When it comes to its style, Joanne explains, “Paprika is not interested in trends and ‘the taste of the day’. We prefer to work with emotion and graphic sensitivity.” Concept-driven through and through, the studio makes a point of avoiding “ready-made recipes” and instead, works collaboratively with a client on a flexible methodology, tailored to the brief. When it came to the latest identity for Festival Art Souterrain, the studio came up with a symbolic narrative in the form of a ripening banana. “The ripening of the banana appears as a will to capture the notion of time passing,” she explains. “The banana becomes a unit of measurement: its random ripening is visible by a change of colour.”
An agency which is over 25 years old, Paprika sees its discipline as not only graphic design, but also space design, architecture, publishing and object design. Honing its craft over time, founder Joanne Lefebvre and Louis Gagnon see “graphic design as the gateway to the client’s project,” and implement this in the strategy. Working on projects overlapping the arts, hotels, concept-stores, architectural firms, retail, high-end projects and more, the studio prides itself on being fluid and multi-disciplinary. It also launches an annual scholarship to a graphic design graduate from the Université du Québec à Montréal who joins the team for a three month scholarship.
For the past three years, the Quebec-based design agency Paprika has annually collaborated with Festival Art Souterrain, Chonométrie. A major project for the studio, the key challenge for such an ongoing project lies in the constant renewal of the design system and concept. Joanne Lefebvre, president of Paprika, tells It’s Nice That: “From year to year, the given theme must be reflected in the campaign and serve as a cornerstone for the programming and the creative process of the invited artists.”