Friday 18 May 2007

Hybrid Name

"What’s with the French word in your name?"—we’ve been asked on occasion over the years. "You’re a literary press in Montreal publishing in English." That’s exactly the point. Not only does our name reflect the cosmopolitan city we live in—part French, part English—it points to the artist-run gallery—Véhicule Art Inc.—we grew out of in 1973. "Véhicule" was chosen as the name of the gallery because it stood for the transference of ideas, a vehicle of thought. Since we were publishers and printers back then, we employed all sorts of visual puns as logos for the press.

Our publishing logo was designed back in the seventies by Guy Lavoie—it’s hard to put our finger on the exact year. A rider on horseback—a vehicle of sorts.


We were also printers (1973-1981). As far as we know, we were Québec’s first co-operatively-owned printing company. Our logo—again another vehicle—was a 1948 (or 1949 Ford).

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