Meet Martin Dupuis | Art Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Martin Dupuis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Martin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Growing up, my dad was creative. He played clarinet and a lot of his vinyl albums were around for me to discover and listen to. My mom was also creative – she painted and went out of her way to get me high end drawing materials. I draw and play music, so I assume there’s a genetic component to it all or a direct influence from the context I was brought up in. I remember making a drawing that impressed kids and teachers at school that must have encouraged me to pursue it, starting a domino effect of excitement and validation around the act of creating.

I got obsessed with movies when I was a teenager, and instead of going to film school a friend and I saved and raised 30 000$ to make a half an hour short film on 16mm. I was failing all my classes in high school but proactively writing, shooting, editing and producing a film with a team of a dozen or so people on the side. It took 3 years to make. It felt great but I needed to move out on my own. No one was knocking at my door to give me money to make more films, so I turned to graphic design as a way to be creative and earn a living.

To this day, I get a deep sense of satisfaction from immersing myself in creative work—everything from larger professional assignments to smaller personal projects like re-designing the covers of Blu-rays I buy so they look better when I slide them off my shelf to watch. I started drawing in sketchbooks when I saw the documentary Crumb back in 1994 and I never stopped. I fill up two a year with drawings, collages, notes and doodles … being creative is simply part of what keeps me going on a daily basis, something I rely on as fuel. There was no other way to go for me then pursuing a creative career.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The project I’m most proud of is the series of posters I art-directed over the years for my local movie theatre, Cinéma du Parc. I’ve made 58 so far, with another in the works as I write this. It all started a few years back. No one had asked me, but I proactively started working on a series of posters for them. I got ideas, found the best illustrator to execute them and packaged up a plan for it all. My boss agreed to open a creative budget to make it all happen and that started a domino effect that led me to approach the client with the idea. They loved it, the series won some awards and I’ve been doing posters for them ever since.

The experience crystallized the idea that if I do the needed proactive work myself first, and the work is propelled by genuine enthusiasm – the momentum will be like a magnet and people will join in to make it happen.

My favorite thing to do is work with illustrators, collaborations where the end result supersedes what each of us could have done alone. These end up being passion projects for everyone involved, where extra hours or weekends don’t matter anymore – you want to leave the project knowing you truly gave it as much as you could. Some fall into place nicely, others don’t so much and occasionally you walk away knowing you hit a home run. It’s been a source of great creative and personal satisfaction for me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If a good friend was visiting, we’d probably find ourselves wandering around to grab some food at my old roommate’s restaurant called Satay Brothers. They have THE best pork belly steamed buns in town. If it’s the summer we’d go at their stall outside at the local market, and if it’s colder we’d go sit down at their restaurant proper. A few years back I made a set of posters for them with the illustrator Christian Robles. The idea was to create ‘menu monsters’ by taking their top dishes and building creatures out of them. It was one of the most fun projects I’ve been involved with.

No doubt we’d take a look at what’s playing at the previously mentioned local movie theatre, Cinéma du Parc a few times and go wandering in and out of used book stores around the neighbourhood, Librairie L’Échange being one of them. It feels great to walk around town and be able to go to stores and places that are independently owned and that I’ve been able to work with and help out.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My cousin Nicole married a guy called Mark Molnar. I first met him when I was around 16 or so at a family gathering and he’s remained a source of creative and personal support throughout my life. I grew up in a small town where challenging, obscure, or otherwise non-mainstream movies, books, and albums were not around. He would make me lists of books to hunt down: Gravity’s Rainbow, Moby Dick, Naked Lunch; filmmakers to dig into: Harry Smith, Errol Morris, Werner Herzog; and cassette tapes of albums by: Jim O’Rourke, Arto Lindsay, Bonnie Prince Billy—things he thought might be beneficial for me to watch and hear. It was all deeply helpful and formative.

I remember us talking about Marcel Duchamp and his piece Étant donnés one night, and him suggesting that we should just drive down to Philadelphia to go see it. The entire trip was spent talking about movies, books, and music culminating in getting to see the largest collection of Duchamp pieces together at The Philadelphia Museum of Art. He’s been a real inspiration and I’m lucky to have him around.

He just released a new album called EXO on Constellation Records this year that is rich, dense, beautiful and haunting. And the crazy thing about Mark is that not only did he write, record and mix the album … he also plays all the instruments on it: harp, piano, voice, violins, violas, cellos, double-bass, percussion, MS20, and Strega!!!

The record label album page:
https://cstrecords.com/products/cst185-mark-molnar-exo

An Interview about it:
https://nichemtl.com/2025/08/10/black-bough-green-shoots-in-conversation-with-mark-molnar/

His Bandcamp:
https://markmolnar.bandcamp.com/

Website: https://rightearleft.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martinrightearleft/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-dupuis-5204857/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martin.dupuis.777/

Image Credits
Image credits are as follows:

0 – Personal photo
Photographer: Gyula Gefin

1 – Stack of my sketchbooks over the years.

2_Mark Molnar album cover called EXO
Album photo by Edd Allan.
Album design by Ian Ilavsky

3_ Once Upon a Time in the West
Blu-Ray redesign I made for personal use.

4_Hearts of Darkness
Blu-Ray redesign I made for personal use.

5_Cinema poster (Taxi Driver)
Illustration by Owen Gent

6_Cinema poster (Akira)
Illustration by Christian Robles

7_Cinema poster (Aguirre the Wrath of God)
Illustration by Peter Licko

8_Satay Brothers
Illustration by Christian Robles

9_Librairie L Échange
Illustration by Massimiliano di Lauro

10_Cinema poster (Blade Runner)
Illustration by Massimiliano di Lauro