Four years after creating and proposing a new, more accurate-looking moose crossing sign, Canadian transportation authorities are poised to start using an Alberta woman's design across the country.
Chloe Chapdelaine was an 18-year-old graphic design student living in a trailer outside of Foremost, Alta., when she was hit with artistic inspiration.
The moose crossing sign she passed every day going to work didn't seem right. So, she asked around.
"I brought it up to my co-workers and I said, 'Hey, have you guys noticed the sign on the highway? What do you guys think?'" she told CTV National News. "They were all, like, 'Oh my gosh. Is it even a moose? Does it look like a moose to you?'"
The "sad, sloppy" moose silhouette sign with a "droopy" nose has been a staple on highways across the country for years.
It had a number of anatomical faults, Chapdelaine says, which got her to break out a sharpie and draw up a new one. She gave the moose a shorter tail, less protruding chest, longer legs and a more "proud" and "majestic" snout.
She also wrote a light-hearted criticism of the sign at the time and an essay about why the moose is an iconic Canadian animal, which she mailed along with her drawing to several different transportation departments and agencies.
"I did not expect to hear back at all,” she said. “Honestly, I'd even forgotten that I sent it off in the first place because it was such a spur-of-the-moment random thing."
It took nearly four years, but one of Chapdelaine's letters finally caught the eye of the Transportation Association of Canada.
She received a reply earlier this year asking for the rights to use the image she created on new signs and in the agency's manual. Chapdelaine wasn't offered financial compensation for the design, but she couldn't deny the request.
"It's such a Canadian awesome legacy to have," she said. "I feel like I'll never do anything more Canadian than this."
The new signs are already being rolled out across the country, replacing their oddly shaped predecessors as needed.
With files from CTV News Calgary's Bill Macfarlane
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