Imasco Limited was a Montreal-based Canadian conglomerate formed in 1970 to diversify Imperial Tobacco Company into other consumer markets.[1] The company’s visual identity was created the same year by the Montreal design firm Design Collaborative, co-founded by Ernst Roch and Rolf Harder.[2]
Design and History
Rolf Harder’s professional biography documents that he designed the logo for Imasco Ltd. in 1970 while working at Design Collaborative Associates in Montreal, a firm he co-founded with Ernst Roch, Al Faux and Anthony Mann in 1965.[2] The McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal holds archival material related to the Imasco logo within its Rolf Harder and Design Collaborative fonds, including files titled “À propos du logo IMASCO” (About the IMASCO logo).[3]
Ernst Roch, who worked alongside Harder at Design Collaborative from 1965 to 1977, was recognized as a pioneer of Canadian International Style graphic design and handled trademarks, posters and complete identity programmes.[4] Roch later produced a poster for Imasco Ltd. in 1979 as part of a Canadian unity campaign, which he selected as his favourite piece of work.[4]
Imasco was acquired by British American Tobacco in 2000, and the company was amalgamated with Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited.[5] The Imasco corporate identity was retired following the company’s dissolution.
Meaning and Symbolism
The Imasco mark was designed as a geometric symbol, consistent with the International Style approach that Roch and Harder championed in Canada.[4] The name “Imasco” itself is a contraction derived from the company’s origins as a holding entity for Imperial Tobacco, formed in 1970 to expand beyond the tobacco business.[1] No official documentation of specific symbolic meaning in the mark has been located in the available research sources.
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