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
Matt Turner
Client Strategist and Account Manager
Casey Slater
Project Manager
Jaz Rodriguez
Lead Designer
Anile Prakash
Senior Designer
Michan Rosen
Graphic Designer
Our clients
Trusted by top organizations.
