Residents of Fort Frances might have noticed a somewhat-familiar character on the side of the water tower since the scaffolding has started to come down – a beaver with a paddle in hand clad in voyageur regalia, a new version of a well-known local mascot.
As part of significant work being done to the water tower located in the west end of Fort Frances, council had elected to include in the process an exterior facelift for the decades-old tower, electing to keep the name of the town emblazoned on its side, while also updating former town mascot “Little Amik” to feature on the tower as well, though his name may not make it through the redesign.
Now fully unveiled on the side of the tower, the new design for the mascot is the work of Travis Glowasky, owner of local branding and marketing agency Studio Gibbous, who said he has been wanting to give new life to the town’s mascot for years.
“I’ve approached the town many times over nearly ten years, had talks with numerous officials, and even some council members, about bringing back Little Amik. It never really went anywhere until I spoke with [town clerk] Chelsea [Grieg],” Glowasky said.
“Once I talked with her, things started moving forward. I believe our ideas matched, and there was much more to the whole process than what you see up on the water tower. It was always meant to come back, at least in my mind, especially after the town attempted to do a rebrand.”
Glowasky said he’s come up with many ideas and designs for the mascot over the years, striving to keep it not only family-friendly, but also recognizeable and memorable in the way that many classic cartoon designs are.
“The initial idea was to revitalize our traditional mascot, so that there was something for not just the residents, but for people visiting the area to identify us,” he said.
“It needed to be family-friendly. The core of it was always to be family-friendly. When you saw it, you would say, ‘That’s Fort Frances!’ What many people will probably see with this is a lot of inspiration from the 1980s and 1990s after-school cartoons. For our generation and even the elderly, we hope people will have that positive emotional response.”
Revitalizing the mascot was a question that the Town of Fort Frances had put to the masses in late 2024 as it contemplated doing away with the town’s longtime branding “Boundless.” Indeed, the survey results found that, of those who took the time to fill it out, most people wanted the tagline to go, but wanted the chipper beaver mascot to make a comeback.
Town of Fort Frances communications coordinator and deputy clerk Ally Lewis said that the new design is a direct result of the feedback the town received, and that they worked with Glowasky’s business, and his years of ideas, to put together something that could be used in wide range of scenarios.
“We knew a lot of the public wanted to see the Little Amik come back,” Lewis said.
“We had met with Studio Gibbous, who shared their idea of revitalizing Little Amik in a fresh way. And we were informed that with the infrastructure-restoration project of the water tower, there was also a branding opportunity. Public sentiment seemed never to be in favour of the Boundless branding, so putting it up on the water tower was an immediate no. That’s when the idea to move ahead with the revitalization of the mascot and put it up on the water tower came to us.”
For his part, Glowasky said he had never considered his design might go up on the side of the water tower to be displayed so prominently, but his thought process behind the new design was intended to be a loud and clear statement on what Fort Frances represents, unintentionally making it perfect for such display.
“You can look at any major community, and they’ll tell you exactly what they are,” Glowasky said.
“Dryden and Kenora have excellent brands for what they are, and they went through huge processes for those. But Fort Frances, we have a can-do attitude – just like an eager beaver.”
Little Amik is a registered trademark of the Town of Fort Frances since the 1970s. The original design had Little Amik wearing a toque with a pompom on the tip. The new design keeps the toque and gives it a paddle and sash However, as the name is partly in Anishinaabemowin, with “amik” being the Anishinaabemowin word for “beaver,” the town is currently electing not to use the name as they work to ensure it is respectful and appropriate to do so.
“We were excited Council approved the project to move forward,” Lewis said.
“Studio Gibbous worked with us to produce a family-friendly new version of the Town mascot. Then, internally, a few of us, along with the contractor’s team, worked to come up with the full wrap layout. Our goal was to get something that felt more timeless, wasn’t tied to any town branding, but felt connected to Fort Frances.”
