OFFF Montréal 2026 : 3 designers répondent à 3 questions

OFFF has been gathering designers, animators and digital artists since 2001, mostly in Barcelona, with stops in Vienna and Mexico City along the way (Seville comes in November, Tallinn next June). It came to Montreal for the first time in September 2025—we wrote about it then—and it's back on September 2nd and 3rd, 2026 at the SAT. This year it runs straight into FORUM on the 4th, the design assembly Caserne has held here since 2022.

Three days, one building, and a lot of people who make the visual world you move through. We asked three of them three questions each.

And if you need to know where to go between OFFF sessions, check out our curated guide to cafés, bars, restaurants, and shopping options in the area.

Bryan-K. Lamonde, Principal — OFFF + FORUM, September 2nd

Bryan-K. Lamonde co-founded Principal, the Hutchison Street studio responsible for more of Montreal's visual furniture than most people realize: BIXI's identity, the signage you follow up Mount Royal, the MBAM's colours, years of Théâtre Prospero posters. Further afield, the IOC, the Canada Council, the Gund at Kenyon, the Wexner Center. He sits on the ADCC board, has judged D&AD, and spoke at OFFF Barcelona last year about how Montreal shapes the way he designs. This year the festival came to him.

You went to OFFF Barcelona last year to explain Montreal design to a room of Europeans. Now, they’re here. Does the pitch change?

I’m going to do a bit of the opposite. I’ll talk about how Europeans have had an obvious influence on what design is in Quebec today, and how our visual heritage can influence a studio like Principal and the projects we work on. And share some fun anecdotes also.

Your studio’s work is all over Montreal—BIXI, the Mount Royal signage, the MBAM’s colours. What do you consider when working on these kinds of everyday, utility-forward designs?

Always having a posture of longevity creatively, and a sensitivity to the context and its users. We need to be rigorous and careful, while trying to bring even more creativity into our institutions and everyday environments through design.

What’s the weirdest place you get design inspiration from?

Jokes and shared bad ideas. I think we underestimate the power of transparency and humour in the design process with a team. I love that feeling of being laid-back and super rigorous at the same time.

Joël Auchu, REF — OFFF, September 3rd

Joël Auchu got into this by accident. He was midway through a bachelor's in advertising in Quebec City, not quite finding his place, when someone sent him a link to a master's in interaction design out of nowhere. It happened to be the best UX program in the province.

He came up through LG2's digital team—UX designer, then creative director over the UX practice. Last September that team spun out on its own as REF, 80-odd specialists shipping 200 projects a year for Hydro-Québec, the ROM, Beneva, Dime and norda.

What does Montreal give a digital designer that Toronto or New York doesn't?

I think it's pretty clear if you look at the multiple digital awards that exist worldwide that there’s something special happening here (and in Quebec). Locomotive, Louis Paquet, Deux Huit Huit, Akufen (and us of course) have all won worldwide recognition. I think it comes from a strong design culture paired with the ability we have here to be creative in problem-solving. I mean we are known to be able to create magic from almost nothing. The fact that it's "smaller" definitely helps also, it's a smaller community, and there is a real sense of community. It doesn't feel super competitive, even if we do compete for projects.

We end up all having beers together, which to me is incredible.

Would you rather a website looks good or works well, and how do you straddle that line?

It works well, 100% of the time. Maybe this is because of my UX background, but I also do believe in having it look good helps it work well, too. I feel with the (website awards series) Awwwards trend of the past few years, we see too many impressive visuals that detract from functionality, or hide websites that serve no real purpose.

The direction we set our team on is that we ask them to focus on what they think will bring the most value for the client. Is it a functionality? Motion on a graphic? An interactive module? Sound? Since we know we have a finite number of hours, it helps them focus on what really matters, making the rest simpler. Looking good just to look good is like icing on the cake; if we can add details because all the rest is already top notch, why not.

What's cool is our team is so good that it always looks good.

A lot of the internet looks the same right now. What's causing that?

It's a mix of many things.

First, I think the "formula" to build a good website has been cracked a while ago. The rules are easy to follow, and since users are now familiar with some patterns, it's easy to do a website that performs just by following them.

Then for sure the rise of websites like Awwwards, CSS Design Awards, and SiteInspire has all made finding inspiration easier, but at the same time it makes it so everyone sees the same inspirations. You don't have to dig to find gems. So people try to copy what works, and when new trends emerge, like the one we are currently in with glass UI, people follow them.

Last, I cannot overstate the rise of artificial intelligence. I think it's going to accelerate the trend even more, because it makes it accessible for non-designer people to do things that they feel look good, but is just a generic site inspired by what the AI has consumed. The problem is having people with no design skills or taste being able to create things by themselves that are great in their eyes, but super bland, generic and full of UX and accessibility issues on the other hand. I could talk about that for hours, but it's really a super fast enshittification of the web (but maybe I’m being a bit dramatic).

Hayley Lim — FORUM, September 4th

Hayley Lim came to Montreal from Boston at 17 to study business at McGill. She got the degree, but she left with a design career instead, one she'd taught herself off YouTube and practised every week on the student paper. Thirteen years on, Canadian as of last year, she's put in time at Bleublancrouge, Rethink, Ogilvy, Cossette, then &Walsh in New York and Baillat back home, and now runs her own studio. This year she took a Young Guns, put custom lettering on a world champion's fight gear, and signed with Merchant to direct, starting, naturally, with Montreal's music scene.

Montreal's creative scene is full of people doing five things at once. You've done branding, lettering, and now directing. Is that a Montreal thing or a you thing?

Definitely a Montreal thing. The talent per capita here is humongous, and there are reasons for that. It used to be affordable enough to find your way postgrad on $30,000. Then schools like UQAM and Concordia, the film and design people, the VFX side, the cost of shooting in Canada versus the States. All of it creates a place full of talented people in a physically small environment. You run into everyone. Everyone has an idea of what you do.

And because it's small, and because of this Quebec bubble—we could be recognized internationally more than we are—people collaborate way more. We're trying to make something cooler, something with the appeal of a French campaign but for $2,000, shot with the two fashion brands our friends made. That energy is one of the reasons I've been able to work across disciplines here. The people I work with are highly sought-after DPs and editors, and they're still open, because it's not a clout thing in Montreal. Living here makes you open to working with people who don't have enormous fame attached to them.

You've worked in New York, London and Oslo. What's different about the conversations happening in Montreal?

I work a lot with people from New York, so that's my biggest survey pool. In New York you need to make a lot of money, so it's a really systematic approach, dedicated to pleasing clients who have a lot of money. Everything has to be designed—how does this logo work in this format, and this format, and this format. It needs to work and it needs to please.

In Montreal our clients are often smaller, so we can do crazier work. People are okay with something a little bolder or weirder. If you look at design resources like Pinterest or Are.na, a lot of the pins are from my friends and colleagues here, because it's very cutting edge. I think that's specific to Montreal—and maybe to Spain and Portugal, which have a similar sensibility.

What's your favourite part of creative community gatherings like OFFF?

Honestly, it's the cocktail hour. No, but it's true. Listening to what people have to say is always enjoyable and interesting, and you get that back to back to back, which is great. But there aren't that many meetups in Montreal for designers—we're not always hanging out. So it's actually quite nice to see my beloved peers that I see twice or three times a year. The best part is shooting the shit with people who are there.