Results tagged “typography”

The Liberal Party of Canada's national convention in Vancouver this past weekend produced few surprises, with delegates officially crowning Toronto Member of Parliament Michael Ignatieff as leader of the once-mighty red machine. One development that did catch our attention, however, was the unveiling on Saturday of the party's new logo, which replaces the maple-leaf-as-rising-sun insignia in use since 2004. According to the accompanying news release, the new logo "symbolizes a re-energized Liberal Party emerging from a process of renewal engaging all Liberal members." A fascinating claim, given that the new wordmark is nothing more than the word "Liberal" in Times New Roman, emblazoned with a maple leaf that appears to have been cribbed from the cover of Maclean's.

ART: It’s a big weekend for showcases of Canadian art. After a peek at the new Gehry-fied AGO, head over to MOCCA for the opening reception of "Carte Blanche." The exhibition is the accompaniment to a new reference book Carte Blanche, Vol. 2: Painting. The book showcases the work of 192 contemporary Canadian painters. Thirty of these (ten from each career stage—emerging, mid-level, and established) are showing at the companion gallery exhibit. Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (952 Queen Street West), 8 p.m., FREE.

Signs should communicate quickly, efficiently, and effectively. Traffic signs are standardized, eliminating all guesswork, allowing motorists to glean the required information in as little time as possible, so they can focus on the road. Images further this concept and, when executed properly, relay more information in a fraction of the time. For example, it takes longer to describe "four oily gents in loincloths and leather with chains hanging in an otherwise drab environment" than it does to simply show you a photo. Mind, it would take less time still, to have just said it was a picture of Manowar, but indulge us, folks.

In 1980, Toronto's Polish community—and the general public—got more than it bargained for. Six years previous, the Canadian Polish Congress held a meeting where, among other things, a decision was made to erect a monument in Beaty Boulevard Park (1575 King Street West) to the thousands who died at Katyń forest as part of the invasion of Poland. Back when public art was selected from a talented crop of international and local designers, Katyń's winning design was that of Tadeusz Janowski, a Polish émigré living in the United States. Janowski's background was in architecture, but his versatility, as evidenced by the intense, impacting silhouette created by his monument at King and Roncesvalles, speaks for itself.