We are a small, fast-reaction force that brings to bear more than 140 years of collective design experience to create beautiful things in tight situations. Aero‘s door is always open, no job is too small to take on, no visitor unwelcome, no promise that won’t be kept. To work in this pressurized business, you need to like what you do and love who you do it with. We keep a balanced crew that combines creative thinking with design talent and production excellence to ensure client satisfaction and office happiness.
DAVE O’MALLEY, B.Arch.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT
Dave is a graduate of the Carleton University School of Architecture and Urbanism. Never practicing architecture, he instead started Aerographics even before completing his degree. He has nearly 50 years of experience as an illustrator and over 40 as a graphic designer.
Self-taught in the techniques of graphic design, book design, creative writing and business development, Dave comes from an era when the tools of the trade were actual knives, pens and air brushes. However, he lives for the expansion of the imagination brought on by technology since the “old days.”
Dave is active in the community and, in addition to sponsoring events and charities in the city of Ottawa, he has sat on many boards of directors including RBC Bluesfest, the Canadian Tulip Festival, the National Capital Air Show and the Ottawa Ballet. Presently he sits on the boards of CityFolk Music Festival, the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation, the TELUS Ride For Dad, and the Canadian Research and Mapping Association.
ALEX MOYES II
SENIOR DESIGNER/ART DIRECTOR
We hired Alex right out of design school at St. Lawrence College in 1988 and he’s been a rock-steady designer and creative force at Aero since then. Alex is a gifted designer, a steadfast project manager and an integral part of our design team.
Alex grew up as a team athlete, playing football, baseball and hockey. This has given him a certain toughness, team spirit and dependability upon which all good design companies build their foundation.
Alex has expertise in all areas of graphic design and project management but excels in publication design and production. He is able to develop creative design solutions, execute them with precision and manage these projects through production and delivery.
He is an invaluable sounding board for design concepts, working with creative director Dave O’Malley to establish directions, develop concepts and fine-tune each other’s designs.
STEPHANIE OWENS
STUDIO MANAGER
Stephanie has been with Aero for more than 30 years. We call Stephanie our Studio Manager, but she is many, many things at Aero. She manages our office finances, payroll and invoicing, employee benefits and accounts receivable.
Stephanie assists in proposal development and writing, production schedule management, sourcing and acquiring technologies and resource accounts.
She has kept us on track and in the black for three decades.
Simply put, Stephanie looks after absolutely everything in our office that is not design related. She brings to the office a great sense of humour, indomitable spirit, open-mindedness and a formidable intelligence. She’s travelled all over the world and had many adventures. Without her, we would be lost… Dave for sure.
SANDRA HAMEL
SENIOR PRODUCTION ARTIST
A good design office has both great graphic designers and those who make graphic designers look great. Sandra is one of the latter. Because of her precision, our files are built faultlessly. Because of her extraordinary facility with Creative Suite, our larger projects are built efficiently and always on schedule. Because of her attention to the finest detail, if Alex and Dave are the designers, then Sandra is the builder.
Sandra is also an inveterate note-taker, lover of software short-cuts, tidier and listener. When design concepts from annual reports to posters have been approved for production, we send them to Sandra to be ”shamel-ized“
Of her inclination for perfection, Sandra says: “I live to know the difference between an apostrophe and a foot mark. Spotting the abuse of hyphens, en- and em-dashes is second nature. I love the joy and reward of consistency. I delight in lining things up, straightening things out, and proofreading (it’s a compulsion). I adore organizing anything (you should see my spice drawer). But what really matters is that I sincerely and truly care about these things.”
MERRILL O’MALLEY
ILLUSTRATOR AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Merrill is a gifted designer and illustrator and a creative addition to the studio. After studying at Ontario College of Art and Design, Merrill switched to Algonquin College, where she earned a diploma in cabinet-making. Following this, she was employed as a wood veneer specialist, working on the interiors of private business jets.
Merrill also worked in the television production field for a number of years, appearing in two popular television series produced by Mountain Road Productions for the Cottage Life Network—13 Episodes of Weekend Reno and 13 episodes of Reno My Reno.
Merrill is Aero’s illustrator, photographer, social media thinker, trends monitor and voice of compassion. She is a gifted and prolific creator of beautiful things—from clothing to furniture to collector pins to fine art. Her success on Instagram has garnered her thousands of followers and a valuable understanding of how social media works.
WILLIAM “WALLACE” BRAVEHEART KIRKPATRICK O’MALLEY
STUDIO DOG/GREETER/VERY GOOD BOY
Without opposable thumbs, part-time employee Wallace makes a terrible graphic designer, but as a greeter and all around morale booster, he excels. He is a gentle and quiet member of the team, always willing to enforce our mandatory ball throwing breaks, which work to reduce stress in the office.
Though his middle name is Braveheart, Wallace is afraid of wind, rain, thunder, fireworks, snowplows and sailboats (yes, sailboats, especially sailboats) and has been known to attack leaf rakes, snow shovels, hose streams and brooms. His hobbies include ball-hawking, dock-jumping, squirrel-chasing and stuffy-gutting.