Exhibit spotlights modern graphic design’s impact on New Brunswick history

A new exhibit at Fredericton’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery puts the spotlight on modern graphic design and its role in shaping New Brunswick’s history.

‘Pursuing the New: A Modern Graphic Design History of New Brunswick’ shares the stories of how provincial logos, corporate identities, and organizational branding were developed between the late 1930s and early 1990s.

Curator Tanya Duffy, who is also creative director at The Details Design and Branding, says she was inspired to begin work on the exhibit about six years ago, after rediscovering the 1965 logo for NB Tel (the former New Brunswick Telephone Company).

“It was so distinguished,” says Duffy, noting how the single circle with two intersecting electronic arrows, was one of the region’s first major corporate re-branding exercises.

“NB Tel made this pivot to something that was so simple,” says Duffy. “They needed something that people would instantly recognize. They needed something that would go on vehicles, and you could see from a distance, in the snow.”

“It was a safety precaution for them, that you would be able to mark vehicles and mark uniforms and have people immediately know what that was and what it stood for.”

The NB Tel rebrand proved to be a hit with the public. The electronic arrows would endure through the 1990s when it received a modern retouch, before being retired in 1999 following the Aliant merger.

“It’s such an example of epic modern graphic design, at a time when you didn’t usually see stuff like that,” says Duffy.

Along with NB Tel, the exhibit follows the evolution of Crown corporations working to form individual identities between the 1960s and 1970s, from NB Liquor (founded in 1976) to NB Power (which was moving to change its corporate identity from the New Brunswick Power Corporation).

NB Power’s orange circular arrows still stand as the utility’s official symbol today, alongside the Fredericton-based Sansom Equipment logo first introduced in 1965.

“Sansom still uses it, in its original form,” says Duffy. “It may be the oldest logo in New Brunswick that is still in use.”

Other designs likely to provoke nostalgia within the exhibit include a collection of iconic Theatre New Brunswick posters from the 1970s (designed in-house by TNB designer Lea Learning), the NB 200 moniker from 1984 which marked the province’s bicentennial, along with a tip of the hat to former companies, including Hatfield Potato Chips (owned by the family of former Premier Richard Hatfield).

Politics and policy are an exhibit focus, from the former Le Parti Acadien’s sleek but short-lived logo, to the messaging of Equal Opportunity initiatives during the 1960s under Premier Louis Robichaud.

“EO was stamped on government envelopes. They created brochures that went out in the mail, there were ads in the paper,” says Duffy.

“It may be the first time we branded public policy.”

The exhibit also tracks the evolution of New Brunswick’s official government logo – the galley ship – which was born from the province’s official coat of arms.

“There was no consistent guideline for our branding,” says Duffy, referring to the government’s approach prior to an initiative to create more cohesion in the late 1980s. “Each department sort of used whatever logo they wanted. They were trying to pull it all together and create one consistent set of tools.”

Duffy says an early contender for the government’s late ‘80s rebrand was created by a New York advertising agency, leaning heavily on the maple leaf.

“It was a bit more national looking,” she says. “It got rejected in the end, and it was redesigned in house by the communications teams here, still using the boat. It was a bit of a controversy at the time. The headline was ‘the NB ship beats the New York agency.’”

Altogether, Duffy hopes the exhibit allows people to appreciate how designers helped to elevate New Brunswick’s stories, products, and mandates.

“It’s not something to be taken for granted,” says Duffy. “There is a lot of emotion tied to design. People get really attached to branding and logos. People do care.”

‘Pursuing the New: A Modern Graphic Design History of New Brunswick’ will be accompanied with a companion book, launching in December.

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