www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, April 9, 2010 · 10 Artist's designs set on Canadian Tire coins By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF In an effort to commemorate family living in the Great White North, Canadian Tire has produced a series of coins -- with the help of a local artist -- depicting winter activities. Though Joe Morse is a Toronto resident, much of his work is done right here in Oakville where he is the co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Arts, Illustration Program at Sheridan College. The special edition coins had a limited run between Feb. 12 and March 4 and were produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. Each week a different coin was given to customers who spent more than $25 at a Canadian Tire store. Morse was the illustrator of the coins. The depictions on the coins are of people playing shinny hockey, tobogganing and skating. "It's very exciting because all of us have gone to Canadian Tire," Morse said of the project. "I have two young kids and I shop there all the time. It's an iconic retailer and it's something that's part of our Canadian experience." PHOTOS BY MICHELLE SIU / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER COINING A DESIGN: Local artist and educator Joe Morse designed these limited edition coins for Canadian Tire. Morse is an artist, illustrator and educator. He has worked with clients such as Major League Baseball, Nike, Universal Pictures, Target and major magazines and newspapers worldwide including Rolling Stone, The Times of London, Esquire, GQ and The New York Times. This was his first time working in advertising in Canada. Morse was asked to come up with a few general winter activities illustrations and then Canadian Tire narrowed it down to just hockey, skating and tobogganing. Then Morse went back and forth with the Mint in creating the coins. "It's a picture and a sculpture at once," he said of drawing coins. "I'm working flat. But it's going to be released as a little sculpture so it's important I work very sculpturally." He noted there are different rules to drawing for a coin compared to drawing for paper. "You need trees that have leaves. It's more appropriate because they can be more three dimensional than trees with just branches," he said. "You have to think very simply and graphically," he added. "It doesn't make sense to put a lot of detail that's not going to be shown. So I concentrated on some interesting edges and line quality and what was phenomenal was how much of that was retained in the final coin." When Morse was initially approached for the project, along with several other artists, he did not know what company he was drawing for. He was eventually selected as the artist and learned that he was working with Canadian Tire. He was asked to draw Canadian activities. "They're all outside and the emphasis was on trying to have a good mixture of kids and adults and have activities that depict what Canadians do," he said. For Morse, there was another bonus in illustrating the coins. "In the tobogganing coin, the little girl is a very good friend of our daughter. One of the skaters is my son. The coins are half the story for me and my family." Morse said he has three of each coin, one set for himself and the other two for his two sons. 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