Partner, CCO @spark_advocacy, Chair of @algonquindesign PAC, former @DesCanNational president. Creative, Curious, Canadian. #cdnpoli #cdndesign
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Joined December 2009
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Still one of the best logos on the planet.
By the mid-century, Canadian National Railways had replaced steam with diesel, upgraded its fleet and restructured. Yet a study of 4,000 Canadians found the improvements were going unnoticed: the public still saw the railway as old-fashioned.
Jim Valkus was brought in to close the gap, and handed the logo to Canadian designer Allan Fleming. On a flight to New York, Fleming sketched ideas on a cocktail napkin, joining the C and N into one continuous line. “It’s a route line that incidentally spells CN,” he explained. “It represents the movement of people, materials, and messages from one point to another.”
The flowing ‘signature logo’, later known as the CN ‘Worm’, was a risk and a departure from the railway heralds of the past. In the words of Lorne Perry, who rolled out the programme, it became “a powerful moving billboard for CN’s powerful trains”.
Read the full story behind the logo → logohistories.com/p/canadian…
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I use this logo, among others, as an example in my branding workshops to demonstrate how a logo can grow to mean more than simply the sum of its artwork.
Rockets yes, but science, space, rovers, etc.
How orgs add story, is what transforms logo into brand.
By the 1970s, James Modarelli’s 1959 NASA ‘meatball’ was seen as a relic of the past, a cumbersome design that didn’t fit the sleek and modern image NASA wanted to project. It was complicated, hard to reproduce and, in the words of Danne, ‘born out of the classic “airman syndrome” where hype and fantasy dominated over logic and reality’.
In 1974, through the Federal Design Improvement Program, Danne & Blackburn, a small New York design studio of five at the time, got the job of bringing NASA’s image right up to date.
Their answer was radical for its time: a sleek, red typographic treatment of the word ‘NASA’. Its consistent line weight and curvilinear forms earned it the nickname ‘the worm’, and the absence of crossbars on the A’s alluded to the nose cones of two rockets pointing upward.
Read the full story behind the logo → logohistories.com/p/nasa-log…
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Great eps in here.
My STTNG episode tier list:
In light of the captain's passing, I'm going to be going through and watching all the S and A tier episodes of the next few months, to re-absorb all the wisdom in there.
share.danielmiessler.com/QBY…
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Adrian Jean retweeted
Here’s a story for you. We started filming without owning the title and had to do alternates.
Taft Broadcasting owned the title Ghostbusters as part of their half-hour sitcom starring Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker (F-Troop) and a gorilla chasing ghosts. I had never heard of it. They didn’t have proton packs or Bill Murray. Columbia paid $500,000 to buy the name, but they really should have paid Dean Martin, from whom I first heard the term.
In the film Scared Stiff (1953), he and Jerry Lewis (check out his acrobatic stair descent) are in an old haunted castle, and Lizabeth Scott asks Dean: “Who are you guys?” And Dean answers: “You’ve heard of Trustbusters and Gangbusters, we’re Ghostbusters!”
For my research writing the first movie, I watched every single ‘ghost’ comedy ever made. Bowery Boys, Hope and Crosby, Abbot and Costello, Martin and Lewis all did such films.
Happy Halloween 2026.
Adrian Jean retweeted
🎃 👻 🦇 🧛 🕷️ Happy Halloween!
Design for Haguruma, a letterpress print company in Osaka.
👉 More processes: youtu.be/AQL5zf7UE0U
#illustration #draw #sketch #design #pencil #Halloween2026
Adrian Jean retweeted
I have assembled some Picard-related screenshots from #StarTrekTNG that you can use if you want to write about Sir Patrick Stewart's passing. Seeing AI-generated images that sometimes don't even look like Patrick Stewart makes me very uneasy so please don't do that, no matter how much you mourn him Use actual images instead, please! 1/6
“Tomorrow do thy worst,
for I have lived today.”
Farewell Captain.
Sonnet 154. The final one. Here's to everyone who has been so kindly watching and listening to these sonnets. We never expected anything like this and we appreciate it enormously. Thank you! #ASonnetADay
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Adrian Jean retweeted
Congratulations, @_MarkSutcliffe, on your re-election as Mayor of Ottawa.
We’ve accomplished a lot together and now we have the opportunity to build on it.
That means getting more affordable homes built across the city. Making our communities safer for families. Giving the people of Nepean, and all of Ottawa, the chance to build the future they want for themselves.
I look forward to the work ahead and the progress we’ll make together.
Adrian Jean retweeted
Ottawa, thank you for your trust and support. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue serving as your mayor.
Our work has only just begun. I’ll work hard every day to protect affordability, improve our quality of life, and build a better future for everyone in Ottawa.
The best is yet to come. Let’s keep moving Ottawa forward, together!
Ottawa, merci pour votre confiance et votre appui. Je suis vraiment reconnaissant d’avoir la chance de continuer à servir notre ville à titre de maire.
Le travail ne fait que commencer. Je vais travailler fort chaque jour pour protéger l’abordabilité, améliorer notre qualité de vie et bâtir un meilleur avenir pour tout le monde à Ottawa.
Le meilleur est à venir. Continuons à faire avancer Ottawa, ensemble!
Adrian Jean retweeted
I’m running to be the Mayor for all of Ottawa. Every community has different needs, and I have a practical plan to deliver results for suburban neighbourhoods, rural villages, and urban communities.
Je suis candidat à la mairie pour représenter toute la ville d’Ottawa. Chaque communauté a ses propres besoins, et j’ai un plan concret pour obtenir des résultats dans nos banlieues, nos villages ruraux et nos communautés urbaines.
Adrian Jean retweeted
I’m ready to get right to work and keep moving Ottawa forward. In my first 30 days, I’ll take immediate action on affordability, transit and safety. Here's how.
Adrian Jean retweeted
If re-elected, I'll get to work right away on LRT Phase 3 to Kanata, Stittsville, and Barrhaven. See my plan: marksutcliffe2026.ca/priorit…
Adrian Jean retweeted
When you run for Mayor, you have to tell residents everything you plan to do once you’re in office. While other candidates are keeping some of their plans a secret, today I released my full platform for Ottawa’s future.
It’s an ambitious, balanced and achievable plan to keep our city affordable, strengthen our economy and build on the progress we’ve made over the past four years.
I want to leave behind a better city for our kids and grandkids than the one we inherited. That means making the right decisions today to keep Ottawa strong, affordable and full of opportunity for generations to come. I believe deeply that Ottawa’s best days are still ahead. I’m asking for your support to keep building that future together.
marksutcliffe.ca/plan
Today years old:
Someone redid the entire Star Trek: Voyager intro in high res from scratch including the 3D ship model. Wow... how did I miss this! (Also check out their other renders as well! So good.)
youtube.com/watch?v=vMHx7fiL…
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