THE BRIEF

One of the unexpected side effects of the global pandemic was a catastrophic drop in local media investment. With concerns of newspapers closing, job losses, potential media deserts, and less accountability for those in political power, the Canadian Media Directors’ Council created a manifesto. It needed an identity and campaign that would rally industry leaders to take the pledge to support Canadian media.

THE SOLUTION

We took inspiration from the aspect ratios typically used in media, including: tv, newsprint, digital ads, radio and social posts. We used these aspect ratios to construct a blocky logomark. Then, we paired this with an impactful wordmark that incorporates right angled corners in the counters. Bold typography is combined with an attention grabbing safety yellow, black, and white colour palette, and photojournalistic style photography, all of which references historical social movements. Shapes representing the aspect ratios of traditional media block out portions of imagery, and copy appears to be redacted, representing the loss of information that will occur if we don’t commit to investing in local media.

We created awareness for the campaign through shareable social posts that directed viewers to a landing page explaining the urgency of the cause. The page also featured a video explaining how the loss of investment in Canadian media is directly affecting the industry and the dissemination of accurate, unbiased, and local information. Visitors to the page were encouraged to pledge to support Canadian media by buying local.

The campaign was a huge success with scores of media buyers and people from the media industry rallying behind the cause and pledging to support local media.