Publishing company draws interest to Alberta’s rich history
By Anna-Grae York
EDMONTON — A west Edmonton publishing company is helping Albertans get back to their roots through unique, accessible historical products.
Soul of Canada, located at 14224 Stony Plain Rd., creates products that zoom in on aspects of Albertan and Canadian history that owner and creative director Randal Kabatoff says most of us have lost touch with.
“We take for granted a lot of how we got here,” says Kabatoff. “We enjoy different goods and services, but we don’t really understand all of the background industries, people, innovations, evolution… so my job is to help us connect with an area that we’re very proud.”
The company produces two main products: historical calendars and framed history showcases. The calendars, Kabatoff says, are the most popular due to their accessibility.
“It’s unique, for the most part, in that it’s actually a blend between a book and a calendar,” he says. “You know, if you think of it, it’s really a wall-book. How many books have you ever seen on a wall, or read from a wall? It’s very rare.”
Each calendar has a theme having to do with some part of Alberta history. Past themes include workhorses, oilsands, and a custom 50th anniversary calendar for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Production Accounting. Each month of a calendar hosts a unique story on the topic. There is no shortage of pictures, either. Kabatoff says about 100 historical photographs can be found in each calendar.
Soul of Canada's chief graphic designer Scott MacPhee (left) and owner/creative director Randal Kabatoff pose in front of the proofs for their upcoming calendar on Alberta's oil history. Photograph by Anna-Grae York.
Kabatoff is proud of his creations not only because of their content, but also because he has made them so accessible. Soul of Canada does work for both corporations and individuals.
“There’s an advantage to getting calendars on the walls because there’s a tradition of hanging them, a tradition of giving them,” he says. “We picked that strategically because more people would see a calendar. Any given calendar would be seen by more eyes than any one book.”
The Soul of Canada team is working on a petroleum pioneers calendar, which will feature stories on the historical figures who shaped Alberta’s petroleum industry.
In addition to the calendars, the company also creates framed history showcases, which are framed compilations of about seven photographs and a small paragraph on the topic. For example, there are history showcases on certain pioneering oil wells.
Soul of Canada is involved in every aspect of the creation of these products, from the research to the graphic design and photo collecting, all the way down to the framing in their basement frame shop.
Kieran LeBlanc, the executive director at the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, says it’s becoming increasingly hard for publishing companies such as Soul of Canada to get their hard-copy content out there.
“The publishing industry faces many challenges,” LeBlanc says. “Because of the whole digital world, it’s not just publishing a printed book anymore. Now, there are eBooks — for the iPad, the Sony Reader, things like that.”
LeBlanc says that now, a company’s website and the content it puts online is just as much of a product as a printed copy. However, she says that in some cases, readers will read content online and then want a hard copy as well, so it’s not all a loss.
Soul of Canada is doing its best to keep up with the technology by putting some select content on its website, but still wants to keep to the tradition of hard-copy content.
“That’s what Soul of Canada is about; it’s experimenting with a couple of different media and testing them to see if they’re working as a way for history delivery,” says Kabatoff.
Soul of Canada’s mission is to raise the importance of our history and roots in a world where most people have lost touch with or don’t care about such things.
“Part of our pride, our meaning, and purpose as Canadians is knowledge of our history, our roots and our heritage,” he says, sitting at a table that goes back three generations into his family. “And Soul of Canada puts together information in an accessible way to speak to that.”
Kabatoff says Soul of Canada plans to publish a book on the history of oil in Alberta after Christmas, as well as a calendar based on what pioneer life in Alberta was like. You can browse their products here.
