Municipal planners are like many other design professionals—their work may be invisible to most, but when it’s done well, it creates a visible harmony among many different elements.
Planners like Jared Candlish of Parkland County also know that if you want others to buy into your goals, your communications must be clear, consistent, and visually appealing.
In August 2024, Jared and his colleagues on the Land Use Bylaw team at Parkland County engaged Curio Studio to help improve how they communicate complex regulations. Specifically, they wanted us to create for them a custom illustration system and an isometric illustration library featuring:
- Different types of housing in the County
- Landscaping components (trees, shrubs, fencing)
- Vehicles, including farm equipment
- Wildlife and farm animals
Done well, these illustrations would allow the Land Use team to easily assemble and adjust visuals for future regulations—making technical documents more accessible to the public.
According to Curio Senior Designer Graham Johnson, projects like this can easily sprawl without clear structure. “Each illustration needed to work at the same scale and perspective,” he explains. “Something as small as the wrong window size on a barn could throw off the entire system.”
To keep the project on track, we began with sketched concepts to establish the right visual language—saving time and avoiding costly rework. Our team worked closely with Parkland to clarify every detail (What exactly is a ‘small box store’? What defines a ‘farm shop’?), ensuring every element was true-to-life and useful.
Strategic iteration was key to this project. As Graham puts it, “we need to respect the client’s budget and their timelines, and by providing sketches for pre-approval, we can make sure we’re capturing exactly what the client has in mind.”
In the end, thanks to our adaptable approach and close collaboration with the Parkland team, we delivered 44 custom isometric illustrations—on budget, on time, and ready to make their Land Use Bylaw clearer and more accessible.
At the project’s conclusion, Jared shared:
“Curio’s team provides a one-on-one collaborative design process that delivers excellent results. Their team’s expertise allowed us to translate complex regulatory concepts into clear, engaging visuals that enhance understanding.”
We’re grateful to Parkland County for the opportunity—and if your team is looking for technical illustration services or a custom illustration system to help communicate complex information, drop us a line at hello@curiostudio.ca.
This post was last updated on April 8, 2025 by Matt Steringa