student in Graphic Design Management at Mohawk College. All excited to start on a new career. But dropped out after 2 weeks. He was depressed and started questioning if it was him or the system. One night he came across a quote “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t… you are right"– Henry Ford.  This inspired him to get all his flyers and posters that he had done. Made a portfolio and emailed them to agencies all over the place.

  

He got a job interview and was hired on the spot. Working with 32 women all twice his age. His boss was the ice queen. After winning a campaign pitch Brent was let go for no reason only that his boss told him it wasn’t working out. Later he saw his campaign idea across the country. She had not told him that his idea was picked and had taken all the credit for it.

  
He watched her like a hawk when he worked there and learned two things. He learned how to treat employees and how to treat clients. She treated everyone nicely except for him. He was treated very badly. He promised himself never to treat a human being like she treated him. What’s important is how you think about yourself. And when things go wrong, learn form it. Trust your struggle and just learn from it.

Bricks of Success

The people you meet on your career path. The experiences you have - good or bad. How you respond to adversity. These are the things that will build your character. Brent refers these to Bricks of Success. You start off getting one at a time. Soon you get enough to build a wall, a house, a family, a life.

Some of the latest projects at Form & Effect

Art in the Open – Documenting all the artwork across the Niagara region using a progressive web app. Built as a PWA, it downloads the data and keeps it even when there is no internet.

United Way – Share It Away. To was raise awareness that 78% of the people living in the Niagara region are working two jobs and living below the poverty line. This lead to building a new website for the United Way.

The Bond – Petro-Canada and the CBC. Help supports up-and-coming athletes. They are awarded with a $10,000 grant. Build interactive website to raise awareness of the athletics receiving the grants.

Samsung and CBC Olympics Virtual Reality App. - Experience the city and culture of Rio with a Samsung phone.

  

Website for Visa – Broadcast the Rio Olympics in Virtual Reality or 360. Built the site to house all the live feeds.

  

World Figure Skating Championships – Designed a fully animated and interactive site for CBC. Highlighting and breaking down the mechanics of the Quad Jump.

  

Usain Bolt – Built an interactive site for CBC that breaks down his 100 meter run.

Hometown Ice Cream – Built website for a local St Catharines downtown shop. The best all-natural ice cream according to Brent.

Thank you for coming in and sharing your amazing life experiences.