The UQAM Centre de Design is presenting the exhibition Graphic Design on the Move, an exceptional panorama of Quebec graphic design through the achievements of fifty of its top agencies, most of which include graduates of UQAM. Although graphic design is an applied art and a commissioned art, it is still very much an art in its own right. Its multifaceted manifestations inhabit our daily lives, as demonstrated brilliantly by the projects selected for the exhibition.

Graphic design is a flourishing creative field whose potential has exploded with the evolution of technological tools. It is a sector that is rapidly evolving and transforming, while increasingly integrating moving images. In the 21st century, graphic design is on the move!

The exhibition
The exhibition illustrates various aspects of this evolution through the many forms of graphic design applied to multimedia: websites, video games, film and television titles and credits, and animated advertising. Graphic design as an element of urban architecture is also featured: signage, multimedia routes, wall projections, etc. Finally, there is a selection of the best print projects of recent decades, including books, newspapers, brochures, posters, packaging and other brand images.

50 years of creativity in graphic design
Mounted on the occasion of UQAM’s 50th anniversary, the exhibition also provides an overview of the most significant developments in the field, using several examples that have marked the history of graphic design in Quebec over the last five decades. Three short videos, produced by La Fabrique culturelle, Télé-Québec's digital cultural platform, round out the exhibition with a behind-the-scenes look at the graphic design creative process.

The exhibition is accompanied by an eponymous book, Le design graphique, ça bouge!, published by Éditions Somme toute, featuring some fifty of the best agencies and designers in Quebec. It will be available for $35 during the exhibition at the Centre de Design.

Biography of curator Marc H. Choko
Marc H. Choko, professor, author, speaker and curator in the field of poster and graphic design, his reputation is second to none. He is Professor Emeritus at the School of Design at the UQAM, where he has been teaching since 1977. He has been Director of Research at the National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS) Urbanization, Culture and Société from 1985 to 2005. From 1999 to 2008, he headed the Design Centre at UQAM. A graduate in architecture from the Université de Montréal (1973), he also holds a master's degree in urban planning from the same university (1976) and a doctorate in urban planning from Paris VIII University (1981).

Marc H. Choko is the author of numerous reports, articles and books on urban development and housing issues, both nationally and internationally, including China, where he was a consultant and associate professor from 1991 to 2000.

Passionate about posters, he has been collecting them since the mid-1960s and before then beginning researching them, particularly on their production in Quebec and Canada. He began to organize exhibitions, including several as curator, and to publish many books, from the early 1980s.

Biography of co-curator Louis-Charles Lasnier
Louis-Charles Lasnier holds a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), as well as a Bachelor's and a Master's in Architecture from the University of Waterloo. He worked at the Bruce Mau design agencies (Toronto), Claude Cormier landscape architects (Montreal), and Saucier + Perrotte architects (Montreal), before founding his own agency. From 2000 to 2014, he directed the cross-disciplinary agency Multiple where he collaborated on space design, graphics, hanging devices and lighting, as well as the curating of a number of exhibitions, notably at the CCA, the Monopoli Architecture Gallery, the Musée National des Beaux-arts in Québec City, the Pointe-à-Callière Museum and the McCord Museum. Since 2011, he has been a professor at the UQAM School of Design where he teaches exhibition design and signage.

From its onset, his career has involved both design and teaching, two endeavours with a common goal: to celebrate the complexity of the world around us through the creation of books, exhibitions and other forms of knowledge sharing.

List of agencies and designers on display
Aatoaa, Akufen, Atelier Chinotto, Atelier Louis-Charles Lasnier, Atelier Presse-Citron, Bang-Bang, Benoit Giguère, Benoit Tardif, By Haus, Bye Bye Bambi, Caserne, Champagne Club Sandwich, Cindy Boyce, Compagnie et Cie, Conifère, Cossette, Criterium, Denis Dulude, Deux Huit Huit, Elizabeth Laferrière, Featuring, Feed, Folklore, Georges Labrecque, GSM project, Isabelle Arsenault, Janice Nadeau, Julien Hébert, Karim Charlebois-Zariffa, Kuizin Studio, Lacava Design, Laurent Pinadel, lg2, Lino, Mélanie Crespin, Nicolas Ménard, Nouvelle administration, Olivier Charland, Panache, Paprika, Pierre Léonard, Ping Pong Ping, Polygraphe, Principal, Salamander Hill Design, Sébastien Lépine, Sid Lee, Stéphane Huot Design, STM, URBANIA, Vallée Duhamel et Wolfgang Animation.

Exhibition conceived by the UQAM Centre de Design, produced in partnership with La Fabrique culturelle.

Main Partners

La Fabrique culturelle.tv, Télé-Québec, UQAM, Mp.

Partners and sponsors

École de design de l'UQAM, v2com newswire, lg2, Lait et URBANIA