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Designed by Burton Kramer in 1970, this 7-inch record was produced by the Ontario Department of Education for its Project School-to-School program, which encouraged cultural exchange and school twinning between Ontario and Commonwealth Caribbean schools.

The record pairs Join Hands and Hearts, a calypso written by Trinidadian composer Kell Winzey and lyricist Darryl Dean, with the original A Place to Stand, the well-known Ontario theme from the 1967 Expo film. The two sides reflect the project’s ambition to build connections between young people across cultures and distance.

Kramer’s gatefold design translates the idea of connection into a bold geometric composition. Four stylized hearts, two vermillion and two purple, are arranged in 90-degree rotations around a central calypso steel drum head. As the hearts overlap and entwine, they form the points of the compass and radiate from the centre, representing the ‘unity of hearts, of hopes’ described in the accompanying text. Where the colours overprint, they combine to create a darker red, adding another layer of visual unity to the composition. Set in Helvetica, the restrained typography and limited palette of black, purple and vermillion reinforce the clarity of the design.

The result is a particularly effective example of Kramer’s ability to use simple geometric forms, colour and typography to give a social program a distinctly contemporary visual identity.

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