SUPERFANTASTIC channel the urban spirit of The Bentway in their identity for the cultural space

A public outdoor space set in the most unlikely location, The Bentway can be found under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway. According to the team behind the initiative, the city is a site, subject, and canvas. And as such, The Bentway marks a pivotal movement in Toronto public spaces and strives to “ignite the urban imagination,” through its offering of cultural programming and community events for guests of all ages. Familiar with the location, design and experiential studio SUPERFANTASTIC partnered with the Bentway team to encapsulate the spirit of the space through a fitting identity. “Prior to the rebrand, we’d worked with The Bentway team on the design for their summer season and multiple experiential events starting in 2021,” Partner & Creative Director Mark Neil Balson tells us. “We’d always loved the Highline in NYC, and seeing a similar space created in our city was very inspiring. Since their inception, we’ve visited regularly, and followed the amazing work the team is doing.” Led by the architecture of the under highway space, the studio opted for a modernist slant, characterised by a type-forward approach to layouts and a restricted colour palette of black and white alongside the existing key colour of yellow, that allows the signage to stand out while harmonising with its surroundings. When it came to designing the central wordmark, an all-lowercase route felt the most appropriate. As Balson explains, “at its heart, The Bentway is a community project that invites the city to explore and come together in an unexpected space. The lowercase wordmark reflects the earnest, open and friendly spirit of the non-profit organisation. The rebrand was meant to feel more like “of course it should be like this,” versus pushing for something the brand is not, and the more casual typesetting was met with immediate affection.” Directly inspired by the rectilinear forms of the expressway, the custom typeface (based on APK Galeria) showcases distinct angular features. “The industrial look and feel of the space under the highway is made of sharp 90 and 45 degree angles,” notes Balson, which is reflected in the cut corners and edges of certain letterforms. Likewise, the mix of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ forms of the typeface represents the juxtaposition of “the brutalist concrete structure that is the under Gardiner corridor” and “the wide range of community and arts-based programming The Bentway brings to the space.”