Vanessa Eckstein RGD and the team at Blok Design redesigned the identity for Summerhill Market, one of Toronto's most loved and respected boutique grocery stores.

A game-changer in the grocery business, Summerhill Market is renowned for the superlative quality of its prepared foods and unique products. Blok's new identity reflects its progressive spirit while retaining the shop's personable warmth. Along with the logo, the studio redesigned Summerhill’s entire packaging system, including developing several of its in-house product lines.

Will Hum RGD, Paul Ratchford RGD and the team at Clear Space designed a student recruitment campaign for the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto (U of T).

The Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at U of T challenged Clear Space with creating a student recruitment campaign that not only stood out amongst competitive universities, but also among other faculties within U of T itself. While ensuring that the material was unmistakably part of the U of T family, the team was tasked with pushing the brand and its limits. Rather than leading with U of T blue, the design brings the school’s secondary colours to the forefront. A new display font was added to the visual style to make a bold impact. Another goal was to help the University dispel the myth that Kinesiology is just gym class. This was paramount as U of T aims to maintain a high academic standard, while attracting a culturally diverse range of students. Strong words were merged with dynamic images to communicate the University’s integrated approach.

Lionel Gadoury RGD and the team at Context Creative created 'Family Ties', a multimedia exhibit in close collaboration with the Archives of Ontario and its partners. 

Archives of Ontario is the second largest archives in Canada, with millions of documents, photographs, recordings, and educator resources. The Archives’ latest onsite exhibit, Family Ties, explores the Era of Confederation through the stories of four family groups in Ontario, conveying how their lives intersected with larger historical forces of the period. Images, text and artifacts reflect on the significant impact of residential schools on indigenous families through the records of the Shingwauk Residential Centre Archives. In contrast to the 1867 section, a look at how Ontario celebrated the Centennial anniversary of Confederation in 1967 is also featured. Ensuring diverse stories were presented in an engaging and respectful manner while also balancing the needs and priorities of multiple contributors was key. The exhibit had to meet diverse audience needs, ranging from school-age children to adults, while integrating extensive bilingual text. Upholding accessible design standards was another essential factor addressed by the design. A unique challenge was to creatively address the sudden shift between 1867 and 1967 sections of the exhibit. The solution is a “time portal” structure providing a playful transition for visitors.

Wayne McCutcheon RGD, Andrew Kuzyk RGD, Gordon McTaggart RGD and the team at Entro developed a donor recognition program for Humber College.

Humber College's North campus in Etobicoke was looking to recognize donors in a sophisticated and engaging way. Entro developed and implemented a recognition program that demonstrates the importance and impact of philanthropy to Humber College and expresses gratitude on behalf of their larger community. Taking inspiration from the Humber River and the green spaces that are part of Humber’s campuses, the wall is comprised of a series of individual hexagon tiles with the four donor levels identified through the use of varying materials. A series of seamlessly integrated touch screens introduces an interactive component that provides more in-depth information about individual donors, funds raised and project initiatives. 

Challenges: One of the challenges was in ensuring that the hexagon tiles were not only individually precise, but also placed correctly so that they could all fit perfectly. As there were 1,935 individual tiles, this required extreme attention to detail, as one mistake would cause a ripple effect on the entire wall. Another challenge was in using a random pattern but still indicating the different levels of giving. Entro achieved this by using the different colours (gold, silver etc), but also assigning a certain thickness to different donor levels. They used a unique formula to ensure that the pattern of colours and thicknesses was random throughout the whole wall, but still providing a visually pleasing and dynamic display. 

Find out more about Humber's Donor Wall: https://vimeo.com/201742165

Wendy Gray RGD and the team at Gravity Inc. created a report celebrating Munich Re's 25th anniversary. 

Munich Re is a global client with a distinctly European brand and exacting guidelines. Gravity was asked to prominently celebrate their anniversary milestone and push the boundaries as far as the guidelines would allow. A short fold cover is used to introduce the 25th anniversary which then transitions to a 2016 reveal. Chapter breaks focus on highlights over the years, using a cascading annual ticker. The end result is a completely fresh look that fits within the demanding brand standards.

Peter Scott RGD and the team at q30 design worked with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to produce a new website to communicate their merger with the Ontario Power Authority to both consumers and sector participants.

q30 used a determinedly user-first approach, producing personas and UX maps for eight distinct audiences. The team conducted 20+ stakeholder interviews, facilitated content modelling workshops and coordinated tree-testing, which informed everything from wireframes to content strategy. The resulting site design, architecture and navigation are a testament to the rigour of this user-focused approach.