TORONTO sign, 3D illuminated sign at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Canada

The Toronto sign is a large three-dimensional installation with illuminated letters on Nathan Phillips Square. The structure features a steel frame with aluminum cladding and translucent polycarbonate panels that are lit by programmable LED lights.

Installed for the 2015 Pan American Games as a temporary attraction meant to be dismantled in November 2016 at the earliest, the sign stayed after becoming popular with tourists and residents; Councillor Norm Kelly compared it to the CN Tower. A 3D maple leaf was added beside the final O in December 2016 for the 150th anniversary of Confederation, and in 2018 a medicine wheel was placed beside the first T. In September 2020 Mayor John Tory unveiled a permanent replacement built by Toronto firm Unit 11 for $760,000.

The sign is a gathering point: visitors pose beneath the letters, and by June 2016 it had appeared in an estimated 120 million photographs on social media. In 2018, for National Indigenous Peoples Day, each letter was wrapped in a birch bark pattern with First Nations symbols, and a 3D medicine wheel was placed beside the first T. The wraps were later removed; the medicine wheel remains.

The sign stands on Nathan Phillips Square, in front of the curved towers of Toronto City Hall. The three Os sit at ground level, where hundreds of thousands of posing feet have worn the bases; the maple leaf is beside the final O and the medicine wheel beside the first T.

In 2018, a Medicine Wheel design was added to the sign representing completeness and connection. This symbol comes from North American Indigenous iconography and adds a deeper cultural layer to the installation.