Raising the bar

Brad Steele sets high standards in the marketing industry

Frolix Design focuses on outdoor adventures. —

Photo courtesy Frolix Design

Frolix Design is a groundbreaking graphic design company based out of Nelson, B.C. Brad Steele founded the company 13 years ago in Ottawa, after a high-tech career running in-house design departments for Fortune 500 companies. He has made tremendous strides since then.

“A decision was made to move west for an improved lifestyle change and to focus on adventure tourism clients and larger companies who understand and value the importance of branding and design,” said Steele. New ventures for Frolix Design include a backcountry ski touring guide website with a focus on safety, as well as cat-skiing (www.catskiingcanada.ca and www.catskiingdirectory.com) and heli-skiing www.heliskiingcanada.ca and www.heliskidirectory.com websites.

“Next year (we plan to have) a resort skiing component,” said Steele, “to help promote cat, heli and resort skiing and give customers a one-stop shop for comparing operations, snow reports and specials.”

How it all started

Steele began his professional evolution by studying industrial and graphic design in Ottawa. His goal as he gained experience was to find a way to express his creative flair—and so he has. “I started up on my own company and have been growing ever since,” said Steele, “focusing primarily on full-service design—strategy, branding, print collateral, web development, social media, illustration, user interface and other project development initiatives.” Steele aims to make an impact on the industry, and revolutionize the way marketing products are created.

“I wanted to . . . have (companies) understand the importance of design and their company image,” he said, “relative to the value that consumers and customers perceive. We want to maximize clients’ value and return for the money they spend.”

Meeting the challenges

Steele said that his biggest challenge has been to find that precarious balance between work and leisure. Since lifestyle and tourism are two of his main reasons for heading west, he must make it a priority to experience the terrain he is promoting first-hand.

“We strive to produce the best solutions for our clients and tend to work too much going that extra mile,” he explained, “so we have to remember to get out and get in some ski touring trips, mountaineering adventures and hiking trips—having clients like Whitewater, Retallack and Stellar Heli-skiing helps.”

A proud moment for Steele was when his backcountry site was created, along with the guidebook to go along with it. The quality of work brought on a flood of positive feedback from advertisers, the buying public and members of the site’s forum.

To date, Frolix Design has established a notable client base, including Columbia Basin Trust, Whitewater Ski Resort, Nelson & District Credit Union, Pacific Insight, Ainsworth, Retallack, the City of Nelson and many more. The company has clients throughout North America, as far reaching as Ontario and California. Steele is also an FSC expert, meaning that he has passed the Forest Stewardship Council exam and is educated on the FSC process and recycled content stocks.