Dave
Shortt

Creative Director/ Idea Machine

Dave joined us in January 2009 when fix8, the company he and Kevin Chan founded, officially become part of B’stro. He’s our kind of guy: a formidable talent in a friendly, fun-loving package. Dave is passionately committed to great design “I’m constantly searching for better design. Among other things, it has the capacity to make information more accessible to people.” But that’s just the beginning. He articulates process and rationale, is a bottomless fount of ideas, and understands user behavior and user interaction. He’s also a filmmaker, painter, illustrator and all-round creative inspiration to us all.

From design and illustration to video and filmmaking, Dave can bring any idea to life (or death — Dave art directed a short film that won Best Death Scene at Vancouver’s 48 Hour Film Festival.) But he has a larger vision: to help us break new ground in terms of media and communications. Before joining B’stro, Dave worked in the development of an interactive website which hosted the first ever United Nations World Urban Forum online. He also rebranded the Vancouver Queer Film Fest; led the re-launch of the YWCA; and designed the Celebration 2010 site to support the Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games Bid. As everyone with an RSS feed now knows, Vancouver won the bid. Coincidence? We think not.

Dave has taken off on some real-world flights of fancy, too. Less a daredevil than a dare-angel, he cycled from Tijuana to Cabo (sober), hitch-hiked across Canada and embarked on multiple road-trips stateside. His travels have certainly served as creative fodder, but more than anything his inspiration comes from his hometown of Vancouver: its natural beauty, its caring, its community and its spirit of change and activism. (Trivia titbit: Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver.)

Dave makes a point of learning something new every day, but his official educational background includes a degree in Communications from Queen’s University and a Digital Arts certification course at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. He also completed New Media courses at Ryerson University, and earned a diploma in Computer Programming from CDI School of Business and Technology. Along with his nice-guy persona and thirst for technology, Dave brings with him a slew of loyal clients and seven years experience developing design and brand identity.