Ontario Film Laboratories was a Canadian film processing company whose 1970 logo is attributed to designer Leslie (Sam) Smart, a prominent figure in postwar Canadian graphic design. Smart, who incorporated his firm Leslie Smart and Associates in 1966, was a co-founder of the Society of Typographic Designers of Canada and was known for typographic restraint and functional design principles.[1]
Design and History
The Ontario Film Laboratories mark was designed in 1970 by Leslie Smart.[2] The logo is described as a block-style design incorporating circle and negative space elements, with a Canada shape included in the composition.[2]
Smart’s design philosophy emphasized that form must follow function, with each design directly reflecting its content, product, or service. He advocated for simplicity and intelligent restraint, seeking what he described as a “Scandinavian” simplicity in his work.[1] His approach to design was shaped by British typographic traditions, which moderated the influence of German and Swiss design thinking on his practice.[1]
Smart’s career included work as a book designer, with commissions from Oxford University Press, and he was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1975.[1] His work for Ontario Film Laboratories represents one of his corporate identity commissions during the late 1960s and early 1970s period of his practice.
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