As founder and president of 50 Carleton, the largest advertising agency in northeastern Ontario, Réal Fortin was a mover and shaker, meeting with important government, corporate and community leaders, and influencing decisions which helped to shape the North's image of itself and its national and international brand.
His clients included Cambrian College, City of Greater Sudbury, Collège Boréal, Inco Ltd., Bell Canada and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.
Then 15 years ago, he quietly retired from his frenetic profession.
Today, his job title is "designer and builder of fine furniture." And at 72, he couldn't be happier.
'The last two or three years of my career, I used to sleep every second or third night, that is how stressed I was."
As technology transformed the advertising business from paint brush to digital, "I really lost the interest, that flame I used to have," he said.
Fortin grew up in Haileybury where he remembers being inspired by Jon Gnagy who gave drawing lessons on television in the 1950s and 1960s.
"I took the Jon Gnagy evaluation test which said I should become a commercial artist," he chuckled.
"(But) my guidance counsellor told me arts was something you do on weekends. I got a scholarship to study electronics at Ryerson in Toronto. When I got the textbooks, there were no pictures and that made me change my mind. I didn't want to go there."
Instead, he followed his instincts and studied commercial art at Mohawk College in Brantford.
In 1971, he moved to Sudbury and enrolled in the graphic design and marketing program at Cambrian College.
His teacher was Edward M. Donald, a talented American designer and artist, who had worked with the Ministry of Natural Resources in Toronto. After leaving Cambrian, Donald went on to work as art supervisor for J. Walter Thompson in Detroit, and other top agencies.
"He was incredible. He got me a job as an illustrator for a kitchen cabinet retailer who sold kitchens with pretty paintings," said Fortin.
Still in his 20s, Fortin had the opportunity to learn about printing and publishing when he worked in the Sudbury office of MTS, an American company with the contract to design training programs and print manuals for Inco.
While still at MTS, he started a design business in his house, which was located at 50 Carleton St. That business became 50 Carleton & Associates. (Incidentally, Carleton Street was wiped off the city map when the Brady Street extension to Lloyd Street was built.)
The agency attracted prestigious accounts looking for bilingual marketing, advertising, and promotional services. The staff soon outgrew the house on Carleton and moved into the "flat iron" Moses Block on Durham Street.
"I spent more renovating the building than I paid for it," Fortin said. "We just gutted it. I was sold on the shape of the building and the light from the windows on the second floor."
At one time, 50 Carleton also had offices in Toronto and Montreal.
Fortin was honoured by the Sudbury Design Society as "one of the fathers of the Greater Sudbury design industry," and he has been a mentor to many people working in design and advertising today.
He remembered asking his doctor when one knows they are about ready to lose it. "When you start asking," his doctor said.
Fortin told his partners he was retiring on his 55th birthday.
"I retired on a Friday. And Monday morning I was OK. The deadlines were gone; the stress was gone … . Remember that slogan, ‘Freedom 55’."
Fortin is enjoying his retirement with his wife, Lynn. Both are volunteer drivers for the Canadian Red Cross.
He also is enjoying sharing his passion for woodworking, something he learned from his father, with his grandsons.
His beautiful and unique furniture designs for Fortin Originals might be described as contemporary art deco.
" I still get to exercise my creativity designing furniture,” he said. “I can do it on my own and I do not have to answer to anybody … I only create things I like.”
Vicki Gilhula is a freelance writer. Prime is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
