When the Greater Toronto Airports Authority engaged us to redesign and support the construction of a new Welcome Centre in Terminal 1 Arrivals, the brief was clear: create something worthy of a world-class airport. We had 30 days to design, organize, permit, build, test, and launch it.‍

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This was not a graphics project with some signage attached. It was a full experiential rethink, and we led it end to end. That meant assembling and managing a project team: an architect, structural and electrical engineers, a general contractor, digital display representatives, installation technicians, and coordinating with Toronto Pearson's IT, architectural and other internal departments — all working in coordination inside one of Canada's busiest travel hubs. We were the creative and logistical thread running through all of it. ‍

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The outcome is an airport-branded Welcome Centre that rises to the occasion. The space is designed to orient, welcome, and inspire arriving travellers — whether they're visiting Toronto for the first time or returning home. Every graphic on every screen was created in-house, part of a cohesive visual system built for the environment and the audience moving through it. ‍

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Placemaking at this scale requires more than good design. It requires managing complexity without losing sight of the experience you're building toward — knowing when to make creative decisions and when to defer to the architect and engineers. Branding for tourism spaces lives and dies on that balance, and the Pearson Welcome Centre is a project we're genuinely proud of.

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It's the kind of work that reminds us why we do this: design that meets people at the door, wherever that door happens to be.

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