Rebranding the community of Prince George began in 2012 with the initiation of the 2015 Canada Winter Games (CWG) planning. As the design partner for the Games, Epic Design began by facilitating several focus groups with over 30 representatives from 14 key stakeholder groups (identified below). The result from those workshops was a detailed understanding of the city, the community, the region and what the Games represented. The resulting slogan, “choose your path, leave your tracks, and journey with us as we rediscover our community and region” became the focal point for the Games introduction video as well as the mantra for branding discussions. When Epic Design came up with this slogan, we had no idea that it would result in a community rebrand that would continue well beyond the 2015 Games.
Our team took the input from the focus groups and distilled it down into themes and concepts, which we used as our creative guidelines to develop the visual identity for the Games. The 2015 Canada Winter Games visual identity was regarded as the best branded Canada Games in its 48-year history, and was applied to everything from a full headquarters building wrap and event fencing scrims to athlete gear, merchandise and apparel. The visual identity consisted of three themed-scenes: Winter, Nature, and Canada. Each landscape scene was made up of paths, triangles, textures, animal creatures, athletes and some include local landmarks.
Based on the initial work with CWG, Epic Design has worked with Downtown Prince George (the business improvement association) , New Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, 2019 World Paranordic Championships and Canada Games Council. The single multi-sport brand, created by Epic Design, for the 2015 Canada Winter Games has already been adopted, adapted and applied to three additional organizations within the PG community. This approach has allowed these local partners to define and implement their own unique brands, while leveraging to 2015 CWG concepts, design feel and brand standards, to help ensure consistency across the community and reduce the costs to each branding participant.
