Staff Site

Our Brand

Reading fun for everyone

With a great story and fresh look, TD Summer Reading Club’s brand messaging, materials and look are all designed to encourage more kids to join the summer reading fun.
Our brand is more than a logo. It’s about the perceptions and experiences kids, their families and caregivers associate with the TD Summer Reading Club.
We’ve created a robust brand platform for the TD Summer Reading Club to help meet our program goals.

Our brand ingredients include:

Our Story

Key messages about what the program is, who it’s for, and how to participate.

Program Support Tools

Processes and tools to support national and local program delivery.

Identity System

The elements – logo, colours, typefaces, and graphic devices – that are designed to make the TD Summer Reading Club highly visible and memorable.

Visual Assets, Templates, and Guidelines

Easy-to-use resources to make delivering and promoting the program easier than ever.

Communication and Support

Sharing best practices and advice.

Our Story

Children and parents across the country experience the TD Summer Reading Club in many different ways, and they love it for many different reasons. The core value we deliver, though, and the way we hope to be understood and experienced is the same across the country. As you promote and deliver the program, here’s a good reminder of how to think about, and talk about, the program.

Our Audiences

All kids across Canada, their families and caregivers

What TD Summer Reading Club Is

Canada’s biggest, bilingual summer reading program for kids of all ages, all interests, and all abilities.

Why it's Different

It’s free! It celebrates Canadian authors, illustrators and stories. It’s designed to inspire kids to explore the fun of reading their way – the key to building a lifelong love of reading. Developed and delivered by over 2,000 public libraries across Canada, this flexible program can be a part of everyone’s summer plans.

How it Works

Kids (and their caregivers) can participate anytime, anywhere – at local public libraries across Canada as well as at home, online, on the road or wherever their summer takes them.

Participants explore recommended reads; track their own reading; connect and share with others across the country; read books online; join in activities; collect reading incentives; write jokes, stories and book reviews, and more. There are great resources for kids with print disabilities as well as for pre-readers and their families.

Sample Messaging

  • TD Summer Reading Club
    Reading fun for kids, from Canada’s public libraries
  • Join the fun!
    Reading recommendations and free activities for all kids, all summer long! participate anytime, anywhere – your public library, at home, online, or wherever your summer takes you.
  • Program Partners
    Co-created and delivered by 2,000 public libraries across Canada; development of this national, bilingual program is led by Toronto Public Library in partnership with Library and Archives Canada. Sponsorship is generously provided by TD Bank Group.

Our Character

TD Summer Reading Club communications and experiences should reflect these brand character traits:

  • Accessible
  • Engaging
  • Inclusive
  • Inspiring
  • Welcoming
  • Fun
  • Flexible

Creating our brand

In mid-2015, the program partners set out to build a stronger TD Summer Reading Club brand.

The principles that guided our work included:

Grow Access: Make the program easy to understand and recognize.

Simplicity Matters: Make the program easy to use for everyone, from kids and their families to librarians and program creators.

Link Nationally, Act Locally: Create more continuity.

Design for Flexibility: Respect diverse needs and contexts.

Co-Create: Encourage effective collaboration.

Build Capacity: Share best practices across libraries.

Learn and Adapt: Evolve with the environment.

We had great contributions in creating our brand platform. Our story and messages, program name and identity options were all tested and validated with input from:

  • 20+ interviews with key partners, influencers and participating library staff
  • 2 national surveys
  • Over 900 responses total
  • Participation from all TDSRC provinces and territories
  • 3 National Committee meetings and updates
  • 5+ Partners Group meetings and updates

Thank you one and all!

See the new brand in action! Detailed brand guidelines are here!