Welcome to UNIVERSE
UNIVERSE is a design studio based in Toronto, Ontario and the work of Elaine Stam. The studio was founded out of Elaine’s love for design and her desire to create meaningful work for interesting clients.
We specialize in brand design, report design, Wordpress website development, and provide social media management and email marketing service for clients. With each project we keep our core values of simplicity and accessibility in front of mind.
We are looking for clients who we align with to create exceptional work and build relationships with. Please get in touch if we feel like the right fit for your next project.
New Projects
Latest work for our academic, university, and research clients.
First Policy Response
Website and brand design for a Toronto Metropolitan University COVID-19 policy news website, First Policy Response.
Ontario Creative Council
Concept brand design for Ontario Creative Council. This modern contemporary brand design features custom digital art and an energetic colour palette.
Design Intelligence Conference
Brand design and social media images for Toronto graphic design and AI conference.
“The details are not the details. They make the design."
Charles Eames
Latest Brand Designs
Creative brand designs for a wide assortment of clients, products and services. Many of these branding projects include accompanying marketing, social support and websites and ALL included our exploration/research/strategy process.
Caicos Island Charters
Branding, website, social media management work for a luxury sailing charters company in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Cadre Artist Management
Website and brand design for Cadre Artist Management, a leading Toronto-based agency representing makeup, hair & wardrobe artists in the fashion and beauty industries.
Aardvark Book Club
Branding and logo design and website development for Aardvark Book Club, a book subscription service. The colourful illustrated identity is very versatile and creates a distinct personality for the brand.
Bonsai Creative
Logo and brand design for Bonsai Creative, Ontario wedding videographers. This brand design is remarkable and features a subtle psychedelic style, custom illustrations, and a flexible logo set.
Pizza Power
Logo design and graphic design with illustrative retro branding style for a Toronto pizza shop, Pizza Power.
Blue Noise Studios Inc.
Brand design for TorStar Inc.'s new creative design agency, Blue Noise Studios Inc. The edgier tone of the brand design reflects the contemporary style of work the studio is striving to create.
We create comprehensive brand design systems which include a logo design, along with typography, colours, and design elements defined. Our brand designs start at $2000. Learn more about our brand design packages.
- Logo Files Bundle
All standard usages provided: .ai. .png, .jpg, light and dark versions, stacked, wide, icon etc. - Style Guide
A comprehensive PDF that has the logo, colours, fonts, and design examples to demonstrate how the brand design should be used.
Brand design projects take about a month from initial consultation, to having files in hand. We have been specializing in logo and brand design for 20 years and have refined our creative process to ensure maximum clarity and communication with each stage. Before we even start designing, our discovery phase is where we learn about what you what to express with your brand and research ideas about what think would be interesting and get your feedback.
Did you know our studio originally was called “Toronto Logo Design”? We focused on only creating logos for several years but learned over this time that the logo couldn’t be the only design asset that we provide the client in order for them to have a strong brand design. With this, we evolved our focus and now only create complete brand design toolkits which include:
- a logo files bundle
- typography details
- colour palette defined
- unique illustrations, graphic art and/or photography
- a style design guide with logo usages explainedRead our blog post about the benefits of a complete brand design.
Our Clients
Industries and client types we most commonly work with:
University + Education Support . Think Tanks . Research Departments . Public Policy Departments + Academics . Survey Data Institutes . Non-Profit Organizations . Diversity + Future Skills Departments . Social Capital Groups . Government Departments . Law and Lawyers . Healthcare . Therapist Studios . Psychedelic Research Institutes . Products + Services
The Design Blog
We discuss current ideas, trends and share inspiration for your design project, as well as explain commonly asked FAQs such as how search engine optimization works.
Stay in touch
Subscribe to UNIVERSE eNews to get updates of our latest work and happenings straight to your inbox.
Follow us on social media
Specialized service:
Report Designs
Research reports, annual reports, academic papers, you name it. Report designs we create are primarily for think tanks and government or educational institutions, U of T and Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as many other non-profit and policy organizations. We create reports with:
- a unique visual identity
- identity designs for report series
- original photography, graphic art, illustrations + infographics whenever possible
- AODA design considerations in mind
Accessibility Considered Designs
Our Creative Director and Web Developer Elaine has studied AODA compliance (the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) through her experience working in Universities, the Ontario Law Society, and her Government clients. When you have accessibility best practices in mind it is not difficult to build them into your design. It is now an ethical best practice that UNIVERSE is proud to instill into every project we work on.
AODA compliance (at least a minimum level) should always be applied to web design and development [learn more about this here]. We also have studied how to create accessible PDFs and, generally, even our social media images that we design for clients are accessible. Educating our clients about the importance of accessibility is important to us and a core value.
Services
logo design
brand design
graphic design
website design
search engine optimization
accessible graphic & web design
social media management
social media image design
social and Google ad management
report designs
eNewsletter templates
eBlasts campaign designs
promo + media kits
promotional flyers
album cover art + design
poster design
business cards
illustrations
infographics
conference banners
Word letterhead customization
PowerPoint presentation template design
Social Media Management
We currently manage many of our clients’ social media accounts on a daily basis. Our most popular social media marketing related services are:
- Strategy
- Social media image template design:
Canva, Powerpoint, Photoshop, InDesign - Branded banner and social images
- Copywriting
- Hashtag creation
- Scheduling and publishing services
Caicos Island Charters
We do daily posting on Instagram and Facebook for a Turks & Caicos Islands Luxury Charter Line.
caicosislandcharters
Environics Institute
The Environics Institute is a think tank based out of Toronto. We do bi-weekly posting on Twitter & Linkedin and also manage their eNews communications.
Environics_Inst
Why choose UNIVERSE
UNIVERSE design studio is a bespoke studio, we craft all our work to be one-of-a-kind and represent you with a fresh modern style. We have affordable rates, quick turnaround times, are clear communicators, and will focus on your unique needs to help you create designs that are accessible and adaptable over time.
Our core values:
Communication
Process
Simplicity
Flexibility
Get unmatched quality graphic design services for your business from a professional graphic and web designer (sorry cousin Jim, we’ve got this!).
Ready to get started?
Get in touch if our work speaks to you and we can help with your project.