MARC
Kandalaft
The unexpected can frighten.
Fear can elate.
Elation inspires.
Marc Kandalaft creates at the intersection where aesthetics, the written word, imagery, chaos, and balance collide. That collision is no accident, it is compelling and intentional.
Designer. Visual Artist. Educator. All are one, neither owns the other, and their conversation is unending. To Marc,
progress
is the child of disruption and not always the echo of modernity or innovation. Agreeably rebellious, he explores the edge of conventional wisdom, where
comfort
is challenged but not dismissed, chaos is cultivated, and norms overruled by simplicity and purposeful thought.
Rethink. Act. Provoke.
Identity photo from 1988.
HQ. Old-Montréal.
Québec, Canada.
Design inherently suggests that better things are possible. That is why it is closely linked to the notion of progress and gives it a fundamental sense of optimism.
Career path
Born during the tumultuous years of Lebanon’s civil war, Marc’s journey is a storied one filled with paradox and contradictory influences. Growing up in an expat community at the heart of European & American compounds in Saudi Arabia, his earliest canvases were painted with the desolation of the Arabian desert – cosmopolitan, prefabricated, and yet flavoured with the surreal Americanness of exile that was imposed, yet embraced.
“If science concerns itself with what things are and how things could become, design then is the study and execution of how things should be.”
Design. Visual art. Education. They are Marc’s calling. At first, they seem disparate, but each is a manifestation of his natural abilities as a visual thinker. Aesthetics, ideas, and language hold equal sway, and separately or as one, are informed by a wide range of influences. Marc’s body of work echoes American mythology, oriental mystique. Classical French history, and an ever-changing pop culture. Their synthesis generates an unmistakable originality.
Marc’s design career saw first light with the new millennia. 2006 brought his vision, drive, and passion to Canadian shores where he applied those multitude influences and experiences as a creative director.
(Rethink. Act. Provoke.) founded in 2015, has become the working embodiment of his artistic and communication philosophy.
Across two decades that were simultaneously formative, evolutionary, and revolutionary, Marc has created an impressive range of sensitive, sensible, and sensory design work for a prestigious national and international clientele.[...]
Design
DESIGN
Design
/ Creative & artistic direction / Strategy & identity / Naming / Messaging / Spatial design / Websites / Products / Graphic design / Typefaces /
Education
EDUCATION
education
/ Workshops / Lectures & conferences / Training / Podcasts /
Visual art
VISUAL ART
visual art
/ Curation / Photography / Videography / Sound design / Editing /
