Comment

The Ontario Educational Communication Authority (OECA) was created by the provincial government of Ontario in 1970, producing educational and children’s programming as well as printed matter for classroom use and exhibitions. The symbol, designed by Burton Kramer, was adopted by the Board of Directors at their first meeting on August 20, 1970. You can read more about the OECA trademark here.

Following the development and implementation of the symbol, Kramer was invited to develop a fuller set of identity standards which culminated in the production of this corporate design manual. The manual was prepared to clearly describe all elements basic to the OECA corporate identity program and contained complete specifications for a wide variety of corporate materials in order to assure consistant results.

The cover of the manual takes the OECA symbol and incorporates further detail in the form of several gradient fills and an overlaid field of horizontal lines, evoking the illusion of a live television screen (and a bonus touch of Kramer’s signature style). The contents inside cover the full spectrum of corporate elements and applications including: Symbol, Logotype, Typography, Use of Colour, Applications (from letterhead to vehicles) and Addenda (additional information). The inner pages are printed in black and blue/purple ink only, predominantly on uncoated stock, with the addition of several shades of heavy coloured paper used as divider sheets to indicate the start of each new section.

The OECA corporate design manual was a winner in the Look of Books 1974 Design Awards, organized by Design Canada.

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