Dear friends, family, clients & partners, and community! In keeping with our annual tradition, we present our AR24. This past September marked our 15th anniversary. We’ve come so far as a small founding ragtag team, naive and full of dreams. And still, we’re alive and thriving, with another 85 years before our 100th anniversary.
Today, we’re proud and honoured to report to you – our supporters – our last year’s result of growth, growing pains, achievements, and most importantly, the things we did to give back and pay forward.
From the first day of business, PD has continued to be a purpose-driven company, aiming to raise intelligence and awareness (I+A) at home, at work, and at large. The achievements in this report could not have been made without the support of our amazing clients and community, and the loving dedication our teammates put in daily.
In service,
KM
CEO & Founder
PD Milestones
Let’s get down to some PD business first, with highlights of some internal milestones.
Business Updates
3rd Acquisition
We strengthened and expanded our video and motion capabilities with the acquisition of FWI Media. This acquisition followed two others between 2020 and 2023, namely MC2 Media and BizMedia, enhancing our robust video production capabilities from pre to live to post. We’re honoured for the highly talented FWI folks to join the our growing team. We look forward to many decades of creative collaboration.
Read Three Acquisitions = One Dream Team
New HQ on Queen West
Entering 2024, PD embraced a growth spurt, saying goodbye to our beloved condo office and moving into a larger, dynamic space in Toronto’s vibrant Queen West district.
Check out our New PD HQ
New Studio in the Junction
In March 2024, the talented FWI Media team joined Pixel Dreams, expanding our capabilities and establishing “5A” as our third Toronto working location.
Check out our Junction Studio
New office in Hanoi, Vietnam
Striving to become your around-the-clock creative agency, we’ve been building an incredible team of stars across the ocean. In 2024, we officially opened an office in the heart of Hanoi. Leading our creative operations there is Jules, aka Heart, who embodies the spirit and dedication driving our growth in the region.
Check out our New Office in Hanoi
New PDTers
In case you aren’t familiar with the acronyms, PD is Pixel Dreams, the company, and PDT is Pixel Dreams Team, the people. We welcomed three handfuls of new PDT members, and appointed some old members in new roles.
Key role updates:
- Lannie aka Star, CMO
- Trevor aka Ideas, CD & Design & Motion Team Lead
- Sarah aka Energize, VP of Client Success
- Jenn aka Thrive, Special Ops Missions
Welcoming:
- Vito aka Nexus, COO & CFO
- Elliott aka Elevate, ECD
- Jules aka Heart, Hanoi Manager & AD
- Dylan aka Stories, CD & Story Team Lead
- Bobby aka Integrity, PM Team Lead
- Kevin aka Create, Senior Producer
- Karis aka Collab, Senior Producer
- Harvey aka Enhance, Editor
- Diego aka Move, Motion Designer
- Dylan aka Imagine, Jr PM
- Haley aka Bright, Jr PM
- Chi aka Accelerate, Reporting
- Keeshia aka Loyal, Admin
- August aka Bold, Designer
- Annie aka Glow, Designer
Anniversaries
Sarah’s 10th Anniversary
Joining PD in 2014, Sarah started as an unpaid intern. Today Sarah is a shareholding partner, serving as our VP of Client Success. Sarah co-leads our PM team and and guides our account leads to deliver exceptional client service. To mark her incredible journey, we staged a surprise celebration.
Check out Sarah’s 10th Anniversary
Read Sarah’s PD Story
PD 15th Anniversary
After much consideration, our leadership team made the decision to celebrate PD’s 15th anniversary in a modest manner. We enjoyed a humble celebration in the park with the PDT, sharing fun, laughter, and chatter on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
Check out our 15th Anniversary Celebration
Giving Forward
To the Next Generations!
PD Builds Our First Children’s Library in Vietnam
March 2024: We officially opened a children’s library in rural Vietnam. PD was honoured and recognized with an official plaque, a provincial certificate from the Quảng Trị government, and lovely tokens of gratitude from the locals where the library resides. Our CMO and Partner Lannie spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony in January, and our CEO Khalid spoke at the opening ceremony in March.
Read about Our First Children’s Library
Kids Bootcamps
2024 was our second year of hosting March Break and Summer bootcamps for kids. PD has always been a family-friendly environment, where kids feel welcome and inspired. In our 2024 bootcamps, kids got to work with AI and Scratch, and even launched an online game!
Sparroways Giveaways
Located in Toronto’s North York, Sparroways is a low-income housing community where two PDTers grew up. In a serendipitous twist of events, a conversation turned into a surprising opportunity to work close in hand with Sparroways Restorative Justice Program (RJP). PD contributed creative services, Indigo gift cards, PDVERSE children’s books, and love.
See what we did at Sparroways Fall Fest
More Pro Bono Work
Their Story,
Our Story Charity
TSOS is a US-based charity dedicated to empowering refugees and fostering understanding. TSOS gives refugees a worldwide platform to share their experiences, hopes, and dreams. This was our second year working with their marketing team on branding and marketing assets.
Waldorf Holiday
Cookies & Calendar
The Toronto Waldorf School held their annual fundraiser in November. In exchange for donations the school offered Holiday Cookie mixes made by their students and a 2025 calendar showcasing art made by their grade sevens. Our team designed the cookie jar label and the calendar, as well as covered the printing costs.
Artificial Intelligence
At Pixel Dreams, we believe in pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Working with AI, we pushed boundaries exponentially further.
We dedicated significant resources to experimenting with cutting-edge AI. As a result, we achieved what would have once been impossible feats—delivering high-impact results in record time and on lean budgets. This commitment to innovation has empowered us to bring even greater value to our clients, turning ambitious ideas into reality faster than ever before.
We look forward to sharing AI case studies in the near future.
WednesdAI YouTube Channel
What started out as our weekly internal report on AI turned into a weekly YouTube news segment. Our talented creator, Sean aka Ascend, took the reins to host the weekly show, working closely with our creative team to lead the production. Since its launch in February, our team hasn’t missed a beat, yielding 300+ subscribers and over 10,000 minutes watched!
Check out WednesdAI Articles
Watch WednesdAI on YouTube
Updated Tools List
From creative innovation to business automation, our team stays at the forefront of the latest AI tools. This keeps us competitive by reducing the time needed to complete work and optimizing our processes. The time savings and efficiencies we achieve are passed directly to our clients, ensuring greater value and impact. The following spreadsheet lists the latest AI tools our team uses.
Check out PD’s AI Tools
Culture & Purpose
Upholding Culture
Culture Review 2024
Every year, we ask our team to gut-check PD culture. We ask what they love, what needs fine-tuning, and what makes our culture worth celebrating. Then, we dig deeper. We encourage the team to examine their health and professional goals, assess external threats, and explore ways PD can bridge any gaps they find.
Health, Wellness, Personal & Professional Develompent
How has PD supported you in your health goals?
How has PD supported you in your personal & professional achievements?
Word Clouds
We ask our team to provide five words that best describe our culture. Then we turn them into word clouds (though it would be more accurate to say word tumbleweeds). The following images were assembled based on frequency and theme.
Check out our Culture Review 2024
Summer Getaway & Summit
After an intense first half of the year filled with changes, challenges, and opportunities, our leadership team decided to forgo this year’s Summer Getaway and double down on serving our clients. That said, we hosted various events throughout the year to ensure there were still meaningful opportunities to connect and celebrate as a team.
We look forward to continuing our Summer Getaway & Summit tradition this July, 2025.
Check out our 2023 events:
2023 Summer Getaway
2023 Summer Summit
Winter Summit 2024
Our biggest Winter Summit yet brought together 40+ PDTers for a full day packed with meaningful moments. We celebrated wins, reflected on challenges, and honoured our top learners. This year’s Summit was our most vibrant yet, including a new #RasingStandards case study series called: Drama Edition!
Here’s to learning, growing, and gathering again next year.
Mechs and Minds
We explored the deep-rooted fascination with giant robots — examining their psychological appeal, cultural evolution, and iconic forms in pop culture. From Voltron to Metal Gear Rex, this project paired thoughtful analysis with an original trading card collection.
Bouncy Belongings?!
Book & Animation
We’re always up to creative trouble, in the background. One of those creative initiatives was launching a children’s book accompanied by an animated audiobook. Bouncy Belongings?! is a story of kids in the neighborhood losing their belongings, and the parents that have to put up with it! Sound familiar?
Upholding Purpose
At Pixel Dreams, our purpose is to raise intelligence and awareness (I+A) — an everlasting endeavour that starts within. Meaningful growth comes from consistently doing the small things throughout the year. Below are a few initiatives we took to uphold this purpose and foster a culture of learning and growth.
Star Trek Scholarship
$1,000 a season? In January we launched our Star Trek Scholarship program. More than an incentive to binge watch geek sci-fi; it was a testament to our dedication to raising I+A. Studying Star Trek is a master class in advancing in the philosophies of management, leadership, teamwork, problem solving, values, principles, and so much more.
Field Manual 2025
Every great team needs a playbook. At Pixel Dreams, our Field Manual is a living document that keeps our purpose, missions, values, and best practices clear for everyone. The manual aims to bring alignment, consistency, and high standards across the company.
Learn why every team benefits from a Field Manual and how we’ve updated ours for 2025 to keep PDT sharp, focused, and ready for the challenges ahead.
Heartbeat Meetings
Weekly Heartbeat is a term coined at Pixel Dreams for our thrice-weekly all-hands meetings system, designed to keep our team working as one healthy organism. These meetings have become the glue that holds our people together, instilling our organization’s values, cultivating teamwork, and nurturing culture.
Monday Morning Meetings
Wednesday Goal Meetings, including WednesdAI screenings
FRI & Weekly Wrap-ups
Preparing for heartbeat & set up for FRI meetings
Why invest so much in Weekly Heartbeats?
Read: Learn why you should implement Weekly Heartbeat meetings
Friducation
Originally launched around 2010, Friducations began as educational events and activities held on Fridays. Over time, the term has evolved to encompass all of our educational events and activities throughout the year. Below are this year’s stats.
43 total events, including:
Fireside Chats
Presentations
Movie Nights
much more!
I+A Awards Report
As Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets improved,” which is why we measure and report on our internal I+A efforts. Below are our company-wide stats, along with individuals who achieved the highest results in various categories.
Team Stats
📚 Books | 73,905 Pages Read | 257 Books | 73 Fiction | 184 Non-fiction
🎧 Audiobooks | 39,674 Minutes Listened | 93 Audiobooks | 9 Fiction | 84 Non-fiction
🎓 Courses | 4,869 Minutes Studied | 32 Courses
📺 Educational Podcasts & Videos | 24,900 Minutes Studied | 602 Total Podcasts & Videos
🖖 Star Trek | 53,340 Minutes Viewed | 16 Participants | 48 Seasons Worth
Top Scholars
16 Books
🥇
15 Books
🥈
13 Books
🥉
📚 Page Master (Most Pages Overall)
6,341 Pages
🥇
5,639 Pages
🥈
5,351 Pages
🥉
🎧 Audiobooks Listened To
12 Audiobooks
(5,901 & 3,589 mins)
🥇
10 Audiobooks
(4,348 mins)
🥈
9 Audiobooks
(5,901 & 3,589 min)
🥉
🎓 Courses Completed
10 Courses
(1,665 mins)
🥇
6 Courses
(1,155 mins)
🥈
4 Courses
(360 & 342 mins)
🥉
🎓 Minutes Magician (Most Minutes Overall)
(13,213 mins)
🥇
(11,663 mins)
🥈
(9,447 mins)
🥉
🖖 Star Trek Seasons
7 Seasons
🥇
5 Seasons
🥈
3 Seasons
🥉
Conclusion
While the world faced uncertainty, we doubled down on serving our clients and community. From new initiatives like WednesdAI to opening a Children’s Library, 2024 was a year of service. We’re grateful for the clients and partners who keep us busy throughout the year.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve.
