Conducting Creative Research: Workshop and Events

The Brief

OCAD University and Emily Carr University had arranged a series of events and workshops to take place over the last three months of 2021, and they needed a flexible branding system, social media treatments, and branded powerpoints for the series of talks. These would be archived by both the ECU library and OCADU as accessible videos with closed captioning.

Branding

Incorporating the iconography of the OCADU logo, which is a series of three squares arranged in a golden spiral, and the ECU logo, a series of balanced curves in the palate of the eponymous artist’s work, the basic forms of the circle and square were distilled and incorporated into a responsive logomark and a flexible colour palette pulled from the images provided by the speakers.

Logomark Development

wordmark development

The Conducting Creative Research logo celebrates this exciting partnership between OCAD University and Emily Carr University of Art + Design. The circle in the word ‘Conducting’ represents ECUADs contribution to the series of talks and workshops, while the square that replaces a letter e in ‘Research’ is representative of OCADU. The combined shape in ‘Creative’ represents the collaborative nature of research and the coming together of the two institutions.There are three versions of the logo, which can be used as either black or white, depending on the background. The circle is the primary measuring unit relative to the text, with the safe area around the logomark calculated in single units relative to the circle.

The leading of the stacked logomarks draws in by about 92% of the total type height with extenders, creating intensity between the lines, while the kerning of the word ‘Creative’ allows expansiveness. The space created under the ‘ng’ in ‘Creative’ shows us that there is space for deeper understanding under the surface through research.

The simplified logomark, comprised of the letters ‘CCR’ and the square and circle that represent the partnering institutions create intensity through kerning of the capital letterforms and the organization of the square and circle into an exclamation point. The minimum safe space around the logomark is measured with the wordmark circle.

Logomark Usage

The logomarks have been developed primarily for digital use in response to the format of the events which are primarily online, and the need for digital marketing.

The wordmarks are intended for use in either black or white (whichever provides the most contrast) to the background. Background colours should be jewel tones and colourful and should be selected from any corresponding images such as speaker headshots.

The Short Logomark can be used in instances where there is not enough space for the Large or Alternate Wordmark, or where the Wordmark has already been used in that instance, or the branding must be placed directly over a photograph or other image.

Other Branding Elements

Other branding elements include:

• Gradient background for the Wordmarks that can be any colour related to the image content of the piece.
• An animated element that can be used to create space between other visual elements consisting of a clock-like relationship between an overlapping circle and square.