Wordless Branding
When this credit card giant stripped its name away from its logo, it relied entirely on its iconic, overlapping red and orange circles to form a flat, modern Venn-diagram silhouette.
What is MasterCard?
Globally credited with popularizing nicknames like "The Six" and "Brampton," this hometown hip-hop superstar is the undisputed cultural ambassador of Toronto's modern music identity.
Who is Drake?
Every elementary school kid in the late 2000s spent their recess trying to trade these colorful, stretchy silicone bracelets that were molded into shapes like animals, sports gear, or musical instruments.
What are Silly Bandz?
Because their blood contains a unique copper-based molecule called hemocyanin instead of iron-based hemoglobin, these multi-armed, highly intelligent ocean creatures literally have bright blue blood.
What is an octopus? (Accept squid or cuttlefish)
In 1347, this devastating global pandemic began tearing through Europe after an invading Mongol army used giant catapults to literally launch infected, plague-ridden corpses over the city walls of a besieged trading port in Crimea.
What is the Black Death? (Accept the Bubonic Plague)
The wordless logo for this luxury automotive brand features four interlocking metallic rings arranged in a horizontal line, a design representing the 1932 merger of four independent car manufacturers
What is Audi?
If you are a young adult trying to travel across the city on a weekend, you are guaranteed to hear an intercom announcement stating that Line 1 is entirely shut down between these two major hub stations for "planned track maintenance."
What are St. Clair and Sheppard?
Long before modern tablets, a road trip in the 2000s meant folding open this iconic Nintendo handheld console to take care of your virtual puppies in Nintendogs or choose a starter like Chimchar.
What is the Nintendo DS?
The tiny, microscopic arachnids known as Demodex mites live completely harmlessly, eat dead skin cells, and mate on this specific, hair-heavy region of almost every adult human face.
What are eyebrows?
Long before she became a legendary pioneer of modern nursing during the Crimean War, this high-society British woman claimed she received a direct, literal call from God commanding her to dedicate her life to changing hospital sanitation forever.
Who was Florence Nightingale?
In 2020, this Japanese automaker dropped its name from its branding to favor a flat, monochrome graphic consisting of three overlapping ellipses that seamlessly form a stylized letter "T".
What is Toyota?
This massive, 11-day annual August event at Exhibition Place is a rite of passage for local young adults looking to eat absurd carnival food like tiny donuts or ride the Polar Express.
What is the CNE?
The ultimate status symbol in a 2000s middle school bedroom was a transparent plastic shelf stacked with body sprays and lotions from this store, specifically in the scent "Sweet Pea" or "Cucumber Melon."
What is Bath & Body Works?
This highly specialized organ is the only internal organ in the entire human body capable of completely regenerating itself back to full size from as little as 25% of its original mass.
What is the liver?
In 1911, an Italian carpenter pulled off one of the most daring art heists ever by hiding inside a closet at the Louvre overnight, slipping this legendary painting under his smock, and simply walking out the front door.
What is the Mona Lisa?
The wordless logo for this massive North American thrift store and community nonprofit chain features a giant, stylized lowercase letter "G" that pulls double duty as a smiling face.
What is Goodwill?
If you hear someone in Toronto mention they are hopping on the GO Train to escape the city for a night out in "The 905," they are most likely heading to this massive, heavily populated city directly west of Mississauga.
What is Brampton?
The ultimate television highlight of an elementary school school-day occurred when the teacher rolled a massive, heavy TV cart into the classroom and popped in a DVD starring this enthusiastic, science-loving host.
Who is Bill Nye?
This bizarre, involuntary evolutionary reflex—where a person instantly lets out an explosive sneeze the second they step out of a dark room into bright, direct sunlight—is known as the photic sneeze reflex or by this funny, five-letter acronym.
What is ACHOO? (Autosomal Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst)
In 1912, a regular French tailor named Franz Reichelt shocked a massive crowd of journalists and spectators when he jumped off this iconic European landmark to test a homemade wearable parachute—and plummeted straight to his death.
What is the Eiffel Tower?
This premium ice cream brand's logo consists of an elegant burgundy frame enclosing a highly stylized, abstract white floral pattern that subtly mirrors a lowercase letter "H".
What is Häagen-Dazs?
Long before it became a trendy, high-end shopping district filled with luxury boutiques, this historic downtown neighborhood was the absolute epicenter of Toronto's counter-culture hippie movement and bohemian music scene in the 1960s.
What is Yorkville?
Launching a massive social media phenomenon in 2014, millions of kids and young adults dumped freezing buckets of water over their heads on video to raise global awareness and research funds for this neurological disease.
What is ALS?
This incredibly rare, real-world genetic mutation results in a person having two completely different colored irises within their eyes, a striking trait shared by celebrities like Mila Kunis and David Bowie.
What is heterochromia? (Accept heterochromia iridis)
The ultimate status symbol for high-society European men in the 14th and 15th centuries was a ridiculous style of shoe called a "crakow" or "poulaine," which was defined entirely by this exaggerated physical feature.
What are long, pointed toes?