The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is opening this week (Friday, September 19th). This is a day I’ve been greatly looking forward to for a long time.

It was a decade ago (give or take a few weeks) that we were hired to develop an identity and design advertising and marketing materials to aid in raising the capital needed to fulfill the dream of the late Izzy Asper to build this site — and the dream of his family to build it in his memory after his untimely passing in 2003. I remember getting to see conceptual illustrations of the proposed building before the general public got their first looks, and thought it was a pretty special privilege for all of us at Fusion to play a part in this undertaking at such an early stage.

I know our role in getting the museum done, in the grand scheme of things, was pretty minimal, but I do feel the life we helped breathe into the project, now that it’s completed, is a reason for us to feel proud.

And while many people reflect on the life and achievements of Mr. Asper on opening night (justly so) the opening of the museum has me also reflecting on the life and achievements of Terry Kuzina, Fusions’ founding father.

Terry led our creative team in the days that CMHR was getting going and he was so passionate about what we were working on for them. It was a point in his life where he was starting to cut back on his work week while thinking about some sort of semi retirement and talking a lot about his golf game. I always thought it was the perfect feather in his graphic design cap, him getting to put the first face on something so important for the city of Winnipeg.

And, sadly, like Izzy Asper, Terry did not live to see the completion of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. But I’m pretty sure, were he there on Friday, that he’d be thrilled. And impressed by the museums’ greatness.

Congratulations to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, our city’s newest shining star!