The Many Stories of Canalta Workers

The Challenge

Canalta wanted to create a new handbook for its employees, highlighting those who went above and beyond, just because that's the type of person they are. Moments that highlighted the chain's values around guest services that should stand out and be noticed. Headshots and profiles weren't cutting it.

The art needed to be delivered in 7 business days.

Solution

We highlighted the employee’s individual contributions through comic strips. Carefully considered colour schemes and styling were designed to align with the company's well-established, strong visual brand.

With a focus on understanding, these true stories were simplified for easy digestion and to help an employee understand how far they could go to make a guest feel cared for.

Thumbnails

The Art director needed approval of the overall look and the beats of each story before we delivered the final comics. With more illustrations being added to the project, it was important that we didn’t waste resources on rework.

I delivered all the stories in a thumbnail format that made it easy to imagine the characters and, more importantly, to read them as a guest would receive them.

Styling

We did a styling pass on one of the comics. This helped the client envision the look of all the art before we committed to the final direction.

The Thumbnails and Styling were delivered simultaneously.

Black and White Sketches

For the entire series, I made sketches in black and white for the art director and client to review together. There was minimal feedback, and we were able to move on to the final artwork very quickly.

Final Colored artwork:

I colored the art using the brands colors, and we had the pieces ready for print ahead of the deadline. This gave the art director ample time to make final adjustments to the manual as a whole.

Outcomes

The client was thrilled with the final Guest Services Manual comic strips. The stories highlighting the employees above and beyond contributions helped leaders explain what the Canalta culture was all about. Giving employees the opportunity to deal with special requests at the hotel without getting managers involved.

Telling these stories made the employees superstars in the company and encouraged other employees to make guests feel special.

The comics were so successful that we ended up adding more art in the form of spot illustrations throughout the manual. The chain took on illustration as part of their visual brand to help inspire their team.