Case study for developing a brand identity, custom illustration style and website development for the Higher Education Council of Ontario.
HEQCO · Public sector
Years of content migrated
15+Years of content migrated
English & French unified
BilingualEnglish & French unified
Government compliance
AODAGovernment compliance
Brand & Bilingual Website for a Government Agency
A refreshed identity, custom illustration style, and AODA-compliant WordPress platform unifying fifteen years of bilingual research, publications, and events for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
About HEQCO
Since 2005, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario — an agency of the Government of Ontario — has helped ensure that Ontario’s colleges and universities are accessible, offer high-quality programs, and remain accountable to Ontarians.
01
The Challenge
Fifteen years of bilingual content scattered across legacy systems, due for a modern home
Five Content Types
Publications, news releases, events, projects, and blog posts — all bilingual, all needing a consistent visual and editorial home.
Fragmented Systems
Legacy content lived across separate English and French SharePoint sites and WordPress blogs, with thousands of inbound links to protect.
Full-text PDF Search
Visitors needed to search inside PDF publications, not just page titles and metadata — a feature WordPress does not provide out of the box.
02
Our Approach
Rebrand, design system, and a WordPress platform built for scale
Rebrand
Refreshed brand guidelines iterated with the HEQCO team — AODA-compliant within a fresh, colourful, and modern aesthetic spanning website, Word reports, and PowerPoint.
Illustrate
A custom illustration style became an extension of the brand, making HEQCO’s complex research more approachable and creating a unifying aesthetic across the site.
Build
An AODA-compliant WordPress theme with supporting plugins and shortcodes let HEQCO staff maintain consistent references across the site without touching templates.
Migrate & Search
Thousands of legacy links mapped via NGINX directives preserved SEO rank. Python textract indexing with cron automation and WP-CLI integration enabled full-text search across PDF publications.
