In Dogs We Trust began as a thesis project for a final course requirement created by Samantha Mok, a recent graduate of the Graphic Design program. Her project, an “e-commerce pet retailer that specializes in hand-crafted dog treats with sustainable practices, ingredients, and packaging in mind” comprised of a three-booklet package that explored product and package design, print and digital ads, and branding and identity. When she won the RGD 2020 SoGood Design Award for this project back in May, she was shocked and extremely grateful, but fast forward a couple of months later, and Samantha has now won a second RGD award, an Applied Arts award for their 2020 Student Awards, and an award for the Advertising & Design Club of Canada (ADCC) 2020 Student Competition, all for various elements of the same project!
Applied Arts Student Awards
The Applied Arts Student Awards has occurred annually for over 25 years and allows winners to have their work featured in the Student Awards Annual, as well as online within the Applied Arts Winners Gallery, which is seen by 50,000+ creative professionals. Samantha being one of the winners is certainly a major accomplishment! She says, “This year, I was fortunate enough to be selected to win an Applied Arts award in the “Packaging Design Program – Campaign” category for my thesis project, In Dogs We Trust. While my project as a whole consists of multiple elements including branding, advertising, graphic design, and more, I chose to highlight the packaging design section, since it was the main inspiration point for my thesis, and the area I felt most passionate about. Not to mention, each entry has a $45 fee – so you do have to be a bit selective.” She continues, “As someone who loves design and advertising, I’ve always admired the work featured in Applied Arts magazine. Truthfully, it never really crossed my mind that one day, I could be published in it too – so you can imagine the surprise I felt when I received a congratulatory email from them. I think a lot of “creative” types are the same in that you kind of have this disbelief that other people think your work is good and worthy of praise, you know? At the end of the day, most people, myself included, aren’t designing for the sake of winning awards, but it is nice to get a bit of recognition every now and then.”
The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) Award
As part of the 2020 Student Awards: Awards of Specialty presented by RGD, Samantha won the q30 design Award for Brand Design, in which she was chosen out of over 800 submissions across Canada. She was also highlighted as a finalist for both the Shikatani Lacroix Design Award for Packaging Design and the Zulu Alpha Kilo Award for Advertising Design. “What’s nice about the RGD Awards is that you can submit up to four entries, so you’re able to highlight specific elements of your project more deliberately than just trying to cram everything into a fifty-word submission limit. On one hand, that gives you a lot of freedom to really think about how you’d like to present your work. On the other, though, the process of writing out your entries can feel incredibly daunting and pressured if you think about it too hard. Let’s just say I went through many, many revisions before my final submissions,” she says.
ADCC 2020 Student Competition
Presented by the Advertising & Design Club of Canada (ADCC), the 2020 Student Competition announced forty award-winning entries within the advertising, graphic design, editorial & book design, and interactive categories. Samantha is amongst the list of finalists in the graphic design category, which regarding the entry process, she says was much easier to navigate compared to others since you submit one entry into any of the four categories. “For this submission, I had to condense my entire thesis project into a small, rationale and let the visuals do the talking for me in less than six attachments. I chose to include the product and mailer packaging, which allowed me to highlight the branding work, as well as the sustainability and interactivity considerations that went into the final package designs – which, as mentioned earlier, were the main inspiration points for the rest of my thesis as a whole.” The rankings for gold, silver, and bronze are yet to be announced, but by being a finalist, Samantha has received an award by ADCC.
In Dogs We Trust has now transitioned to the business world, as Samantha has decided to turn her project into the real thing. She says, “When I was working on the packaging section of my thesis project, I knew right away that I wanted to make real and physical prototypes and photography rather than using digital mockups. I started baking dog treats to use as props, but it ended up being really fun and somehow, I ended up with more than 300 biscuits, which was way more than I needed for the photos. My dog, Walter, is the pickiest dog ever so I was literally begging people to take them! It turns out, they were super popular with both dogs and their owners – everyone was asking me if I was going to make a business out of it, and for a long time the answer was ‘no, this was just a fun one-time thing.’”
However, this all changed once the pandemic hit. “Like most people, COVID kind of turned my world upside down. I basically went from being a full-time student, working three jobs, to being at home with nothing to do! In a weird way, it became a blessing, because I had all this free time to figure out what I wanted to do creatively. I was freelancing my photography and graphic design services to a lot of my friends’ businesses and just kind of thought, I’m doing all this marketing and branding work for other people. Why aren’t I doing it for myself? That, coupled with all the positive feedback and a handful of awards made me realize In Dogs We Trust was something worth exploring, at least for a little bit. I figured if it blows up in my face, the worst that happens is I’m out a few hundred bucks and my ego gets hurt a little bit, you know? Ultimately, I have no idea why I doubted myself so much - We launched our first pop-up menu at the end of August and sold out everything within 48 hours,” she says.
In terms of what the future looks like for In Dogs We Trust, Samantha says, “Obviously with the effects of COVID, the traditional business model looks really different for a lot of people. While it would be cool to have an actual storefront or do physical pop-ups, I think we’re going to be looking at being an online store for at least a few months. Right now, I have a lot of time and freedom to focus on the ‘fun’ things – recipe development, marketing, product photography, etc. – so that’s where my attention is right now. I’d love to say I know what the future holds beyond that, but who really knows anymore!”
Congratulations, Samantha, on the immense amount of success with In Dogs We Trust, and we look forward to following your business as it continues to grow! If you would like to learn more about In Dogs We Trust, you can find them on their website and Instagram.
By: Alexandra Few