First founded in 1969, Gymnastics Canada has been supporting the mastery of movement in Canada for five decades. We've seen a lot change in that time - in the equipment, in the athletes, in the coaching, in our facilities, in the competitions, and in ourselves. As we hit our 50th Anniversary year, we felt it was time to update our brand identity to reflect the diversity of our sport, while also celebrating what makes us unique.
Gymnastics is a sport for all ages and stages in life that provides it's participants with flexibility, balance, agility, and strengh. Beyond this, our programs, which span seven different disciplines, encourage physical literacy, fun, character-building, and ultimately for some - competition.
As one of only three Olympic sports to be considered 'foundation sports' by the International Olympic Committee and Sport Canada, we take this foundation-aspect to heart. It forms the base for our mission:
It is this duality of being a sport that provides participants with the skills to participate in a variety of other sports besides gymnastics with a high degree of physical literacy, and a sport that fields athletes for the highest levels of competition that formed the base of our new brand.
We dove deep into our community to gather feedback on what our brand should represent, and what came back was that our brand personality should portray disciplines, organization, trustworthiness, pride, fearlessness, and fun.
The diversity of our sport was also important to portray - from the grace and flexibility of rhythmic, to the strength and power of artistic, to the high-flying flips and twists of trampoline, to the theatrics and colourfulness of gymnaestrada, and so much more.
With this insight, we set forth to produce our new visual identity:
Although our individual disciplines are unique, they all celebrate movement of the human form. They also all share the idea of 'sticking the landing' and/or 'presenting' when embarking on a routine, or celebrating on the podium. Our new visual identity also represents equally the bilingualism that makes Canada unique.
Modern, clean, and iconic, our new identity represents a nod to our past, as well as a firm step forward into the future - that of a foundation sport that prepares people to stand on any number of podiums in life.
Our brand is the essence, or personality of Gymnastics Canada. It is what makes us distinctive, memorable, and different from other sports, and it is the promise of a uniquely foundational experience. It unifies the disciplines, and encourages those outside of the sport to become participants.
To download our brand guidelines, please click here.