About Us

The NULL & VØID Story.

Hi, I’m Marc.

There is no “Us”.

I’m the Owner and Sole Proprietor of NULL & VØID Design. I’m also the Creative Director, Office Manager, CSR, Head of Sales, Annoying Intern, Office Flirt…

I wear many hats, you do too. That’s why you’re here.

I’ve spent two decades working in the Advertising and Entertainment industries in Toronto as a Client Service professional. In that time I became pretty good at taking care of my clients. Actually, I became really good at it. That could be why it took me so long to realize that I had abilities that were being drastically underutilized if not ignored completely.

My creativity.

I’ve always had it, and I’ve always longed to use it to its full potential. It took a while to sink in but I finally realized that a change was in order. I set some new goals for myself and spent the next two years taking college courses at night, saving money, and working hard. I completed my courses, and proudly added “Graphic Designer” to my list of credentials.

I made a plan.

I thought the best way to move forward would be to find an entry-level, full-time position as an in-house Graphic Designer at some large company or agency. This would mean taking a 50% or more pay-cut half way into my career, so…

Simultaneously, I would start up my own business on the side to earn some extra dollars, and slowly grow it into a full-time gig. It was a good plan, a somewhat safe one. I parted ways with the company I had been working at, dipped into my savings, and gave myself a few months off to do a bit of travelling and get myself hired.

I rode boats, planes, and trains and got to experience a bunch of places I’d always wanted to visit. My first month off was awesome. My second month off, I got busy. I sent out resumes on a daily basis, dozens of them. I landed a few interviews, and started doing some really cool volunteer work to kick start my portfolio.

Then Covid-19 happened.

F*ck. The job opportunities disappeared, and traffic to my online portfolio dried right up. No one was looking, no one was hiring, no one was doing anything except buying toilet paper, and doom-scrolling on social media.

Unprecedented times indeed.

Through relationships I had made during my previous life in the ad industry, I won some small projects that paid a few dollars, and had potential for more work down the road. The feedback I was getting for the work I had been doing was very positive – it boosted my confidence.

It became clear to me that if I wanted somebody to hire me full-time as a Graphic Designer, that somebody was going to have to be me.

So I hired me, and now I’m the boss too.

One of the few good things that being isolated at home for months gave me was the time and the space to find the motivation I needed to get off the job search boards and start trying to make things happen for myself. Necessity certainly is the mother of invention.

I’ve learned first hand that starting up a business is hard work – a lot of it. But you know that already (that’s why you’re here). Unlike me, you probably weren’t fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to use hundreds of hours of classroom time and dozens of school assignments over the span of two years to build your brand.

Going back to school taught me a lot.

The most important thing I learned at school (aside from how Graphic Design software applications work), is that I’ve always had solid design instincts – I’ve been a student of those my entire life. I’ve long had an intuitive sense of how to properly compose a layout, match colours, use the right fonts, and combine all those skills and more in effective and imaginative ways to capture a specific mood. Now all I’ve got to do is prove it. Thanks for listening to my story.

Now, let me help you tell yours.