Turning the table on Ash Phillips

Applied Arts turns the table on Ash Phillips, a 2025 Applied Arts Student Awards judge and the co-founder and creative director of the Montreal-based strategic branding consultancy Six Cinquième. Ash launched the firm in 2020 with partner Miro Laflaga, driven by necessity—the need to disrupt their industry for the better.

"Every industry has its own nuances, but our mission remains clear: to challenge and reshape expectations of what a creative firm is and who it’s made of. By championing the perspectives of a truly diverse team, we enrich our strategic process and deliver outcomes that are both meaningful and relevant.

We work with companies ready to broaden their reach and drive impact in their own unique ways. Whether that impact is felt on a micro or macro scale, it fuels our commitment to reimagining the creative landscape."
Six Cinquième

In Perspectives: An Actionable Approach to Value Underrecognized Perspectives in Design Through Intentional Conversation, is a resource culminating from a year-long collaboration between Six Cinquième and Never Was Average for Design Montreal. This collaboration is a selected project from the Call for Proposals – Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together (2nd Edition), supported by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, under the Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal between the City of Montréal and the Government of Québec.

In Perspectives offers a Guide and Video interviews with the steps and mindsets to guide designers and professionals towards more inclusive design practices. The purpose of these resources is to address a significant gap in the Montréal design community, i.e. a cultural lag and lack of representation, and to find ways to be more accessible, inclusive, present and inviting for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC). In turn, this will help create truly inclusive living and working environments, encouraging the industry to better reflect the people and culture of the city.

Can you give us some "peeks" behind-the-scenes?

Community input influenced not only the content of the resources we created, but also the project's visual identity. The light, playful, and welcoming direction that all designers could rally behind was discussed in conversations with community members and designers.

Why is this particular project a fave?

Because it is part of the legacy we leave behind as designers. A legacy for a more inclusive industry and design practice, which in turn influences how we design an inclusive society and how we design for and with the communities around us. 

W. sixcinquieme.com IG: @sixcinquieme/ | @sixcinquieme

 Design at its best, celebrating an inclusive industry and design practices. Great campaign!