Project
University District
Year
2019
Connecting tomorrow’s communities
Project
ICBC
Year
2022
Connecting brands to spaces
Hello, we’re Cygnus.
We improve how spaces are understood and experienced through design — empowering people to access important services, engage with their surroundings, and connect to what matters.
Latest
Spotlight
Retail Environments
OVERVIEW
Retail is shifting away from traditional anchor tenants. Customer journeys are changing.
Retail is shifting away from the traditional anchor-based model. As large-format spaces are reconfigured and tenant mixes diversify, customers can no longer rely on intuitive landmarks to navigate. This creates new pressure on owners to enhance visibility, guide decision-making, and improve customer confidence, especially at entrances, in parking zones, and along key circulation routes. Wayfinding must now do more than point the way. It must shape the full customer journey, from pre-arrival to pick-up, by supporting diverse trip types, streamlining navigation, and elevating the experience through brand-integrated design. Cygnus helps retail clients navigate this evolution through wayfinding strategies that respond to changing spatial logic, anticipate user needs, and support operational goals at every scale.
Our CF Shops at Don Mills project required a new visual identity as part of a substantial redevelopment of the site. Cygnus brought a strong mix of creativity and practicality to the design problem. We are very happy with the results and our strong working relationship.
Ian Ross
Senior Director, Architecture & Design, Cadillac Fairview Corporation
Strategy, planning, design and implementation.
Expertise at Cygnus is shaped by understanding.
OUR EXPERTISE
We begin by understanding how an environment works: how people move through it, how its operations function, and how its systems connect. That understanding informs everything we do from strategy to implementation, translating complexity into clarity for our clients, and giving meaningful direction to the places people experience every day.
Spotlight
Leading Workplace Strategies
OVERVIEW
Corporate environments that reflect how people work today.
Cygnus has partnered with the Government of British Columbia’s Leading Workplace Strategies (LWS) initiative to support the design of more than 30 government offices across the province. These projects reimagine ministry workplaces as flexible, collaborative, and inclusive environments that respond to evolving workstyles and community needs. From Indigenous territory acknowledgements to branded feature walls and environmental graphics, each office is grounded in context and culture. By integrating wayfinding, placemaking, and graphic storytelling, our work helps create a consistent yet locally responsive experience across a growing network of public sector offices.
Working with Cygnus has made creative collaboration such a rewarding experience for our team and their environmental graphic design solutions have enriched both the visual impact and functionality of our Leading Workplace office spaces across BC.
Russell Treloar
Team Lead, Workplace Strategies & Planning
Our shared commitment to people-first design.
Let’s make your space work better, together.
