Éric Fournier, Manager, Industrial Design, Accessories, has 22 years of service with BRP’s Design and Innovation team, but it could be said that BRP has been part of his life since 1976, when a magazine article spotlighting the aesthetics of the Ski-Doo inspired him to become an industrial designer. Since he joined BRP, design has evolved tremendously: “The world is a lot more complex now, and so are the needs of our customers. This impacts the challenges we face, and how we create our products.” As new technologies are developed, new design jobs appear. When Éric graduated, there was only a specialization in industrial design. Today, you can specialize in transport, colours and materials, and UX (user experience), for example.

Guillaume Longpré, now Senior Industrial Designer, started with BRP 22 years ago as an intern. For him, coming to work is more like getting to play. As a young child, he had fun drawing snowmobiles, and he knew he wanted to carry on doing that when he grew up. BRP was therefore a natural choice for him to develop his talent as a designer. Today, his passion for his profession and for the products is what enables him to constantly innovate, but most of all the fun he has doing what he does every day: “If I don’t play when I’m at the studio, I can’t create. When I come here to play, suddenly, something appears. It’s like magic!”

Philippe Petit crossed the ocean to work for BRP 18 years ago. Recruited in his native France, he was completing a final year internship at Renault, the biggest French automobile manufacturer. What motivated him to move to Quebec was our products. A motorbike rider in France, he saw a multitude of possibilities to play with these toys for grownups that BRP produced. Almost two decades later, having worked on several advanced-concept projects, played with Evinrude outboards and Lynx snowmobiles, Philippe is Project Lead and Senior Industrial Designer, Ski-Doo.

Paola Saldierna, Colours and Trims Designer, has only been with BRP for four years, but she’s already had a hand in some game-changing projects. She has influenced the finishes, colours, graphics and materials of products like Ryker, and the electric vehicles (EV) unveiled in September 2019. She finds her inspiration in a wide range of sources that include the arts, pop culture and fashion, and she keeps an eye on societal, cultural, even political trends, as well as a variety of industries. To stay innovative, she believes empathizing with the customers is essential, to understand what they need and how she can improve their ride. And that’s not all: “For me, having a clear purpose, knowing why I’m doing this, helps me find different ways of doing things.”

Marc Pouliot, Project Leader, Colour and Trim, has always been creative. This personality trait, which he says is either something you have or you don’t, led him to do a degree in graphic design. But it’s curiosity that enables you to continually innovate: “You have to be prepared to go looking for information, to rummage for inspiration, to ferret things out, from everywhere,” he says. “And I’d advise any young designer to explore, to try things out, and not be afraid of getting your hands dirty, because you can really use everything in our projects.”