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Cy Strom

Because … It’s Time!

Editors Canada logo

“Whatever the current term for ‘hip’ is, that’s what we want to be …”

This, I’m told, was the EAC Rebranding Task Force brief to the bilingual design team chosen to look into the organization’s midlife crisis, the youthful Costa Leclerc.

“That’s a startling design — it will be fun to write about it.”

This was my reply to Anna Williams and Michelle Ou when they asked me to write this blog post.

Melva McLean, chair of the task force, attributes the rebranding idea to the fertile mind of Michelle Boulton, who wanted EAC to stand out from the rest of the networking communities and sites, and to establish its value for younger editors and writers as well as for corporate clients. Melva also points out that the task force was looking for a design that makes an international statement and works across languages.

Editors_Twitter_profileSitting at my laptop, the first thing I noticed in the design sample for the sleekly renamed Editors/Réviseurs Canada was the new colours: they vibrate onscreen. It’s clear that one aim of our communications is going to be playfulness — playing in the big leagues? The catchy layout of the pages connotes the online experience. For web pages, the association’s restated, renewed themes are presented in a row of tabs: Hire (marketing our organization and our members), Members (serving current members), Training (promoting best practices), Join (appealing to potential members).

Oh — did I tell you that the new web-friendly family of fonts we’ll be using is categorized as a set of androgynous fonts? Now you know.

I showed the design to Jaleen Grove, BFA (Visual Arts Studio Practice), PhD (Art History and Criticism). Jaleen has spent 25 years in visual communications as a hands-on designer and scholar. She immediately recognized a multimedia button, clean and simple, reproducing well across platforms. But, she asked, does the new design retain any link with print and books? Jaleen saw an arrow pointing upwards … or maybe “a book being mistreated”(!). I wasn’t quick enough to retort: “That’s a caret, if you please!” Melva had to tell me what it was a few days later in a phone interview that set me straight on many things.

One thing Melva explained is that in parallel with the name change and the new visual ID is a multi-year plan to renew our mission and redefine our purposes, aims and ambitions, seen as a unity … so that, as Carolyn L Burke says, “we are our new brand.”

Now with social media platforms and The Editors’ Weekly gone live with the new look, the rebranding process is well underway. Watch for the rest of the rebrand and our new website, to be launched in the near future.

The last word goes to Carolyn: “Simple. Fun. Confident. Professional. Current. Skilled. These are some of the words which truly represent our members, and which inspired a new look. Our new logo, with the beautiful PT Sans font and bold red, captures these values. Can we live up to these? Editors Canada members already do.“

Check out the new brand here.

 

Editors Canada Task Force: Melva McLean, Tina Dealwis, Marlene Dong, Namita Kumar, Andrew Wright

National executive council rep: Moira White

National office reps: Carolyn L Burke, Michelle Ou

The Editors’ Weekly is the official blog of Editors Canada. Contact us.

5 Comments on “Because … It’s Time!”

  • Anita Jenkins

    says:

    Looking forward to hearing what people have to say about this.

  • Laura Edlund

    says:

    I also am very keen to find out what others comment about this, the name, and the rebranding process. There has been much discussion in other locations — the FB site Editors Association of Earth and the FB site for EAC, so perhaps the comments should be viewed collectively. It will certainly continue to be a lively discussion. Thanks to the volunteers who have generously given their time.

  • Virginia Durksen

    says:

    Congratulations, EC (ERC? EAC?), on a fabulous new visual identity. It’s an aspirational brand for the organization, one that represents the finer attributes of Canada’s many editors, some of whom are also hip. The clean lines, the streamlined name and font, the strong colour are all great features of this new identity. For those who don’t already know about EAC, the new identity will be a compelling invitation to learn more.

    What remains to be seen is whether the organization itself can live up to its new identity. The website needs to catch up quickly with the brand, as do EAC’s organizational structure, stated intentions and relationships with its members. The delete sign has been EAC’s dominant brand characteristic until now. I look forward to seeing whether a new, inserting sort of attitude unfolds with the new identity.

    There is some inconsistency in the brand presentation materials. It’s not clear whether EAC has a new name or if the new brand is merely a new layer of paint on an old structure. Throughout the brand presentation, the name is spelled out as Editors Canada but abbreviated as EAC, leaving me in doubt as to the organization’s name. There seems to be a page (or text?) missing after “The Editors’ Association of Canada just…” Or, are non sequiturs also hip?

    USER WARNING: Clicking on the new logo on EAC’s current website does not link to a location on the website. Instead, it will download a presentation onto your computer, without notice. The text link alerts the reader to the file type and size, implying a download, but the visual link from the logo does not. A new, hip identity needs to respect the niceties of web navigation.

    • Anita Jenkins

      says:

      Well said, Virginia. Replacing the delete symbol with the insert symbol. Now there’s an idea. But it might take eight more years to do that.

      • Virginia Durksen

        says:

        Well, slow is hip. Slow food, slow energy, slow growth. And we are hip to the slow jive.

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