FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Montreal, May 7, 2014
MP Repro gets a facelift for its 50th
To mark its 50th anniversary, Montreal’s venerated specialty printer to architects, engineering and construction firms recently awarded Studio Feed the mandate to give its brand identity a much needed youth injection.
Better known by long-time clients as MP Photo or simply MP, the family-run business founded by Gaetano Martinez in 1964 has played a crucial role in scores of Montreal’s most historically significant construction projects. To preserve the company’s rich heritage while breathing new life into its brand identity, Feed commissioned brand strategy consultant Marc-André Chaput to perform a 3600 brand audit and an in-depth analysis of the highly competitive commercial-printing industry at home and abroad.
Conducted in close collaboration with company principals, employees and clients, the analysis revealed a highly specialized enterprise that developed unique expertise in a variety of disciplines to better meet the needs of a diverse clientele. The analysis also revealed an acute sense of responsibility and attention to detail, and a profoundly human approach to customer service and human resources development.
“Our challenge was to create a more modern brand identity that would reflect the evolution of MP’s service offer without breaking from the past, and evoke the company’s high-touch approach to service,” said Marc-André.
“Our aim was to create a simple and evocative brand identity derived from the worlds of both architecture and printing. Cyan quickly emerged as a natural as one of the three primary colors of the CMYK color model essential for printing. Brighter than the more classic blue that had been MP’s trademark from its earlier days, the new, more luminous variant expressed a more contemporary way to convey the dynamic nature of the company,” added Anouk Pennel, co-founder of Montreal-native design studio.
“We decided to treat the ‘P’ in ‘MP’ in lower case to give the name of the founder (Martinez) more emphasis and to echo the link between generations. We also freed the two letters from the blue square to reflect MP’s openness and desire to work more closely with leading firms in the fields of marketing, communications and design,” remarked Carmela Martinez, Vice-President of MP Repro.
The new visual identity will be deployed across a variety of applications, including stationary, signage, envelopes, self-adhesive stickers and the company’s fleet of delivery vehicles. It will also be applied to the company’s newly re-designed website scheduled for release later this spring.
Feed further participated in creating an exhibit to underscore MP Repro’s 50th anniversary and its contribution to the architectural evolution of Montreal, as well as its proximity to the builders who helped shape the Montreal skyline. Curated by Nancy Dutton, the “Printing the City” exhibit demonstrates the history of MP Repro through archival documents, blueprints and photos of architectural projects that marked the history of Montreal and MP, from the subway system to the new CHUM (Centre Hospitalier de l’Universite de Montréal), Place Bonaventure and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CAA). The exhibit will take place at the Musée d’Architecture du Québec (M.A.Q.) from May 16th to 23rd.
Credits
Client: Carmela Martinez, MP Repro
Studio: Feed
Brand Strategist: Marc-André Chaput
Photography: Simon Duhamel, Consulat
Curator: Nancy Dunton
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