CANADA GOOSE City Sense

As Canada Goose is growing its retail footprint across the world, the brand was looking for a tool to drive excitement and anticipation in the new cities. monopo was asked to develop the global concept for a city guide-style publication and produce the publication for the opening of new stores in Milan, Paris and Shanghai. We took charge of the process from concept to delivery, in close collaboration with Canada Goose’s in-house copywriting team. The result is the Canada Goose City Sense. An urban excursion guide designed to motivate city-dwellers to Live in the Open within the confines of the city.

Canada Goose is a function-first outerwear brand that exists to inspire and enable all people to engage with the outside world. To embrace rather than escape nature’s elements. To Live in the Open. A privilege that is often lost on those living in the city. With this project, we wanted to develop a guide that doesn’t just show you the popular places in a city, but actually helps you find the hidden spots that allow you to truly engage with nature’s elements. The City Sense series was born. We decided to combine the function-first philosophy of the Canada Goose brand with the tactile side of nature. The art direction had to feel like a hybrid between an excursion book, a field manual and a travel journal. Something that provokes action. City Sense shouldn’t feel like an effortless and complete publication, just suggesting a few locations to visit. It should feel like a guide that challenges you to explore and take action.

Our City Sense urban excursion guide prompts users to go on mini excursions and discover 6 locations in Milan, Paris and Shanghai. The locations were selected by artists that live locally and know where to experience nature within the city. For every location, the City Sense provides facts, a description and an illustration by the local artist, but it also provokes the reader to make notes of their own and describe how they personally experience this location. To look up at the clouds, draw the vegetation or come back in different seasons. It challenges the reader to experience for themselves rather than just accept the experience as it is described by the guide.

To add an extra level of wonder and interaction, the guide doesn’t immediately show where the different locations can be found. Instead, the guide comes with a transparent map that has to be placed on top of the different chapter pages to reveal where every location is.

Topographic shapes play a central role in the design of City Sense. They are at the same time factual and mysterious objects, showing elevation through abstract shapes. They evoke a sense of exploration and functionality - two key elements of the Canada Goose brand. And while it’s not obvious to the reader, the topographic shapes used on the chapter title pages are in fact accurate to where that location is in real life. Beyond topographic shapes, we also created a bespoke set of markers to identify the different natural elements and human senses for every location.

Just like the Canada Goose brand, we wanted to give the City Sense guides a premium yet functional finish. Quality rather than glamour. Small details made all the difference. Quality GF Smith Colorplan paper stock with thin transparent foil-printed topographic shapes for the cover, rounded corners for sturdy sophistication and thread-sewn bindings for durability.

The starting point for the project was to create a global format that could be easily localised to become an ever-expanding series, while leaving sufficient room for local interpretation. Through the Milan edition (the first City Sense), we developed the template and set the rules for what makes a successful City Sense. Through the production of the Shanghai and Paris editions, we fine-tuned to format so that it is ready to use for any upcoming store openings.