S3McM Art Director Michael Zavacky explains how he dug into the past to define a future-focused brand.
When a new development gets planned, Chronicle Heritage is there to help businesses, governments, and communities preserve the historic value of a site, and stay compliant with cultural resource regulations.
To learn how the new, award-winning brand came to life, we asked S3McM Art Director Michael Zavacky to unearth a few insights.
To start, how did the project come about?
MZ: “PaleoWest and Commonwealth Heritage had just merged and needed a new brand to support their growth as a global leader in heritage preservation. It was really important to align both parties around a single, cohesive approach for the new entity.”
Why the name Chronicle Heritage?
MZ: “During our initial strategy sessions, we identified ‘more than compliance’ as the company’s brand promise. In other words, Chronicle Heritage doesn’t just exist to help clients navigate the legal obligations around cultural resource management (CRM); they play a role as a storyteller, championing our cultural past and building relationships with our communities.”
Walk us through your approach to the visual identity.
MZ: “The whole idea of balance is really important to the company – preserving the past to responsibly build the future. But balance also comes through in the work they do, like archeology or paleontology; they expose things below the surface to help make informed decisions above ground.
We came up with a strong logomark that captured the duality of the brand. You can see how it started to build – the horizon line, the sun rays above it, the roots reaching out below. We were inspired by the visual language of an excavation, like pictograph art and organic colors. It added depth and authenticity to the brand.”
What are you most proud of about this project?
MZ: “The brand won a Gold Transform Award for the best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition. And it was well received by the client. Just like Chronicle Heritage works hard to preserve history, we work hard to give our clients clear guidelines to preserve the integrity of their brand. In this case, the client adopted the new brand very successfully, both digitally with their website and out in the field. I’ve even seen their archaeologists draw the new logo in dirt at a dig site. There’s pride there.”
Want to learn more about the Chronicle Heritage rebrand? While we work on the new S3McM website, you can view the full case study here (on our Canadian team’s website, McMillan.com).
About Michael Zavacky
Michael “Zeke” Zavacky has been with McMillan since its inception in 1996 – and now at S3McM in the cross-border brand-and-demand powerhouse created when McMillan (Ottawa) merged with The S3 Agency (NYC metro). He’s won numerous awards for illustration and design and has twice been selected for the prestigious honor of designing stamps for Canada Post. In 2021, Zeke (along with colleague Jared Barter) was nominated for a JUNO award for Best Album Art design. He’s a long-time member of the Registered Graphic Designers of Canada (RGD), a passionate screen printer, and a distant Slovak relative of Andy Warhol. Or so he claims.
