The Ottawa Design Club is a volunteer-run community of designers and creatives who believe in showing up, sharing work, and building real connections.
Inspired by the Montreal Design Club, founders Isabelle (Izzy) Poirier and Ariane Bédard started the club in 2020 to create a welcoming space for creatives to meet, learn, and support one another. What began as a small initiative quickly grew into something shaped by the people who show up.
The club hosts speaker events that bring designers, artists, and creative thinkers together to share experiences, ideas, and insights. Whether it’s your first event or your tenth, the goal is simple. It should feel easy to walk in, take a seat, and feel like you belong.
Alongside events, Ottawa Design Club publishes zines as an extension of its programming. Each zine is built around a theme and curated through an open call, bringing together voices from different cities and creative communities. Designed as tactile objects, the zines carry conversations beyond the event itself.
Ottawa Design Club is entirely volunteer-run. All proceeds from events and zines go back into the club, supporting future programming, publications, and moments that bring people together.
You’re in the club. It’s as simple as that.
Ottawa Design Club takes shape through a few core touchpoints, each creating connection in a different way.
Events are about being in the same room. Talks give shape to the night, but the value often lives around them, in the shared reactions, the conversations that start afterward, and the quiet realization that someone else is thinking about the same things you are.
The speaker program focuses on perspective, not performance. Speakers are invited to share a real learning moment or shift in how they work. We guide the storytelling so the focus stays on clarity, honesty, and the parts of the journey that usually stay invisible.
Zines extend the conversation beyond a single night. Built through open calls and careful curation, they create space for more voices and live on as tactile records of ideas, experiences, and shared moments.
Together, events, speakers, and zines form an ongoing loop. Ideas move from the room, to the stage, to print, and back into the community again.
The Design Club is a network of communities created by designers, for designers. Find us in Ottawa, Marseille, New York and online! We bring together creatives from different backgrounds and showcase all things design. Welcome to the club!
Marseille Design Club