McKim was engaged to create an exciting brand for the 50th Canada Summer games which were held in Manitoba in 2017. The brand not only needed to represent a wide array of sport, it had to say something about the province — in marketing materials, in pageantry and in celebratory events. 

Manitobans love nothing more than summer. It’s like a religion here. Taking our cues from the notion of heat, from the topography of the province and from the art of Indigenous Manitobans, McKim’s creative team built a system of graphic branding patterns that could be applied to all manner of communication materials, combining with photography and video to create a unified, dynamic and memorable visual impact.

The Canada Summer Games are the country’s largest celebration of our athletes, sport and culture. In July 2017, the games were held in Winnipeg, where the event’s 50th year and Canada’s 150th birthday coincided. Prior to the two-year kickoff launch event in July 2015, a brand idea was needed to help create and sustain awareness and excitement for the games. McKim, as agency of record, created a visual identity system that encapsulates the energy of a major event in summer – a season that in itself is Manitoba’s biggest event. This insight informed the creative platform for the 2017 Canada Summer Games. The positioning statement, The Hottest Summer in Half a Century is supported visually by organic, flowing shapes inspired by thermal images, weather patterns and terrain. And the visual identity informed the creative for the awareness campaign.