CX 2026
Before: a new logo every year
2026: one mark, built to stay
CX is Compass Group Canada's yearly showcase. One room holds VPs, operations teams from across the country, and the clients and prospects the company wants to win. I lead the creative, from a new logo meant to last to the bars, screens and stage show on the day.
- Client
- Compass Group Canada, hosted by Envision Group
- Event
- November 2, 2026, Toronto Event Centre
- Role
- Creative lead
- Scope
- Identity, brand guide, cookbook, event environment, screens, show graphics
- 01A mark that can lastThe thinking behind one logo, from four logos in four years
- 02The curved barOne dot floor wrapped around eight bars
- 03Wheel of BetterA game show wheel for the leadership segment
- 04Around the eventGuide, website, cookbook, screens and print
01
A mark that can last
Before 2026, CX changed its logo every year. I made the case for one mark that stays, then designed it. This is how it got from a problem slide to the final logo.
Step 1 of 6
Four years, four logos
CX had a new logo every year. Each edition took its theme and turned it into a new mark: CX by Envision before 2022, Connect the Dots in 2023, Connecting & Beyond in 2024, Connect the Dots 2.0: Momentum in 2025.
Each one worked for its year. Together they meant that nothing carried over. A guest who came three years running met three different brands.
So I opened the logo presentation in May 2026 with the problem, not the options.
No brand equity can accrue over time if we change the logo every year.
Step 2 of 6
Who the mark has to work for
Before drawing, I wrote down what the brand had to do. The room is Compass leadership, current clients, prospects and vendors. The mark has to be defensible upward and credible to people who sign large contracts.
The pressure in the industry is toward restaurant-quality food service. Clients want their dining halls and cafés to feel like food halls. The brand has to say Compass takes that seriously.
My working note put it simply: for CX, the visuals are the easy part. The next premium signal is specificity. Generic premium is the new generic.
- Sonos
- One wordmark, infinite skins. The mark stays; what fills it changes.
- MOCA
- Confidence with negative space.
- Convergence Station
- Letters that interlock, a sign of systems thinking without being literal.
Step 3 of 6
Going wide before going deep
I pushed the letters as far as they would go before narrowing down. These came from the back of the working deck, and they are not in order.
Letterform studies in heavy, blocky weights. A year-numbered system where the mark stays and only the number changes. Neon outlines. A version built in 3D and turned in space. Marks used as frames for food photography and plants. Early lockups with a tagline in a mono typeface.
Some of these grew into the three concepts I presented: the blocky frame into concept 01, the 3D build into concept 03.
Step 4 of 6
Three concepts, each shown working
I presented three directions. Each had a short rationale and was shown on the things CX actually makes: chef jackets, aprons, signs, screens and photography.
Showing them in use mattered more than the marks alone. It let the room judge each one on the job it would have to do.
Concept 02 was chosen. Its brand expansion boards showed how one mark could sit on food photography, gradients and pattern without changing.
01 Direct
A blocky, architectural C and X with an arrow cutting through the centre. Heavy enough to work as a frame for anything CX holds.
02 Forward Chosen
The C and X read as one mark, with an arrow inside the left side of the X. Bold enough to survive neon, embroidery, print and big rooms.
03 Multi-dimensional
Letters cut from a 3D object, with a light and shadow plane that gives depth without drawing perspective.
Step 5 of 6
Tagline, structure, colour
With the shape agreed, I worked through the rest in rounds.
Tagline. Rounds of options, from "Creating experiences, driving growth" to "Growth starts here." We landed on innovate · experience · grow.
Structure. The favourite structure set the arrow apart from the rest of the mark, so it could carry colour on its own.
Colour. Three gradient directions, then single accent colours, then sets of gradients on black and white. The gradient that won is built from the colours of Envision Group, who host CX.
Step 6 of 6
One mark, built to stay
The final mark is a bold C and X. The left side of the X is an arrow, and the arrow holds the Envision gradient. The tagline is always white with teal square dots, never in colour.
The look stays fixed from year to year. What changes is the content inside it and the message for each audience. That is how the brand starts to build equity instead of starting over.
The mark has one partner: a field of hexagon dots that moves like a floor. It runs behind the mark on the website and the screens, and wraps the curved bar.
The curved bar
The chef stations sit inside a ring of eight curved bars. I wrapped the fronts in one continuous dot floor, the hexagon dots from the CX brand.
It is drawn as if you were standing in the middle of the ring and the floor stretched out in every direction. So every join lines up, with the dots running straight across from bar to bar. The horizon sits at the same height, 28 inches up, on every bar. The biggest dots run off the bottom edge and shrink and fade toward the horizon, so it reads with depth from any side. The colour drifts from lavender to blue once around the whole ring.
The files are vector at full size, so the dots stay sharp. Each one carries a one inch bleed that holds real artwork from the next bar, so a trim that wanders never shows a gap.
The ring unrolled: all eight print files laid end to end, 01 to 08. Scroll along it. The joins are marked; the dots are not broken at any of them.
Wheel of Better
I design and build everything for the CX stage program. The standout is Wheel of Better, made for the leadership segment.
Senior leaders wanted their part of the show to be more fun. Two executives present together. Before each answer they spin a game show wheel, and wherever it lands decides how they have to answer: as an opera, as a robot, as breaking news, or as a duet.
It is a web page: one HTML file with every sound packed inside.
Recorded from the real page: the chant, the spin, and a landing on Opera. Sound is off in the recording.
- Corporate JargonCircle back and answer in pure corporate speak.
- OperaSing your answer like the grand finale of an opera.
- Five WordsFive words. Not one more.
- Robot ModeAnswer like a robot. Beep. Boop.
- News AnchorDeliver your answer as breaking news.
- DuetGrab a partner and sing it together.
- Sports CommentatorCall it like the final seconds of the big game.
- That Deserves a RoundTake a bow. Give it up for them!
- Game Show HostAnswer like you are hosting the show.
A presentation clicker spins it. A hidden operator panel shows what lands next and lets someone backstage override it, so the planned moments happen in order and the rest are random.
A spin can open with the screen slamming "Wheel! Of! Better!" one word at a time, so the room joins in.
The chant, spin music, bell, fanfare and the opera, duet and robot backing tracks were made with the ElevenLabs API.
04
Around the event
One mark only builds equity if everyone uses it the same way. The rest of the work is the system around it: the guide, the website, the cookbook, every screen in the room and the print.
A guide anyone can use
Version 1.0 of the brand guide shipped in August 2026. It covers logo use, colour, the Roboto type system, gradients and photography.
It is written for the people who make things after me: marketing, operations and outside vendors. They should not need to ask me how to use the logo.
The website
The event site at compassgroupcx.com carries the identity online. The mark animates, with the gradient moving through the arrow. The dot field from the brand guide becomes a slow moving background. Event footage from past years runs as the hero loop.
A guest who registers online and then walks into the room sees one brand.
The cookbook: a system other people filled
The Culinary Talent Cookbook collects chef recipes from across the company. It runs 131 pages.
I designed the system: the cover, the section openers, the contents and a recipe template with set places for the chef's portrait, their story, the method and plating notes. Then the culinary team filled it in. It holds together across 131 pages without me placing each one.
Every screen in the room
The venue plays MP4 only, on screens of very different shapes. I built a loop for each one from the official motion files: the animated logo, the dot floor and the gradient.
Every loop runs 11.77 seconds, the length of the logo animation. The dot floor is retimed 6% so exactly two of its cycles fit, which lets every screen loop without a jump.
I also made labelled test cards for every screen and a stage map, so the venue's AV team could check how each panel maps before the night.
- 11 projectors, 24 TVs1920 × 1080 welcome loops and event slides
- Bar projections1080 × 1920 animated logo and vendor thanks
- Sustainability calloutsportrait screens for the culinary stations and the CX app
Award slides for the main LED
The Chef Appreciation Winners are announced on the main LED. A title card opens, then each winner gets a slide in the same layout: a portrait in a gradient ring, a badge for the award, their name and role, and their story.
Built at the screen's native 960 × 576, so the type stays sharp on the LED. The winners are announced on the night, so their slides stay off this page until after November 2.
Vendor booth screens
Every vendor booth has a screen. I gave vendors a template of four slides that answer the same questions in the same order: who we are, what we are selling, why we are here, and what to do next.
Vendors bring their own logo and photos. The type, colour and CX mark stay fixed, so a room full of different vendors still reads as one event. These four are a finished example built on the template.
Print and on the day
The entrance banner is 127 × 120 inches: the welcome, the mark and the tagline over the dot floor, with the brand gradient along the top edge.
Every dish at every station gets a product ID card, 3 × 4 inches. The allergen and dietary key has its own card. Each dish card shows its icons and spells out what it contains. The bottom inch sits inside the holder, so nothing important goes there.
I also built brand overview booklets and matching microsites for four food concepts, each with a QR tent card that links the printed piece to the site.
Product ID cards, 3 × 4 in, shown at the same scale.
Next project
Foundations