London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is one of Canada’s largest academic health sciences centres, providing exemplary patient care, advancing medical research and educating the next generation of health professionals. Ever evolving to meet the growing and complex needs of patients, families and communities, it has became known as much for its innovation in research and treatment as for its care-focused community hospital.  

When the message gets lost in the mix

LHSC had earned worldwide recognition for leading in multiple areas of specialized care. But it was operating with multiple names and identities for its sites, departments, and foundation—contributing to a lack of clarity, a fragmented patient experience, and lackluster fundraising. With growing public expectations for transparency and integrated care experiences, LHSC saw the need to modernize and unify its brand and messaging to reflect its scale and commitment to shaping the future of health care.

Bringing the people and the pieces together

Ove consulted with diverse stakeholders, including doctors, staff and the boards of both the hospital and foundation, to develop a brand strategy that would reinforce a shared commitment to patient care, teaching and innovation. As a first step, protocols were established for naming hospital sites and departments to support a consistent experience across locations. As a priority, this fed into an initiative to better integrate and improve wayfinding signage.

Introducing a brand everyone could get behind

The new LHSC symbol featured a partial double helix DNA strand in human form, reflecting the scientific and human core of the hospital’s mission. Introducing a new brand identity unified LHSC locations, and visually connected the hospital and the foundation, strengthening public trust and donor confidence.

Equipped with a framework for going forward

Ove consulted on strategic messaging for the launch of the new brand, and managed its implementation on everything from forms to signage, creating comprehensive brand guidelines to ensure the program’s success going forward. As LHSC has continued to restructure and rename its facilities in the years following the launch, the brand program has continued to meet its needs.

Bringing the past and the future together

Ove worked with Ross & McBride to redefine its brand strategy and refresh its visual identity. The challenge was to uncover a solution that honoured and reflected the firm’s legacy and position it as a progressive, innovative practice.

Listening and learning

That duality was evident in the make-up of the firm. Senior partners shared an experience that was different from that of the next generation of associates, and there were differing views as to what the nature of this brand refresh should be. Some wanted a wholesale modernization, while others felt that an established approach spoke to the firm’s roots more effectively. In addition, the new brand also had to represent many different practice areas.

Engagement and insight

Through a process of thoughtful and respectful dialogue, collaborative engagement, and insightful analysis, a strategic brand framework was crafted to capture the essence of Ross & McBride’s past and its future. The brand framework, including mission, vision and brand promise statements, serve as a strong foundation for marketing and communications as well as talent recruitment and retention initiatives. This strategic foundation also defined the firm’s brand character – a set of values and behaviours that will help shape the culture of the firm and serve as their north star, guiding their business growth and evolution.

Capturing the continuum of change

With the brand strategy in place, we set out to develop a brand identity and visual system that positions the firm for the next chapter in its evolution. Informed by and insights gained through our engagement process and synthesized in the brand framework, we explored visual identities that represented a range of evolution options. The Ross & McBride visual identity achieves a careful balance of heritage and progress. The serif font and elegant ampersand evoke tradition and legacy, while the contemporary arrangement and colours signal that this is a firm that doesn’t stand still.

The visual identity was then expanded to create a broader system for visual expression, with the ampersand super-graphic featured prominently. The ampersand is a strong symbol that captures the collaborative, client-driven spirit of the firm.

Striking the right balance

The Ross & McBride brand strikes the perfect balance, and has the strong support of the many partners involved. Our strategic design solution spans old and new, resonates with corporate and individual clients, and distinguishes the firm from a crowded competitive landscape.

Defining Avison Young’s brand purpose required a deep understanding of its business environment and its distinct culture of combining time-tested values with fresh thinking.

Avison Young is built around the future of real estate. A future based on an open ecosystem of information that is attracting technology-first disruptors. This industry shift is also happening amidst increased public expectations of companies – the companies people work for, buy from, and invest in – to address societal challenges.

Our strategy driven by insight

Through surveys, interviews, sector research and workshops, our key insight was that commercial real estate isn’t just about buildings, offices, warehouses or cities but about creating winning conditions for the people, the businesses and the communities in them to thrive.

The brand purpose 

Following internal stakeholder engagement, Ove worked with the senior leadership team to develop the brand purpose: To create real economic, social and environmental value, powered by people. Based on a unique culture combined with an emerging strength in data-driven intelligence, Avison Young is well positioned to deliver on this, both now and into the future.

Clutter-breaking visual identity

Ove brought this brand purpose to life with a new brand identity program that expresses the incredible strength and potential Avison Young brings as a company. The new look exudes the energy of a challenger and projects key aspects of the purpose: people-centric and responsible.

Some minor refinements to the existing corporate wordmark were made to increase impact and legibility across a variety of platforms. This included migrating from the traditional red and blue to an all-black logo that conveys strength and confidence and clearly breaks away from its peer group. We partnered with Quebec artist and illustrator Pascal Blanchet to create a proprietary set of visual assets. The illustrations have a timeless, bold style that puts people at the centre, with energy and a human quality. 

Poised for impact

Launching in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, it’s more important than ever to be clear about why Avison Young matters and how they are different. The Avison Young internal marketing communication team managed the full implementation of the new program. With a clear sense of purpose and aligned values, the organization has a concrete path to guide them to create positive impact within new and ever-changing real estate realities.

Since 2010, Walmart Canada bank had been providing value-driven financial products to Canadians. Building on the foundation of Walmart’s “living better”, the bank was geared to be a different kind of lender – one that helped businesses connect with their customers by delivering customizable financial services solutions. After the sale of the banking division, the new bank was ready to grow and diversify its business beyond Walmart and towards new clients.

The journey towards change 

Drawing inspiration from the bank’s foundational DNA and after collaboration with their leadership team, Ove helped bring their vision to life. A distinct brand and culture started to take shape, different from other traditional and alternative banks, and what emerged was a partner bank that adds true value. Key positioning statements were developed:

• Providing value-driven financial services to help people live better
• Helping businesses connect with their customers to build stronger, more loyal and rewarding relationships.

The creation of a new and authentic brand identity

The name: Ove created the name Duo Bank as it speaks to the essence of partnerships. The short name, expressed through a simple, all lower-case, custom-designed typeface, is easy to understand and signals a straightforward, approachable and trustworthy bank.

The symbol: A bold, dimensional ‘D’ was created with dual lines that move in unison and intersect to further capture the essence of partnership. The innovative use of colour and graphics define a solid and memorable identity. Curved lines and details from the wordmark echo the lines expressed in the dimensional D for a connected mark.

Imagery: The visual expression supports the vision and mission, with imagery featuring approachable faces that provide a sense of innovation, authenticity and agility. Combined with a bold supergraphic on solid colours, the expression is recognizable and distinctly Duo Bank.

Brand colours: The core colour, plum, stands out as unique within the banking sector, helping to communicate that this is not your traditional lender. Plum is complemented with a deep grey-blue tone that imparts a sense of trust. Additional bright colours compliment the palette to convey a contemporary tone that is both optimistic and value-driven.

The result is a brand that is focused on doing what’s right for clients and achieves its goals in the most inspiring, innovative, value-driven and collaborative way possible.

Gowlings, a leading Canadian and international law firm, and Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co, an international law firm headquartered in the U.K., joined forces to create a new international law firm named Gowling WLG (GWLG). The resulting company is now a Global 100 law firm in 18 cities across Canada, the U.K., Europe, Asia and the Middle East/Gulf Region.

Development of a new brand positioning

Ove initiated focus groups and workshops, leader interviews and competitor audits, and reviewed third party research. The outcome of Ove’s investigative process was a resounding universal consensus that what defined both organizations – and therefore should be at the heart of the new brand – was GWLG’s ability to form close, long-term, productive, effective and even enjoyable relationships with clients and colleagues. It’s about people and relationships – the clients’ world first and foremost – that defines GWLG’s ‘product’ and drives value.

Creation of a tagline

The new brand map, positioning and architecture manifested itself through a new tagline developed by Ove, “In Tune with Your World”. The positioning connects with people, is relational and builds upon an insight that clients are looking for legal counsel that understands their business as a whole, rather than just the legal practices of their business. At a time of greater opportunity with new risks and unprecedented complexity, legal advisors must be at their clients’ side – moving at their pace and focused on the results that matter. This alignment is achieved by understanding their clients’ business and their industry – their world.

A new corporate and visual identity system

The Publicis network brought Ove, Nurun, MSL Group UK, Publicis Toronto and Publicis Montreal together in collaboration to bring the new brand to life. From the logo to content-managed global website, media relations to digital tube advertising, all assets were executed around the new communication platform with the new singled-minded proposition and a fresh and distinct look and feel.

Ove’s design solution for this new combined entity was to develop a logo containing a series of concentric circles – or camera shutters – to depict the idea of focus, a ‘lens’ that brings the world of GWLG’s clients into focus, helping to highlight what matters most, the symbolic relationship GWLG has with their clients.

This iconic shape became the heart of the visual identity system and overlaid images and colour planes to signify GWLG’s focus to serve its clients by being in tune with their world and ambitious for their success. Since the brand launch, Ove continues to support Gowling WLG on various communications and strategic brand-focused initiatives.

Transitioning to be a global player

The way power gets generated, transmitted, distributed and consumed is changing and is attracting new global players to the energy sector. To act on opportunities in a disrupted industry, the brand needed to support the organization’s growth strategy and evolution of its portfolios, both locally and beyond borders.

Transitioning from services to solutions

Collaborating closely with representatives from the four legacy companies, a newly formed board, and key stakeholders, we developed a brand strategy, new name and visual identity system to transition the company from one that offers energy services to one that delivers energy solutions.

The process of developing the brand strategy was an opportunity to galvanize and engage the organization’s senior leadership team around a new raison d’être and corporate purpose. It also allowed us to get direct input from employees through an online brand and values survey. Building off of the purpose, vision and values, we developed a brand framework that included a brand promise, positioning statement and personality.

Always an ally

The in-depth discovery process led to the insight that customers wanted an ally to partner with as the world of energy transformed, and that they placed a great deal of trust in their current utility providers. This insight was the foundation for the brand promise, which is to help all stakeholders benefit from new energy sources with an emphasis on value, service and simplicity, while building confidence in the face of change. This promise manifested in the customer-centric tagline “Discover the possibilities.”

Brand expression that says it all

To be a true ally, the newly created brand had to humanize what is generally seen as a faceless sector. It needed to earn its customers’ trust and confidence and also project an image of a future of possibilities. Alectra, the Greek word for “brilliant”, did just that. Alectra said it all, human, electricity and future-focused. The name was unanimously approved by internal stakeholders, and it passed cultural linguistic testing with flying colours.

To build on the name, an equally powerful identity system was required to deliver the brand promise. Alectra was leading the way to a friendlier future in energy. The logo, a flag, became the symbol for this advancement. The name, the flag motif and the decision to use a brilliant green, all culminated in a visual brand expression that celebrated the future of possibilities. The final step was establishing Alectra’s tone of voice. Alectra had to be an ally in every interaction through all circumstances, with all stakeholders. To ensure all communications were guided by the same principles, in collaboration with the Alectra team, Ove developed a communication guide outlining what each audience should think, feel and do as a result of interacting with Alectra.

Results

One year after the brand launched, the City of Guelph voted to merge Guelph Hydro with Alectra, folding under the Alectra brand. The decision by the City of Guelph was based on a year of industry research, financial analysis and community engagement.

The resulting company, Alectra, is now the largest municipally-owned electric utility in Canada by customer base, and the second largest of its type in North America after Los Angeles. The strategic intent of being Canada’s leading integrated and innovative energy solutions provider by 2025 was supported and brought to life through a new brand strategy, name and visual identity system.

For a world-class city, there was a notable absence of a “Toronto” museum – one dedicated to showcasing the city’s history, cultural diversity, unique experiences and vibrant communities from all over the world. Simply put, there was no museum of Toronto by Toronto for both locals and visitors.

In order to truly celebrate Toronto, this museum had to be different. It needed to break the rules. If it was to be vibrant and meaningful, it had to be more than simply a place to display objects. It had to embody the Toronto experience right where it happens. In essence, the entire city of Toronto is the museum’s home.

And from that strategic approach, Myseum was conceived.

Your museum without walls

Through our brand discovery phase, we found that since Myseum did not have a physical location, its programs and activities were crucial to building early understanding about the Myseum difference and its unique mission. Collaborating with key stakeholders, we developed a clear descriptor line, building on the ‘My’ in Myseum:
Your Toronto Museum.
My Toronto, My Stories, Myseum.

Your museum, virtually anywhere

We developed a website that emphasizes a museum experience, not a brick-and-mortar location. Everything lives online – informing and engaging audiences, driving donations and serving as the virtual hub for the programs and exhibits that Myseum runs.

Spreading brand awareness by sharing untold stories

To establish Myseum as Toronto’s museum and promote its newly created brand personality, we developed an integrated brand awareness campaign for social and out-of-home, highlighting the unseen, unknown or overlooked stories from Toronto’s past and present.

That idea turned into an ongoing series of stories promoting diverse historical and contemporary Toronto stories, celebrating the unique contributions of people and communities often underrepresented or underappreciated in our city’s history. Stories included Jackie Shane – How a transgender woman from the American south took the Toronto music scene by storm, and Boris Spremo, one of Toronto’s iconic and award-winning photojournalists. Taking advantage of in-kind advertising space provided by outdoor media company, Pattison Group, the campaign ran throughout Toronto’s public transit system – interior cards were placed in trains, buses and streetcars. To bring the visual design and messaging to life, we animated the creative to run on Instagram and social media to help drive engagement and traffic to the website.

Programs and exhibits: unique identities built to express the brand

For major Myseum programs and exhibits, we developed a unique identity system for each one. This customized identity system balanced both the need to capture and express the unique attributes of each program and exhibit, then tied it back to the overall Myseum brand. These identities build brand equity for Myseum while sharing each program’s unique story. Examples of these identities are shown in the carousel of images below:

Turning a fragmented brand into a powerhouse of brand recognition and mass appeal

From issuing a driver’s license to helping Ontarians support fresh local produce, the Government of Ontario provides hundreds of vital services, many of which go unnoticed. Over the years, an abundance of distinct logos and brands had been developed for Ontario Government Ministries, Agencies and Crown Corporations. What was lacking was a central brand strategy. This resulted in a fragmented brand for Ontario that was confusing to the public.

The brand project coincided with a transformation initiative for the approximately 60,000 employees of the Ontario Public Service (OPS). This included a new vision to be a leading public service that was inclusive, innovative, responsive and accountable. The new brand had to support this transformation by inspiring employees and attracting new talent and, above all, galvanizing employees under one brand.

Working to shift public perception

Working with our partner brand strategists, LEVEL5, we conducted focus groups with the general public and interviews with elected and non-elected government stakeholders. Based on the research, the new brand needed to shift public perception of the government from being confusing and bureaucratic to being simple and easy, transparent and relevant for today.

The insights led to a new brand promise for Ontario and a new unifying tagline: “Working for you”. This statement united government services by a shared recognition that they are responsible for providing the people of Ontario with a better government experience that is focused on citizens’ needs.

Mining equity from the original Trillium

Drawing from the original 1964 Trillium logo for inspiration, the new version of the logo reconnects us to Ontario’s heritage while refinements ensure the logo meets the demands of an evolving digital world. This refreshed logo also sits harmoniously with legacy applications, implements the new brand in a measured manner and minimizes the financial impact of brand conversion.

A flexible logo to celebrate Ontario’s diversity

Deinstitutionalizing the brand in favour of one that is people-centric, the logo was designed in 13 colours. These logos can be used interchangeably, creating flexibility in the system for employees to choose a colour that best suits their communication objectives.

The creation of a new super graphic and brand architecture

A series of close-cropped angles of the Trillium became a key component of the design system and intrinsically linked the system to the new logo.

A new brand architecture was also developed to ensure ministries and agencies visually link back to the Ontario government, eliminating confusion surrounding the many different logo styles currently in use.

Few Canadian brands can claim such history, dating back to 1847. Yet when Great-West Life approached Ove with its unique opportunity, it had its sights set firmly on the future. The opportunity? Bringing together Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life into a single brand that would have an iconic presence in a crowded and commoditized marketplace.

Brand building in close collaboration with the client

After an intensive discovery of internal and external research and consultation, we worked closely with client leaders and brand teams to uncover the brand purpose. This would eventually serve as the framework and brand positioning for the launch of a unique and distinctive brand. The strategy, visual identity and voice were all under consideration.

Research unveiled a number of key insights. First, it revealed incredible equity in the Canada Life name, which would become the new brand name, encompassing all three entities. It also uncovered an untapped market opportunity based on reframing how Canadians think about insurance and wealth planning. The new vision? To shift the conversation to focus on confidence in what can be achieved today with Canada Life as a guide. The new brand positioning celebrates the here and now, while trumpeting inclusion, openness, fairness and community – the values that define and strengthen Canada today.

An identity that helps tell the brand story

Canada Life’s visual expression and brand identity were designed to help tell the brand story – guiding Canadians to reach their potential, every day. First and foremost, the Canada Life logo brings the word life to life; it’s organic and suggestive of an individual journey. Meanwhile, the continuous line treatment on the word life promotes the feeling of moving forward with confidence and a sense of direction.

Not only is the brand’s “humanness” illustrated throughout its typography, it is also expressed in photos and tone of voice. The photography is vibrant, portraying relatable everyday moments, incorporating a diverse tapestry of people, effectively aligning with the company’s goal to serve Canadians from all backgrounds and regions.

Launching the new Canada Life

With 11,000 employees and 13 million customer relationships, a lot of strategic planning was required to launch the new brand. Ove developed an “inside-out” approach to announce the brand over a phased launch, beginning with an internal communications strategy that was supported by events, videos and employee brochures.

For the external launch, it was important to introduce the new brand to Canada Life’s stakeholders so that they could help deliver the new brand’s messaging from advisors right through to customers. Print and digital out-of-home advertising, e-directs, and marketing collateral were developed to introduce the new Canada Life.