Great location, great communication, and great printing…read more This TPH location is across the street from the Westin, making it easy to order retractable banners for a conference exhibit. The corporate website described the materials available and had a convenient online form to request a quote (price and time) to fulfill the order. The manager responded in a timely manner, and thoroughly answered all my questions in subsequent emails. He provided guidance since a bank holiday could have complicated my project. I was happy with the photo of the banners that my colleague sent to me, after he set up the booth.

Rick and the TPH team are amazing! One of our clients was giving a presentation and his large…read morelaminated poster from the US didn't arrive. I went online, requested a 48x36 laminated poster ASAP from TPH. Rick called me as soon as they opened and they were able to print it and walk it across the street to the hotel in less than 2 hours. TPH was true lifesaver today! Can't thank them enough

These guys are awesome! Super quick and friendly and crazy helpful. In a world of many online…read moreprinting places its hard to know or see what you are going to get - these guys kick butt!

From the owner: Specializing in high quality, professional print products for customers who need to make a…read morecompelling first impression. Offset and digital equipment, graphic design services, die cutting and thermo engraving.

I met Trina Lo, owner of FreshInk Communication a number of years ago (I believe 10+ years ago)…read morethrough a networking event, and over the years remained connected through social media primarily, but I occasionally would have a happy reunion with her at events throughout Calgary. Truthfully, until I owned my own business, I never really understood what she did for a living I knew she did web marketing stuff, but didn't really understand who her customers were or how she made a living. I just knew she was an awesome lady, always busy and was well liked. Fast forward to 2014, I am in the thick of excitement (and stress) of my business Carrie's Closet, and I am running out of bandwidth to stand up my first brick and mortar location in Calgary and through my feed is Trina's company, FreshInk Communication running a mini social media course at a BMI luncheon. I jump on this course like a hot potato. I then start digging into her website and see that she offers more extensive courses through FreshInk as well (which I will definitely take!). The course at the luncheon itself was extremely informative. It gave me some clear direction on things I could be doing better to promote my business online. Trina is smart, engaging and clearly experienced in this arena, and after the course, I approached her and asked her if I could hire her team to assist me with my brick and mortar launch. The course gave me all that I needed to trust that she was absolutely the best person to get people in my door. Trina and I had two meetings for me to hand over the content to her, and she handled the social media campaigns, press releases, and she even contacted directly all surrounding businesses like a pro. This started a chain reaction of support, spiked activity on my pages, and on my website analytics. By the grand opening, I had 169 people confirmed to attend the opening, and only a small handful were from my network, so these were people that she in essence generated through all her activity. The other think I need to mention in our two meetings - she also gave me a bunch of advice that had less to do with the campaign and grand opening itself, but it was an adhoc evaluation of my website and social media activity to date. She gave me some very clear helpful tips on things I was doing that she felt was good activity, as well as things I should consider to improve. All of the things she noted were helpful and reasonable. The grand opening itself was a success, and she has a client and an advocate for life. She knows this business, and not only that - she is a complete pleasure to work with. I will definitely take her social media course and also hire FreshInk Communications again. She has my trust and repeat business for life! Thank you Trina - your efforts made a huge difference!

From the owner: Graphic Design Marketing Strategy and Management…read moreSocial Media & Reputation Management Social Media Workshops Website Design & Development

This company's hiring practices speak volumes to their company culture…read more A self-proclaimed "employee-obsessed" culture in search of "unicorns." According to the CEO's LinkedIn article, their hiring practice appears to borrow more from the long standing tradition of nepotism rather than a new and innovative approach. The CEO described hiring a referral from his brother-in-law on the spot partly because her answers were not rehearsed. Yet, most of the videos I've seen of the CEO, in my opinion sound rehearsed, except one moment at the end of one video where he uses the F word to congratulate himself on nailing the video. You know who nailed a video? I did. I submitted a strong video interview, which is the typical first step in their hiring process, and never heard back either way. They use video interviews to save money, but news flash, common courtesy is free! Youtube is littered with potential candidates for past job openings who clearly spent time on their videos. It's great to talk about a warm and fuzzy company culture, but it also matters how you treat people outside the company. If you were on a date with a guy you thought had such a warm heart, but then you're out for dinner and he's extremely rude to the waitress, what does that really say about his heart? You missed this unicorn.

From the owner: A digital marketing agency utilizing an innovative approach. Assigning a team of uniquely talented…read moreindividuals to particular industries, we are able to create, deploy and manage a full marketing program for our clients. What works particularly well for one client is then applied to all members within their POD, ensuring collective success amongst all members. For a flat monthly retainer, we provide all-inclusive services such as: Website Design, Graphic Design, Lead Generation, Content Creation, Database Marketing and Conversion Optimization. We also produce animated explainer videos, helping brands tell their story. We combine the science of marketing with the power of collaboration. We utilize all available technology and analytics to measure the impact and effectiveness of each initiative our clients invest in. We compare the return on their investments and make recommendations to ensure the optimal marketing mix is being deployed.

I'm addicted to stationery. Like, they should create some sort of "Stationery Lover's Anonymous"…read morefor me and people like me. And if stationery and relevant supplies, cards, ect. were drugs, then Uppercase Gallery would be the big bad dealer of the Calgary world. It is like pure, unrefined joy/crack to browse the tiny store located in Art Central. In addition to the basic stationery - beautiful handmade cards designed by local artists, mirrors and buttons with fetching designs and beautiful if expensive handmade paper, they have a bit of everything else. That means they have a bunch of "how-to" books in addition to some very attractive books about graphic design, beautiful notebooks, prints and supplies like stamps and pencils. Yes indeed, it is a visual overload for your eyes. Unfortunately, while you are endeavouring to support local artists and art you are also spending a small fortune.

From the owner: UPPERCASE is a quarterly print magazine for the creative and curious with eclectic content inspired…read moreby design, typography, illustration and craft. Though you may recall our gallery and public space in Calgary's Art Central, Art Central is now closed and UPPERCASE's studio has moved. We are now concentrating on publishing and no longer have a public gallery. If you'd like to make an appointment, please consult our website. thanks!

The reviews you see for WCD are from ten years ago and would make anyone hesitate. The Children's…read moreCottage Society has used WCD to install the graphics in our reception at our new location, and WCD have been fantastic to work with. They had to contend with some poor workmanship from the painter and they took it in stride, solved the issues, and did some of the repair work in order to give us the lobby we needed. We have a lot of millwork on the wall and lots of problems to contend with and they worked steadily and effectively, measuring many times and checking in with us regularly to keep us informed on decisions that were being made. It is absolutely beautiful and we are very happy with the results and the team that worked on this.

Oh West Canadian. We…read morefirst met a few years ago. I was dazzled by your digital printing technology, your ability to do document storage and the fact that you had in house design services if I needed them. I liked your promise of very fast, industry leading turn around times. You took me on a tour, wooed me and made me feel like we had a future together. No job was too big or small for you and you always delivered, even on crazy tight timelines. Oh and you had some unique services that set you apart from your competition including a great proofing process and easy to access location. And you sometimes brought us cookies. In the last year I switched companies and was happy to see that my new gig used you for their printing. But our relationship isn't the same. In the last six months, there has been something wrong with 2/3s of every order we've placed. Sometimes it was quality, sometimes it was colour and sometimes it was timing. One time it was something we hadn't even asked for. Our account rep is really nice and always very apologetic when mistakes happen. But they seem to happen more than frankly I am comfortable with. Usually when you have things printed, there are deadlines and concepts you want to share with your business audience. If every time you place an order you are crossing your fingers that something doesn't go wrong...well that is troubling. Recently we even escalated our concerns to upper management. Again, they were super responsive and very nice. We were assured that the errors were all explainable and all flukes. But there is still a disconnect between the great treatment we get from our account person and the quality and timeliness of the end product. Service matters - very much - but after so many errors with the end product I would expect that as part of great service, they'd be making sure that nothing goes wrong with our subsequent orders, at least for a while. Hopefully we can turn things around West Canadian. I really want us to stay together.