PM—Hey guys, how’s life in Montreal?

S—Pretty good! Summer is almost here! Winter can be brutal in Montreal, and it definitely was this year, haha! Hope all is well on your end too.  

PM—yeah, it gets pretty cold here in Melbs. How’s the design scene in Montreal? 

S—There are a lot of good studios and talented designers in Montreal. It’s gotten easier to start your own practice in the last few years. Clients are usually really faithful to the studios they work with, which makes long-term collaboration easy. The downside of it is that it can be hard to get new projects when you are starting. But we are seeing a lot of small/new studios like us commissioned with large-scale projects, so we feel lucky to be part of the scene at this moment and we are excited for what is to come. 

PM—So, how did your design studio evolve? And who’s involved? 

S—We met and became friends a couple years ago. After finishing our studies, we both got to work in different studios in Montreal where we gained most of our experience. It led us to start together Supersystème in 2021, currently consisting of just the two of us. We work with collaborators like developers and photographers on a regular basis, depending on the needs of each project. We’d like to eventually hire one or two designers, but we want to keep the team small. We want to be able to stay as flexible as possible and continue to make work that we enjoy making.

PM—I agree, you need to be flexible in this climate. Who does what to keep the studio running?

S—We’re both hands-on in pretty much everything, from design to administrative work. Although we tend to divide production work among the two of us, we always work together on developing concepts and ideas for each project. We make all big decisions together.

PM—What’s the best part of owning your own studio?

S—The ability to decide what kind of work we want to do, work that is meaningful to us, and what kind of environment we want to be working in. It also allows us to foster stronger relationships with the people we develop work for.

PM—I’m a massive fan of your studio’s typographic aesthetic and the work you produce. I’m curious to know what has inspired and shaped your style? Were you influenced by other design studios around the world? 

S—A part of it we think comes very naturally, we have always been drawn to that kind of typographic aesthetic. It got shaped over time and still is by a lot of external influences. We collect books, we visit art spaces here in Montreal and when we travel, we have interest in cinema, architecture and other design related fields. We follow and are interested in the work of artists and designers from all around the world and different eras. The work of Emil Ruder, for example, has influenced us since the beginning of our practice, and still does. 

PM—Do you strictly work towards using typographic executions for most of your projects?

S—Not strictly, but we love using typography as a visual interpretation and it is a big part of our work. We try to get an in-depth understanding of the goals and concepts of each project and to help translate those, whether it’s through typographic executions or not. We often present different kinds of directions, and somehow, more often than not, typographic ones are selected, sometimes to our own surprise! But we’re always happy about it!

PM—Do you have a design process? If so, what does it look like?

S—We do, and over the course of the last two years we’ve been solidifying it. We approach each project the same way, no matter how big or small the project is, we give everything we have. Steps could be resumed as: 1) lot’s of conversations, analysing and getting clarity around the project, 2) research, 3) design explorations, 4) streamlining, make it work, test it. 

PM—So every designer messes up at some stage in their career. Any f@#k ups come to mind, and what did you learn from it? 

S—Jeeeez! CCing the wrong person. No damages, but it could have been bad! Or having an entire table of content wrong. TRIPLE CHECK EVERYTHING!

PM—Where and how do you find new work that aligns with style of work you do? 

S—We have been in the industry for a couple of years, so we had a few connections and we were lucky to be assigned projects at the very start of Supersystème. Clients usually find us through mutual connections or through some of our work they came across irl or on social media. We have a systematic approach to design and typography and we like to work with clients that are interested in this type of approach. We make sure that everyone involved in the process has a clear understanding and enjoys the type of work that we do. It helps create a good work environment for all parties and the best outcomes.  

PM—If you were on a deserted island and you could only have one? What would it be? A. Youtube? B. Spotify? C. Laptop with Creative Cloud?

S—Youtube?! Haha! 

PM—Let’s talk about studio culture. How do you define good studio culture?

S—Good spirit! Openness, be aligned on your goals, have a good amount of similarities in your work but enough differences that you keep on growing and learning from each other. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, so we have a lot of fun in the studio. We really try to build a work environment that is beneficial for us, that’s very important.

We started the studio in the middle of the pandemic, it definitely wasn’t the best idea :/ Not working in the same space for the first few months added an extra challenge. It paid off eventually, but it made it difficult to find a good balance and fluidity in communications at a moment where we had so many decisions to make.  

PM—What are some lessons you’ve learnt over the years running the studio’s? 

S—There is always a solution, and you have to work towards it. 

PM—Where do you see Supersytème in 5 years? 

S—We’d love to see Supersystème have a more established presence in the industry/community. We’d also like to be more involved in teaching and collaborative projects with other designers. Since we started the studio, we’ve been thinking about developing side projects that could bring together other interests we have. So we’d like to see those come to life in the near future! 

PM—Favourite typeface at the moment?

S—There are too many good ones, it’s like choosing a favorite movie! We really enjoy working with typefaces from Omnitype, Dinamo and Formula Type. 

PM—What tunes are you currently bumping in the studio?

EL—I joined a choir a couple months ago. So I’m currently just listening to the repertoire on loop to make up for the fact that I don’t really have time to practice in between rehearsals. Songs are a bit obscure and on the experimental side of music. I’ll abstain from sharing these here, you’ll thank me!

MG: I’ve been mainly listening to Yaeji’s latest albums for the past few days. I’m an avid runner, so I also have quite a running playlist that includes too many pop songs!

PM—What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received in the industry? 

S—Keep developing and finessing your way of working, and your process. Get the most clarity at the early stage of a project and stay aligned all the way through the end.

PM—Plug 3 of your favourite IG accounts?

S—Since we love books: @eriskayconnection, @roma.publication, @spectorbooks

PM—It’s been so swell catching up. Any interesting projects or collaborations coming up?

S—Same! Thank you so much for having us, Damien. We are currently working on a few website and exhibition projects that are coming out in the next couple of months and we are also about to release our first self-initiated project, which we are really excited about!

Hope we’ll be able to catch up again soon and let us know if you ever visit Montreal! 👋