Over the last three months, Toronto’s The Garden has picked up five new accounts, many of which are tapping the agency for branding and design.

The five clients consist of U.K.-based tour company Audley Travel, Stone Tile International, the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) and two unnamed Toronto-based global tech startups, one in the real estate industry, and another in the software sector. Shari Walczak, the agency’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, says the names of the two start-ups remain confidential due to the nature and stage of their businesses.

Three of the five clients – the two tech companies, as well as the Human Resources Professionals Association – have tapped The Garden to help develop their brand strategy and visual identity.

“We’ve found that the demand for brand strategy and visual identity has been quite consistent over time and makes up a large part of our portfolio of work,” says Walczak. “As clients are increasingly under pressure to establish an edge in their highly competitive categories, our strategic approach offers an ‘outsider advantage’ that helps to shift the lens, look at a situation with fresh eyes, and provide the strategic foundation to capitalize on a new opportunity.”

Mike Kovacs, business lead at The Garden, also notes a shift toward more project-based work among its client base. “So many companies and organizations today are adopting an approach where they work with a number of different partners purely based on their priorities and shifting budgets,” he says. “These new partnerships show our ability to work in this new environment, and our history shows that many of these project-based assignments turn into long-term client relationships.”

Walczak points to a number of clients, including Roots, Samsung, WowTech (previously Standard Innovation) and Capital One, that originally hired The Garden for specific one-time projects, but now continue to engage with The Garden on an ongoing basis.

As a result of the wins, Walczak also says it is looking to grow its creative team, with plans to hire three to four more staff in the coming months, bringing its total count to around 20.