Graphic Design Agency for Government Communications – Design System for City of Coquitlam

Key Deliverables & Outcomes: Modernizing a City’s Brand Through Scalable Design Systems

Context & Challenge

When the City of Coquitlam approached us, their core visual identity was in place—but fragmented. As with many municipalities, different departments had adapted and interpreted brand guidelines over time, creating inconsistencies across documents, signage, and public-facing communications.

The result? Materials ranged widely in tone and clarity. Strategic documents like the City Business Plan, Strategic Plan, and Emergency Preparedness Reports were visually disjointed and challenging to navigate. Internally, designers lacked a centralized system to build with confidence. Externally, residents and stakeholders experienced a mix of brand signals—undermining the city’s efforts to present a unified, professional voice.

The challenge wasn’t to invent something new. It was to organize and optimize what already existed, then build scalable tools the in-house team could use for years to come.

Approach & Strategy

We began with a brand audit. We reviewed over 40 document types from multiple departments—each created using different visual formats, template variations, and workflows. It was clear Coquitlam had invested in its brand, but lacked a streamlined, accessible system for applying it consistently.

We framed the project in three stages:

1. Design System Audit & Discovery
   We collected live files and historical templates from various city teams. This helped us map which design elements were working, which were misaligned, and where consistency broke down.
2. System Strategy & Prioritization
   We worked with the City’s Communications Department to define the highest-impact materials. Strategic Plans, Business Plans, and branded frameworks for department-level content rose to the top.
3. Scalable System Development
   Instead of reinventing the brand, we created a design system to extend it: flexible layouts, organized templates, and clear usage guidelines. The goal was to reduce rework, speed up internal production, and elevate the city’s brand presence across every touchpoint.

Creative Process

From the start, this project was highly collaborative. We didn’t come in with assumptions—we listened. We hosted working sessions with Coquitlam’s in-house team to understand their creative process and challenges. They showed us real bottlenecks: manually reformatting charts, guessing at typography hierarchy, or recreating layouts from memory.

Our UX/UI design team took this feedback and developed adaptable content blocks that could accommodate Coquitlam’s wide range of content—from dense legislative information to high-level strategy and community visuals.

In parallel, our graphic design team worked to clean up the city’s visual assets. We reviewed font treatments, adjusted colour accessibility, and refined spacing standards to ensure consistency across digital and print.

We treated every document type like a product: What does success look like? Who’s using it? What’s the experience of reading this on a desktop vs. in a printed binder?

The result was a system that feels tailored to the public sector—but with the clarity and simplicity of a product-led brand.

Execution & Deliverables

This wasn’t a one-and-done brand guide. We delivered modular tools the city could actually use.

Key deliverables included:

• A full design system for strategic municipal documents, including layout grids, text hierarchies, and content modules.
• Custom designs for:
  • City of Coquitlam Business Plan
  • City of Coquitlam Strategic Plan
  • City of Coquitlam Council Reports
  • City of Coquitlam Emergency Response Materials
• Branded graphic elements for signage, apparel, and promotional items
• Updated brand guideline assets to reflect the new design logic
• A collaborative rollout strategy to integrate templates into the city's internal design workflows

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We built these assets in formats the internal team already used: Figma & InDesign for pro users, PowerPoint and Word templates for non-designers, and editable Illustrator files for signage. Flexibility was key. It's now unified in the brand outline everyone in the city uses: https://coquitlam.setsail.ca/

We also developed training resources and hosted knowledge-transfer sessions with staff to ensure smooth adoption.

Tangible Outcomes

While brand equity and consistency aren’t always easy to quantify, this project delivered both measurable results and long-term operational benefits.

Highlights:

• Reduced document production time by an estimated 40–60% for internal teams
• Created 10+ reusable templates that saved hundreds of design hours
• Increased visual consistency across 8+ departments
• Delivered a scalable design system that works across print, web, and signage

Lessons Learned & What’s Next

Municipal work comes with real constraints: multiple stakeholders, legacy tools, and the need for accessibility, clarity, and longevity. This project reinforced the power of design systems over design outputs—especially when working in government.

Rather than reinvent the visual identity, we gave structure to creativity. That structure is now saving the Coquitlam team hours each week, and strengthening how the city shows up to its community.

Our next steps with the city include:

• Exploring digital templates for web-based reporting
• Extending the design system to event signage and advertising
• Supporting additional departments as they adopt the framework

This wasn’t just a rebrand. It was a modernization of how a growing city communicates.