Role
A colourful, stylish redesign of Ontario Place's old identity, with the aim of creating renewed interest in the park by emphasizing its many recreational activities.
Timeline
Tools
Research
Branding
Illustration
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
3 months
Ontario Place
The Problem
Ontario Place has been going through a significant identity crisis since the closure of the park in 2012. While they host many events in various areas of the park, it now lacks a strong, cohesive identity.
The Challenge
Create a colourful and inviting identity inclusive of all the different areas of the park, designed with the intent to draw attention to lesser known spots, as well as make park wayfinding clearer.
Research
Ontario Place is a multi-purpose park and recreational facility sporting 155 acres of property on the waterfront in the west end of Toronto. The area plays host to all sorts of events and activities year round, taking place in the multiple different unique venues that can be found on the land.
These venues include the Cinesphere — which was one of the world’s first IMAX theatres — and the Budweiser Stage, which is a 15,000 capacity covered stage used for concerts during the warmer seasons in Toronto. One if it's more unique offerings is Trillium Park, 7.5 acres of public green space that features a large fire pit, bluffs, a large park area, and a 1.3km trail for biking and walking.
The park also has origins in Montreals Expo'67, which used a lot of colour and made for great visual inspiration.
Visual Exploration
From the beginning I wanted Ontario Place's iconic Cinesphere to be front and centre in the branding, since it's existence as a recognizable landmark would make it easy for people to recognize the new branding and popularize it. I tried a variety of abstract representations of the dome — exploring wave motifs and different triangle layouts — until I saw a birds eye view of the park and decided to go in a separate direction, with the Cinesphere still included but less in focus.
Final Logo & Type
My final solution for this Ontario Place rebranding was an abstract representation of the pod buildings and the Cinesphere, inspired by a birds-eye view of the park. The colour of each shape in the logo represents a different section of the park, and the logo can be recoloured for use with the specific sections.
The typeface I decided upon was Montserrat Alternates, whose rounded letterforms best fit the style I wanted to portray. The angle in the lowercase e and the curves at the base of the lowercase t and L gave it a unique feeling, and combined well with the sharp squares and round circle in the logo.
The focus on bright colours used to represent various sections of the park was primarily to assist in wayfinding, much in the same way that theme parks give each of their themed zones specific identities. By using colours that stand out, visitors can know where they are by the colours used in their location.
Further examples of the colour based wayfinding are shown below.
