This is how strong brands are built.
January 31th, 2026 — Montreal Qc, Canada

Composure
Over Noise

Strong branding doesn’t fail because the idea is weak.
It fails when leadership mistakes noise for expertise.

Every serious branding decision attracts critics. Most are not professionals. They respond to symbols they recognise, habits they’re comfortable with, and assumptions they’ve inherited. Their opinions are confident, immediate—and largely disconnected from strategy.

Expo 67. A textbook case.

As documented in Expo 67: Mission Impossible, the identity was designed by Julien Hébert, one of the most respected designers of his generation. An industrial designer and professor, Hébert approached the logo with rigour, not nostalgia. His mark used an ancient symbol of humanity, arranged in pairs to represent friendship, repeated in a circle to express global unity. Lowercase typography. No ornament. No nationalism.

The reaction was swift

No maple leaf.
No Montréal.
No full event name.
Just Expo 67.

The criticism was political, public and loud. Federal MPs objected. Committees were formed. Alternatives were proposed—not because the work was flawed, but because it felt unfamiliar. The debate had little to do with design standards or long-term positioning. It was about comfort. About what people expected to see.

The design is not the issue. 
Leadership is.

The question became simple: would the organizers trust the experts they had deliberately selected, or would they allow non-expert pressure to dilute the work?

They held their ground.

An expert committee ultimately confirmed that Hébert’s design was the strongest option and met all professional standards. More importantly, leadership protected the idea long enough for it to work. What was criticized as too minimal became iconic. What felt radical became obvious. Expo is now the global naming convention because clarity was defended, not compromised.

This is how strong brands are built

Not by consensus.
Not by reacting to every objection.
But by knowing which voices matter—and which do not.

Leadership’s role is not to manage opinions.
It is to protect clarity.

Because branding is rarely undone by bad ideas.
It is far more often weakened by good ones that were abandoned when composure was required most.


Wath the documentary (French)