We were lucky to catch up with Ingrid Enriquez-Donissaint recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ingrid, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I didn’t find my purpose like a gift—it emerged through a mix of a-ha moments, fuck-ups, disappointments, grit, and stillness. I’m naturally drawn to all people and understanding real-life dynamics. The root cause of things and systems—and how they coexist—fascinates me. Maybe I’ve just watched too much Mary Poppins, who somehow carries the modus operandi for chaos in her magical bag of tricks?! Justice and the habit of asking questions to get to the core have been core values for me since childhood.
Long before I knew what I wanted to do professionally (Nintendo console engineer, Janet Jackson’s choreographer, or Columbo’s assistant were contenders), I remember the thrill of being chosen for my high school drama club. It wasn’t just about performing—it was a chance to bring something different to a role, to add my own signature. Watching A Different World, I saw myself in Denise for the first time. That feeling stuck with me. I’m glad to say I’ve relived it watching Lakay Nou on Radio-Canada—baby steps.
In advertising, beyond great concepts, I was drawn to uncovering truths—finding the connections that make a brand or product resonate in real life, real people. I was most motivated when I could bring visibility to overlooked behaviors, cultural cues, and perspectives—ensuring they weren’t just present, but authentically represented. Over time, I noticed opportunities—small moments—to offer new versions of the communities around me. Gazes that weren’t being seen—or needed more nuance and candor. Accents, expressions, landscapes, movements, smells, feelings—pieces of a puzzle that help us see ourselves, both individually and collectively, and often understand ourselves more deeply. I find that same sense of recognition in the rhythmical worlds of Stéphane Martelly and Kev Lambert, in The Bear’s kitchen moments, in a Bad Bunny track unpacking decades of history, in a play by Iannicko N’Doua bridging Montreal and Abidjan, in the layered perspectives of Oski’s multidimension Vaudoo faces and Caroline Monnet’s asymmetrical language. These works act as time capsules—witnesses to lives past and present. Antonine Maillet said, “Vu de trop près, le monde perd ses reliefs et la vie ses perspectives.” (Seen too closely, the world loses its contours, and life its perspective.”). Maybe reflecting society as it is—not in fragments, but in its full complexity—requires stepping back.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My training is in marketing, strategic planning and ethnography. Throughout the 2000s, advertising and the business of branding felt like a mini-MBA—you deal with all shapes and sizes of business, organizational, and communication challenges, alongside people with diverse backgrounds, expertise, and experiences. I’ve been fortunate to witness incredible Quebec and Toronto based next level talent developing ingenious plans, strategies, tactics, and bold ideas—so powerful that a 30-second ad could shake you to your core. On the flip side, when it comes to reflecting society in advertising— I’ve been in meetings where discussions around representation were met with hesitation—long past the “Mad Men” days. Trying to reflect diverse audiences was often challenging, and doing it authentically was even harder, as advertisers and clients alike tended to reflect only a portion of society. I’ve witnessed lots of guessing and improv on how to represent people most of the advertising community had never met in real life. I don’t think it’s a lack of interest, but a lack of time, know how and funds, keeping in mind that agency business models have been challenged since well before Apple’s 1984 Macintosh commercials (and those days had huge budgets). Now, as much as you can gain experience learning about yourself and a profession, you also need to keep an eye on recurring signals. As Ben Okri suggests, experiences tend to repeat themselves until we fully engage with them the first time. After a few disappointments with the way storytellers presented limited narratives through a narrow lens, I had to decide what that assessment meant for me.
Two key teachers, Caroline Genz and Hubert Makwanda, played a pivotal role in my journey. They once shared that human beings everywhere are shaped by a mix of diversity dimensions—cultural, social, economic, and more and that true interaction requires intentional awareness to see the invisible. When teams imagine their audience based on their own realities, it often narrows the scope of who gets represented—sometimes unintentionally, sometimes by design. It’s a choice embedded in intention.Just like ChatGPT prompts—even with the most perfectly engineered one—if the information isn’t in its database, it won’t deliver! Social media has ushered in a new wave of creators from all backgrounds and state of mind, covering every imaginable topic. They say data speaks volumes, and the sheer number of creators—and the diverse audiences they attract—shows how much these stories resonate with people from all walks of life. The film and TV industries are also slowly undergoing refreshing changes. Social media does precisely what Roxane Gay has said more than once: “When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.” The advertising and marketing world moves incredibly fast. Before you can wrap up setting objectives for the next quarter, you’re already preparing to launch a full campaign. This pace leaves little room to immerse in consumer research, especially in smaller markets across cities in Canada. But on the rare occasions when the stars aligned and time allowed for genuine research, taking a step back to understand people—what they truly care about—led to outstanding results, and sometimes even awards. I had a sense there was something there, but I didn’t yet know how to express it or shape it into ‘something’—or even an added value—until people coming back to me raised a fun flag for me.
The year the world lost the formidable soul of George Floyd, the global conversation turned toward othering vs. belonging, topics that had been underrated and that I had been studying, meditating on, and nurturing for two decades. That year, the most visible signs of underrepresentation appeared in images—whether in banner ads, billboards, or elsewhere. Most stock image banks, largely U.S.-based, lacked true representation across the human spectrum. Even when clients had the budget to hire photographers, the same limited backgrounds and perspectives were often selected. Yet, the appetite for more representation has been growing—across platforms and artistic mediums—and social media has helped unlock this desire vividly and quickly (I can’t think of a better example than Bad Bunny—crossing markets and borders, conducting most of his interviews in Spanish, unapologetically, while reaching record-breaking audiences worldwide). Pre&ent errupted during this period of transition, shaped by the growing need to widen the lens and better reflect the full spectrum of people and stories. Our mission is to mirror real society through images, workshops, and research.
Across various phases of an organization’s journey—whether it’s product development, storytelling, or brand strategy—we collaborate directly with organisations and agencies committed to uncovering the real highlights and concerns of everyday people. Our goal is to help build stronger bridges of connection—with more people, more authentically. A useful habit is comparing our perception of lived experience with someone else’s—to notice what we might overlook but feels deeply real to them. How does joy show up for you? When do you feel most like yourself?
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, I see patterns and strengths that show up in different ways. I struggle with surface-level conversations; small talk about the weather or rehashing events from weeks ago drains me (I’m working on it : ) I’m a slow thinker, I need time for the snails to morph. I thrive on facts—or on trying to put language to things we haven’t yet grasped. Listening with all my senses—to what’s said and unsaid—has helped me connect with people, both close to home and across the world. I’m endlessly fascinated by how things work, from the way plants grow to why we make certain choices, from what car you drive to how ducks care for their duckling. Systems and logic offer clues—patterns that help explain what we observe in human behavior. Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes 10,000 hours to master something, yet so many valuable practices and ways of thinking remain unrecognized—let alone unnamed.
While I love daydreaming (a daily habit), I’m also a builder. I try to bring ideas to life because, in many ways, I feel my ancestors sent me to continue their work. Their aspirations—whether simple or bold—anchor me. I try to honor them with intention and knowing my limits. These efforts may never win prizes or land in a Radio-Canada radio show or The Atlantic Festival, but I like to think present and future generations might find them useful—small cues to help navigate whatever comes next. I’ve always been drawn to hidden truths about people, though for a long time, it felt safer to play along and fit in. The challenge is, when you invest so much energy in blending in, you lose sight of what makes you… you. Your gifts, your worries, your fears, your answers. You can’t go far if you can’t hear your own GPS. In Misfits, Michaela Coel says, “The misfit doesn’t climb in pursuit of safety or profit; she climbs to tell stories.” I can’t think of a better way to describe why I wake up each morning—and why I stay up at night. Journaling a few times a week helps me revisit moments I’ve overlooked or still distilling—allowing me to test ideas that books might teach, but only truly resonate once I acknowledge them myself. I reflect on what I’m grateful for, what I love, what I’m trying to untangle, and what I need to keep in check.
How would you describe your ideal client?
They’re passionate believers in a better yesterday—driven to make the world a little better, in their own way, and often in unconventional ways. As Haitian writer and artist Frankétienne said, “Je ne suis pas dans la linéarité. Je suis dans un tourbillon. C’est ça la vie.” Life isn’t linear, and neither are people—despite organizations often trying to apply a one-size-fits-all approach.
Think about it: What were the first books your parents read to you? The first movies you watched with friends? The first skincare product you bought? The first activities that sparked your interest? Now, out of all those, how many reflected people who looked or sounded like you? Representation has gained momentum in recent years, but there are still so many stories left to tell—so many voices still unheard. For a long time, a select few controlled the narratives most relevant to them, even though society has always been made up of far more than just a few. Just as a forest in Quebec has trees you won’t find in Vancouver or California, humanity is vast. Acknowledging only a small portion of it would be unnatural, like erasing people and parts of history. Once you recognize how interdependent we all are, it becomes hard to say “I” without thinking “we.” And our clients get that. They see themselves in others—or try to—but they care about elevating a range of voices, knowing it shapes both profitability and the broader identity and well-being of society. We avoid working with clients who see representativity as a checkbox rather than a commitment. Just like keeping our bodies and minds healthy, meaningful inclusion takes “werk werk werk” (Rihanna). You won’t be perfect but have to be in it for the right reasons—ready to support your teams and colleagues in a way that truly matters. We try to navigate two questions: What’s our mission? and, how might we shape today with what we have today?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://presentpresent.ca/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/presentpresent.ca/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/present-representation/
Image Credits
Darwin Doleyres (@Darwin Doleyres) and Qauffee (@qauffeegraphy)
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