Toronto Tomorrow

Toronto’s post-industrial eastern waterfront contains some of the largest areas of underdeveloped urban land in North America. “Toronto Tomorrow” is a proposed masterplan developed by Sidewalk Labs that will transform the location into one of the most innovative districts in the world. The project consisted of the design of the draft Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP), a massive, four-volume, 1,500-page document that details the proposal.

The MIDP offers a global model for creating a “smart city” that incorporates emerging technologies, materials and processes to tackle issues such as sustainability, accessibility, inclusiveness, and prosperity of urban communities. The books’ design helps establish a visual identity for the project, using color, typography and illustration to capture the vibrancy of Sidewalk’s vision and balance the technical and the human. The design team wanted to create something with lasting value––a planning and architecture book not just for officials, but for the greater public.

The process involved the development of a content and volume systems structure for the MIDP along with a robust kit of design parts for the project. To facilitate the design and layout of the proposal a comprehensive system of typography, color, graphics and iconography was developed to create a clear coherent visual language across a huge variety of subject matter and media – from textual matter to infographics, architectural drawings, plans, schematics and photography.