Canadian Creatives - A rebrand and website designed with creative job-seekers in mind
The Canadian Creatives job search website serves the creative community in pairing employers and clients with creative practitioners. Positions for Illustrators, photographers, designers, artists, developers, and copy writers are posted daily to the site through sponsored ad placements as well as freely-placed calls for employment by community, national, and international clients.
The identity design update proposed a simplified, geometric interpretation of the Canadian maple leaf. Three articulated, rounded lines in three distinct reds converge into the fundamental form of a leaf. At the point in which the lines converge, colours overlap suggesting a layering of forms with the implied dimension emphasized by shadow. The mark was designed with simple geometry in order to translate easily into different contexts, such as online and mobile at both large and reduced sizes. The three reds of the identity serve to offer typographic hierarchy for the display of complex text-based information. The three components of the logo are also used autonomously in patterns and textures within the site to extend the visual language.
Evolving Colour System
In an earlier round of design proposals the concept of nature and the four distinct Canadian seasons was introduced in four distinct colour palettes. The idea that a colour system could follow the changing of the seasons every three months to reflect the natural conditions of the Canadian climate was an intriguing thought experiment.
For all typography Nunito Sans has been selected for the simplicity of form, contemporary personality, and legibility on screen. It offers a wide range of weights from Extra Light to Black, and holds up at reduced sizes both on screen and in print. It pairs well with the typeface specified for the logo (Nexa Heavy Regular), extending the typographic visual language functionally and effectively.
Responsive Desktop
A website re-design was desired in order to update the look and feel of the online tool into a more contemporary space with a connotation of creativity and credibility. The design challenge was to create a typographic system that could clearly adapt complex forms of information to tablet and mobile scales while retaining visual continuity and hierarchy across device types. A simple menu was introduced to the left side of the site layout to improve job search through sorting by industry and job type.
Development Concepts
Numerous conceptual and formal directions were developed, exploring digital and professional networks, left brain/right brain creative and logical thinking, and the vastness and diversity of the Canadian landscape. It was decided that a clear reference to the maple leaf was the most desired approach as it offered a well understood connection to the name of the site while capitalizing on previous versions of the brand expression.