Great Northern Way Campus—a joint educational initiative comprised of BCIT, the Emily Carr Institute, SFU, and UBC—needed a website to present the vision for the campus while elevating the organization’s brand to a world-class level. The first challenge was determining how to establish a singular brand with so many partners involved, each requiring equal representation. The second was that the program and facilities were still in development, with little or no photos to use and no graduates to draw testimonials from.

To create brand unity, smashLAB maintained GNWC as the core brand and an umbrella under which the partners reside. We used the concept of “Transformation” to highlight the evolutionary nature of the institution’s research and learning methods within an emerging digital economy. Biomorphous shapes and patterns helped to illustrate the concept while mashed-up images inflected with humour appealed to the target’s postmodern tastes. This treatment gets away from stock photos and the clichéd, institutional look.

smashLAB delivered a site with a distinct personality illustrating a new breed of education. It positions GNWC as world-class hub for digital media, focusing on their flagship program and creating anticipation for future offerings. The design concept is such that it does not require photographs of the facility or its students, allowing GNWC to market themselves during their planning stages. The abstract treatments are flexible enough to accommodate the evolving nature of the institution while distinguishing GNWC from partner and competitor websites.