Photos courtesy SLD
By Peter Saunders
After the November 2011 rebranding of the Toronto Blue Jays professional baseball team, which included a new logo and uniforms, there was also an opportunity to update parts of the Rogers Centre, the stadium the Jays call home.
Toronto-based firm Shikatani Lacroix Design (SLD) was commissioned to develop exterior signage highlighting the team’s brand and to upgrade key stadium gates where players, fans, journalists and staff enter the building.
“These gates had not been updated since the SkyDome days,” says project manager Courtney Randles, referring to the facility’s name from 1989 to 2005. “We had permission to touch every finish, right down to putting in new wallboards and desks.”
SLD’s environmental graphic design (EGD) work and interior décor for the gate areas included the addition of new dimensional logos, tiles, ceilings, lighting and wood panelling. Previously nondescript spaces were better identified by incorporating branding elements, including the Blue Jays’ stripes and bird symbol, produced by Toronto-based PCL Graphics.
“We used a double stripe along the ceiling, for example, to guide people through the space,” says Randles.
The Toronto Blue Jays are updating select gates at the Rogers Centre.
The design firm had an existing relationship with the team, having worked on its retail store several years ago, as well as branding the Jays Care Foundation’s youth spaces, which are built within recreational centres across Ontario to provide fully accessible services. SLD also gutted two private boxes at the Rogers Centre to turn them into new spaces for children.
Rebranding the Rogers Centre gates was particularly challenging, however, because the stadium is used by a variety of tenants throughout the year.
“There were lots of logistics involved in closing gates for this work,” says Randles. “The team wanted everything ready in time for the season opener, but we only had two gates finished by then. We’re now fitting the main reception area with slightly higher-grade finishes, which should be done by mid-November.”
