I’m in Montreal, I do design and I’m the founder of Mentallys. I also work in finance.
I am a professor and a researcher in design
The son of a carpenter, I'm a former first-generation university student. With a PhD in philosophy, I began my career in France as a "philosophy teacher", before discovering design at the École Boulle in Paris, where I taught for several years. It was also in Paris that I trained in interaction design and set up my own web and graphic design studio, with over 30 references in the cultural, public and non-profit sectors. A Full Professor at the École de design de l'Université du Québec à Montréal, I am now one of the most internationally recognized French-speaking design researchers. Founder of the research journal Sciences du Design, I am the author of several classic books on design, which are required reading in many universities and countries. A pioneer of research in digital philosophy, I am also the author of the book Being and the Screen, published in English by The MIT Press, which earned me an invitation to lunch at French President François Hollande's table in 2015. I'm currently working on Vocabulaire du design, the first and largest specialized french-speaking design dictionary, which brings together over a hundred authors, and which I co-edit with my colleague and friend Éric Kavanagh, full professor at Université Laval's École de design.
I am the founder of Mentallys
Holding also a master degree in clinical psychology, having an experience as a web designer, over time I came to see connections between things that were evolving separately. This is how, around 2011, I came up with the idea of developing a digital platform for mental health. When I arrived in Quebec in 2019, I initiated a new field of research within the Chaire Diament UQAM: design for e-mental health. With my team, we created Mentallys, a platform for accessing care and managing mental health pathways, the first version of which was completed at the end of 2024, after several years of research and development. Created at Université du Québec à Montréal, in collaboration with the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Mentallys is the result of an unprecedented codesign process, involving people living with a mental health disorder, peer helpers and healthcare professionals, as well as community and public partners. Mentallys is a demonstration of what design can do. I've put into it everything I know, can do and love to do. Our mental health deserves the very best!
I also do human-centered finance
All my life I didn't understand anything about finance because it didn't interest me. I know what it's like not to use your brain in this area, to run away from the subject at the first opportunity and not to make the right choices because of a lack of education. Today, I help teachers and researchers, designers and creatives, healthcare professionals and business owners to better understand money. I introduce them to high-level financial strategies that you don't learn at school or in the bank. I have invested the same level of intellectual rigour and critical thinking in my training as I would in becoming a university lecturer, with a passion for serving those like myself whom I know and understand so well! I am an independent financial security advisor, registered with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers du Québec. I represent more than 40 financial institutions, which give me access to the best strategies. My advice is free, as my remuneration comes from these institutions.