Jason has been creating effective visual communications for over 15 years. He began his career as an illustrator and designer. His art has appeared in magazines, on packaging and, more recently, on several commemorative coins released by the Royal Canadian Mint. His artistic merits are well established. But it is his empathetic, strategic and consultative approach to the design process that led to a specialization in brand identity. In 2005 Jason founded Compass Creative Studio with the goal of building a professional team to meet his clients’ growing demand for more strategic creative services. Jason has worked with hundreds of clients over the years helping clarify and give expression to their mission and vision.

In 2007 Jason accepted the Burlington Chamber of Commerce’s Award for Excellence in Small Business on behalf of his company. In 2009 he was listed by Hamilton Magazine as one of several individuals who would shape city life in 2009 and beyond.

Jason has too many interests for his own good but probably enjoys boating, photography and travel the most. He is also an avid reader. He lives in West Lincoln, Ontario with his wife of 15 years and their 4 children.

Email: jason@compasscreative.ca

Josh studied Art Fundamentals and Graphic Design at Sheridan College in Oakville, ON. After graduation in 2001, he freelanced and worked odd jobs before backpacking through Europe for 2 months. Back home, he continued his freelance with the goal to start a design studio. Working part-time within the industry and without, he eventually made the leap to running his own studio full time in 2005.

Josh is well known in the Burlington business community. Over the past several years he has built a reputable brand design firm doing strategic and innovative work, delivering impressive marketing results for his clients. In 2010, a shared vision and passion, particularly for the not-for-profit sector, led him to Compass in his quest to help build an even better firm and to do more effective work for his clients.

Career aside, Josh is married to Erica, his wife of 7 years, and has two daughters, Hailey and Sophie. Family takes up most of his free-time, but Josh also loves photography and scuba diving (when he gets a chance to go).

Email: josh@compasscreative.ca

As lead web developer, Jonathan is the one who brings our visual ideas to fruition online. He combines a vast knowledge of technology with an intuitive sense for problem solving. He enjoys developing online strategies by working with clients to understand their issues and objectives. Jonathan gets high level concepts and helps translate them into real world scenarios.

As a programmer Jonathan concerns himself with the details. He writes clean, standards-compliant code. He is passionate about maximizing the user experience by paying close attention to usability, compatibility and performance. Jonathan has extensive knowledge of many popular web technologies, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript (specifically the jQuery and Ext JS libraries), PHP, MySQL and Flash. He is well versed with existing content management systems like WordPress and Joomla!, but has also helped clients by building completely custom solutions, including customer relationship management (CRM) software and secure payment gateways for online stores. In addition to working with popular coding frameworks like CodeIgniter or the Zend Framework, he has actually written his own light PHP based model-view-controller framework.

Jonathan studied as a technician at RCC Institute of Technology. Always wanting to learn more, he spends much of his time scouring the internet researching new technologies, reading tutorials and interacting with other developers on the latest techniques and best practices. More recently he has committed much time to better understanding search engine optimization theories and techniques.

When Jonathan isn’t writing code he can be found either on the golf course or watching a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. He lives with his wife, Amy, in Grimsby.

Email: jonathan@compasscreative.ca

Joel studied Graphic Design at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas where he graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor’s degree in Art. His well-rounded education included courses in painting, illustration, typography, art history and photography, and was a great foundation for the work he does today. After graduating, Joel set off with his new bride on a year-long around-the-world honeymoon that saw them backpacking and working in 10 countries on 5 different continents.

Joel’s design experience includes magazine publishing and corporate communications. Since joining Compass Creative in 2006, Joel has been instrumental in the branding and rebranding of dozens of Compass clients giving creative expression to their vision and mission. Joel possesses an artful eye and an attention to detail that is clearly visible in the clean and proficient designs he creates. Never a slave to current trends, Joel’s approach makes telling the client’s unique story top priority.

Joel nurtures his artistic storytelling abilities through many creative pursuits – from writing and producing music, to video production, to his passion for photography. He lives in Burlington with his wife, Andrea, and their 3 children.

Email: joel@compasscreative.ca

Jeremy is the most recent addition to the team, and helps bridge the realms of design and code. He is as enthused about laying down styles for a website as he is drawing vectors in Illustrator.

Day-in and day-out, he has been styling in pixels since 2003. After attending design school in Toronto, he spent 7 years employed at a non-profit organization in Niagara, Ontario. During this time, Jeremy also built up a freelance business in his spare time, which eventually enabled him to enjoy a short stint of full-time self-employment. It wasn’t long though, before he was picked up by Compass Creative Studio.

In 2008, Jeremy married his wife Julia, who was lured from the shores of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. In the winter of 2011, they were blessed with their first child. When he isn't working on websites or print design, Jeremy enjoys playing his double bass guitar, gardening and listening to a variety of folk-style music.

Email: jeremy@compasscreative.ca

Ah, Carol, we are just so darn lucky to have a treasure like this one on our team. She handles everything with a number attached to it, keeps the back end of all our projects running smoothly, can get us out of just about any pickle, and all with a smile. Oh, and she does some crackerjack editing and copywriting too.

Fortunately, Carol has been educated by more universities than the average person (we stopped counting at five). Unfortunately, that also makes her the flakiest person in the company.

Fortunately, Carol comes to us with a wide range of work experience, including stock photography, editing and accounting. Unfortunately, her previous experience did not equip her for the fierce foosball competitions here at Compass.

Email: carol@compasscreative.ca