Services en audio visuel Commission de la Fonction publique du Canada was a French-language audiovisual services unit within Canada’s Public Service Commission, the federal agency responsible for public service staffing and training. The unit’s 1976 logo, a geometric symbol designed by Montreal artist and designer Yves Paquin, has been preserved in design archives as an example of mid-century Canadian institutional identity work.
Design and History
Yves Paquin, born in Montreal in 1951, is a multidisciplinary, self-taught artist whose career spans illustration, printmaking, painting and graphic design. In 1992 he co-founded Rouleau-Paquin design communication with Marie Rouleau, a firm focused on social, cultural, corporate and institutional communications. Earlier in his career, in 1976, Paquin created the symbol for Services en audio visuel Commission de la Fonction publique du Canada. That same year he also illustrated the Tarot idéographique du Kébèk, which won a Prix des Graphistes in Paris in 1978. [1] [2]
The 1976 symbol gained wider recognition in 2020 when it was selected as one of two cover variations for LogoArchive Extra Issue 3, a zine dedicated to mid-century symbols and corporate identity programs. The issue, published by designer and writer Richard Baird, paired Paquin’s 1976 symbol with a 2010 logo by the Swedish studio BankerWessel, highlighting the dialogue between past and present in symbol design. [3] [4]
Meaning and Symbolism
Documented interpretation of the symbol’s specific meaning is limited. The mark was created for an audiovisual services unit within the Public Service Commission, and its selection for LogoArchive places it within the tradition of mid-century symbolic corporate identity design. However, no primary source detailing Paquin’s intended symbolism for this particular mark has been located. The Public Service Commission of Canada operated under the federal government’s Federal Identity Program, which coordinates the visual identity of federal institutions across stationery, signage, publications and audiovisual productions. [5]
Typography and Design
The symbol is described only as a 1976 creation by Paquin, with no published specification of its geometric construction, color palette or accompanying letterforms. [3]
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