Canadian Production Design Week 2025: Production Design is a Universal Language

Ten days of panels, masterclasses, conversations and events bring Canada’s production design community together in Vancouver, Toronto, Montréal and online, October 17–26.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, ON — September 4, 2025 — The Canadian Production Design Association (CPD) announces the return of Canadian Production Design Week (CPD Week), taking place October 17–26, 2025, with programming in Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal, alongside a national virtual program. CPD Week is Canada’s contribution to International Production Design Week (IPDW), a global initiative of the Production Designers Collective (PDC) bringing production design communities together around the world.

This year’s theme, “Production Design is a Universal Language,” explores how visual storytelling communicates across cultures, disciplines and borders. Across ten days, production designers, art directors, set decorators, concept artists, graphic designers and other art department professionals will come together to share their work, knowledge and perspectives on the art and craft of production design across film, television and screen-based media.

From large-scale worldbuilding and independent filmmaking to comedy, horror, sustainability, emerging technology and the collaborative relationships behind the worlds audiences see on screen, CPD Week 2025 offers an expansive look at the people, processes and ideas shaping the profession today.

In Vancouver, CPD Week opens October 17 with an Opening Night Party and Gallery at Franklin Studios, featuring work by British Columbia illustrators, graphic designers and concept artists. A full conference day at Emily Carr University of Art + Design follows on October 18.

Programming includes The Power of Creative Design in Independent Film, featuring Danny Vermette, James Philpott, Cheryl Marion and Stephanie Ajmera, and Imagined Realities: Crafting the Visual Language of Television, with Tony Wohlgemuth, Laurin Kelsey, Brian Kane and Anand Ray.

The Last of Us: Worldbuilding the Apocalypse brings together Supervising Art Director David Clarke, Set Decorators Lisa Lancaster and Jonathan Lancaster, VFX Supervisor Alex Wang, and Concept Artists Milena Zdravkovic and Warren Flanagan for a behind-the-scenes conversation about creating the series’ post-apocalyptic world.

Vancouver’s program also looks ahead with The Future: Creativity, AI, and Virtual Worlds, a discussion examining the evolving relationship between human creativity, emerging technology, AI and production design.

In Montréal, Table ouverte : forum des savoirs collectifs du département artistique creates a different kind of gathering: an open exchange guided by Claude Paré, Paul Hotte, Marie-Hélène Lavoie and Yola van Leeuwenkamp. Members of Québec’s art department community will come together to share knowledge and perspectives and reflect on the future of the profession, including emerging technologies, sustainable materials and how the community can better support one another.

In Toronto, programming begins with an Opening Night Meet & Greet at Urbanspace Gallery, followed by SKETCH THE CITY: Toronto Edition with Henry Fong, a relaxed outdoor sketching session at the Toronto Music Garden led by the concept artist behind projects including Frankenstein, The Studio, The Boys, IT and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

A full conference day at the DGC Ontario Members Hub on October 19 includes Production Design in Comedy: From Shadows to Overcompensating, with Production Designer Shayne Fox and Graphic Designer Romy Block, exploring how visual design shapes tone, realism and humour across two very different comedic worlds.

Designing for Indie Film: From Mouthpiece to Eternity features Production Designer Zazu Myers, tracing her path through independent filmmaking from M/M, The Grizzlies and Mouthpiece to Night Raiders, My Old Ass, Fingernails and Eternity, and exploring how creativity, collaboration and resourcefulness shape design across projects of different scales.

Production Design in Action: Creating for Television’s Most Demanding Sequences features Naz Goshtasbpour on Reacher, Mark Steel on The Boys, and Rocco Matteo on Rabbit Hole, exploring the creative, technical and logistical challenges of designing complex action for television and the collaboration required to bring these ambitious sequences to the screen.

The Toronto conference concludes with IT: Welcome to Derry — Inside the Art Department, bringing together Oscar-winning Production Designer Paul Austerberry and Set Decorator Jeffrey Melvin with Supervising Art Director Colin Woods and Art Director Stefany Koutroumpis for an inside look at the creative and technical process behind the HBO series.

Toronto programming continues throughout the week with free professional development and inspiration tours exploring printing for film and television and the Toronto Reference Library’s Picture Collection.

CPD Week’s virtual program extends the conversation across Canada and internationally, with programming covering graphics, sustainability, professional development, production design and the creative relationships between departments.

Highlights include Everything You Need to Know About Printing Graphics for Film & TV, the DGC National Awards Best Production Design Nominees Spotlight, and Circular Design and You: Rethinking Waste in the Art Department, bringing production designers, construction and sustainability professionals together to explore practical approaches to circular production design.

Additional sessions include Getting the Next Job: Publicity and Self-Promotion for Production Designers; an in-depth conversation with Lilo & Stitch Production Designer Todd Cherniawsky; and discussions examining the creative relationships between production designers, prop masters and location managers.

The final day returns directly to this year’s theme with Production Design is a Universal Language with Louisa Schabas, exploring the visual world of Universal Language and how production design can communicate emotion, culture and identity beyond words.

Production Designer Claude Paré also leads How It Was Made: Worldbuilding with Claude Paré, an in-depth masterclass examining the practical realities of large-scale production design through projects including The Adam Project, Ghosted, IT, Spider-Man: Far From Home and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Together, the events of Canadian Production Design Week celebrate not only the finished worlds audiences experience on screen, but the range of artists, craftspeople and collaborators who imagine and create them.

Supported by key partners including DGC Ontario and IATSE Local 891, CPD Week continues to advance national dialogue around sustainability, education, and recognition for Canada’s art department professionals.

Canadian Production Design Week is curated and organized by the Canadian Production Design Association and takes place October 17–26, 2025, in Vancouver, Toronto, Montréal and online.

Tickets and event passes are available now at linktr.ee/canadianproductiondesign.

About the Canadian Production Design Association

The Canadian Production Design Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the art and craft of production design in Canada. Through advocacy, education, professional development, and community building, the CPD works to elevate production design and the artists and craftspeople who bring stories to life on screen.

Media Contact

Canadian Production Design Association
info@canadianproductiondesign.ca

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