Posts Tagged ‘Rapscallion Design’
Things are going down in downtown Medicine Hat, as Amy Gervais of Rapscallion Design discusses on the Rapscallion website.
Some time ago, Medicine Hat Media discovered duplicate, but vastly different designed content for The Monarch, which we blogged about under the title “The Monarch Identity Crisis?“. Soon after we learned that The Monarch Theatre simply was not paying their bills or being thankful for the hundreds of hours of volunteer work that it took to get the theatre up and running.
The duplicate content can be found at http://themonarch.net/, which according to Amy Gervais’ story, was commissioned by the City Centre Development Agency with complete disregard to the design continuity and branding.
Medicine Hat Media, with the help of Ashley Meller, was behind The Monarch Theatre’s revitalization project from the get go. We advertised every show that was in Kin Coulee and even came out to support the events. We advertised movies that were playing and many of us behind Medicine Hat Media have regularly attended their screenings.
Medicine Hat residents and businesses should be supporting each other, not selling each other short. Who cares about a “historical downtown” if it just becomes derelict? Some of us at Medicine Hat Media are now going to withdraw all support from the theatre as we do not want to be a part of such a disappointing situation. If you are also concerned about the happenings and the state of Downtown Medicine Hat, please contact the city council.
On my way out from the last film I saw at the Monarch, I was handed a business card with the statement, “Our new website is up with showtimes”. Which I thought was weird at the time since I have already used the “new” websites for viewing showtimes… but then as I wondered, I realized that, the website had not been updated in a while. I didn’t really think about it, until I was linked to themonarch.net which seemed weird. I didn’t remember it being a .network domain? Wait a second, what is this? It looked like the website took a step back in web design by 8 years. What’s with nothing lining up, what’s with the color scheme, why is there a tab-style menu not being used as tab-style navigation?
I was perturbed by this a bit, so I went to the Monarch’s twitter page (which also has not been updated in awhile), but it linked to themonarch.ca from there. Phew, the old site is actually still there. Wait a second… did I just get a new Twitter notification? @monarchmedhat is now following me. What? The Monarch is already following me… wait a second, this is a second Twitter account now, the original seemingly left behind just like the site, the original being @monarchtheatre.
When the re-brand was completed for The Monarch, I was a fan of the logo and color scheme presented on the site which showcased it in a consistent manner. It was definitely a throwback to many elements found in design in the 1950’s and even earlier which worked well with the idea/image of The Monarch. The website matched this aesthetic and as far as I know, Rapscallion Design was wholly responsible for the identity, branding, and web design. So what’s going on here exactly? I already have stated a little bit to why this is a huge step backwards for The Monarch brand, but let’s visualize it…
New site/old site
I didn’t post this solely for the reason of bashing the design, but I can’t understand why this would be happening? Say there was a falling out between two parties, you would expect the one party to release the website to them if they need it updated for themselves. They could take it and host it somewhere else and update it as they see fit. At the very least, there shouldn’t be two websites for the same business operating at the same time, let alone, two domains, two Twitter accounts, and next, maybe two Facebook fan pages?
Rapscallion Storefront
Rapscallion Design is a Medicine Hat-based graphic design company.
The company has been in business for years now, producing designs that range from clothing to websites.
Rapscallion Design sports an in-house screenprinting service which they utilize as all their retail designs are created by hand and screenprinted by hand. Mass production is cool and all, but it is definitely an added bonus to feel that you are not a product of mass production and to support the arts. Their designs are not done by a bunch of kids who pirated the Adobe Creative Suite and learned how to trace in it, but totally opposite, the workers at Rapscallion Design have their degrees in Visual Communications, and after being in the industry for a number of years, can really produce some awesome work.
You can check out the store at 455 3rd Street SE, Downtown Medicine Hat.