Philippe Lamarre, laureate

Thanks to the Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal Grant, Philippe Lamarre documented the vernacular graphic design of the cities of Montréal, Buenos Aires and Berlin. Encompassing official and commercial signage as well as any other visual element that leaves its mark on the urban landscape, vernacular graphic design plays as significant a role in shaping a city’s identity as do architecture and planning.

During his research trips, Mr. Lamarre took numerous photos of signs and posters of all kinds, which he then indexed at http://urbania.ca/interactif/vernaculaire/. Besides functioning as a bona fide visual memory bank of valuable artifacts, many of which are in danger of disappearing, the website allows users to post their own images of vernacular graphic design captured in cities all over the world.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the most unusual places and details in cities—the ones that clash with the postcardperfect image but that nonetheless capture the city’s unique identity. When I go on vacation, I don’t take the same kinds of photos as regular tourists. My eye is drawn to things that most people ignore or don’t see. The Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal Grant has allowed me to share this fascination with an amazing number of people, to turn it into a true topic of research and exploration and, especially, to make people more aware of the importance of vernacular graphic design and its heritage value for Montréal and cities around the world.”