2020 Winner
2020 Winners
CN
CN100
Since 1919, Canadian National Railway has played an integral part in shaping the geography, culture and economy of North America. Over the course of its first century, CN’s role has evolved with the times, with the railway developing more efficient transport methods and delving deeper into information systems and data analysis. As part of its centenary celebrations, the company wanted to honour its extended family of employees, stakeholders and retirees with an artefact worthy of the occasion – one that explored the depth and richness of its story while reflecting its constant evolution.
In the spirit of how it has changed the lives of millions of North Americans with its innovations, it was decided that CN should reinvent the “traditional” history book. From the outset, the project’s major challenge was clear and daunting: how do you tell, in a few hundred pages, a century of very dense history while maintaining the interest of readers.
Insights and Strategy
The answer to the project’s challenge turned out to be design-based. With an innovative twist, the physical composition of the book itself became a metaphor for the company’s identity. This element in particular was crucial in appealing to the project’s target audience.
The book as a whole is laid out on a grid inspired by the shape and proportions of CN's intermodal containers, a critical element of the CN story. Meanwhile, every page within is graphically treated in its own way, each one presenting an aspect of the story in a form inspired by its content. Furthermore, the book’s visual vocabulary draws on the graphic codes that regulate the rail industry.
Execution
CN’s archives were as deep, broad and rich as the its history and creating this signature piece was a massive undertaking. Organizing the copious interviews, photos and technical documents that went into the book benefitted from the strong graphic approach. The latter also tied together the century’s worth of sometimes disparate elements. The editorial approach was innovative as well. Rather than start in 1919 and end a century later, CN’s history is presented in a collection of 100 perspectives that cross thematic boundaries. In the end, it took artisans working in research, writing, design and production, in collaboration with CN internal teams, over a year to complete the project.
Results and Impact
This one-of-a-kind commemorative book was a fitting tribute to a century’s worth of stories and the struggles and efforts of the people who made CN what it is. The graphic foundation that assumed the book’s subject matter as a system for visual organization went on to inform the entire project. At the editorial level, it inspired the decision to tell the CN story non-linearly, through a collection of 100 different perspectives. Unlike a typical recounting of history, it can be read straight through, or opened to any page and dipped into, or mined according to the reader’s interest.
Because of this design concept that permeated every aspect of the creative process, the book highlights not only where the railway came from, but also its changing nature. It paints a picture of a developmental force in North American society that moved from the pioneering of commercial transport to the cutting edge of technology and data, while highlighting the real people behind it.
Creativity and Craft
After a year of meticulous research, writing, and design work that distilled 100 years of history into a few hundred pages of material, the book went into production. This process was an imaginative undertaking, mixing print media as diverse as a fold-out network map, high-res aerial shots, and vintage dining car menus into the recipe. The printing and binding of the book were achievements in their own right.
The result is more than a book, really; it is an artefact that treats a very specific topic in great depth through a variety of textures and mediums, not only making it interesting to the primary target audience, but also ensuring that it has a broader appeal.