In 1998, Catherine Winckler cajoled her partners in their traditional graphic design firm to travel to Toronto for the now legendary World Direct Marketing Association conference where the end of print was prematurely forecast, but the focus on digital was not to be denied. The studio never looked back. Early success with projects such as incubating the groundbreaking manga novel, Broken Saints (Sundance Online Festival award winner), and creating the World Viral Awards’ XmasBash put Switch United on the map as digital storytellers. Catherine has been at the helm of this change, a writer at heart, and a strong entrepreneur in execution (past ‘Top 100 Canadian Women in Business’), continuously looking for new ways to move the studio in new directions. Today the team works with major broadcasters and producers on properties including Primeval: New World, Ice Pilots NWT, Arctic Air, Cupcake Girls, and an upcoming online and mobile project for TSN. However, this is just half the story as Switch continues to focus on its own experimental work on digital environments, a fan engagement product for sports facilities, an NFB interactive experience, and a webisode series now in development. Catherine has been involved as a judge with FITC since its early days; is on the advisory of Merging + Media in Vancouver, is a founding member of Transmedia Vancouver, and participates actively as a member of the CMPA (Canadian Media Producers Association) representing independent media producers in Canada.
