In Brief BY Armin

In Brief: Know Canada

In the latest installment of the now popular Studio360 Redesigns series — past subjects include “Teachers” and Valentine’s Day — the radio show hosted by Kurt Andersen has looked North for inspiration: Redesign Canada. They tasked Bruce Mau Design with the brief to “fix the image problem Canada has here in the United States,” who instead of responding with a new identity decided the problem wasn’t with their country but with the United States: “Canada doesn’t need a redesign,” BMD explains in this thorough PDF, “America needs an education.” Their proposal, Know Canada, uses the very recognizable red bars of the Canadian flag as a frame for everything from twenty-first-century icons to inventions to actual places and people. The solution is simple, smart, and highly expandable — plus, there is not a maple leaf in sight. A few highlights of the work included in this post.

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Opinion BY Armin

OCAD U, All New

Founded in 1876, OCAD University is Canada’s largest art and design institution, located in Toronto, Ontario. Formerly known as Ontario College of Art and Design, the school changed its name in 2007 to OCAD University when it received degree-granting status. Despite the “C” in the name still standing for “College” the acronym was kept as it had substantial equity and recognition. In 2004, OCAD University moved into its new campus, a radical structure designed by Alsop Architects that looks like a cross between a crossword puzzle and those super tall robots from War of the Worlds, with some color sprinkled for good measure. It may sound like a jab at the building, but the thing is truly jaw-dropping when you are standing below it. Anyway. Last night, at the 96th Annual Graduate Exhibition, the school unveiled a new identity, created by Toronto-based Bruce Mau Design (BMD), as well as another slight name change, to OCAD U.

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