ACE 
District

Ottawa’s downtown is at an inflection point. To help catalyze its revitalization, the Ottawa Art Gallery and City of Ottawa Economic Development engaged Spruce to establish a brand for a new Arts, Culture and Entertainment district — one that could attract new audiences and investment to the area, and give the city’s creative community a platform to build from.

The challenge was strategic as much as creative. The brand needed to work bilingually, complement rather than compete with existing institutions, and earn authentic buy-in from a diverse stakeholder community with competing priorities. Working with a compressed timeline, we built on existing engagement work by holding small focus groups with key members of the community. We built on these findings, we built a clear strategy framework, defining the district’s vision, values, and positioning before moving into visual identity. The result is a brand built to leverage both near-term opportunities for investment and long-term growth opportunities as Ottawa’s civic brand evolves.