Every August, Canadians get a quiet little day off that doesn’t get much fanfare. The Civic Holiday, observed on the first Monday of August, originated in the mid-19th century in what was then called Upper Canada. The idea was a non-denominational holiday to give workers and families a mid-summer break. But over the decades, something interesting happened: municipalities across the country picked it up and made it their own, layering on local names, local histories and local pride. Today it’s less a holiday about rest and more a holiday about place. It’s become a day to celebrate the history, culture and community that make a city feel like home.
That feeling—a civic identity—is something built, layer by layer, story by story, over time. It’s also at the heart of a lot of the work we do at Spruce Creative.
Spruce’s work often focuses on bringing clarity, pride and connection to the public projects that shape how people move, gather and belong. From libraries and hospitals to housing and cultural districts, we create brands and campaigns that turn public investment into shared identity.
That work is particularly visible this Civic Holiday. Ottawa is in the middle of several major transformations—new cultural infrastructure, new districts, new ways for residents to connect with their city. And we’ve been fortunate enough to be part of telling these stories.
It’s a strange and wonderful thing, doing this work in your own city. We walk past the projects we’ve worked on. We take our kids to places we’ve helped name. Photos of bus shelters or Instagram posts featuring recent work pop up in our Spruce chat. It’s a feeling of pride. In our work but equally in our city. Yes, you could call it civic pride.
Here’s a look at some of the civic projects that you may have spotted out in the wild.
Ādisōke: A shared space rooted in story
In 2016, the Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada set out to do something that hadn’t really been done before in Canada: build a single, combined facility that would serve as both a national archive and a beloved neighbourhood library. Getting the brand right meant getting the story right first. Working alongside OPL, LAC, the City of Ottawa and the Anishinaabe Algonquin Host Nation, we helped shape a brand rooted in public engagement and genuine collaboration. The facility’s name, Ādisōke, was gifted by the Host Nation. It means “storytelling” in the Anishinaabemowin Algonquin language, and that became the seed for the brand’s tagline: “Stories live here.”
Today we’re working on a website to share Ādisōke with the world and on mural installations that will inspire visitors every day.
The ACE District: An invitation to arts & culture downtown
Downtown Ottawa is at an inflection point, and the Ottawa Art Gallery and City of Ottawa Economic Development came to us with a challenge as strategic as creative: establish a brand for a brand-new Arts, Culture and Entertainment district that could draw new audiences and investment downtown, while giving the city’s creative community a bigger platform for their work.
Building on existing community engagement work, we developed a strategic framework: vision, values, and positioning, before designing a single visual element.
What came out of that process was the ACE District (Quartier DAC in French): a bold, energetic visual identity built around a simple sensory framework—See it. Taste it. Hear it. Feel it. Find it. We launched the identity across out-of-home advertising, social media and a new website—not to mention extensive support for an incredibly fun public event in the heart of the district.
Generation ZEB: A new way to move around the city
Another transformation happening in Ottawa is the electrification of the City of Ottawa’s bus fleet. By 2027, 357 buses in the OC Transpo fleet will be fully electric. Generation ZEB (Zero Emission Bus) will mean fewer greenhouse gases and less noise pollution. As well as a supremely comfy ride for passengers.
Spruce was hired to tell the story of Generation ZEB. Combining live production on site at OC Transpo and motion graphics to bring the story to life, our team created a video that the City and its partners can use to tell the why, what and how of this important new phase of Ottawa’s public transit system.
The Thread That Connects It All
ādisōke, the ACE District, Generation ZEB. They may look nothing alike. But they’re telling the same underlying story: that Ottawa is already an incredible city in which to live, and that exciting new public investments—with exciting brands and stories—will help the city continue to grow, change and reach its potential.
That’s the work we love most. Not just building brands but building the kind of civic pride that makes a city feel worth celebrating—on the Civic Holiday and every day.
