Design Projects Center was a Canadian design firm active in the mid-20th century, associated with two notable figures in Canadian design history: Leslie (Sam) Smart and Sidney Bersudsky. Smart, a British-born typesetter and graphic designer, was a founding member of the Typographic Designers of Canada in 1956 and incorporated his own firm, Leslie Smart and Associates, in 1966, specializing in book design.[1] Bersudsky, born in Ukraine in 1913, worked as a commercial artist in the 1930s before becoming an industrial designer in Ontario, where he designed packaging and consumer products for companies such as Kelton Corporation and General Steel Wares Limited.[2][3]
Design and History
Documentation of a specific logo created by Smart and Bersudsky for Design Projects Center is limited. While both designers were active in Canada during the 1960s, and Smart’s work from that period included logo designs for Canadian institutions, no primary source has been located that confirms a joint logo commission for Design Projects Center or describes the mark’s visual features.[4] The claim that the two collaborated on this specific identity cannot be verified from available evidence.
Meaning and Symbolism
Without a confirmed primary source describing the Design Projects Center mark, any interpretation of its symbolism, geometric construction, or intended meaning would be speculative. What is documented about the designers themselves offers context: Smart was known for his typographic precision and use of generous white space in his work,[5] while Bersudsky’s career spanned commercial art and industrial design, with his work recognized by the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts.[2] These professional backgrounds suggest a designer with modernist training and a designer with broad commercial experience, but they do not establish the specific visual language of the Design Projects Center logo.
Readers seeking the Design Projects Center mark should note that the organization is not to be confused with the Design Project Center at Ferris State University, a not-for-profit student design firm founded by Linda Powell and Barbara Loveland.[6] The Canadian firm’s identity remains an area where further archival research, particularly into Leslie Smart and Associates’ client work from the 1960s, would be needed to confirm the logo’s authorship and appearance.
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