Laying the Foundations for Winning the World’s Largest Geoscience Conference Bid

A city skyline with tall buildings, a tower with a circular top, and snow-capped mountains in the background under a blue sky with scattered clouds. In the foreground, there is a green park area with trees and grass.
A city skyline with tall buildings, a tower with a circular top, and snow-capped mountains in the background under a blue sky with scattered clouds. In the foreground, there is a green park area with trees and grass.

During my MSc in Biomedical Communications at the University of Toronto, I contributed to the branding and visual foundations of Canada’s successful bid to host the International Geological Congress (IGC) in Calgary for 2028.

Working closely with over 40 geoscientists and stakeholders across Canada, I developed and iterated on the conference branding and logo system while helping shape the visual direction of the bid. The final identity drew inspiration from Calgary, the Bow River, and the Rocky Mountains while balancing scientific professionalism with accessibility and international appeal.

In 2024, Calgary was officially selected to host the world’s largest geoscience conference in 2028.

I later rejoined the project to support refreshed branding, website development, and digital communications for the conference.

Event logo with a stylized mountain peak and a grid pattern, and the text 'ICC 2028'.

Concept sketch

(July 2023)

Initial sketch was one among many possible designs I drafted. Calgary’s iconic skyline and mountain range in the background represented by the Canadian Maple Leaf.

Procreate

Logo for IGC 2028 Calgary featuring a silhouette of Calgary's skyline with the CN Tower and mountains in the background.

Second Sketch

(July, 2023)

After discussions, we decided to include the Foothills between the maple leaf and Initial logo. I took the liberty to flatten the maple leaf to make it appear more like mountains, however given the trademark nature of the maple leaf, the client decided to keep it as the classic, non-stylized maple leaf to be safe.

Logo for IGC 2028 Calgary, featuring a black skyline with a tower, a modern building, and a maple leaf outline, with red background elements and white text.

Initial Design

(August, 2023)

Initial vectorized versions included minimal colours of black, red, and white. Official Canadian red used. It was later requested to change to more environmentally-minded as this version was too analogous to oil & gas, imagery the Geoscientists were hoping to move away from.

Adobe illustrator

Logo for IGC 2028 in Calgary, featuring a circular design with a red maple leaf, a city skyline, and the event details.

Suggested Redesign

(September, 2023)

The most challenging part of the logo came from repeated requests from the Geoscientists to iterate further. I started balancing accepting suggestions and advocating for rejecting others, such as radial gradient for the maple leaf. The green and blue seen in this design was my favourite and I pushed for it.

Adobe illustrator

A circular logo for the 2028 International Convention on Cancer Research held in Calgary, featuring a red maple leaf, a blue city skyline, and multiple flags, with the event date and location.

Final IGC 2028 Logo Design

(September, 2023)

However, it was requested to use actual colour dropped colours from pictures of the mountains and bow river. I used numerous photos and various colours, adjusting for saturation, contrast, and the like in photoshop to come up with the final green and blue seen in the final design.

Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

Initial website design - B.Lazar & Bid Committee, August 2023

Finalized design for the bid - B.Lazar & Bid Committee, January 2024

Current design - B.Lazar & IGC Committee, May 2026