A website or an application is judged live: visit ours.
Same method for both: strategy, design, development, plus SEO/GEO structure for websites.
Yvain, comedian
Daniel Villeneuve
Atlas physio
Thermographe
practice
artlequin is a senior creative agency founded in Montreal in 2021 by Frédéric Vicaire, senior creative director and international speaker, after 30 years of practice in creative direction. We work for agencies, studios, businesses and cultural institutions, across Quebec and throughout Canada.
Our craft brings three areas of expertise together in one team: image, storytelling and production, with a command of today’s technologies. We frame fast, we produce right, and we bring in the right skills at the right time.
↳ In September 2025, Quebec’s Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy (MEIE) consulted artlequin on creative AI issues, a recognition of an approach that operates outside industry norms.
Craftspeople, not order-takers. We create your strategy, or we adapt to it.
Creative agency or marketing agency: why they are not the same thing →
You arrive with an idea, a rough draft or a problem.
We start from there.
Whatever the state of the project, what matters is what you want to achieve. Six situations where people call us. If yours isn’t on the list, it’s often the most interesting one: tell us about it.
You know what you want to sell, not yet how to say it. A brand, a product, a company: we find the angle, structure the message and decide what to show first.
The project exists, but it lacks substance or conviction. We tighten the intent, raise the execution and make the whole thing defensible in front of a client, a jury or an investor.
An identity, a universe, a scenography. For a brand, an event or a public figure, actor, artist or speaker, we build a presence true to who you are, not a template.
A kitchen that needs staging, a message that isn’t landing, a place that doesn’t exist yet. We look for the answer in the eye before looking for it in the means.
A show to script, a real estate project to make desirable before the first stone is laid, a pitch due in five days. We make the idea visible and credible, without having to build it to convince.
Your team is overloaded, or it lacks senior creative direction for the length of a mandate. We fit into your pace and your tools, on retainer, by mandate or on payroll.
Knowing what to create, why to create it,
and which tools will get you there.
Tools don’t make the direction: they serve it.
A visual culture,
before a toolbox.
What we bring first is an eye: a visual culture forged in creative direction, concept art and production, and the experience of what holds up on screen, on stage or in a room. That eye reads the context before producing anything: who we are talking to, what the project needs to achieve, what it can afford.
The choice of tools follows from that expertise, never the other way around. An artlequin production may draw on photography, 3D, animation, compositing, retouching, code, generative AI or other technologies. Those tools belong to the production pipeline; we choose and combine them according to the intent. What we sell is the direction, the eye, the strategy and the result. The tool never signs the image.
Intent, creative direction, choice of tools, production, result. In that order.
Vit isn’t what we sell:
it’s the proof of what we know how to do.
images
research
injected
Like every agency, we use generative AI. The difference: we trained our own. Vit is our creative AI model, proprietary through its training, not through its code. We did not write the code of an image engine; we gave it our practice alone, without ever injecting anyone else’s intellectual property. An engine left as it is returns the average of billions of strangers’ images. Vit returns our eye.
In our productions, Vit is one tool among others, chosen when the intent calls for it. Its real function lies elsewhere: to show that an eye can be passed on, and that ours holds up once isolated from everything else. When we show this work to large agencies, they try to do the same. They can’t.
Vit: common sense, in Norwegian.
What we make
- Senior creative direction Project, event, conference, pitch: from vision to delivery.
- Identity & visual universes Brand image, premium moodboards, graphic consistency, event unification.
- Scenography & immersive experiences Real or virtual sets, stage backdrops, hybrid and immersive experiences.
- Visual content & motion Projection visuals, motion design, title sequences, montage.
- Pitch & visual storytelling Pitch decks, investor presentations, intent renders, visual prototypes.
Agencies, studios & organizations
- Creative agencies
- Production studios
- Growing businesses
- Cultural institutions
- Cities & public spaces
From intent to result
1
Intent
Understand the stakes, the audience and what the project needs to achieve. Before any image.
2
Creative direction
An angle, a narrative, a visual direction. This is where everything is decided.
3
Choice of tools
The pipeline is built from the intent: each tool is kept for what it brings to the result.
4
Production
Making, iterating, checking the eye at every step, until the version that holds.
5
Result
Delivery, roll-out, and a result you can defend.
References
- The Little Prince, César 2016 for Best Animated Film and BAFTA Children’s Award 2017 Frédéric Vicaire contributed to the film as set designer and senior concept artist.
- The Roaming, Cannes Film Festival 2024 Creative direction of Mathieu Pradat’s work, selected for the Immersive Competition, in collaboration with Normal Studio.
- Original music Lyrics, compositions and vocal direction, as a direct extension of our narrative research.
What our clients say
“My website was entirely rebuilt and hosted. The artlequin team produced the photos, all the SEO and GEO work, and updated every site that pointed to my old address.”Daniel V., complete website rebuild
“Our website got a new design and a major user experience update. The result: better SEO and GEO, more visitors and more bookings.”Alexandre N., website redesign
“In just a few days, Frédéric and his team found the new name for my company, then designed a complete brand identity in record time. They quickly understand the result you are after, thanks to an overall vision fed by decades of experience. I warmly recommend them.”Thierry L., Coffee Break
“artlequin organized a complete escape game on our premises: a storyline, several 3D animations and a truly innovative team-building activity.”Caroline V., in-house escape game
artlequin in 150 seconds
Creative direction, branding, production. The agency in action.
Frequently asked questions
- What’s the difference between artlequin and a large creative agency?
- A large agency bills for its structure. At artlequin, you pay for the work: a senior creative director directly on your project, no intermediary, no junior doing the work. Comparable results, significantly lower fees.
- Do you work only in Montreal?
- We are based in Greater Montreal but work with clients across Quebec and Canada. The majority of our mandates are done fully remotely.
- How does your pricing work?
- Three plans depending on your need: a subscription (4 mandates over 12 months) for recurring needs, a single mandate for a specific project, or a 2-week payroll if you need a dedicated creative director. See plans and pricing →
- Do you do creative direction for events?
- Yes, it’s one of our core territories. Event creative direction, scenography, event visual identity, projection visuals, stage backdrops, hybrid or immersive experiences. We step in at every stage, from concept to content delivery.
- Can you create a pitch deck or investor presentation?
- Yes. Pitch decks, partner or investor presentations, intent renders: we transform an idea or project into a presentation that convinces. Senior creative direction on the project, deliverable and defensible results.
Ready?
Challenge accepted!
Tell us about your project.
We offer 30 minutes and propose a clear, actionable angle.
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