Identity, Collateral, Web Design:
C2UExpo 2025 (MacEwan University)

I have had the privilege of working as principal designer for C2UExpo 2025 “Partners in Place”, a community-based research convention held bi-annually at a rotating cast of Universities. Tentpole support is provided by Community-Based Research Canada (CBRCanada), whose members select where the expo will be held. The C2UExpo logo and wordmark have stayed largely unchanged for many years, usually changing colors to match those of its host university. In contrast, I was given a great deal of freedom in how I approached the brief and have taken a wide departure from my predecessors.

I have been responsible for creating the Expo’s visual identity, web design, collateral design, and wayfinding with the support and mentorship of Wayne Williams, a longstanding and highly-regarded professor of Design at MacEwan. 2025’s theme for the C2UExpo is “Partners in Place”, indicating a focus on place-based insights, reciprocity and interconnectedness, and further incorporating indigenous ways of knowing into the community-based research practice.

Inspired by these high-minded ideals, connection and optimism have been the primary connotations driving my design process. Motifs like ribbons, the North Saskatchewan river, the prairie’s wide-open skies and the optimism of early 2000’s Frutiger Aero have all had an impact on the direction of the expo’s identity.

The expo will be held in 2025, and I will continue to be involved in the project until it concludes. For more information, and to see the current state of the website I have developed for the conference, visit http://c2uexpo2025.ca.