It was created in the 1960s by designer Jim Donoahue and adopted by the federal government in 1982 as its “official symbol of government.”

In one afternoon, according to Thomson, Donoahue designed what is now known as the Canada wordmark. He used Baskerville typeface, which he was fond of, and he thickened it as it was light and delicate and could fade in smaller reproductions. The “D” in “Canada” rose like a flagpole, so it was a perfect place for the flag to “fly off,” said his daughter Zoe Donoahue in an interview, echoing her father’s words.

[…] Donoahue did not receive a cent initially for the work he had done on the wordmark, as it was a byproduct of the advertisement project that had been commissioned, said Thomson. Thomson said the federal government later sent Donoahue a “nice letter” and a cheque for $1 to “formalize ownership.”

“I’m sure that it’s worth a lot more than that, but it was just the way the process happened,” Thomson added. The Treasury Board Secretariat couldn’t confirm that the federal government had issued Donoahue a $1 cheque, nor the exact year when the wordmark was created.

But Donoahue’s daughter, Zoe, recalled her father talking about it. She said he was never bothered by receiving a $1 cheque, and that he even “got a kick out of that. He laughed about it for sure.” She described her father as someone who loved the process and puzzle of design into his 80s and she said the wordmark was one of his greatest prides.