The theme for this year's competition was "Iconic Toronto". We were asked to incorporate into our design an aspect of Toronto that represents its definitive people, places, and structures that define its history and the living culture of the city.

 

I started off by creating a mindmap, with the central theme being "Iconic Toronto" (you can find this mindmap in the WIP associated with this project). Using the mindmap, I took picked out terms from various ends of the map and tried "mashing" them together, to see if that would spark any brilliant ideas...

 

Here are just a few examples of the mash-ups I came up with...

Toronto + big City + New York City + history

eye contact + polite + sports

warm hearted + cold weather

diversity + many hands + drinks with friends

 

As any Torontonian knows, Toronto is largely defined by its celebration of diversity. As a city, we tend to appreciate, or at least respect, each other's differences--whether those differences lie in our cultural/ethnic background, our religious beliefs, our fashion choices, our interests, you name it. So most of my ideas ended up centering around that idea: namely, "come to Toronto, and you won't be shunned for your differences, but celebrated for them." 

However, I also thought it was important to remember that these shirts were going to be sold during the Pan Am Games, to Torontonians and tourists alike; therefore, I wanted to incorporate some sort of reference to Toronto's appreciation of sport and competition as well.

My first set of thumbnails used the mash-ups that I had created to try and represent "iconic Toronto":

After contemplating my thumbs and asking around for opinions, I ended up really liking the t-shirts that had a pure textual approach (a bit odd, actually, considering I'm usually very visually-oriented).

My two favourites were the "Running through the 6" and the "Here's T.O." design concepts. I drew up comps for both designs so that I could see what they'd look like at a slightly more refined level.

The four comps above were designed with the "Here's T.O." design concept in mind.

The four comps above were designed according to the "Running through the 6" design concept.

In the end, though I liked the look of the "Here's T.O." shirt, I decided to go with the Drake-inspired tee. You might ask why I decided to go with a generationally-specific design rather than one that every age group can understand...

And here's my logic:

 

When trying to decide, I asked myself, who is the primary target group for this t-shirt? If I gear my t-shirt toward the general adult tourist, what really sets my t-shirt apart from the thousands of other generic "Toronto" shirts that they can buy at any souvenir shop in the city? My t-shirt may look pretty nice, it might even represent Toronto perfectly in its design; however, at the end of the day, it's just another touristy Toronto shirt that could easily be looked over in favour of any other touristy Toronto shirt.

So, I really wanted to set this tee apart with this design. Instead of gearing my shirt to the general tourist, I made youth my target consumer. Virtually every western individual under the age of 30 knows who Drake is, and the vast majority of those people also associate him with the city of Toronto because of how often he talks about the city in his songs. Toronto is Drake's beloved hometown. Drake is wildly famous. Ipso facto, Toronto is famous via Drake in the eyes of today's youth. This t-shirt, then, represents Toronto perfectly in the eyes of the young. And not only will this shirt appeal to young tourists--whose preoccupation with popular culture will be as good a reason as any to buy the shirt--but it will also appeal to young Torontonians. Drake is one of the first major celebrities to proudly announce his love for his hometown of Toronto, and whether or not a Torontonian actually likes his music, it's secretly something we're all proud of. Drake's fame and reputation in the music industry does a lot to help us Canadians strike down the international assumption that Canada is just America's less talented, less powerful younger brother. Drake is not famous "for a Canadian". He's just plain famous. Drake is not talented "for a Canadian". He's just plain talented. And that definitely gives us Torontonians a little hit of regional pride (perhaps enough to get us to buy a t-shirt that conveys his influence).

 

And here's the thing. The shirt obviously makes reference to the Pan Am Games. My guess is that the City of Toronto is hoping to draw attention to our wonderful city through our hosting of this event. So, how do we draw attention? How does one create "buzz"? Well, the presently cliche but absolutely accurate answer is social media. And who is most active on social media? That's right! Young people. So what better way to create buzz about an event by capturing the attention of young people? And what better way to capture their attention than by associating the athleticism of the games with one of the most relevant celebrities alive (who just happens to be from the city where the games take place)? 

So here is the final product. I used the typeface that Drake uses on his latest mixed tape "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" for the references to sports. I liked the way that it kind of made it feel as though Drake himself celebrates these activities, which, again, connects him to the games. 

In addition to the actual t-shirt, we also had to create a hangtag that would be attached to our t-shirt prior to being sold. The whole idea behind this was to give buyers some insight into why the shirt they are buying is relevant to Torontonian culture and to let them know that the proceeds from the shirt will go directly to George Brown students.

For the hangtag, I wanted to keep the theme of simplicity consistent. On the front, I simply put a "6", my reasoning being that I wanted to convey the message that the "6" is enough: no need for any further bells and whistles--Toronto is so cool that it doesn't need any "fluff" to have an impact.

The description on the back refers to Toronto's appreciation of sport and diversity while also making reference to Drake, which I think ties together the thematic approach to the design quite nicely.