This is the story of a year of resilience. When we deliver ambitious projects while undergoing staff changes. When we clarify our mission while catching up on our communications. When we deliver a record number of training courses and receive an international award.
Key projects
Dozens of projects again this year, including the following:
The Arctic Resource Wheel
This collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Arctic Eider Society led to a superb interactive feature integrated into a touch screen in a multi-year exhibition in Ottawa.
Biodiversity Indicators
A wonderful scientific project in collaboration with Biodiversité Québec to help investors better understand the impact of their projects on biodiversity.
Critical Path
Projects with the Canadian Climate Institute are always ambitious, and this one was no exception: how to get the most out of critical minerals and, above all, how to do it right.
Municipalities
We also had many projects with municipalities again this year, whether it was helping the Union des municipalités du Québec disseminate resources for climate plans, the economic development corporation overhaul its annual report on the state of downtown Montreal, or the City of Montreal communicate the Progress Report on its Climate Plan.
Installations
This was a year with several physical installations, which was a first for us. In addition to the exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Nature mentioned above, we had installations at the Montreal Climate Summit and the 5th anniversary of the Canadian Climate Institute (photo credit: RothMedia for the Canadian Climate Institute).
We also gave 17 training sessions, twice as many as last year!
Human Resources
We had three major departures from the team: Estelle (five and a half years and our first employee), Celia (four years), and Julian (three years). In an organization of six people, that’s a lot!
We recruited Andrea as a graphic designer and Vanessa as an information designer, two people we already knew and were eager to bring onto the team. We took a team photo at the end of the year and updated everyone’s portraits (photo credit: Nicolas Debrosse).
Let’s not forget our collaborators, Guillaume and Chris, and now Anne-Marie and Candice, who add to our range of talents.
Speaking of networking, we also welcomed Annette, Ralph, Tatiana, Kristin, and Ruslan, members of the information design community who came to share their insights.
Products
Our products continue to evolve to meet demand.
For example, we now offer lower-cost reports based on templates and best practices. As part of the pilot project, we have already produced three such reports this year with the World Bank. We are preparing to market them on a larger scale this year.
We have also added flexibility to make our expertise more accessible, whether by producing reports in PowerPoint or offering consulting hour banks.
Awards
Another international award this year: a bronze medal at the Anthem Awards for our project with the Canadian Climate Institute of Canada: Close to Home.
However, our two projects submitted to the Information is Beautiful Awards were long listed but not selected as finalists this year.
Additions to the portfolio
We added six projects this year, some of which were catch-ups from previous years.
Standards for Québec.ca
We are very proud to have developed the visualization standards for the Quebec government’s new website.
Heat exchange
An ambitious project by the Canadian Climate Institute on a key issue in reducing emissions: how to heat our homes by replacing gas with electricity.
Progress Report on the Climate Plan for City of Montréal
A valuable collaboration with the City of Montreal to showcase the implementation of their climate action.
Futureproofing Communities
The IRPP gave us an opportunity to completely rethink the presentation of their findings on the economic vulnerability of certain Canadian communities to climate change.
Tracking Canada’s progress toward Net Zero emissions
Beyond commitments, the Canadian Climate Institute wants to track progress and has worked with Voilà: to develop a dynamic tool that will be updated annually.
Transparency in international aid
A 2022 project that we couldn’t resist adding to our portfolio, given its beauty and the importance of its theme.
Internal management
We received a lot of entrepreneurial support this year. In addition to ongoing support from PME MTL, we benefited from the Parcours Novaré program offered by the École des entrepreneurs du Québec and funded by the City of Montreal and the Quebec Ministry of Economy, Innovation, and Energy, which included a dozen themed meetings with other entrepreneurs. We even spent two days at the École d’entrepreneurship de Beauce. It was very beneficial (photo credit: Myriam Baril Tessier).
We also received support from Rümker in developing a strategy to sustain Voilà’s business model, as well as revealing personality tests from AtmanCo.
Through these consultations, a new formulation of our mission emerged: We help people with important ideas to make themselves understood.
In our quest for clarity, we updated some of our internal tools: the Déclic for client presentations, internal resources for project management, and our famous Comment, the reference for everything at Voilà. The kinds of updates are essential in an organization based on continuous improvement.
We have also renewed the lease on our offices until the end of 2028, as they allow us to collaborate in person and welcome guests.
Representation and visibility
In January, I made my last trip to the United States for the foreseeable future, until the security and political situation normalizes. I was there to give a data visualization training course at the World Bank and meet with some clients.
We had our second booth at the Montreal Climate Summit, an improved version of last year’s, of course. It was part of a sponsorship of the event organized by the Montreal Climate Partnership, a first for Voilà:.
A great privilege this year was presenting to the On Design and Data community on the theme of hope and visualization.
Vision 2026
Our strategic plan will be developed in January, and the theme for 2026 should be quality, in order to define what a Voilà: product is, both so that customers know what to expect and so that we can equip ourselves internally to achieve these objectives.
We will also continue to expand our network of collaborations in order to have the flexibility to carry out more projects.
I would also like to place more emphasis on our clients, to highlight the fantastic work they do with such dedication and quality. I am sincerely impressed by what they do and extremely grateful that they call on Voilà:.
Francis Gagnon is an information designer and the founder of Voilà: (2013), a data visualization agency specialized in sustainable development.
