Kastor&Pollux: the stories behind this one-of-a-kind agency

Get to know the owner & Creative Director, Dani Roche, through this interview.

Last month, we had the chance to collaborate with Kastor&Pollux during a photoshoot with their fav items from our brand spanking new Little Burgundy FW18 collection. Given Dani Roche and Dani Reynolds’ amazing talent behind the camera, the selected items were certainly brought to life through colourful decors and tasteful arrangements from the studio. During some downtime, we sat down with one of the creative minds behind the agency, Dani Roche, to get a better idea of what K&P is all about.

How was Kastor & Pollux born?
Kastor & Pollux was founded in 2011. Over the past 7 years, the business has seen many changes pivoting from an e-commerce shop to a personal fashion platform/blog, to a contributor-based blog, and now to a creative agency (which is what it has operates as since 2016).

Could you tell us the story behind the name?
When I was in high school, I met a girl who was serendipitously into a lot of the same internet circles as me. Though our high school was fairly small, we actually ended up connecting on the music scrobbling website Last.FM. After a few MSN conversations, we decided to go into business together, and in 2008, we started an online e-commerce shop that sold vintage clothing. Because our friendship was so sudden, and our business partnership was so invested, our [respective] friend groups started to get confused as to who was who. Suffice to say, we were the same height, had similar hair, and went to a school with uniformsbut the idea of “twin-ship” and “twin-tution” stuck.

When we shut down the e-commerce website down and decided to start our next business, we wanted to choose a name that would pay an ode to our friendship. However, as much as we researched, we couldn’t find a set of twins with memorable names outside of the Olsens and Castor & Pollux (the Gemini twins). We chose the latter and swapped out the C for the K for the sake of better typography, and thus, Kastor & Pollux was born.

While we stopped working together in 2015, her friendship is so important to me and the name Kastor & Pollux is such a beautiful reminder of my humble beginnings.

How would you describe the brand identity of the agency?
The nature of our work is so varied so it’s hard to pin down! But I like to think of Kastor & Pollux as a company that integrates both aesthetics and information in an intelligent and accessible way. I’m a trained graphic designer who has been invested in visual/creative fields since childhood, so while I always want to prioritize the creation of high-quality visual content, I also want to consider the strategic side of every project in the process.

Dani Reynolds, who is Kastor & Pollux’s art director, also brings her flair for photography and set styling into the mix. Together, I think we make a great team because we can collaborate on how a project should look, feel, and function.

With Kastor and Pollux being based in Toronto, we’re sure you’re constantly inspired by this ever-changing city. Where do you get inspiration?
Toronto is a great city with a lot of talented people and young, promising businesses. It’s rich in diversity and culture, and I’m so grateful to live in a city with such great energy. Building Kastor & Pollux in Toronto has been wonderful, but I couldn’t say that there’s anywhere I go to get inspiration, because sources of inspiration aren’t really that absolute or definitive. I think inspiration can come from a conversation, a book, garbage you see on the street, insulation material at Home Depot.

You’ve worked with large corporations such as Bumble, Fido, Fujifilm, Girlboss, and many more. We’d love to hear your feedback on working with so many different brands and products. What’s the best part? What’s the most challenging?
It’s been so wonderful to work with partners who trust us, and luckily, Kastor & Pollux has been able to work with many. Openness and transparency when working on a project is invaluable, and I feel really grateful for that.
I think the biggest challenges for any project whether it’s corporate or editorial is ensuring that everyone knows what they are accountable for. As a result, I’ve learned to be over-zealous with planning and creating production schedules.

Pssst. We are very happy to announce you that Dani Roche and Dani Reynolds, from K&P will be at Osheaga next weekend! It will surely be a fun occasion to follow them as they show us around. Make sure to tune in! @daniesque, @daniirey, and @kastorandpollux.