WayHome

Naming, branding and launching the Canadian music festival that changed everything.

After branding and launching Boots & Hearts Music Festival, festival producers Republic Live approached Puncture with an ambitious objective. The goal was to launch Canada’s biggest music and arts festival—create the brand, sell the tickets, and deliver a best-in-class experience over multiple days.

Puncture was tasked with selling a brand new event and experience that need to stand out in a saturated marketplace. We did this by creating eye-catching design work backed up by strong a communications platform—all without an existing lineup. We created business development tools to help secure required funding, and honed our marketing and strategic capabilities to give this event a larger-than-life feel. The wildly successful launch campaign, which featured interactive puzzles, social media teasers, and a postering campaign, remains one of our proudest achievements.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
BrandingVideo

Puncture was able to create and launch a now iconic brand and on-site experience, which eight years on is still talked about. WayHome sold over 35,000 tickets in its first year, attracting attendees from each province and from 32 states in the U.S.

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Scarborough Proud
SafeFest
plazaPOPS
Toronto Biennial of Art

Building a visual identity, communications toolkit and wayfinding strategy for Toronto’s first-ever biennial of contemporary art.

In 2019, prior to launching the inaugural Biennial to the public, TBA came to Puncture to define its visual identity. A key feature of the Biennial is that all of its exhibition sites are located near waterways that are significant to Toronto: Lake Ontario, the Humber River, Don River, and more. We came up with a vibrant brand that is inspired by nautical flags and symbols, these appear in the bold graphic devices we created. 

The system is bolstered by artwork treatments, a celebratory and accessible colour palette, and a custom wordmark to bring the importance of public and free art to the city’s consciousness. In addition to visual identity, we helped simplify the Biennial’s communication platform and got it to its most distilled form, “72 days of Free Art”.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
Branding

The Toronto Biennial of Art’s (TBA) mission is to make contemporary art accessible to everyone. For 10 weeks every two years, local, national, and international Biennial artists transform Toronto and its partner regions with free exhibitions, performances, and learning opportunities.

Since the inaugural year, we have worked with TBA on all aspects of their marketing materials including communications, digital production, graphic design, video production, motion graphic design, and environmental and experiential design. 

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Canadian Country Music Awards
CAMH Virtual Tour
Choice Eastway and Caledon
CBC Exhibitionists

Crafting an unignorable motion identity for CBC Arts.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
BrandingMotion

Exhibitionists is young, daring and born of a passionate and personal connection with innovating artists across genres from diverse communities across Canada. It features provocative artists working in all mediums who are disrupting the status quo whilst celebrating their cultures. Exhibitionists is the go-to destination to discover Canada’s fresh and diverse talents, and to get up close and personal with established icons.

Working with the CBC, we were tasked with crafting a striking and memorable visual identity for the program. Additionally, we designed a dynamic motion graphics kit for broadcast. We also had the honor of conceptualizing and editing the show’s captivating introduction, making Exhibitionists the ultimate destination for exploring Canada’s vibrant and diverse artistic talents.

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Patel
Fit4Less
Herb
6 Degrees

Building an identity that is both urgent and optimistic.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
BrandingVideo

For its 10th anniversary, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) launched its most ambitious initiative to date—6 Degrees: Citizen Space, a three-day event that gathers international cultural influencers in a dynamic environment for discussion on the world’s pressing issues.

The ICC and its founders knew they needed a partner with experience branding, selling, and producing an event of this scale. Puncture developed a thoughtful visual identity to reflect the tone and content of the conference, while drawing in new audiences. We then rolled out the identity across a number of marketing, on-site, fundraising, and internal assets, both digital and print, to help facilitate the event’s growth.

Puncture continues to provide year-round strategic design support. We helped develop the strategic launch campaign using digital media as well as impeccably-executed marketing materials and out-of-home advertising to draw attention and increase attendance to the event. This past year, we launched new pod events in Den Haag and Berlin and elevated the existing brand to make it bolder and more urgent for the annual Toronto conference.

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CBC Exhibitionists
Tafelmusik
CAMH Campaigns
The Filmmakers

A motion identity inspired by the works of Norman McLaren.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
BrandingMotion

Puncture was tasked with branding The Filmmakers, an original CBC talk show that launched as a companion to a Saturday night series of celebrated Canadian films.

CBC wanted impact, an unapologetic aesthetic, and a flexible kit-of-parts. Puncture outfitted the show with a new look and feel, and created all moving parts of the show including a new intro sequence, bumpers, stings, title cards, and credits.

For The Filmmakers, our objective was to develop an accessible, original brand that catered to a mature audience, while still representing the artistry and diversity of the Canadian film industry. Pulling inspiration from the work of Canadian animator Norman McLaren, and the natural linear movement of film strips, we managed to create a dynamic brand system and show intro that married a classic film aesthetic with a contemporary edge.

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Canadian Stage
Art Toronto
Herb
Art Toronto

Revitalizing and refreshing Art Toronto, Canada’s largest art fair.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
Branding

Art Toronto is Canada’s international fair for modern and contemporary art. Since 2000, they have been dedicated to supporting art in Canada, connecting audiences to local, national and international galleries, and promoting diverse creative practices. 

Art Toronto looked to Puncture to evolve their look and develop creative marketing strategies to attract ticket sales for their 2018 event. We worked within the confines of an existing visual system to create a fresh, elegant look and feel that spoke to a wide audience. We then rolled out the updated brand on-site, in print, and in an effective out-of-home and digital marketing campaign that attracted new audiences. From 2018–2021 we worked with Art Toronto annually to create unique identities for the fair.

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plazaPOPS
6 Degrees
Tracks on Tracks
Patel

Exploring Hindi letters to create a unique wordmark for an art gallery.

Industry
Arts & Culture

Service
Branding

Patel Gallery highlights alternative perspectives and encourages experimentation and innovation in both its programming and operations. Identifying gaps in representation and opportunities guided by collaboration and community; the gallery’s program will look to traditions in culture and identity, and how they are increasingly challenged by the globalized world.

In collaboration with owner Devan Patel, Puncture embarked on crafting a simple yet distinctive identity that encapsulated these principles. Drawing inspiration from the elegant forms of the Hindi alphabet, we designed a wordmark that unified these ideals, with a connecting bar at the top. This identity serves as a visual embodiment of Patel Gallery’s commitment to innovation and cultural dialogue.

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Canadian Stage
CAMH Campaigns
Dream in High Park