CASCADES
Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories, in the West-Canadian Arctic
©2019, United States Geological SurveyBasic visual identity development for CASCADES, a new research initiative based at the universities of Oslo and Montreal.
CASCADES stands for «Consequences of Arctic Shifts: Climatic Amplification of Disturbances across Ecosystems and Society»
The Brief in a nutshell:
We need a basic visual identity that shows our circumpolar research area and reflects a social component linked to Arctic Indigenous communities mainly Inuit, especially the communities in the «Inuvialuit Settlement Region» in the Western Canadian Arctic.
Something that sticks out from a footer within the formal world of scientific papers without being provocative or irritating.
We drew inspiration from the Inuvialuit flag, an abstraction of the northern pole cap and the reminiscence of Kenojuak Ashevak’s artwork, a truly inspirational female Inuktitut artist.
CASCADES next communication will be mainly of academic nature and therefore be obliged to use «Times New Roman» as their main typeface. To have a good contrast sans serif I chose «Tahoma» as a secondary system font. This helps to convey a scientific and friendly look.
The boldness of the logo-mark allows the team to use it as a container to have more wiggle room of expression and storytelling in their presentations.