About our design agency
Your mission matters. We’re here to give it more power.
The Beacon Design Collective’s story is intricately woven with the journey of its founder, Dani Vachon.
Beacon began its journey in 2013 when Dani shifted her design career from a focus on music and arts promotion to a mission-driven approach.
How it all began.
After graduating from design school in 2000, Dani acquired her first agency design job. There, she was responsible for designing direct mail flyers … to sell appliances. Try as she might, she just couldn’t get passionate about the work. Dani has always loved arts and culture and, as a twenty-year-old, this passion led her to a decade-long career in the music industry—promoting concerts, managing bands, directing festivals, launching music venues, and doing all the design work for those projects. This work resulted in a few irrelevant connections to rockstars, several great backstage stories, and some solid project management chops.
But in 2013, Dani realized her design career had taken a back seat to event promotion and she decided to refocus. Beacon was born!
However, Beacon has never been just about graphic design. It’s about making a difference to the health of society and the planet. Having seen firsthand the staggering amount of waste created at events and its impact on the environment, Dani wanted her company to do better, and do it differently.
As Dani says,
It was when I watched 250,000 people egress from the Celebration of Lights, leaving six inches of plastic waste in their wake, that I made the decision to leave events and focus my energy on supporting environmental solutions. I am passionate about using my existing skills in leadership, project management, communication, design, and promotion to lean into the solutions that are available to fix the myriad social and environmental crises we face today.
In everything Beacon does, Dani wants to inspire change and strengthen organizations that drive impactful action, using graphic design as a powerful tool to support them.
And that’s why Beacon offers our services exclusively to the sustainability and social justice sectors. We believe that robust design communicates better and inspires people to take action, and a powerful visual identity fosters trust in a brand, enhances its reputation, and builds meaningful relationships with its audience. All of which strengthens the organization while creating positive social and environmental change.
We’re here to help you in your critical mission and make the world a better place!
OUR CORE
What’s at our core.
At The Beacon Design Collective, our values influence how we live and work.
SUSTAINABILITY
Our five-point sustainability strategy is a testament to our commitment to the environment. We’re carbon-negative by planting over a hundred thousand trees annually through our planting partners. We also offset our employees’ emissions via our partnership with Carbon Neutral Club.
DIVERSITY
We walk the talk by promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion within our company. We are a woman-owned design agency and a WBE-certified diverse supplier. We provide equal opportunity to job seekers from minority ethnic groups in Canada, and most of our full-time staff are women. We pay wages well above the Metro Vancouver living wage.
ACCESSIBILITY
Ensuring our work is accessible is a priority at The Beacon Design Collective Inc. After participating in the Creative Pro Accessibility Summit, we’ve embedded accessibility best practices into our DNA. We implement accessibility best practices and build on our knowledge. We will ensure every piece of collateral we create is at least WCAG 2 A compliant.
TEAM
The talent behind Beacon.
Dani Vachon
Managing Director
As proprietor of the business, Dani delivers strategy and quality control for our company’s projects.
With 24 years of experience as a designer, manager, and entrepreneur, Dani combines her background in illustration with precise technical knowledge of design, a highly organized approach to business, and a deep understanding of exceptional communications. She works closely with each client and her creative teams to develop an approach that fulfills the client brief and seamlessly connects with the target audience
Dani is certified in graphic design and network climate action, and has facilitated other language versions of assets, including in French, Punjabi, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese.
Casey Slater
Project Manager
With extensive experience in design and print, Casey manages every stage of our projects, ensuring clear, streamlined, and effective workflows.
Casey’s background in graphic design enables them to liaise seamlessly with our clients, and their digital/pre-press knowledge is invaluable in ensuring that all print project requirements are implemented to produce perfect products, every time. Versatile and well-versed in fast-paced, time-sensitive, creative settings, they are a core part of Beacon’s exceptional client service and support.
Jaz Rodriguez
Lead Designer
As lead designer, Jaz designs beautiful and innovative assets for our clients.
With eight years of experience in both print and digital design, and 15 years in process and quality control and management, Jaz has worked for varied clients, including NGOs, logistics and transportation firms, health and well-being organizations, marketing companies, and governmental bodies.
She holds a degree in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Manufacturing, and a diploma in Organizational Development. Jaz is Spanish first language, is fluent in English, and has experience formatting online articles in French, Arabic, and German.
Matt Turner
Lead Content Strategist
As a lead content strategist, and our chief copywriter and copyeditor, Matt is experienced in writing in a wide range of styles, generating creative text concepts, and editing highly varied content.
Due to his experience writing on diverse projects, he understands the importance of knowledge translation. To every assignment, he brings empathy, flexibility, and intellectual rigour, ensuring that the client’s voice is amplified and audiences are recognized, informed, and inspired.
Matt holds a B.A. in English (Honors) (University of Ottawa) and a Certificate in Journalism (Langara College).
Anile Prakash
Senior Designer
Anile is a senior designer with 17 years of experience working in support of the culture, education, and non-profit sectors.
Anile brings to the table deep expertise of design principles and a high level of accuracy in her work. Over the past decade she has been creating educational tools for youth and supporting Indigenous communities through communication.
Anile holds qualifications in design, illustration, and web-authoring from Dawson College, and is fluent in French and English.
Michan Rosen
Graphic Designer
As a graphic designer and accessibility lead at Beacon, Michan delivers creative designs and leads training, procedure, and quality.
Detail-oriented and an honest listener and communicator, Michan ensures that accuracy and clarity are at the centre of her design work.
Michan is certified as an Education Assistant (Seabird College), in Bookkeeping for Small Businesses (University of the Fraser Valley), and in Social Media Marketing (Jelly Marketing).
