Branding
Gastown BIA
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PartnerGastown BIA
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Year2025
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What we didIdentity, Placemaking & Communication Design
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Website
Made with
Designing a vibrant cultural identity and activation for Gastown, celebrating its playful spirit and positioning it as a dynamic destination in motion.
Our challenge
Gastown approached us to lead the branding and activation of Gastown Sunday Set, a placemaking series that makes the district car-free for 12 consecutive Sundays and curates music, food, art, shopping, and movement each week. We needed a distinctive, energetic and flexible identity that drives footfall, positions Gastown as a cultural destination where history meets the avant-garde, and keeps every touchpoint unmistakably Gastown.
Our insight
We’ve been collaborating with Gastown and know the neighbourhood approaches events differently: culture-forward and proudly local. For this series, we treat it as a cultural brand, using placemaking-led branding and a playful illustration language to guide the street experience and amplify its energy. Our goal is simple: make it instantly recognisable and genuinely fun, so compelling it is hard not to share on social media.
Our answer
We built a branding system with a hero headline title for the overarching theme and sharp, event-specific titles. A playful illustration suite maps to the lineup: music, food, art, shopping, and movement. While keeping Gastown’s DNA, the new identity system is creative, edgy and confident, turning the neighbourhood into a Sunday destination for locals and the creative crowd.
