ABOUT US

KerrSmith is a multi-disciplinary innovation studio specializing in Research, Foresight, Strategy and Design.

ABOUT OUR PRACTICE

We have developed insights and innovations for clients in a wide variety of sectors, including city building, healthcare, finance, education, transportation, creative economies, arts & culture, consumer goods, retail, agriculture, development, and the public sector.

Our studio uses Strategic Foresight to rethink a changing world. We know that the past can be an unreliable predictor of the future. How will changes in the environment, the economy, regulations, values, demographics, or technology affect how you prepare for what’s next? KerrSmith helps organizations better understand the possibilities. We use a disciplined, rigourous approach to futures thinking and have deep, proven experience that will give you significant strategic advantage.

We have worked with governments and businesses around the world. We know that change is accelerating, bringing both threats and opportunities to all organizations. Transformations like these have the potential to cause extreme disruption, both beneficial and more challenging. Foresight is an effective tool to manage that risk, to identify potential openings, and to prepare you to innovate.

To help you plan for this emerging environment we provide tools, expertise, experience and a unique knowledge of methods to help you make thoughtful and strategic decisions. We then use visualization, contextualization, compelling narratives and design to bring those future possibilities to life.

Our approach requires unique and precise acuity. True insights only come with broad experience, and expertise in complexity-mapping, pattern-reading and sense-making. To find out more about our unique combination of Foresight and design, please get in touch.

LEADERSHIP

Helen Kerr

Co-President

Nigel Smith

Co-President

OUR TEAM

Chrysant Nguyen

Senior Designer & Researcher

Tarleen Singh

Office Administrator

Raj Kumar

Administrator & Book-keeper

Maggie Smith

Researcher & Junior Designer

Reid Keller

Researcher & Writer

EQUITY & INCLUSION

Diversity and inclusion are part of the fundamental values that help us support our clients, colleagues and community. We are committed to being an inclusive workplace, where every team member feels empowered to perform at their very best.

Diversity is an essential asset to our organization’s performance. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all qualified individuals wishing to join our studio, regardless of background, cultural and individual differences. Building an environment of trust and respect where every voice is valued is a key leadership goal.

Our team: We have a thoroughly diverse team. 
Our leadership: KerrSmith is half woman-owned and operated.

Our environment: Our space is participatory, collaborative and welcoming. 
Our work: We choose to work with ethically motivated clients in a progressive work environment. Our location: We are located in downtown Regent Park, Toronto, Canada; this neighbourhood influences, shapes and connects us to significant issues.

Foresight Capabilities

WHAT

Horizon Scanning

STEEPV Workshops
Future Searching
Stakeholder Interviews
Trend/Driver Analysis

Exploratory Scenarios

Impacts & Implications

Wind-tunnelling / Stress-testing

Immersive Experiential Futures

HOW

Exploratory Research

Stakeholder Engagement

Workshops

Capacity Building

Visual Storytelling

Qualitative & Quantitative Analysis

Geospatial Mapping

Visioning

Talks and Lectures

Design Capabilities

WHAT

Business Modeling

Strategy Development

Product Design

System & Service Design

Brand Strategy

Infographics

Communications

Editorial Design

Visual Identities

Digital & Print Production

Structural & Visual Packaging

Signage & Wayfinding

HOW

Research & Ethics Planning

Ethnographic Research

Sustainability Planning

Art Direction

User Testing

Material Exploration

3D Modeling & Prototyping

Production Detailing & Supervision

EXPERTISE

Strategic Foresight

In turbulent and rapidly changing times, it helps to have a handle on what might be around the corner. We use a disciplined and collaborative approach to creating resiliency for the future and to help our clients navigate uncertainty. We have deep experience helping organizations imagine how they can not only face what's coming, but prepare to meet the challenges head on.

EXPERTISE

Exploratory Scenarios

We use the research from our Horizon Scans and inputs from workshops and trend analysis to craft possible and probable scenarios. These are not predictions of the future, but rather narratives that could come to be. By examining exploratory scenarios, it is possible to test strategies, create sustainable vision and resilient strategies. Our team’s experience includes future scenarios for a range of international clients. From the Pacific Community, Chicago Region, and City of Vancouver to banks, philanthropic organizations, and cultural institutions.

EXPERTISE

Innovation

The scope and scale of the innovation you plan to undertake must be aligned to your ultimate ambitions and capacity. While many organizations claim an innovation agenda, we know it is essential to match your culture, resource allocation, and capabilities to your specific needs and the needs of the customers you serve. Our approach to facilitating innovation uses a formal process to set goals, expectations, budgets and schedules. 

EXPERTISE

Research

We seek to understand the internal and external contexts and your current strategies or tactics. To gain a broad perspective on a given topic, we often design mixed method studies, using both qualitative and quantitative methods for information capture and processing. 

EXPERTISE

Strategy

Strategy serves as the conceptual glue, guiding a venture in all its related decisions to the goal; both what to do and perhaps more importantly, what not to do. Strategy is concerned with the path between the objectives and the means to get there. Strategy provides coherence to all those involved in an organization, directing positioning, targets, framework, priorities, resources, metrics, timelines, promotion, and the development of new opportunities. KerrSmith has worked on strategies in a wide range of sectors and scales.

EXPERTISE

Engagement

Our engagement and consultation process seeks to inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower stakeholders to obtain feedback for development of concepts. 

A SELECTION OF OUR ENGAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 

Workshops

Electronic Surveys

Websites and Online Forums

Social Media

Individual Interviews

Intercept Interviews

Public Forums, Town Halls, and Panel Presentations

Exhibitions and Suggestion Boxes

Telephone Surveys

Mentimeter

EXPERTISE

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving. We use a variety of tools to zero in on the issues, clarify insights and explore ideas. Our studio-based methodology of research, insight, ideation, rapid prototyping, learning and refining establishes a space for nonjudgmental creativity. 

EXPERTISE

Branding

At KerrSmith Design, we help clients develop meaningful relationships with their target groups through compelling brand strategies and identities that stand out and create a unique experience. The key to success for branding is defining a purpose and meaning and achieving the proper balance between style and substance. All brands need a strong creative platform to thrive in the marketplace, but they must be backed up by strategic direction and true insights.

EXPERTISE

Communication Design

We use editorial design techniques to ensure messages are easy to understand and conveyed in a compelling way. Driven by strategic planning, our capabilities in communication design include print, environmental and digital applications. From brochures to websites, events, spaces and mobile applications, we write, edit and design integrated on-message solutions. We integrate messages, language and graphic design in a focused way to bring effective results to our clients with the goal of achieving objectives.

EXPERTISE

Industrial Design

Our product and system design focuses on research and innovation. Common to all our work is an underlying problem-solving methodology coupled with a strong aesthetic sensibility and drive to meet user needs and realize ideas as fully engineered goods. Our studio is well-versed in multiple prototyping methods and crafts targeted solutions through an iterative process. We believe it is essential that prototypes, whether narrative, physical, digital, or experiential, are made quickly, so as not to invest emotionally in any ideas that will be rejected. Our knowledge of Strategic Foresight, trends, disciplined research methods and material and design expertise, have defined us as one the premiere Industrial Design studios in Canada.

OUR INDUSTRIAL DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Consumer Products

Housewares & Appliances

Furniture & Furniture Systems

Healthcare Products

Retail Merchandising

Health & Beauty

Packaging

Technology

Flooring

Lighting

Signage, Wayfinding and Donor Recognition

Textiles

EXPERTISE

Teaching

Helen Kerr and Nigel Smith have extensive teaching experience at the post-secondary level. Helen Kerr teaches at the University of Waterloo in their new Futures of Cities program, at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Helen also teaches at OCAD University in the Strategic Foresight & Innovation Master of Design program. Helen has developed curriculum for both universities. Nigel Smith taught communication design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard for 7 years. As part of the Faculty of Architecture at the GSD his course covered a range of branding, information, organization and presentation strategies.

FUTURE CITIES PROGRAM

Helen is the founding practitioner-in-residence at the University of Waterloo’s Future Cities Program. Research there encompasses the full range of urban systems and challenges including climate change, mobility, urban planning and housing, land-use, waste management, energy efficiency, safety and security, healthcare and education. During her recent field trip to Singapore she investigated the local government’s embrace of Futures methods, led a workshop at an international planning firm and toured benchmark innovative city-building projects.

The Program brings together a global network of interdisciplinary researchers from a variety of fields, industry leaders, practitioners, students and community members to develop new tools and approaches for building healthy, prosperous and sustainable cities.

EXPERTISE

Lectures & Public Speaking

Whether in an academic, public or business setting, Helen Kerr and Nigel Smith are adept at presenting to large or small groups. Talks are tailored, illustrated, pointed and relevant. Our experience includes speaking at universities, government events, international forums, design conferences, futures and foresight conventions, specific business sector gatherings or directly to clients. We also have broad experience conducting seminars and participating at workshops and roundtables.

SELECT PUBLIC SPEAKING

Consortium for Scenario Planning, Salt Lake City, Utah
Singapore Institute of Planners: Planex Conference – Global 
Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, USA
Century Plan City Builders, Chicago, USA
SXSW, Austin, USA
Resilient Cities, Rockefeller Foundation, New York, USA
Global Futures, Geneva, Switzerland
Creative Economic Futures, Brussels, Belgium
Futures of a Complex World, Turku, Finland
International Design Conference, Tijuana, Mexico
Best Practices in Building Systems, Vancouver, Canada
NeoCon, Chicago, USA
Economy Policy Summit, Detroit, USA
International Design Principles & Practices, Toronto, Canada

SELECT LECTURES

Canadian Forces College, Toronto, Canada
Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Northeastern University, Boston, USA
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
Sheridan College, Oakville, Canada
Technical University of Eindhoven, Netherlands
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada 
University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
York University, North York, Canada

DISTINCTION

Awards & Distinction

Accent on Design, New York

Advertising & Design Club of Canada, Toronto

AIGA, New York

Alcuin Society, Canada

American Center for Design, Chicago

American Institute of Architects, Washington

Applied Arts, Toronto

Design Effectiveness Awards, London

Design Exchange, Toronto

ISDA Gold, USA

Phaidon Spoon, Top 100 Designers, London

© KerrSmith Design 2023

KerrSmith Design
550 Queen St. East, Unit 335
Toronto, ON M5A 1V2
416-703-5377