Turning a new leaf in Canadian graphic design.

FILM REVIEW

Design Canada If you drew a Venn diagram — two circles, one representing patriots and the other people who love design — the overlapping portion will adore this flagwaving documentary about Canadian graphic design. Put me right in that bull’seye.

Actually, flag-waving is the film’s opening salvo, as director Greg Durrell examines the adoption of the Maple Leaf pennant in 1965 after almost 100 years of the nation making do with the Red Ensign. Despite its design-by-committee provenance — prime minister Lester B. (Mike) Pearson wanted a busy three-colour thing with a sprig of leaves in the middle — the final choice was, as one pundit puts it, “a victory for good design.”

Quite a few designers from that golden age are still with us. So we hear from Stuart Ash, who created the centennial symbol, a stylized maple leaf made of 11 triangles and a stick, still visible on any sidewalk poured in 1967. He recalls it took him “an hour or two to come up the idea.”

Then there’s Burton Kramer, who took the letter C and made it look like expanding radio waves — the symbol of the CBC. Or Raymond Bellemare, marvelling that his bosses at Expo 67 let him keep a poster that featured a marijuana-leaf button.

Heather Cooper talks about her design of the logo for Roots, and also notes the arguments that kept many women out of the field for so long; (male) bosses said long hours at the drafting table would mean dangerous trips home after dark for wouldbe design-atrixes.

Even at a brief 74 minutes, Design Canada has time for some nifty asides, like the fact that the old Montreal Expos baseball logo hides the letters M-E-B in plain sight.

Or that the CN logo — front-page news when it debuted in 1960 — was crafted by Allan Fleming during an airplane flight, over a glass of Scotch.

The best designs can look so natural we forget they even had to be invented. Take the Federal Identity Program (FIP), the Orwellian name for our national wordmark. It’s “Canada,” written in modified Baskerville type, with the stick of the “d” acting as a flagpole. Created by Jim Donoahue in 1980, it can be seen on all federal departments, agencies, corporations, boards, councils — and Canadarms. From student backpacks to near-Earth orbit, good design travels. ★★★★★

Design Canada opens June 22 at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs cinema in Toronto; June 29 at Cinema Du Parc, Montreal; and July 5 at Cinematheque Vancouver.