Garrison’s Barbershop
Busy market. Unknown brand. We gave it a personality locals noticed—even Monocle.

The challenge

Garrison’s by the Park Barbershop needed a brand built from nothing: name, identity, personality, and a launch strategy. The starting point was a single word: Garrison’s. The problem? In Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood, Garrison is everywhere. Generic by geography. The gap: a name that meant nothing yet needed to mean everything to urban professionals and creatives in a busy market with no shortage of places to get a cut.

Garrison's Barbershop Magazine Sticker display

Services

Diagnostic

Brand Strategy

Writing Style: Customer-first, without fluff

Brand Identity & Naming

Marketing Communications

Website

Steward

The constraints

Garrison’s Barbershop wasn’t a rebrand with existing equity to work from. No history, no following, no recognition. The name had to earn its own ground—distinct enough to own, rooted enough to feel like it belonged. And it had to attract a specific kind of client before a single chair could be filled.

What changed

The answer was already in the neighbourhood. Garrison’s first location was across from Trinity Bellwoods Park—local and specific, the line ‘By the Park’ transformed a generic name into an address with personality. The bulldog in the logo followed: a community character, built to grow with the brand. Every decision traced back to one diagnostic insight—design for the audience you want to attract.

Interior Garrison's Barbershop Blackboard, product and antique chair.

The result

Garrison‘s opened in February 2011. Over the years that followed, the numbers built steadily: bookings up 65%, social media followers up 51%, new website visitors up 80%, average monthly bookings reaching 2,100.

Recognition followed—Toronto Life, Sharp Magazine, Narcity, BlogTO, and Monocle, whose International Style Director noted the brand less than two years after launch, one of only two North American brands and the only Canadian one mentioned.

Garrison’s 2019 Movember campaign on Instagram out-liked Justin Bieber and Stan Lee combined.

The brand grew to three locations before COVID reduced the footprint to two. Throughout the knowledge capital has stayed with BLVD since opening—giving the owners a partner who can evolve the brand without ever losing the original intent.