After more than a year of reflection, consultation, and collaboration with employees, clients, and partners, Lemay is launching a new brand image. This refreshed identity is reflective of the firm’s creativity and uniqueness, while evoking its Montreal roots and bright future.

Memorable brands occupy a space in the collective mind and memory. They are both a form of inspiration and aspiration. Lemay’s new brand image is no exception to the rule. Beyond its functional and utilitarian aspect, a brand is meant to spark an emotional response. This refreshed image seeks to create a bond with its target audience, as well as a deep connection aimed at cultivating an emotional attachment and a sense of belonging.

Inspired by its unique history, while also looking to the future with optimism, Lemay’s new identity invites its employees, partners, clients, and community to be a part of something bigger. This brand is a gestural hand extended to future generations that will inherit today’s world, and a nod to the history that influences our current reality.

A brand “can only play an authentic role in our lives if it is transparent, open, and honest”, says Lemay Chief Marketing Officer, Robert Fiorino. There is a new expectation that brands are “sensitive to the broader context beyond their respective domains, and are more transparent than ever in their ethical values”.

Lemay’s branding and graphic design team ensured they created a new image that is strong and fluid, perfectly agile, and solidly established. Lemay’s new visual identity features a renewed colour palette and a series of icons representative of the firm’s creative culture. The fonts selected speak to Lemay’s rich history and current presence on the international stage. This new brand identity and voice were designed to adapt and evolve in the years to come.

“We wanted to rekindle the Lemay brand by rediscovering what we are passionate about and revisiting our origins. Through this exercise, we realized that Lemay is not simply red, black, or white. We are proud, creative, colourful, and full of emotions. The graphics team drew inspiration from Montreal, the city where the firm began over 60 years ago, seeking to embody the culture, richness, diversity, energy, and vibrancy,” says Maryline Bédard, Practice Leader for Branding and Graphic Design.

The brand image has been updated by replacing the Helvetica font – created in 1957, the year Lemay was founded - with Helvetica Now, a contemporary version of the typographic classic. In the same vein, the addition of the Montreal-based Grafier Black Display font establishes a direct link with the birth of the firm, which was founded in the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal over 60 years ago.

The collection of graphical elements that were developed by Lemay’s branding and graphic design allows the firm to visually tell its story through their mission, values, and long-term vision. The consultative and inclusive process used to define this new approach reflects the firm’s goals of equity, inclusion, and diversity. In fact, the new visual identity’s colourful spectrum is reflective of the diverse individuals who comprise Lemay’s present-day international team.

When it came to the brand tone, the goal was to sound like a person, not like a big company. The new tone is friendly and easy to understand, while being intelligent and informed. If Lemay’s brand voice were a person, they would walk steadily and confidently, smiling. They would be friendly, optimistic, warm, and curious. The paramount goal for this refreshed brand tone was to be inspiring, not intimidating. Lemay believes in design as a tool to bring people together, as should our writing.

In short, the new brand is the articulation of a firm that places the human experience at the heart of its practice. It is the very expression of the transformative power of design as a tool for creating generous spaces that truly improve people’s lives. Already visible on Lemay’s website and various social platforms, the new brand will continue to be rolled out across our various channels over the next few weeks. This official launch is the first step towards cultivating and fostering a strong connection with Lemay’s partners, clients, and the community. To be Lemay is to believe in the power to create spaces for communities today, that will continue giving to those of tomorrow – spaces to grow.

About Lemay

Lemay has been imagining new ways to create spaces that engage users and aims to bring people together. Its team of architects, designers, industry leaders, and change-makers work tirelessly to cultivate innovation in their own backyards and in communities around the world. Inspired and strengthened by transdisciplinary creativity, the firm has also developed its very own Net Positive^TM approach to guide teams towards sustainable solutions that shape a better future. With the human experience at its heart, Lemay strives to design with empathy and create spaces to grow.