As a young man still in high school, I won provincial wide accolades for my videography work during our grade 11 project and ended the year with one of the top marks in the province in creative classes. Naturally, I wanted to study something creative at College.
I spent my first year in Fine Arts at Dawson College then switched to what was then called Commercial Art, studying graphic design, composition, architectural drawing, photography, typography, set design, colour, art history, mechanical drawing, sculpture and a variety of other courses. After graduating college, I was ambitious, worked hard and was fortunate enough to have worked in a creative capacity my entire working life.
Over a 40+ year career, I can look back and say that my life was filled with creative work, which culminated with my conceptualizing international Advertising Campaigns, Brand Identities, Direct Mail, Marketing Strategies, Product Launches and Global Websites. In 2001, I was awarded Best in Canada by the Canadian Marketing Association for Creative Direction for the launch of the Chrysler PT Cruiser.
It was a good career. I did everything I hoped to accomplish and that’s something I am content with.
But fresh out of college, I had some serious wanderlust and before getting down to work, set off in my MG Midget to visit Canada, the west coast of the US and a bit of Mexico.
Leaving Montreal, I travelled west through the provinces into BC before heading down through Washington, Oregon and California, heading briefly into Tijuana for a few days (I left my car in California and took a bus over), then headed over to the Grand Canyon and explored my way back up through the mid-west before arriving back in Niagara and home to Montreal where I opened my own small business, Steve Inks, and began creating while working for local clients and community newspapers conceptualizing ideas and layouts, illustrations & production.
So part of writing this website now is being able to look back at my life and tie my travels and work together – there was always a common thread. I wanted to travel and when the opportunity presented itself, I always said Yes.
Over the years, I worked as a Cartoonist, Production Manager, Layout Artist, Storyboard Artist, Animator, Art Director, Account Executive, Marketing Director and finally, as a Creative Director, working on advertising campaigns, branding, collateral materials, product design and websites for a group of clients which became virtually global.
I am very grateful for all the opportunities I had and for all the chances I took.
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Early on, I was so grateful to have the chance to create advertising concepts for retail clients first while working on a community newspaper, then with actual advertising agencies. I was thrilled to begin freelancing for Greenhouse, which was housed in an old greystone building on lower Crescent Street, Grey Advertising and Ogilvy & Mather in the late 70’s. I really felt like I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. Once I understood how advertising agencies worked, I went back to Concordia University in the evening to study Marketing Management. I wanted to learn how to market myself.
Still wanting to travel, in 1978, a week in Cancun and Isla Mujeres spent snorkelling absolutely astounded me at the life under the water. It was then that I decided to learn to scuba dive.
In early 1980, while still building Steve Inks, I was approached by O’Keefe Printing to work with them. They felt that I could grow my small client base at their company with the equipment they owned and after a considerable amount of thought, I said yes. For the entire decade of the 1980’s, I worked as an Account Executive at first and later, as the Director of Marketing for O’Keefe Printing in Montreal, winning multiple sales awards and marketing credibility.
In 1983, I headed to Martinique to complete a CMAS Certification (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques), which was the beginning of the journey to my becoming a Master Scuba Diver.
In 1986, I landed a project which took me to St. Martin in the French West Indies for a full year, where I helped launch the first tourism magazine on the island, Discover St. Martin. Brian O’Keefe had given me permission to go – and promised me my job when I returned – and we collaborated by agreeing that any projects they could produce, I would send to them, which turned out to be many.
During this time, I spent many weekends sailing around the island and twice sailed to St. Barths with a few friends I had met. Upon returning to Montreal, after having spent weekends in St. Martin sailing and earning my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water Certifications, I decided to buy a 40 foot Beneteau and lived on her for the next four summers.
Lake Champlain, New York State
In 1991, after nine very successful years as an Account Executive and later, as Director of Marketing for O’Keefe Printing and having built the sales of the company to over $40 Million annually, I decided to take a year off and sail the east coast of the United States and The Bahamas. On that voyage, I stopped in Stuart, Florida for a month to complete my Bareboat Chartering Certification and then spent several months trying to find charter clients around Grand Bahama Island, while snorkelling and scuba diving.
While in the Bahamas, the marina I had been basing myself out of in Stuart, Florida contacted me over my VHF and told me I had received a call from the director of an advertising agency in Bermuda. When I contacted them the following week, they offered me a position as a Senior Art Director to help create tourism materials for the Bermuda Department of Tourism, Crisson Jewellers and The Royal Naval Dockyard, which was something I really wanted to do. In fact, I had applied for the position prior to leaving Montreal almost 9 months earlier and had forgotten about it.
I sold my boat and spent the next two years in Bermuda, working for Foote, Cone and Belding. I had considered sailing it over and living on it there but the Government of Bermuda imposed a 75% duty tax to bring the boat in and I decided I had had enough of owning a boat at that point.
In 1994, I returned to Montreal and became Creative Director for The Troppus Group, where I won Best in Show for my Exhibition Designs on three occasions. When I took over that position, sales were roughly $125 Million annually and when I left four years later, sales were in excess of $250 Million. In retrospect, this was the worst period of my working life as the company treated employees very poorly and I was very happy to leave. I liked the work I was doing just not the people I was working with…
Yim on our deck in Windsor, Ontario 1999
In 1998, I met Yim (above) and we took a vacation to Belize, where, on our first vacation together I decided to purchase 2 acres of oceanfront property on a whim. This is the time in my life where everything begins to change and come together, even though it will take another 20 years…
After returning to Montreal, in late 1998, I was asked to join Chrysler Canada / BBDO as their Creative Director and given the mandate to launch what was then a groundbreaking automobile, the PT Cruiser. I remember this was a big move and coming back home to Montreal to ask Yim if she would make the move with me. She didn’t hesitate and said Yes. I think if she had said no, our lives would not have been nearly as successful as they became. Yim supported me 100% during this period.
Chrysler was a creative breakthrough for me. The freedom the agency gave me helped me produce the best work of my career. During the two years I worked there, I was awarded Best in Canada twice by the Canadian Marketing Association. The launch of the PT Cruiser was, at the time, the most successful car launch in Canadian history.
Also during this period, I completed my Divemasters Certification in Lake Eerie and in 2001, completed my PADI Instructors Certification in Victoria, BC.
I had now achieved my long time goal of being able to teach scuba diving…
Our little Eco property in Belize, Ocean’s Edge.
By then, Yim and I had already decided to build our own small eco-resort and began designing the landscaping of the property and architectural plans for our first two houses. Over the next two years, we built a website and began taking pre-bookings for the Fall of 2001. By the time we had relocated to Belize, we had the houses booked for a full year.
However, luck was not on our side as a hurricane tore through southern Belize weeks before we were set to head down after having sold most of our furniture. Our roof was peeled back and the property was a mess when we arrived in Belize.
This evolved into our managing and marketing The Inn At Roberts Grove in Belize, where Yim took over as General Manager and I ran the Marina and Dive Operations. I spent the next four years teaching scuba diving and building our own beachfront property and was fortunate enough to lead the Board of Directors for the World Wildlife Fund on expeditions twice. My Bareboat Chartering Certification came in handy as Robert’s Grove owned six boats and I was able to also captain the boats regularly. I think it was this period of my life that changed me the most. It was certainly the most fun part of any ‘job’ I had ever had.
At the same time, Yim was voted as the Top Five Star Resort Manager in Belize two years in a row and before we left Belize, was being actively pursued by Francis Ford Coppola to run his new resort.
In 2005, Yim and I made the decision to leave Belize for a variety of reasons and returned to Montreal.
I spent the next year working with Doctors Without Borders, as well as several other non-profit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, Medic Alert and CUSO, and my work helped raise millions of dollars over that period.
In 2006, we chose to move back to Victoria, BC and I founded my own company – The Steve Roper Group – and while Yim went on to work as the Executive Administrator for the Ministry of the Environment for a decade, I went on to develop a long list of conservation and tourism oriented clientele.
For the last 15 years of my career, I concentrated on creating websites and other digital content.
One of my most successful projects was Craigdarroch Castle, where, over an eight year period, I increased the visitation to the website from 4,000 visitors annually to over 400,000 !
I consider myself to have been a Creative Director by my mid-forties. A Creative Director is responsible for everything – the big picture, leading graphic designers, copywriters, illustrators, photographers and production professionals and often work in tandem with Marketing Teams but I did both, providing guidance, creative direction and marketing strategy.
My list of clients included King Brothers in Victoria (with whom I am still working), Chrysler Canada, Craigdarroch Castle, The Marine Megafauna Foundation in Mozambique, The Town of Collingwood, Ontario, Doctors Without Borders, The Bermuda Department of Tourism, The St. Martin Department of Tourism, Henry Birks & Sons, IBM Canada, The Ogden Point Enhancement Society in Victoria, BC, O’Keefe Printing in Montreal, Choquette Law in Seattle, Swan Lake Nature Conservancy in Victoria, BC, Talking Oceans in Colombia, Two if by Sea in the BVI, Angel Solutions in Victoria, View Master Optics in BC, Twin Pine Orchards in Thedford, Ontario, The Troppus Group in Montreal, The Great Canadian Cider Company, Partymart in Montreal and Andrea Marshall, Queen of the Mantas and National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
In looking back, having had the opportunities that I had and the chances that I took have made for a well lived life, coupled with travels, a year long sailing adventure aboard Blue Grace and building our little eco-resort property, Ocean’s Edge in Belize. In fact, becoming a Master Scuba Diver Trainer was probably my favourite accomplishment. It opened up a world to me I wanted to explore.
And of course, Yim has always exerted a certain amount of influence in me life over the past 25 years…
2024 has arrived and we are well retired in the small community of Collingwood on the shores of Georgian Bay. I am now more interested in our health, nutrition, family and travel. We have adopted a plant based diet and each enjoy daily exercise regimes. I run 12.5 K every morning then go to the gym for strength training while Yim enjoys Ballet, strength training and Burlesque classes while also teaching Zumba. We are active.
Life continues…
Georgian Hills above our home in southern Georgian Bay.
We still plan to travel extensively and I have integrated our travels and stories into this website and will continue to write about our travels.
Life, for me, has become much more about the quality of life Yim and I share rather than making more money… and that’s taken far too long for me to learn but learn I have and I look forward to the next phase of our lives.
The truth be told, being able to chronologically document the work I did in my life and the interests I had as I moved forward is a cathartic experience in many ways. It provides me with a sense of balance of my life and it provides me with a sense of accomplishments for all the years I was so focused on achieving these goals.
I am grateful.
