My day starts with a breakfast with my family before I go upstairs to my office. Not a day is spent the same way. I move constantly between my work as a professor, my research projects and activities related to my two daughters more present these days due to COVID-19. In between that busy time, I take an hour to walk with my dog Roxy, a black lab who helps me empty my head or fill it with new ideas! Since summer started, I am also spending quality time on my paddle board as we live close to a river. I never have a specific agenda of my day, more a general understanding of where I want to go, which I find more creative and fulfilling.

 

 

I am currently working on a creative research project implementing the practice of social design in elementary schools. With a group of colleagues, we are working on a publication, a tool box for teachers and students after developing a year of workshops in collaboration with a school and kids aged 11 to 12. Fine tuning our initial discoveries is a very stimulating process.

 

Diversifying my activities during the weekdays is crucial as well as staying connected to the nature. As a professor and a freelancer, I focus on working out a personal schedule to free up and organize my work and my activities to feel more efficient. Being creative demands a certain amount of freedom.

 

I have to say that I rarely feel isolation or disconnection at all. I guess it depends of your personality. I take the situation as it comes, without frustration with an aim to adapt and gain from the new experiences and understand new opportunities to do things differently. In my mind, I feel it is temporary so I do not stress about it.

 

I embrace it, even if sometimes I miss my time alone during the day. My partner only worked from home for 10 days at the beginning of the lockdown period. I take advantage of having lunch with my teenagers every day… Maybe they would have a different answer if you asked them!

 

I was already working from home quite a lot as it is also my studio and my school home office from time to time. We live next to a national park, so our environment is not a burden at all. Overlooking the river or the forest while working is a real advantage. Having the time and the place to nest and re-evaluate how you do things is a great opportunity to reinvent part of yourself.

 

Not really! I like to decide by day, by mood and depending of what I am doing. Having my two daughters at home, we’ve been sharing playlists. I enjoy discovering new stuff with them. We are not musicians but music is a big part of our daily life. At night, I always turn to jazz and especially Chet Baker for whom we have a huge collection of records. Radio-Canada Première is another medium that I have been enjoying listening to while working, especially in the morning.

 

 

 

Yes we are! It is the reason I named my non-profit organization: la tribu grafik. We are more connected than ever, even in this time. We are a voice! We should put our creative talent to help others and to make our voice more prominent. COVID-19 is an example of how our community work together, even when apart, to make a difference. Posters have been created to support health workers, like the initiative of Poster House in Times Square and many others initiatives across Europe, in Montreal, etc.

 

In difficult times, we should be on the front line; this is a unique moment to demonstrate the power of design and how designers are able to invest their talents to inform, translate and raise awareness when information is needed for clarity and uplifting creativity. United we stand by transcending and investing in every platform available to us.

 

 

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