Welcome to London, Canada's first UNESCO City of Music

About the Logo Design

London is the first city in Canada to receive the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) City of Music designation.This is an tremendous honour and will help move the music community forward while opening up a great deal of opportunities for Londoners.

The team needed to develop a unique, one of a kind brand for this designation.

This logo illustrates a thriving arts industry in London to an international stage while also representing a renewed commitment to being better community members.

Guitar Shape

The buildings are contrasted against the shape of a guitar. This symbol was selected as an internationally recognized symbol representing musician, singers, songwriters, and creators to any person across the globe. This composition of buildings against a musical element represents the relationship between a diverse arts community and a thriving city.

Land Acknowledgement 

It was meaningful to include the maple leaf, an internationally recognized symbol for Canada. This was important to clarify London, Canada and not London, England. It sits along a curved ridge, representing Deshkan Ziibing which means Antler River in Anishnaabemowin, also known under the colonized name, Thames River. It brings attention to our responsibility to sustain this land for future generations - to keep the music playing.

Buildings

The logo design is a minimalist representation of the pillars that create the conditions for success in the Music community: industry support, education and creative platforms. These pillars are represented in the understated city skyline structures that seem vaguely familiar against the London city scape. The buildings are designed to create a gap against the background, which symbolizes the spaces that can be filled with diverse and innovative new voices.

The Wordmark Design

The icon and wordmark are designed to be used together or independently, with the London wordmark styled to represent audio console dials. This design is a nod to engineers, technicians and those who work behind the scenes.

London City of Music Street Mural Art Design

I worked with the London Music Office and Tourism London to create a mural design to represent London at the North American Creative Cities Forum in Querétaro, Mexico during August 2022. The goal of the street mural was to showcase the City of Music logo design in a limited selection of colours that could be easily reproduced by hand. The finished mural is a close-up view of the logo with colours added to accentuate the building shapes and the skyline. Thank you to Cory Crossman for providing these photos.

Press

• “London takes next steps to recognize UNESCO City of Music designation”, Jan. 2022, City of London

• “London, Ont. is Canada's first UNESCO City of Music”, Nov. 2021, CTV News

• “Strike up the band: London designated 'city of music' by UN agency”, Nov 2021, London Free Press

• “London becomes Canada’s first UNESCO City of Music”, Nov 2021, London Inc. Magazine

• “London, Ont. named a UNESCO City of Music, becoming Canada’s first to earn designation”, Nov 2021, Global News

Testimonial