Setting the tone: Building a shared vocabulary in design, Chris Mantil | Evolve Digital Toronto 2026
Summary
Chris Mantil, Creative Director at Chris Mantil Design, presented a talk at Evolve Digital Toronto 2026 on the challenge of bridging the visual literacy gap between designers and clients. The core thesis is that designers speak a visual language their clients do not, and that investing in upfront conversations and structured exercises — rather than diving straight into creative work — produces better, more consistent outcomes.
Mantil frames design communication as translation work. When a client says they want something "modern and bold," their definition may differ substantially from a designer's. To address this, Mantil uses several structured techniques. The first is extensive early conversation: he pushes clients to articulate what they like, dislike, and why, capturing not just words but the reasoning behind word choices. He also deliberately presents reference material he expects clients to reject, specifically to elicit reactions and sharpen the direction.
A central tool in his process is a visual style and tone grid — a matrix of four words drawn from early conversations, plotted in quadrants. Clients are then asked to position a circle within the grid that touches all four quadrants but can lean more heavily toward some. This exercise makes abstract tone preferences concrete and visual, and helps clients understand that design elements are interdependent — pulling on one changes others — rather than operating as independent levers.
Mantil illustrated these principles through a detailed case study: a veterinary clinic brand identity for two first-time business owners in Ottawa. The client wanted to stand out from the typical local clinic aesthetic. Through workshopping, they settled on the positioning concept of "elevated quiet confidence," with fine dining used as a conceptual (not visual) inspiration to communicate quality without exclusivity. Other inspirations included yoga studios (for calm green space) and apothecaries (for customization and craft).
The resulting brand identity used a high-contrast palette of green and white, custom hand-drawn illustrations, a location-marker logo referencing the community focus, and speech-bubble treatments to add personality and warmth. Mantil emphasized designing for maintainability: the clients lacked a dedicated marketing team, so every asset needed to be manageable by non-designers. He also worked closely with the clinic's architect and interior designer to carry the brand through the physical space, including signage visible from the sidewalk featuring illustrations of animals moving through the environment at consistent scale.
Mantil closed by stressing that frontloading conversation — including asking seemingly obvious questions — prevents mid-project reversals, reduces revision cycles, and empowers clients to feel safe discussing aesthetics even when they lack formal design vocabulary.
Key Takeaways
- •Front-load conversations before creative work begins — asking clients what they mean by words like 'modern' or 'bold' prevents expensive mid-project misalignment.
- •Use a visual style and tone grid: pick four words from early conversations, plot them in quadrants, and have clients position a weighted circle to make tone preferences concrete and discussable.
- •Present reference material you expect clients to reject — their negative reactions are as valuable as positive ones for narrowing direction.
- •Design elements are a mesh, not levers: changing one element has downstream effects on others, and clients need to understand this before requesting changes.
- •When clients can't articulate why they dislike something, it's the designer's job to interrogate the visual and supply the language — don't expect clients to have that vocabulary.
- •Replace vague aspirational language with concrete conceptual references: 'fine dining' communicated quality-without-exclusivity more precisely than 'premium' or 'high-end' for the veterinary client.
- •Design assets for maintainability — if clients lack a marketing team, every deliverable must be manageable by non-designers.
- •When carrying a brand into physical space, map the customer journey from sidewalk to interior and identify specific touchpoints where the brand should lean in or step back.
- •When scaling illustrations into physical environments, enforce consistent scale rules (e.g., all animals at the same proportional size) to avoid a disjointed, 'janky' appearance.
- •Create psychological safety in early workshops — remind clients it's not their job to have design vocabulary, and that 'I don't know why, I just don't like it' is valid and useful feedback.
Transcript
Yeah. So, like Shane was saying, um today I want to talk about um like the early conversations you have or at least I have in my in my process to try to bridge um what I consider like a language barrier. Um so, you notice I've got building a shared vocabulary. So, that's very Oh, no. >> Oh, boy. >> Okay, I won't touch that. Um yeah, so I always like to talk about shared vocabulary. I didn't invent this term. I picked this up from a design conference, but I it really the first time I heard it, it...
