Artscape Daniels Launchpad

Creating a Space for Artistic Entrepreneurs

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Artscape Daniels Launchpad

Launching a Creative Career

Artscape is a Toronto-based not-for-profit urban development organization that provides art-based programs as well as studio space for artists of all kinds. Their newest entity, Artscape Daniels Launchpad, acts as a marketplace of services and resources, including the latest tools, equipment, and technology to support creative entrepreneurship. As an art and design hub, it is the ideal environment for artists and designers to realize their full potential. For Artscape Daniels Launchpad, Entro created a versatile brand identity and visual language that adds energy to space itself, as well as all of its associated marketing materials.
  • Client

    Artscape

  • Location

    Toronto, Ontario

  • Sector

    Workplace

  • Architect

    RAW Design, Rafael + Bigauskas Architects (building); Quadrangle (interiors)

  • Photography

    Adrien Williams

  • Awards

    Graphis Design Annual Silver Award Graphic Design USA 14th Grand Prix du Design Platinum Winner

Interior casual, ecclectic space with different sitting/lounging areas identification signage saying

Design Inspiration

The signature graphic element is a black line, angled upward to symbolize a launching point or springboard. That’s the essence of the community: a place that will propel artists and designers forward. The graphic element allows us to denote potential energy, as in the potential inside the artist, as well as a place that gives them the boost to help their talent take flight.

 

Our wayfinding and graphics program fully commits to the same angular treatment. There is not a single graphic or line of text that is set to be level. It helps give the place an unconventional feel, promoting off-centre or irregular approaches to creativity. The neutral colour palette pairs easily with almost any design, reducing the risk of clashing with or unintentionally limiting any work created in the space.

Artscape Daniels Launchpad logo with adjacent graphic showing the angle of the black line.
A series of custom designed pictos
Playful Pictos

To accommodate the diverse backgrounds of the people who visit the space, we recommended pictograms rather than written text wherever possible. We developed a large vocabulary of pictograms for each work area—including textile, media, woodworking, and others—using a grid skewed to the same angle as the signature graphic element. Although the pictogram program was originally intended to improve the space’s inclusivity and accessibility, it has evolved into a celebration of art as a medium of communication and an extension of the Launchpad visual language.

  • Vinyl directory featuring custom pictograms mounted on glass wall with view to a textile studio.
  • Image 1: Entrance to Sugar Hall, which is bright red and features vinyl graphic designs and identification. Image 2: Picto and room identification signage for Delaney Family Foundation Boardroom.
  • Project Room identification signage and corresponding pictogram on a series of doors.
  • Full set of custom pictograms respresenting the different spaces and studios in Artscape Daniels Launchpad.
  • Branded totebags.
  • Digital Media Lab entrance featuring identification signage and pictograms.
Corridor with artwork in the form of stylized portraits alongside area identification signage featuring angled lines.

The result for Artscape Daniels Launchpad is a playful program that nonetheless reminds artists and designers that they are here for their creative futures. What began as a simple line at a slight angle now directs every part of a consistent brand experience, communicating that the Launchpad is not just ‘off the grid’, it uses its own.

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