Certain there was something better than working for a living, Laurier erected his Graphos shingle in 1993 (They used words like that back then. Hehe, shingle!), and has since administered virtually every conceivable variant of advertising, web and visual communications project in the company's bustling downtown offices.

An award-winning business columnist who has written screenplays and published a novel under an even stranger nom-de-plume, Laurier is never one to shy away from even the most daunting challenge. (Taking on web guru Kelly at GRAfoosball being one definite exception.) Laurier is a long-serving member of Nait's Digital Media Design advisory board, and graduated with distinction from Grant MacEwan University's Journalism program back in an era when molten wax was used to hold page layouts to a grid, cameras shot film, a blueline was blue, and tattoos were for sailors. Thank heaven for Botox and hyperbaric oxygen chambers!

Larry left the world of big corporations to bring his over two decades of top-level business, strategic planning and communications acumen to Graphos clients. He is adjusting well to the culture of a creative agency, but he still insists on wearing suits on occasion! He sometimes does take his jacket off, especially when showing the younger members of the team that foosball has been around for awhile!

He holds a Masters of Business Administration as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta, and is also active with the Alberta School of Business Business Alumni Association as a board member. When not looking after Graphos clients or minding all the non-creative business stuff, he is busy with his family enjoying the outdoors or making cheese!

Steadfastly at the helm of the Graphos creative team, Michel (noun, f.) still finds joy in the simple things in life. Like going outside when it's sunny, talking to real (and sometimes unreal) people on the street, dancing with rhythm and writing an honest-to-god real letter, on paper with a PEN!

While maintaining a less jaded heart than some of her male office counterparts, she still holds dear the things that bring true happiness: a plastic film camera, a spinning globe, the colour grey (yes, she insists it is), a slick grid, clean lines or infographics neatly placed into cohesive columns and rows according to levels, density and previously nonexistent categories.

If you can't find Michel guiding our team via ASL and seal-like barks or featured in the latest issue of Applied Arts, she is sure to be engaged in a fierce debate about how fruit and dessert don't mix, or bench-pressing a Buick, or outdoors with her camera, turning things on their side to capture an original angle. She is a graduate of Nait's Digital and Interactive Media Design Program, where Tuesdays through Fridays one can pay homage to a gilded shrine in Michel's likeness. The souvenirs are overpriced and made in China, she cautions.

Jerry got his start in graphic design through special training he discovered via a late-night infomercial. In addition to making him $5,000 poorer, it granted him incredible powers he had always dreamed of attaining. He learned to control white space, visual balance and typography... WITH HIS MIND!

Jerry's incredible transformation from ordinary joe to a full-fledged graphic designer will be complete when he gets his thick, black-framed glasses from Lenscrafters in the next hour or so.

He is also a graduate of Grant MacEwan University's Visual Communication and Design program, and still flashes a Mensa card, though his membership was revoked years ago.

Though his further origins are unclear, Derek began his foray into design as a frustrated sidewalk artist. One day, a man with many gold rings and the most beautiful moustache Derek had ever seen told him there were better ways of preserving one's artwork than draping himself over it during rainstorms. Two weeks later, Derek launched himself into a whole new world of crayons, finger-paint, paper and child-safe scissors. He would have done it even sooner, but it took time to build the catapult.

Many years later (although some historians argue it was in fact only a period of several weeks), Derek found himself enrolled in a post-secondary world which cruelly forced him to transfer his brain pictures onto the cold light of a computer monitor. Much like saddling a wild stallion - we speak from experience - it took time, discipline, and the gentlest of whispering. But like the mighty equine, he soon learned to work in sync with his machine overlord, soaring to new heights of creativi-tude.

Now a passionate "mouse jockey" Derek clothes himself in the skinny, torn jeans and fingerless gloves of avail only to those of hipster or vagabond status.

Addendum: We have recently obtained credible evidence that Derek holds a Design Foundations Certificate from Grant MacEwan University, where he subsequently majored in illustration while earning his Visual Communication Design Diploma. He continues to deny all such allegations.

Michael, (renamed 'Wilson' to minimize being confused with Creative Director Michel), joined the Graphos web team with modest intent to develop face-melting web experiences that bring clients to their knees--weeping for joy. We all agreed that might be a bit dramatic/distracting, so for now we just get him to develop really amazing and innovative websites.

Graduating from NAIT's Digital Media Design (now DMIT) program on the dean's list in 2009, Wilson developed a keen sense of curiosity and ability to translate the unfamiliar and incomprehensible into an intuitive, irresistible product. He brings a wealth of creativity, experience, and willingness to try something new (which incidentally, but not accidentally, are critical ingredients for a successful web deployment). When not thinking in computer code, Michael enjoys taking part in community events, politics, the Edmonton music and culture scene and seemingly endless home renovations.

After attending MacEwan for entirely the wrong reasons Andrew came out knowing more than he intended in design but still had to get up to speed on the webspeak. By sacrificing his social life, a tan, and a bit of sanity, he engaged in a pixelated pact with the gods of the internet in his parent's basement, and was granted the ability to learn web languages at breakneck speed. But, as with all dealings with demi-beings, there was a catch. Andrew is doomed to optimize code and dream about user interfaces day and night, never able to fill out a webform without proposing a more streamlined interface - which works for us!

So he doesn't burn his brain out on all that learnin', Andrew tries to get out of the city as much as possible, camping, hiking, and snowboarding. What little time remains is spent building a super-secret application for creatives that will probably take over the internet (be warned).