Taking the Pulse of 2021 Young Blood Award Winners

Zoë Boudreau, ROOKS BOOKKEEPING LOGO REDESIGN, Young Blood Design - Single, 2021 Design Awards winner.

Zoë Boudreau is Vancouver-based art director specializing in clever, concept driven designs, something readily apparent in her 2021 Design Awards winning piece in the Young Blood category. Boudreau has been featured by us, the International Design Awards and the Adobe Design Achievement Awards. She discusses her creative process, who she fangirls for, working in the “new normal,” and more in the interview below. Check out her work on her website here and her Instagram here.

What is your creative process (from idea to finished product?)

• Read brief
• Make lists, brain maps, coffee, doodles 
• Hunt for Inspo
• Bring doodles to digital
• Export presentation with today’s date!
• Collaborate with client
• Repeat 2-6 times
• Produce and send off into the world

Can you walk us through the specifics of creating this piece (specific winning piece)?

When you first think of a rook, bookkeeping probably isn’t the first thing you think of. Therefore, having a book in the logo was important. There was a lot of book icon variants presented to the client, but we were all really excited when I presented this logo. Conceptually it stood out from the bunch.

What inspires you?

I fangirl to Jessica Walsh and Wade and Leta. I also find a lot of inspiration on Behance. On the day-to-day, I’m inspired by reading any book I can get my hands on and photography.

What is the hardest part when you are creating/when you created this specific piece?

Rooks was born a few months into the pandemic and it was tough. I was living alone in a dreary basement suit, transitioning to the "new normal" I was pretty stressed out from the overall state of the world. I’m lucky to have a really great support system, which allowed me to keep my head straight during these strange times.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in your field?

Be hungry to learn. Look at every file on the server. Just be a nice person.

What have you learned from creating this piece? (if anything at all)

I learned that my favourite part of making a brand is the logo. Usually the concept starts from the mark and name, which gets disseminated to the rest of the brand elements. It’s really special to be able to design something that has such a significance in a company.