Don Watt traveled a long way from his Saskatchewan home, but his prairie roots informed a completely new design aesthetic and process. His was a conservative philosophy that linked print, packaging, signage, advertising, architecture, and psychology, in a dry, bold style that became a potent selling machine. A high impact and memorable lure for consumers that proved that great design pays.

“I want to get rid of ugly.”

Watt had a broad design career. He worked at Avro Arrow creating interior and styling details, was a talented illustrator at Disney, helped to create the Canadian Pavilion at Expo67, and claimed to be the designer of the Canadian flag. This collage of design skills combined into a unique perspective on the design profession and he began to understand how to harness the power of design to reach out to consumers and build their trust in products. He grew bored with the pace of traditional design, which he claimed moved too slowly to be groundbreaking. Instead, he repackaged his skill set to specialize in retail and packaging design which had a higher velocity, an endless appetite to be new, and is a major connector between consumers and business. He wanted his work to stick into the mind of a shopper. Watt understood how a reduction of visual elements would create a memorable design and a recognizable brand.

“I resented people making things look bad, for people who don’t have money.”

His ideas created a revolution of how brands used design to resonate with customers. Watt’s most popular work ‘No Name’ was a straightforward retail concept, a line of food and household products packaged in high contrast yellow with clearly visible, black Helvetica text, culminating into packaging that announced boldly what they were without additional flair. The product line embodied a principle idea of the Bauhaus, that design can free industrial products and deliver high quality items to everyone, in other words, democratic design. When first unveiled, Watt’s concept was criticized as radical and controversial, accused of being too severe in its sparseness and Soviet-esque uniformity. Yet, the No Name brand was credited in revitalizing Loblaws supermarkets. It’s so brave, and so unbelievable that Watt actually convinced Loblaws to take this huge visual leap. Launched in the 1980’s, No Name is still one of Canada’s most recognizable brand identities, remaining largely unchanged, which speaks volumes of the timelessness of Don Watt’s work.

We sent photographer Lorne Bridgman out with his fantastic eye to inspire us and show how this iconic graphic design system is living today.