After 16 years as the Tricolour Outlet, the student-run clothing shop has officially rebranded as Society 58.
Tricolour Outlet has gone through its second rebranding since March. Following a minor change on March 6 to their logo, on Aug. 15, a larger rebrand was announced on their Instagram, changing their name to Society 58, to reflect the founding year of the AMS, 1858, “Society” being taken from Alma Mater Society.
In an interview with The Journal, Society 58 Head Manager Tatyana Grandmaitre-Saint-Pierre explained the reasoning behind these changes.
According to Grandmaitre, this symbolizes a direct connection to the history and legacy of the student governance structure, adding that the name is meant to reinforce Society 58’s role as a student-run AMS service. Grandmaitre emphasized that this move is in line with broader trends of rebranding student services to foster greater consistency, visibility, and independence within the AMS.
“This rebranding is about reflecting who we are today, an organization that isn’t just tied to one university but is a flexible, student-run service that is evolving with the needs of students.”
Grandmaitre further explained why they underwent a second branding change after March’s logo switch. She explained the logo rebrand was part of the previous team’s effort to give the Tricolour brand a more professional image. However, with a new management team came new priorities, and a focus on bigger changes.
“The nature of student roles is that projects are constantly being picked up, put down, and passed along to future teams,” Grandmaitre said. “The full rebrand to Society 58 was a separate project that had been discussed for a couple of years, but was put into full swing with the ultimate move of the AMS back to the JDUC and the effort to be more consistent across the AMS for services branding, which is why these projects weren’t launched concurrently.”
Grandmaitre cited three reasons for the larger rebrand. Firstly, she explained they moved away from the “Tricolour” name because of its association with the University itself. As such, the change is supposed to broaden its appeal to a wider student body, not just those affiliated with the University’s historic identity.
Aside from the appeal aspect, “Tricolour” is trademarked by the University, which could limit Society 58’s ability to engage with students and grow as an independent service, an issue that has been raised and discussed previously in the AMS Assembly. Grandmaitre noted that the new name provides greater flexibility and autonomy, as it eliminates concerns related to trademark restrictions.
When asked whether the change was driven by pressure from Queen’s, Grandmaitre denied the claim—something Queen’s confirmed in a statement to The Journal when the University wrote they had “no trademark infringement concerns with the Tricolour logo, name, or
colour palette.”
She later explained the changes were also in an effort to better align as a service within the AMS. Grandmaitre pointed out that similar rebranding initiatives have taken place within the AMS, such as with Common Ground Coffee House (CoGro) and the AMS Media Center.
“CoGro underwent a minor rebrand in terms of colours and logo to align closer with AMS branding and consistency across services. The AMS Media Center also did this a couple of years ago,” she explained.
When asked why the new name doesn’t more directly allude to merchandise, Grandmaitre explained that Tricolour wasn’t always solely a clothing store, formerly offering a bus service as well. The name Society 58 gives the AMS greater flexibility to expand the store’s offerings beyond just apparel, which Grandmaitre alluded to as something happening in the near future.
Tags
Rebrand, Society 58, Tricolour Outlet
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