Chris Rodgers and Kyle Rask (IDEA Grad 2025) partnered up as Humble Hound Creative

Chris Rodgers and Kyle Rask (IDEA Grad 2025) partnered up as Humble Hound Creative. Check out this story and some of their recent design work!

What is Humble Hound Creative?

I often refer to Humble Hound as a "brand-building" studio. For simplicity's sake, though, we're a design studio. Before returning to school to study at IDEA School of Design at Capilano University, I did a fair amount of work on brand strategy from within companies—customer experience, sales, marketing, messaging, etc. As a result, there has always been a distinction between "brand design" and "brand building" in my mind. I see brand building as an ongoing practice—it's also more holistic. If they let us, we dig into every corner of our clients organization and find opportunities where design can help build trust and connection between the team internally and its customers externally.

How did Humble Hound get started?

I started Humble Hound as my freelance practice before studying at IDEA School of Design. In the beginning, I did many odd jobs, leveraging the skills I'd learned over my years in business to pay for school and living expenses. Last year (third year), I was introduced to another student, Kyle Rask, through carpooling to school. A few months after we met, Humble Hound landed its first corporate rebrand and packaging job, and I thought, "This is a lot right now." Kyle initially came on board to help me do the heavy lifting on that project, but as we worked together, it became clear how much we complement each other's skills. We started talking about working more together in the future and soon after decided to partner up.

How’s the partnership going?

Amazing! We’ve rebranded, done a lot of internal work on values and direction and built a new website for the studio. We’ve got some really exciting jobs on the go and are having a blast. Kyle is as much a part of the DNA of Humble Hound as I am now.

What have the highlights been this summer?

We built our own identity. I love strategy and writing, so I’ve invested a ton of time in messaging and systems for the business. We’ve had lots of meetings with mentors from the program, who have been invaluable in helping us get off on the right foot. We built our website in WebFlow and worked a lot on beefing up our joint portfolio together. One last highlight would be working more with motion design. We’ve been doing a lot of motion design, and I absolutely love it.

Any client projects currently on the go?

It was slow going at first, but yes. We’ve continued building a solid relationship with the pet company we did our first project with. I recently started consulting as a brand strategist with them, and we have a few more packaging projects on the go. Kyle led us through building out their website this summer as well. We’re working on many different pieces for this brand, and it has been a great learning experience.

We recently started an exciting job with a mental health organization, but we can’t say more about that now. For the rest of August and early September, we’re doing a lot of strategy, positioning, and a complete brand design. It feels good to be doing branding from the ground up again!

Sounds like a lot of work! You’re coming back to 4th year?

Absolutely. I love the Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication program. I considered taking the third-year exit, which is a fantastic option for the right student, but I’m looking forward to CapStone and my practicum. Every opportunity to learn and grow is a way to eventually bring our clients more value.

What have you learned so far doing this?

Compromise doesn’t mean meeting in the middle. Sometimes, you have to let another person choose the path forward. It’s challenging when you would prefer to do things differently, but divesting control is invaluable for anyone hoping to work on a team.

You’ll never feel ready to do what matters most to you. Often, ready never comes. Learning to live with the discomfort of uncertainty is a skill. You can move out of your comfort zone if you want to.

Building a business, a skill, or anything at all really takes a lot longer than you’d think. Consistency is key. If you work at it a little every day, you’ll get there, but be patient with yourself. Don’t forget to look back and celebrate your progress occasionally.

See: humblehound.ca