Canadian Bank Note

Client

Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canadian Bank Note Company is a privately held Canadian security printing firm. While it began as a unit of the American Bank Note Company, it has operated as an independent Canadian entity for over a century. It is most famous for its long-standing partnership with the Bank of Canada, having served as the primary printer of Canada’s banknotes since 1935.

CBN operates at the intersection of traditional high-security manufacturing and modern digital technology. Its operations are divided into several critical sectors:

Currency: CBN designs and prints the Canadian dollar, including the advanced polymer series known for its durability and anti-counterfeiting features. They also supply currency to several other central banks globally (e.g., New Zealand).
Identification & Passports: The company is a global leader in travel documents. They produce the Canadian passport and have been the primary provider for machine-readable passports for the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) bloc and other nations like New Zealand.
Civil Identification: CBN develops systems for driver’s licenses, national ID cards, and vital statistics records (birth/death certificates).
Lottery & Gaming: They provide secure end-to-end solutions for government-regulated lotteries, including ticket printing and digital gaming platforms.
Excise Control: They produce secure tax stamps and tracking systems for regulated goods like tobacco and alcohol to prevent illicit trade.

Colorful patterned paper strips with various diagonal line designs in shades of blue, purple, yellow, orange, green, and red.

A man standing with arms crossed in front of industrial machinery, with two workers in the background operating equipment in a manufacturing or industrial setting.

Close-up of elderly person's hands holding a small stack of white notebooks with a rubber band around them on a brown surface.

A woman standing in front of a large piece of industrial machinery in a laboratory or manufacturing setting.

A high-tech manufacturing laboratory with blue machinery, wiring, and equipment for chip encoding and laser perforation.

A woman with dark hair and a blue T-shirt smiling and standing in front of warehouse shelves.

Close-up of Australian currency notes, showcasing a red $100 note and parts of other notes with colorful designs and security features.

Hand holding a small open photo book or magazine with glossy pages, displaying printed images, against a blue textured background.

Process

CBN operates in an incredibly complex industry, trusted globally for providing solutions ranging from currency and passports to lottery systems. This demanding environment—characterized by rapidly changing technologies, stringent quality benchmarks, and diverse international and local regulations—requires the company to maintain close cooperation and excel simultaneously across multiple areas.

Despite their clear business success, CBN faced a challenge in consistently articulating what made them exceptional, especially to new employees and customers. Our extensive research and interviews revealed a consistent sentiment: stakeholders universally described CBN as the most innovative, forward-thinking, and best place they had ever worked. We began calling this collective, unwritten philosophy and unique approach to innovation, which enables them to deliver the most advanced customer solutions "the CBN way."

Website page with red sidebar on the left and text about a design team creating cultural icons, featuring an image of colorful patterned paper, a person wearing a glove using tweezers to handle a rolled banknote placed in a glass container, and a clo

Screenshot of the Canadian Bank Note website homepage with a magnifying glass focusing on a banknote, overlay text stating 'Together we make the world more secure,' and red accents on the left side.

Screenshot of a webpage titled 'Lottery Systems & Operations' with cameras set up and people working inside a room related to lottery or gaming.

Project

We refreshed their messaging, tone, and visual brand, which allowed us to demonstrate, rather than just state, why employees and customers share such a positive perception of the organization. The development included a global photoshoot and new video content, capturing the diverse solutions, environments, and people that drive the company's success. Equipped with a compelling message, modern content, and a completely new website, CBN is now better positioned to engage in meaningful conversations with customers, employees, and prospects.