New Logo Enhances CA Brand

By Stephen Candib
Gottschalk+Ash International

The brand identity comprises three elements – the CA symbol, The CA wordmark, and the jurisdiction/institute, which have been designed to work together as well as function as part of a broader identity system. When the three elements are used together, with a jurisdiction or institute name, they are referred to as a signature, and there are a wide variety of consistent-looking signatures across the brand system. When the symbol and the workmark are used together, they are called the logo.

The symbol has been designed to suggest a variety of things. It is multi-coloured, which is intended to suggest the multi-dimensional nature of the CA designation. The colours are bright, bold and contemporary. The wordmark itself is in uppercase black type – authoritative, bold, sober and strong, which is designed to balance with the bright colours in the symbol.

The sans-serif Gotham typeface has been chosen to be modern, unadorned and based on classical type proportions, so that it will function well for many years without looking too trendy or dated. It has also been chosen to stand out among the many other typefaces that are widely used. It is fairly open and highly legible.

The symbol is simple enough to allow viewers to immediately recognize it, and abstract enough to allow viewers to read meaning into it.

When the symbol is looked at by itself, the green in the lower left suggests an arrow, and the complete symbol also suggests a larger arrow, especially when the symbol is seen in small-sized applications.

When the green component is combined with the white negative spaces between the gold, blue and silver squares, the symbol also suggests a plus sign as well as a Cartesian grid.

The upper right placement of the symbol suggests an arrow pointing forward and upward.

When seen in combination with the wordmark, the placement of the symbol in the upper right corner of the signature implies the upper right corner of a box, and the complete symbol also suggests the upper right corner of a larger box as well as a grid of multi-coloured boxes.

These elements combined result in a logo that works well in small and large sizes, in full colour as well as one or two-colour versions, as defined by the limitations of the media in which it is expressed.