All images courtesy of Bruce Mau Design

Beavers, Maple Syrup and Toques are out. Ryan Gosling, Transgendered Beauty Queens and the Oil Sands are in. Facing a challenge to redesign Canada’s brand, Bruce Mau Design (BMD) has teamed up with Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson, an American public radio show, to change the way Americans think about Canada. Starting with the assumption that Americans don’t understand Canada, the BMD team designed ‘Know Canada,’ a graphic campaign that highlights Canada’s 21st Century icons while ignoring cliché imagery traditionally associated with the country.

The campaign uses the two solid red bars from the sides of the flag to frame a diverse range of Canadian people, inventions and places including Arcade Fire, Stephen Harper and the Trivial Pursuit game piece. Showcasing a wide variety of Canadian ideas and viewpoints brands Canada as an inclusive, dynamic place that harbours a creative, open population. BMD offers up a bevy of ideas for implementing the red bars design including bus ads, a press podium and even a new passport stamp.

No word yet whether the Royal-loving, Liberal-red-hating, brand-happy Harper Government plan to embrace the vision.

For more check out knowcanada.org.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article attributed the campaign to Bruce Mau the individual, instead of the Bruce Mau Design studio team. Bruce Mau himself was not involved in the project. We regret the error.

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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg

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