The City Where Contemporary Calgary Was Founded is Now the Neighborhood Where its Future Unfolds
In 2008, Resonance began branding, storytelling and placemaking work that would help turn a derelict 40-acre riverfront site in downtown Calgary into an award-winning master planned community that is now among the most desirable places to live in the city. We have partnered with the developer, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, since then, helping them parlay a $400 million public infrastructure investment into $3 billion of private sector investment.
As the developer fixed aged infrastructure, Resonance remediated public opinion about the neighborhood, imagining and communicating the story of East Village as a fully-formed place alive with people, places and experiences. In our Brand Platform, we positioned it as the Newest Oldest Coolest Warmest Place in Town and designed an inviting identity that reflected the warm texture of the neighborhood’s history in a contemporary form that recalled the river rocks in the nearby Bow River. We engaged both B2C and B2B audiences by designing the interior of a new “Experience Center”, recruiting prospective developers and the community’s first retailers. We christened the RiverWalk and the Riff, and helped position an island off our riverfront as a natural playground, a breathing space in the city.
Ten years into our mandate, we helped CMLC take the East Village brand to the next level to reflect the neighborhood’s newfound confidence and swagger. We applied bolder colors to our pebble-shaped logo and created playful, urban graphic devices, along with a new positioning that declared East Village the heart of the urban experience: Real City. Real Life. More than 2,000 Calgarians now call East Village home and numerous additional developments are currently underway.
